Beware This Marketing White Lie When Shopping for Power Banks
Feb 06, 2025 pm 12:03 PMThe truth about mobile power capacity: the huge gap between advertising capacity and actual capacity
The capacity advertised by mobile power manufacturers is often about 40% higher than the actual available capacity. This is because the mobile power supply needs to consume a portion of the power to maintain its own operation.
Capacity misunderstanding: Battery capacity and rated capacity
The mAh value advertised by the manufacturer usually refers to the battery capacity (or battery pack capacity), rather than the rated capacity. The battery capacity refers to the total mAh of the battery unit inside the mobile power supply, representing the theoretical maximum battery life time of the battery. This is usually a reliable indicator in non-charged devices, for example, a 4000mAh smartphone has a battery capacity that represents its maximum battery life.
However, the situation with the power bank is different. They need to consume a portion of the power to convert voltage to match the voltage of the charged device, and the loss during the energy conversion process will further reduce the available capacity. Therefore, the rated capacity of a mobile power supply (actually available charging capacity) is usually nearly 40% lower than the battery capacity.
For example, to fully fill a 4000mAh smartphone, you need a mobile power bank with a battery capacity of 5600mAh. This explains why your power bank seems to be "underperforming", but it's not a problem with the power bank itself, but a misleading way of marketing.
How to estimate the rated capacity?
Almost all mobile power manufacturers only promote battery capacity and do not disclose rated capacity information. Apart from Anker, few manufacturers will mention this issue.
You can usually find rated capacity information on the box or in the details of the power bank itself. If you are buying online, this will be inconvenient. But if you are in a physical store, be sure to check it before purchasing.
The easiest way to estimate is to multiply the battery capacity by 0.6 (60%). Anker provides a more accurate conversion formula on its support page, but the result of this formula is always 60/40.
Manufacturer's "Strategy"
Manufacturers advertise battery capacity is not illegal, but they are not really honest with consumers unless they are listed at the same time.
Larger numbers can obviously lead to higher sales, but this does not reflect the actual user experience of consumers. This approach is unlikely to change unless relevant regulations are introduced (which is unlikely). But once you understand the tricks, it is difficult to turn a blind eye.
This does not mean that the power bank itself is of poor quality, it just works so. The current popular 10,000mAh battery capacity mobile power supply, its 6000mAh capacity rated enough to meet the charging needs of most devices. Power banking is still an effective tool for extending the battery life of the device.
It should be noted that the higher the battery capacity of a mobile power supply, the greater the gap between its rated capacity and battery capacity. Although the percentage remains unchanged, you still lose more available power. For example, the rated capacity of the mobile power supply with a battery capacity of 20,000mAh is 12,000mAh, and so on. This gap will be particularly noticeable at high capacity, even if the total rated capacity of three 10,000mAh power bank power banks is comparable to that of a 30,000mAh power bank.
I hope this article can help you better understand the truth about the capacity of the mobile power supply. Please apply this knowledge with a more responsible attitude than the manufacturer.
If you are looking for the right power bank, you might as well check out our recommended quality power bank.
-
Apple iPhone
-
Android
-
Video Games
Share to Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Flipboard Copy link Email .hidden-poll {display: none}
The above is the detailed content of Beware This Marketing White Lie When Shopping for Power Banks. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

Apple provides numerous methods to personalize the Home Screen on your iPhone, ranging from adding widgets and setting up rotating wallpapers to hiding apps and entire pages. However, some of the most effective personalization techniques aren't offic

Quick Links Gmail Instead of Mail

Were you so keen to try out the new features coming in iOS 26 that you decided to throw caution to the wind and install the iOS beta on your iPhone? Are you regretting it? If you want to return your iPhone to its pre-beta state and get iOS 18.5 back,

Gaia GPS is a widely used app among outdoor lovers, but one of the drawbacks of the app is that it can significantly drain your iPhone's battery.If you're looking to conserve battery and maximize the time you can spend using Gaia GPS on your iPhone d

SummaryiPadOS 26 introduces a stunning new Liquid Glass UI and more.Benefit from an advanced windowing system and enhanced multitasking capabilities.The Preview and Journal apps arrive on iPad, along with additional Apple Intelligence features.Apple'

7Z files are yet another compression format used to bundle files and transfer them online, so it’s not terribly unusual to run into 7Z or 7-zip files that you need to open on an iPhone or iPad.Unlike opening regular zip files on iPhone or iPad via Fi

iOS 17 introduces a range of exciting new features that appeal to many iPhone users. These include customizable phone cards, Live Voicemail, FaceTime video voicemail support, enhanced Messages capabilities, compatibility for FaceTime with Apple TV, a

While Apple Maps didn't receive as huge of an update on iOS 17 as other apps such as Safari, Camera, Photos, Notes, Weather, and Messages, there are still some very important new features and changes you need to know about.The latest software update
