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

I get this question a lot and I recently answered it on Quora too. Here is a more detailed answer with brands chosen among the ocean of other Chinese brands based on their reviews and personal experiences of my friends.

The brands listed here manufacture products for both Android and Apple devices. So happy reading!

Power Banks:

More details on how to choose one and what the 'mAh' rating of power banks means is given on my other post here:
Powerbanks: Which one to buy? What is mAh?

The best Power Banks to my knowledge as of Jan 2016 are:

1) Tukzer - 5200/10000 mAh

Tukzer is possibly the best looking and the best performer among all. It is lightweight and has high Quality Li-Po batteries. Shake the power bank to see the charge level!
You can find a comprehensive review on this one here: Tukzer 10000 mAh Power Bank Review 

2) TP-Link TL-PB - 10400 mAh

Comes with a pouch and in-built flashlight. Slightly heavy. This may not give the full backup capacity as promised, based on some reviews and is 70-80% efficient. 

3) Sony 4700/6100/10000 mAh

Possibly the longest surviving power banks are made by Sony. But they are very expensive.

4) Xiaomi 5600/10400/16000 mAh

Xiaomi is s very well known company for power banks and some of my friends are still using their's since two years. However, these are rarely available as of 2016 in India.

Wall chargers or USB power hubs:

A charger with a 2 Ampere rating will charge your device the fastest. Do not worry, a high current charger will not damage your battery. Your phone can take only a limited amount of current which is decided by the manufacturer. So if it is not manufactured to sink current above 1.5A, it will take only 1.5A even if you connect a 2A charger.

The best wall charger or USB power hub manufacturers for charging your devices as of Jan 2016 would be:

1) Anker (Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 18W)

Be careful, online shopping sites are plagued with first-copy duplicates of Samsung and Apple models. Buy from reliable sources.
2) Samsung (2A) 

3) Apple (2.4A)

4) Sony (2A)

5) Nextech (2.4A)

6) QuantumZero (2A)

7) Tukzer (Power Hub 2A+2A+1A+1A)

Charging/data cables:

With a good quality charging brick/hub, you cannot compromise on the quality of the charging cables. Otherwise if the cable offers more resistance or is not made of a good quality material like copper, it will reduce charging speed to a significant extent.

The best charging/data micro-USB cables:

1) Bandridge - 100% Copper cable

2) Tukzer

3) Rock

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?