The best power banks 2024: Top portable chargers for mobiles

As much as smartphone battery life has improved over the years, it’s always a good idea to have a power bank on hand for those emergency top-ups. But with so many on the market at a range of prices, choosing the best for your needs can be a challenge.

Our top picks

You’ve got to consider elements like overall battery capacity, design and even mod cons like interactive screens, as well as the basics like the design and number of USB ports available for charging devices. And even once you’ve decided on all that, you’ll need to establish if the power bank supports fast charging, as well as whether the output drops depending on the number of USB ports in use. 

That’s a roundabout way of saying that choosing the right power bank for your smartphone can be a bit of a minefield if you’re not familiar with battery tech – but that’s where we at Trusted Reviews come in, with our curated list of the very best power banks that we’ve tested and backed up by benchmark testing. 

We’ve even broken down the winners into different categories to help you focus on specific features like portability or iPhone compatibility, helping you decide which is best for your needs. So, without further ado, here are the very best power banks for smartphones available in 2024. 

Anker Prime 20,000mAh Power Bank

If you want a power bank with all the bells and whistles you could imagine, look no further than Anker’s top-end Prime 20,000mAh. It is one of the more expensive options in our chart at a cool £129/$129, but it’ll certainly be worth the price for many.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Prime is its built-in screen, and it’s not a basic one like that of Ugreen’s competing Nexode 100W either. It’s a full-colour screen that displays a range of information, from available battery capacity to the specific charge speeds of each USB port, of which there are two USB-Cs and one USB-A to make use of. 

The USB-C ports top out at 100W, making it ideal for quickly charging phones and even laptops, and it can simultaneously deliver full 100W power from both USB-C ports, as seen in our benchmark testing. The USB-A port is similarly equipped with 65W charge speeds, playing nicely with USB-C PD and QuickCharge 3.0 systems. 

The 20,000mAh battery capacity is enough to charge even the chunkiest smartphones a couple of times before needing a top-up itself, and although we saw an efficiency of 82% when charging at the top speeds of 100W, that’s still pretty respectable. Other power banks we’ve tested have dropped far lower. 

And, despite that fairly large capacity, you can fully recharge the battery pack via USB-C in as little as 56 minutes using a 100W USB-C charger. It is a bit of a chonk, however, more an accessory that’ll live in a rucksack than in a pocket.  

Reviewer: Andrew Williams
Review: Anker Prime 20,000mAh Power Bank

Ugreen Nexode 100W 20000mAh Power Bank

The Ugreen Nexode 100W matches the Anker Prime in many respects, offering the same 20,000mAh capacity and 100W output via its USB-C port. There’s even a screen, albeit one that only displays remaining battery life than the more useful info its competitor provides. 

However, it’s much cheaper to buy at £79.99/$79.99, and can be found even cheaper during sales, offering exceptional value for money. 

Now it’s not quite the same as the top-end Anker power bank in the performance department; while there are two USB-Cs and a single USB-A, you can only hit the 100W mark (or 98W, as our testing showed) from the primary USB-C port when charging a single device, with around 81% efficiency. You’ve also got a secondary USB-C that outputs 30W and a USB-A that outputs 22.5W. 

You can charge three devices at once, but the primary USB-C drops to 60W, while the secondary outputs share the same 20W, split between 13W and 7W from the USB-C and USB-A ports respectively during testing. However, if you’re only charging your smartphone, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. 

It’s also not quite as premium-looking as the Anker Prime with a rather generic rectangular design and curved edges, but then, do you really need a good-looking power bank when it’ll likely just sit in a rucksack most of the time? Probably not. 

Reviewer: Andrew Williams
Review: Ugreen Nexode 100W 20,000mAh Power Bank

Anker Nano Power Bank 30W

Though the Anker Nano branding may be a tad misleading, measuring in at 104mm tall, 26mm thick and a smartphone-like 215g, it’s still an ideal shape that’ll fit nicely into a pocket – and with an integrated USB-C cable that doubles up as a handle, you won’t need to carry around any long windy cables either. 

Plus, it’s one of the more stylish power banks around, and even hides an invisible screen behind its frosted plastic exterior. It’s on a par with the Anker Prime’s display too, showing information like current output, battery levels and an estimate of how much charge time is left – all very handy for charging a smartphone on the go.

Alongside the integrated 30W USB-C cable, there’s also a secondary USB-C port and a USB-A port if you’ve got other devices that you need to charge. The efficiency isn’t quite on par with that of more premium models at around 76.9%, delivering 7540mAh of its claimed 10,000mAh capacity in testing, but it’s still enough to fully charge any smartphone on the market. 

And, as with other mid-range power banks, it’s only the USB-C ports that can dole out the maximum 30W, and only when charging a single device at a time. The power bank’s three charging outlets all share the same 30W output, so the more devices you charge simultaneously, the longer it’ll take. 

Still, these are decent trade-offs if you’re looking for a compact power bank with added smarts, though at £49.99/$49.99, it is comfortably more expensive than some 10,000mAh 30W alternatives. 

Reviewer: Andrew Williams
Review: Anker Nano Power Bank 30W

Anker MagGo Power Bank 10K

If you’ve got a MagSafe-enabled iPhone and want a convenient way to charge your phone, Anker’s MagGo Power Bank 10K is a no-brainer. 

It features MagSafe compatibility that allows it to snap onto the back of the phone, and if you’re at a desk, the power bank sports a flip-out stand that turns it into a mobile dock – ideal for gaming sessions or watching Netflix without battery drain. And, at 20mm thick and 250g, it’s not offensively chunky either. 

It also has a screen like other Anker power banks, though this one is rather basic in comparison, only displaying the current charge percentage. Still, it’s a nice mod-con that delivers a more accurate idea of remaining battery life than a smattering of LEDs. 

The MagSafe output delivers the same 15W as the first-party Apple accessories, a step up from many 7.5W third-party alternatives, and the secondary USB-C port can output at an iPhone-friendly 27W for relatively speedy charging.  

Despite the advertised capacity of 10,000mAh, we clocked an input of 11,483mAh and an output of 10,072mAh from the USB-C port that gives the power bank a rather impressive 87% efficiency – the most efficient of any power bank in our chart right now. That indicates some pretty premium tech within the power bank, suiting its high-end look. 

However, at £89.99/$89.99, you’re certainly paying for that experience, especially when you can find similar power banks (albeit less efficient ones) with MagSafe charging at a cheaper price point. 

Reviewer: Andrew Williams
Review: Anker MagGo Power Bank 10K