Powerbanks: Which one to buy? What is mAh?

I have got this question a lot! "My phone's battery life has reduced, which power bank should I buy?"

Things to keep in mind for buying

1. Charging speed matters. Make sure it has a 2A output or at least 1-1.5A.
2. Make sure you are ready to shell out around 1-1.5K INR or more for a well-known good quality powerbank. If it is selling too cheap, it is poor quality/first copy and will definitely stop working after max 4-5 cycles, give you a low current output or could be of a much lower capacity than it states on the box.
3. Buy a good quality cable. If you buy a cheap cable it might provide a higher resistance, obstructing electric current and thus reducing charging speed. 
4. Preferrably buy from Amazon and Flipkart. Avoid Ebay as the listings are not verified and the seller may cheat by taking cost of original but sending a duplicate. Always read reviews. 

What is mAh?

Coming to the second question, milliampere-Hour or mAh simply put, is the unit of the amount of energy your battery can store. Higher the mAh, more will be the time for which the battery lasts.

For example, if you have a 10,000 mAh or 10 Ah powerbank and you are pulling 2A current for charging your phone, it will provide 2A for 10/2=5 hours before completely discharging.


So far in my experience, the best powerbanks that I have seen are the original Tukzer (1-2K INR), TP-Link (1.2K INR), Xiaomi (1K INR) and Sony (2K INR). For more details on these, check out my latest post, if you are not coming here from that one: 

Which are the best quality, reliable and high output Power Banks and Chargers for USB devices?