My new favorite battery pack

I was intrigued by the Ridge pack¹ that can also charge an Apple Watch, but at $80 it wasn’t an impulse buy. But then I saw this Energizer SKU (QM10010PQ) selling for $35 and it was a no-brainer. 10,000 mAh battery pack (38.5 Wh) with MagSafe charging for an iPhone or an Apple Watch (the latter is the killer app feature), plus two USB-C cables on the back for charging an iPad or MacBook Air, plus another USB-C port that can be used for charging the device (or you can hook up its built-in USB-C cable, USB 1, to charge - and I confirmed, it charged – albeit slowly, at ~10W – off the built in USB-C ports on the Solterra. Built in kickstand. It doesn’t have a ton of capacity and it’s not the fastest charger, but as an all-around device I’m likely to actually have with me, it’s the most flexible thing I have in my arsenal. Now I don’t have to lug around a separate watch charger device (though this Belkin has served me well), and/or I can somewhat declutter my pencil case, maybe... 

 It’ll do up to 15W wireless charging, which is I think at least on par with most of my packs. (Anker Zolo will do 7.5W wireless, up to 30W wired; Belkin is 7.5W; Apple MagSafe Battery Pack 7.5W...) The watch charging functionality means I don’t have to deal with the awkwardness of that stubby adapter in my pencil case, nor carry something like this Belkin Boost Charge Power Bank for that).

It charges at up to 18W over USB C. Output on any one USB-C port is limited to 20W, but if you just need a few more minutes on a power sipping laptop (e.g. a MacBook Air), or to recharge something portable on the ground, it should more than suffice. Specs are:

• Model Name: QM10010PQ
• Cell Type: lithium Polymer
• Battery Capacity: 10000mAh/38.5Wh(Max.)
• Rated Capacity: SV/6100mAh
• Rated Input: USB-C PD 5V/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A
• Rated Input: USB-C Cable1 PD SV/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A
• Rated Output 1: USB-C PD 5V/3A, 9V/2.22A, 10V/2.25A, 12V/1.67A
• Rated Output 2: USB-C Cable 1 PD 5V/3A, 9V/2.22A, 10V/2.25A, 12V/1.67A
• Rated Output 3: USB-C Cable 2 SV/2A
• Wireless Output: 2W/SW/7.SW/10W/15W
• Total Output: 22.5W{Max.)
• Dimension: 109(L) x71(W) x21.4(H) mm
• Weight: 228g ± 10g

The LCD screen on the side is clutch. Tells you at a glance which direction the power is flowing towards, how much power is being received / transmitted, and the state of the battery (and some audience participation perhaps)

Edit: Hooked up to a 2020 Core i7 MacBook Air, it supplied 20W steady for about 50 minutes, taking the laptop from 18% to 38% while the laptop was being used (brightness about 50%, and connected to the personal hotspot on an iPhone).

Edit 2: One annoyance, as I live with this pack, is that you have to explicitly turn it on before it will start charging an attached phone. Other chargers I’ve had will start charging the instant they’re magnetically stuck on the back. A couple of times I’ve forgotten to thumb that button and realized minutes later the phone wasn’t charging...

Using the Energizer QM10010PQ to power a MacBook Air

 

¹ Two things the Ridge may do slightly better: It has a Lightning cable, good for those old iPads I mentioned; and the flip-out stand seems more versatile (the one on the Energizer, like the one on the Anker Zolo, really only works to prop the phone up in portrait mode). FWIW.