Also see: Best Power Bank Deals This is the largest power bank to ever grace the doors of the PC Advisor Test Centre. At a huge 50,000mAh this 1.26kg power bank is about as heavy as the laptop you’ll want to charge with it. Yep, that’s right: power banks are no longer just for phones, tablets and other USB-connected devices. This Maxoak comes with 11 adaptor tips for plugging in most laptops (various models from Fujitsu, Sony, Acer, Asus, IBM, Dell, HP, NEC, Samsung and Lenovo are listed – check for yours here), though unfortunately there’s no way to charge a laptop that has a different adaptor. Some of those laptops excluded from the power party are Apple MacBooks and laptops with power adaptors higher than 90W, plus there’s also no native support for USB-C devices. Four full-size USB outputs might enable you to get around the latter problem (though with two rated at only 1A we’d have been equally happy with just the pair of 2.1A outputs). Also see: How to charge your phone’s battery faster. We appreciate the bundled protective case with zipped side pouch that can be used to prevent the tips getting mislaid, but can’t help feeling an AC power outlet might have been a better approach for covering all laptop bases. We’ve seen AC power outlets before in, for example, the Omnicharge and RavPower PowerStation Series, though none of these devices has the enormous capacity of the Maxoak Laptop Power Bank. That really is its key selling point. With 50,000mAh power to hand, you could conceivably keep your laptop powered up for several days. Your initial reaction to that figure is probably wow, that’s a lot of power. You might well be thinking you could charge your Galaxy S8 almost 17 times, or your iPhone 25 times. But that’s assuming the device’s entire capacity is available for charging connected devices, which as we know is never the case. Also see: How to improve smartphone battery life. The industry-standard energy efficiency for power banks sits somewhere between 60- and 70- percent, with some high-end devices with premium batteries able to manage 80- or 90 percent. The Maxoak sits at the lower end of this spectrum, with an efficiency around 60 percent. This means you’ll get about 30,000mAh for powering your devices, which translates to around 10 full charges for your Galaxy S8 or around 15 for your iPhone, depending on which model you own. Suddenly this hulking great power bank with its 207x136x33mm case is starting to look on the large side in return for what you get: be under no pretences that this is the type of device you will want to throw in your handbag or rucksack and take out and about with you on your travels. That said, the Maxoak’s effective capacity mirrors the advertised capacity of the previously highest-capacity power bank we’ve tested. So if you do need a lot of power, this is the way to get it. But it is not the way to get that power outside the UK, at least not if you’re intending to get there on a plane. Current guidelines allow a maximum 100Wh batteries to be taken onboard flights, which in most cases works out at around 27,000mAh. With its 50,000mAh capacity this power bank has a huge 185Wh rating and is significantly over the allowance. It is not allowed in your hold luggage or your hand luggage. (Also see: What tech can you take on a plane?) Assuming you’re intending to stay with your feet firmly on the ground, the Maxoak has several attractive features, including passthrough charging (which enables you to charge its battery as it charges your devices) and auto-on – all you need do is plug in a device and charging will begin. There is a slew of outputs, including 20V/3A and 12V/2.5A outputs for laptops and digital cameras (be careful not to use the wrong one or you could damage your device), and four USB outputs. There’s no Quick Charge support, but two of these USB outputs are reasonably speedy at 2.1A (10.5W). This means that rather than charging one device many times over, you could charge several devices multiple times, keeping them going for a good while away from the mains. Also see: Best MiFi 2017. Something we might usually find on a power bank is a Micro-USB or USB-C input, which allows you to recharge the bank from your phone- or tablet charger. While it would have been nice to see one here for quick, partial top-ups, the reality is it would take forever for a device of this capacity to charge over USB. Instead you get a wall plug that can take it to 100 percent in between six and eight hours. All these connections are found on one end of the device, alongside a rather large power button. Tapping this with no devices connected will activate the four LEDs to let you know how much power remains. This system is common in power banks, but it’s a major flaw in high-capacity banks such as this: with each LED representing a quarter of that 50,000mAh of power, you’re going to get a very rough reading of how much power is left. With only one LED lit the bank could still contain more power than a fully charged mid-capacity power bank, for example. LEDs aside, the Maxoak has a nice design, with a gunmetal grey tough outer case and gloss black stripes down either side. The ABS plastic end caps don’t detract from the classy look, and this is a device that would easily fit into any business environment. Read next: Best desktop chargers Marie is Editor in Chief of Tech Advisor and Macworld. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our English language, French and Spanish consumer editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry’s transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.
