Is This Thing Even Real?
My iPhoe is getting really old now so, even though I've taken good care of it and it still works wonders, the battery life is noticeably depleted. I used to have a battery phone case for it but that is now hard to find. It now sits in a normal case and I carry this power bank with me instead. It replaced an amazing Anker 20,000mAH battery that I used for many years, predating even my iPhone, but which met a timely death in the Lisbon heat last summer.
I've been using this one for a few months but, right off the bat, it's no match for the old Anker beast. It's much lighter though, and it comes with an (pretty useless) solar panel that is meant to top up the battery when not charging via USB.
While doing this video, and looking for the item to link to on Amazon for possible affiliate commissions, I discovered something interesting. There is an identical "DIY Kit" version of this which is just a case and a solar panel. You are supposed to encase an existing power bank, or rechargeable batteries, e.t.c., inside of this case to turn it into a power bank. It got me thinking that, perhaps, this is a professionally put together version of that. So, basically, inside of this could just be a bunch of rechargeable batteries. haha.
I may have been bamboozled! I did buy pretty cheap on the TikTok Shop, which is full of cheap garbage mostly. That would explain why it's so light and, despite claiming to be 20,000mAh, it only charges my phone twice before it dies cold.
I'm not going to do it now, but when this thing does stop working, which I suspect won't be too far into the future, I shall crack it open to satisfy my curiosity :)
Peace & Love,
Adé
I’d love to see a post on its post-mortem!