Replacing the Zendure X5: Anker 20,000mAh Power Bank (A1383)

The Zendure X5 was a pretty unique package, and I’ll miss it (it died and they were not able to replace it under warranty 😢). The best compromise I found to replace it was the Anker Power Bank, 20,000mAh Portable Charger with Built-in USB-C Cable, 87W Max Fast Charging Battery Pack (A1383) for about $60. It’s a little bigger and heavier, but Anker packs tend to have good efficiency (comparison), and the power profiles available mean I should definitely be able to properly fast-charge a tablet with enough juice to spare for a top-off of an iPhone, etc.

Anker 20,000mAh PowerBank

(The new pack is 6.2x2.9x1" (vs. 4.5” x 2.8” x 1”) (so, ~43% larger on the Cocoon), and 15.5 oz/ 440 grams (vs. 10.41 oz / 295 g) (so, ~49% heavier). Not super small or light weight, but to get no-compromises high speed charging for both the battery pack itself and a connected tablet, plus > 60 Wh of usable capacity, that’s what’s out there. Everything else has a severely charging capability (e.g., maybe 22.5W into one port, but once you’re using two, it maxes out at 15W, which isn’t really enough to credibly charge an iPad while it’s being used + an iPhone providing a tethered network connection).

Back of napkin math, I expect the Anker will be able to recharge an iPad 9th Generation (32.4 Wh lithium‑polymer battery) and an iPhone 14 Pro (12.4 Wh battery) fully at least once each, with about 5% of its capacity left over (I’m assuming about 80% efficiency charging, which is probably optimistic, but I’m also not intending to charge each device from dead battery to 100% using the battery pack...)

(One German Amazon reviewer determined the Anker has “approximately 74 Wh of pure battery capacity without loss of the voltage converter,” and provides a “total of 60.3 Wh (3,072 mAh at just under 20 volts)” to connected devices, at 65W draw. (“Discharging at 52 watts (80%) load took a good 72 minutes until it switched off automatically and 62.5 Wh (3,168 mAh) could be removed. The power bank lasted 6:08 hours at 62.8 Wh (12,273 mAh) via USB-A at 5 volts and 2 amps.”)

I’m also kinda stoked to have a decent digital display, not a “4 lights” guessing game.

(One thing that’s always bugged me a bit about Anker, though, is the challenge of finding their products on their website. I can’t find this one on www.anker.com, for instance, nor can I find a manual online. I prefer downloading PDF copies of manuals and discarding the tiny, hard-to-read paper version that just ends up being clutter. But I digress.) (Update: In the box is a QR code that links to an online version of the manual, with a link to download it as a PDF.)

Anker battery pack on Cocoon organizer

It obviously takes up more space on the Cocoon but it fits, and I was able to cram the other cables in alongside. If I ditched the wired headphones I’d have even more space. Maybe I should... These are only $20 and well reviewed...)

Edit: Reviewing the manual, it’s not quite as amazing as I initially thought, and it’s not really close to the Zendure’s 45W output, at least not using the USB-A and USB-C ports. But it’s good enough for now, and when I eventually inevitably get a new USB-C iPad or iPhone, it’ll be fine:

• Cell capacity: 20,000mAh
• Input USB-C Cable / Port: 5V 3A / 9V 3A / 12V 1.5A / 15V 3A / 20V 3.25A (65W Max)
• Output:
• USB-C Cable / Port: 5V 3A / 9V 3A / 10V 2.25A / 12V 3A / 15V 3A / 20V 3.25A (65W Max)
•  USB-A: 5V 3A / 9V 2A / 10V 2.25A / 12V 1.5A (22.5W Max)
•  Total Output 87W Max:
• USB-C Cable: 45W, USB-C Port: 42W
• USB-C Cable: 60W, USB-A Port: 22.5W
•  Combined USB-C Port and USB-A Port: 24W Max (5V 4.8A)
• USB-C Cable: 60W, Combined USB-C and USB-A Ports: 24W Max (5V 4.8A)

So right now, the combination I’m most likely to use is USB-C port (to a Lightning connector on an iPad) + USB-A port (to a Lightning connector on an iPhone), giving me 24W split between them. Which is ... Okay. Better than the 15W combined output from one tier down. As soon as I can start using that USB-C cable, though, can really use this thing at maximum (87W) output.

Right now I’m putting it to a test, recharging my 13.6" M2 MacBook Air (52.6 Wh battery) as I lightly use it (the Air was around 5% and the battery was fully charged). Screen about 2/3 brightness, WiFi and Bluetooth (headphones) running, the Mac seems to go up about 1% for every 1% the battery depletes.

Klein ET920 measuring Anker power bank charging

 

In one hour, the battery went from 100% to 16%, while the MBA went from 5% to 82%. The Klein ET920 says the MacBook Air was drawing between about 58W initially (19.91V = 2.9A), down to about 44W sustained. (As the Air approached 80% charge, it dropped to about 30W.) 2,642 mAh and 52.6 Wh were logged crossing the wire (back of napkin math, that’s about 77% efficiency which, given I was actually using the machine at the same time, is really very good).

Drained down to 4% charge, the Anker brought the MacBook Air up to 91% (Klein: 59.95 Wh 3010 mAh). This lines up with the German reviewer who noted 62.5 Wh could be “removed” at 80% draw (recall that this was down to 4% and the reviewer brought it all the way down to shut-off, and our numbers are 4% apart). So usable output is definitely, on a brand new pack, north of 60 Wh, which is plenty.

Recharging it using an Anker USB C 715 (Nano 65W): To bring it from 4% to 99% (at which point it seems to have had enough, dropping to 0A) took 1 hour 40 minutes, and took 73.75 Wh of input power (3780 mAh, at ~19.5V); this ~77.6 Wh recharge (0-100% extrapolated) jives with that German reviewer's observation that this is a 74 Wh battery pack (recharge efficiency of ~95%?). Starting off at 58.4 W, by the time it got up into the 90% range it was charging at about 15W, dipping down as low as ~7.5W at the very end. 

The 14" MacBook M1 Pro, as the only device connected (using the built-in USB-C c able), saw it as a 65W charger and (slowly) charged the battery while the laptop was in use.

The iPad 9th Generation has a battery about 2/3 the size of the Air (32.4 Wh), and an iPhone 14 Pro 12.38 Wh, together they’re about 85% of the Air’s battery. Even if I were to top off an Apple Pencil and a keyboard case, this pack should have just enough capacity for one full recharge, give or take a few percentage points.

Oh, and, the Anker does have trickle charging (two clicks on the power button to activate, two more to return to regular charging), for AirPods etc.

This may be the device I put in my flight bag, too (though I’m also looking at the NightCore NB2000, which can supply more simultaneous wattage, but is $40 more). Not sure if it’ll easily fit though.

If it’s dead and they don’t cover it I’m not sure what I’d replace it with. Nothing quite has the specs. Anker has a couple of devices that come close. Since I’m not going to really rely on it to recharge a laptop anymore (I have bigger packs for that), I could probably get by with a 10,000 mAh pack (I’m trying to stay inexpensive for this, since it’s an unexpected expense). I kinda like the price point and capabilities of the Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux (25W of output power, USB-A and USB-C ports, good size, $25). The $30 A1257 Anker Power Bank (10K, 22.5W) is also a contender; 22.5W output, 2x USB-C ports, 1x USB-A, and a percentage indicator rather than “four lights.” The $40 Anker 335 Power Bank (PowerCore 20K) tops out at 20W of output power, but that’s likely enough for an iPad (and iPhone?) and the extra capacity would be nice; “Used - Like New” they can be had for $28... There’s also the OtterBox Performance Fast Charge Power Bank 15,000 mAh, “only” 18W output power (and that’s probably the total output), but 15,000 mAh (same as the X5), USB-C PD + USB-A QC charging, and used around $22 ... (Now, I should point out, my Anker PowerCore 5000 from ~2017 is also dead, but, I stopped using it a long time ago, and it’s 7 years old... And it worked reliably when it worked!)