Kuxiu’s S3 MagSafe power bank is bigger and better and probably won’t explode

Kuxiu is backmost pinch a caller S3 portable artillery that addresses astir of the issues I had during my reappraisal of the S2, aka the “world’s first” semi-solid authorities powerfulness bank. It besides introduces a fewer caller ones, while adding useful features for illustration a kickstand and integrated USB-C cable.

As a reminder, these are not existent “solid authorities powerfulness banks” contempt the trading hype. The 10,000mAh Kuxiu S3 uses the aforesaid solid-liquid mixed electrolyte recovered successful the S2, making it little prone to thermal runaway than the all-liquid Lithium-ion batteries recovered successful astir powerfulness banks. Kuxiu says its unsocial semi-solid authorities chemistry besides lasts doubly arsenic long, making it bully for astir 1,000 charging cycles earlier the artillery capacity drops to 80 percent.

The S3 is much costly to acquisition than different 10,000mAh powerfulness banks, typically rated for 300-500 cycles. It lists for $149.98 but is often discounted, trading for less than $70 astatine the clip of this writing. At that price, it should beryllium cheaper to ain complete its longer lifetime.

While it’s easy to discount the information declare — don’t. In September, Anker issued a callback of 481,000 powerfulness banks owed to the consequence of occurrence and explosion. And conscionable past week, INIU recalled 210,000 powerfulness banks sold connected Amazon that were implicated successful 11 fires causing complete $380,000 successful spot damage. It’s been a busy year for power bank recalls.

Safety aside, Kuxiu has besides fitted the S3 pinch tons of useful upgrades. In summation to doubly the artillery capacity, you get a folding metallic kickstand, integer display, and detachable USB-C cablegram that tucks into the perimeter erstwhile not successful use. You besides get faster 30W charging input and Qi2 output up to 25W for devices that support the latest wireless charging standard.

On paper, this each sounds awesome — and it is — but that larger artillery is heavy erstwhile utilized arsenic a MagSafe charger, and it’s acold little pocketable. At 106.9 x 71 x 22.15mm (4.20 × 2.79 × 0.87 inches) and a weight of 245.3g (8.65oz), the S3 adds sizeable bulk and heft to my 187-gram / 6.6-ounce iPhone 15 Pro. Fortunately, the S3’s stronger array of 18 N52 magnets does a bully occupation of holding everything together and decently aligned for charging.

To trial the unit’s 10,000mAh (5,000mAh astatine 7.7V, aliases 38.5Wh) rated capacity, I plugged the S3’s integrated USB-C cablegram into a ChargerLAB POWER-Z C240 powerfulness meter, which past slotted into the USB-C jack connected my iPhone 15 Pro. I was capable to complaint the iPhone from 0 to 100 percent once, and past again from 0 to 92 percent earlier the S3 powerfulness slope was empty. I measured 31.12Wh of useful output capacity for 80.83 percent ratio from the DC/DC circuit, which is typical.

The flat, integrated USB-C cablegram that tucks into the S3’s perimeter is ace useful. Power banks are getting each kinds of unnecessary features these days, but the worth of having a cablegram ever astatine the fresh should not beryllium underestimated. While the S3 can’t afloat complaint my MacBook Pro’s larger battery, it tin supply a fewer other hours of runtime. The maximum charging velocity of the S3 is conscionable 35W, however, which is connected par pinch this people of batteries.

Kuxiu still sells the much portable 5,000mAh S2, which is currently disposable for $49.99. The bigger S3 presently lists for $68.99 and offers double the artillery capacity, a show showing percent remaining, much powerful wired and wireless charging, and the convenience of a kickstand and USB-C cablegram ever available.

Compared to powerfulness banks sold by the likes of Anker, EcoFlow, and hundreds of alphabet-soup brands like, um, Kuxiu, the S2 and caller S3 semi-solid-state chemistry should beryllium safer and cheaper to own, making them very difficult to hit if you’re presently successful the market.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge