C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
My job is a lot of fun. I get to travel around the world, meet with various tech companies, and get early looks at their newest products. While this is terrific, a significant challenge is ensuring everything I need to do my job fits into my backpack. This has resulted in much trial and error as I hunt for devices that meet an exhaustive number of criteria.
A laptop-ready power bank is one of the must-have devices for my line of work. This has always been one of the trickiest things to buy. Historically, power banks capable of charging a laptop have been enormous, heavy, slow, hot, and expensive. Thankfully, that’s been changing.
Over the past five years or so, high-capacity power banks have gotten much better — although also much more expensive. Today, though, a decent laptop-ready bank is not nearly as expensive as it used to be, making the product category finally affordable for most people.
I recently upgraded my go-to power bank for the AOHI Laptop Power Bank 100W ($79.99 at Amazon). I’ve been thrilled with it, so if you’re hunting for something similar, this is worth a look!
My favorite laptop-ready power bank
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The AOHI Laptop Power Bank 100W, as its name suggests, is a power bank that can deliver 100W charging speeds. This is enough to charge pretty much any PPS PD 3.0-compatible laptop, as well as phones, tablets, headphones, smartwatches, earbuds, and more. With 100W speeds, you’ll be able to charge even a MacBook Pro or some gaming laptops at the same rates you would see with a wall outlet at home.
On top of fast speeds, you’ll also get tons of capacity. There are six premium battery cells in this AOHI device, giving you 30,000mAh to work with. That’s enough to fully charge my laptop 1.5 times without ever needing to be near an outlet. Conversely, I could fully charge my laptop and my Google Pixel 8 Pro and still have plenty left over for all the other devices in my bag.
While charging a device, the AOHI power bank doesn’t get hot. In fact, thanks to its aluminum construction, it barely even gets warm. This was a significant barrier for older power banks, some of which needed built-in cooling fans to keep heat under control. Subsequently, these cooling systems made the banks bigger and heavier, but the AOHI model doesn’t need one.
The AOHI power bank meets all my criteria for a high-capacity, fast, small, and light charger for my devices on the go.
Most importantly to me, though, this power bank is small and light. At 6.02 x 3.46 x 0.98 inches, it’s about the same size as a large smartphone, albeit much thicker. It only weighs a little over one pound, too, which makes it easy to store and carry in my bag.
Really, there are only two complaints I have about this product. The first is the port selection. There is one USB-A port for charging devices and one USB-C port used for both charging devices and charging the bank itself. The fact that there are two ports is nice because I can top up my laptop and my phone together, for example. But it would have been nice to have two USB-C ports with the USB-A port or even just two USB-C ports alone.
The second complaint is that the power bank can handle a charge of up to 65W but doesn’t come with a suitable wall adapter for doing so. It does come with a high-speed USB-C cable that is surprisingly premium, but you’ll need your own 65W adapter to charge it at the top speed. Thankfully, I already have one of these in my bag (65W Ruidun GaN charger on Amazon), so I’m set, but if you don’t, that could increase the overall cost of this product.
Speaking of cost, that’s one of the best parts about the AOHI power bank. It usually costs $140.00, which isn’t cheap, but is also a pretty decent price for what you’re getting. For Black Friday, though, it’s slashed by nearly 50%, costing just $73.49. That is far lower than the price I paid just a few months ago. I am considering buying a few of these as Christmas gifts, because a solid power bank is one of those things you don’t realize you need until you have one.
Even if you skip the Black Friday sale, it’s rare to see this at its MSRP since it’s frequently discounted. But if you want to save as much as possible, I’d grab this deal now while you can. Thank me later!
