How we review power banks and portable chargers

Power banks and portable chargers are far from the most exciting category in the world of consumer tech. That said, the utility these gadgets offer is hard to argue with. Who doesn't want a little bit more battery life to work with?

Portable chargers and power banks solve (or at least put off) the problem of your phone running out of battery too quickly. However, the consequences of picking up a bad one over a good one can be much more severe than just paying more at the till. A bad power bank might not just be slow. It might be unsafe.

To help you steer away from potential disaster and get the most bang-for-your-buck (but in a good way), our power bank reviews rely on a standardised process that puts each product through its paces so as to make for a fair comparison. Without any further ado, here's the short version of what that looks like:

When it comes to reviewing and ranking the best power banks in Australia, we typically start with the physical characteristics of a given product. How heavy is it? How many input and output ports does it offer? Do any of those ports use USB-C or an older standard? Does it offer wireless or solar charging?

Does it feature any sort of LED indicator that allows you to tell how much portable charging you have at a glance? These are the sort of questions that we ask during our reviews, each of which is given a different weight during the scoring process.

As an example, our assessment of the Kmart Anko portable charger noted that:

• It was smaller than the average power bank
• It featured a single input port
• It featured multiple output ports
• It featured USB-C connectivity
• It did not support wireless or solar charging
• It featured a built-in LED status display

After assessing the design and features of a given power bank or portable charger, we move onto more hands-on editorial testing. Factoring in things like the price, feel-factor, any included warranties or other safety guarantees as well as the general likability of using a given product, this aspect of our methodology is a little more subjective but the hope is that by spending more time on feelings that general use of a given product evoke we can measure and better convey the experience that everyday use of it involved.

Using our review of the Kmart Anko portable charger as an example once more, we noted that:

• It's a lot cheaper than the competition
• The build quality is inferior in a way you can feel
• It only comes with a 1-year warranty, which is well short of the standard 2-years offered by more established brands like Belkin

After that, we take a closer look at the specific tech specs that matter most to power banks and portable chargers. We measure both the theoretical maximum charging speed that a power bank offers through its fastest output port and how that performance gets throttled once you’re splitting it multiple ways.

We also take a closer look at the safety features and capacity involved, with an emphasis on how it comes to the competition in terms of value. When it came to the Kmart Anko power bank, our review highlighted that:

• It offers 15W charging for a single device
• If you're looking to charge multiple devices, that throughput gets divided accordingly
• There's no additional or dedicated safety features included
• The capacity is relatively small at 5000mAh

Last but not least, we take a look at whether a given product comes with any accessories like bundled cables and whether those are fit for purpose and allow you to get the best performance from a given portable charger right out of the box. Every extra thing that a manufacturer includes is one less thing that you have to pay extra for, so these add-ons can add up quickly when it comes to overall value.

The Kmart Anko portable charger was a bit of a mixed bag on this front. While the unit did come bundled with a charging cable that allowed you to access 15W speeds out of the box, our review noted that this cable was a little on the short side.