Nitecore’s latest power bank is the lightest and most compact yet

There’s 2 things you should cognize astir me, your intrepid reviewer: I dislike the feature creep associated pinch modern powerfulness banks, and I emotion shaving grams disconnected the cogwheel I transportation erstwhile backpacking, bikepacking, and way running. So ideate my delight erstwhile Nitecore released a caller procreation of its ultralight NB10000 battery. After a fewer weeks pinch it I tin confidently say: Haribo beryllium damned!

The $83.95 NB10000 Gen 4 weighs conscionable 146 grams, according to my scale, and measures 1.45 x 11.6 x 4.68cm (0.57 x 4.57 x 1.84 inches), according to Nitecore’s spec sheet. That makes it the lightest and astir compact 10,000mAh powerfulness slope I tin find. Even erstwhile factoring successful the other 6 grams added by the included USB-C lanyard, it still thumps the previous ultralight champ: Nitecore’s NB10000 Gen 3. The concealed to the Gen 4’s awesome weight is simply a silicon-carbon anode, the aforesaid artillery tech progressively appearing successful flagship smartphones, including Samsung’s.

As mini arsenic it is, the Gen 4’s 39Wh artillery still afloat recharged my aging iPhone 15 Pro twice, pinch a fewer watt-hours near successful the tank. And pinch up to 22.5W of output, it tin moreover top-up my 14-inch MacBook Pro erstwhile needed. It besides supports pass-through to complaint your gadgets arsenic the powerfulness slope itself charges.

Have I recovered powerfulness slope perfection? Almost.

I for illustration that the NB10000 Gen 4 gets each the basics right. It has a simple, four-element parameter to show the artillery level, which I overmuch for illustration complete a fancy display. It’s constructed retired of c fibre sheets and offers IPX7 protection against h2o ingress, allowing it to withstand rainfall aliases moreover impermanent submersion – precisely what you want from an escapade battery.

In my testing, I measured 33.58Wh of the claimed 39Wh capacity for an 86.1 percent efficiency. That’s a beautiful bully consequence for a premium powerfulness slope and a flimsy betterment connected the 33.33Wh we measured connected the Gen 3 model. That useful retired to 229.98Wh/kg of delivered energy, aliases 220.90Wh/kg pinch the cablegram — class-leading results, either way. The NB10000 Gen 4 supports PD, QC3.0, and Huawei’s SCP charging protocols.

The Gen 4 exemplary besides didn’t suffer from the overheating and shutdown issues we saw erstwhile the Gen 3 would tally debased connected juice. I did, however, spot a impermanent interruption successful powerfulness transportation erstwhile the Gen 4 portion was almost afloat depleted, but that’s only because I had a metre attached — different I wouldn’t person known since it continued charging almost immediately.

The only point that could beryllium considered superfluous is the animated RGB lighting that flows astir the dual USB-C ports. The lights are location to guideline you to the USB-C ports successful a acheronian tent, says Nitecore, but you tin also… consciousness them. Give the artillery a double-knock adjacent the apical and the lights (and artillery indicator) illuminate. This tin beryllium adjuvant if wearing gloves since Nitecore inexplicably opted for a touch-sensitive aftermath fastener connected the Gen 4. Fortunately, that alleged “Touch Button” did reliably consciousness my bedewed digit successful testing. The knock-to-wake characteristic seemed to only activity astir 75 percent of the time, but it, and the RGB lights, tin beryllium abnormal if you want.

The lights will besides glow yellowish (regular mode) aliases greenish (eco) aft a agelong property of the powerfulness fastener if you want to toggle betwixt afloat powerfulness and extended life, respectively. Eco mode useful by dropping the output to a slow 5W (5V astatine 1A) max. This tin support the powerfulness slope from automatically shutting disconnected erstwhile charging low-draw devices for illustration headlamps, watches, aliases wireless earbuds. It tin besides output a small much full complaint capacity by producing little power waste, and let the artillery to run person to its autochthonal voltage resulting successful little conversion loss.

The Nitecore NB10000 Gen 4 is the perfect powerfulness slope for endurance athletes, backpackers, aliases anyone looking for an ultralight and ultracompact powerfulness slope that mostly avoids characteristic creep. The only existent antagonistic is the price, having gone up to $83.95 since the motorboat of the $64.95 Gen 3 exemplary 2 years ago. That makes the Gen 4 powerfulness slope 2 to 3 times much costly than the emblematic 10,000mAh powerfulness bank, but it tin prevention you 50 grams aliases more. That’s a value premium I tin spot tons of active, outdoorsy group happily paying for.

All photos by Thomas Ricker / The Verge