Power bank feature creep is out of control 

There was a clip not excessively agelong agone erstwhile buying a powerfulness slope was arsenic easy arsenic choosing the cheapest portable artillery that could complaint your telephone and quickly gaffe into your pocket, purse, aliases backpack. The hardest portion was deciding whether it was clip to ditch USB-A ports.

Recently, however, brands person been slathering connected features, galore of which are superfluous, successful an effort to some guidelines retired from the commodified battalion and warrant higher value points. It’s particularly prevalent amongst the bigger powerfulness banks that tin besides complaint laptops, those that butt correct up to the “airline friendly” 99Wh (around 27,650mAh) size limit.

At CES 2026, we’re seeing a inclination towards powerfulness banks pinch integrated cables, which is very convenient. But a akin inclination to slap large, energy-sapping displays onto these portable batteries is conscionable silly. And that’s conscionable the commencement of the atrocities witnessed successful caller months.

The powerfulness slope that pushed things complete the separator for maine is the $270 EcoFlow Rapid Pro X Power Bank 27k that I received for review. Here’s my review: it’s bad. Do. Not. Buy. As a powerfulness bank, it tries excessively difficult to do excessively much, making it excessively expensive, excessively big, excessively slow, and excessively heavy.

The snap-on ornamental faceplates are ridiculous and the proprietary magnetic modules for its Apple Watch charger and retractable USB-C cablegram are excessively easy to misplace.

The elephantine show EcoFlow uses scratches easy and is excessively dim to easy publication outdoors. The confusing UX connected the Rapid Pro X exemplary is particularly violative successful its touch-sensitive clumsiness. Nobody needs a show that takes 30 seconds to aftermath up from slumber and plays swirly graphics and blinking eyeballs erstwhile awake, slow sapping the powerfulness bank’s power reserves. The truth that it has a screensaver tells maine that the merchandise squad wholly mislaid the plot.

Anker’s besides blameworthy of putting ample displays onto its powerfulness banks. Most group don’t request thing much than 4 dots to show the remaining capacity, but it’s becoming progressively difficult to bargain a powerfulness slope without an LCD display. In the 20,000mAh range, Anker doesn’t moreover database a display-less exemplary anymore. I, for illustration galore Verge readers, emotion to spot the really wattage pumping successful and retired of those ports — but the immense mostly of group person nary request for that.

Anker, for illustration EcoFlow, besides offers power banks pinch proprietary pogo-pin connectors, Both companies usage those connectors to lure owners into buying costly table chargers that don’t activity pinch thing else. Those extra-fast charging speeds are improbable to warrant the premium disbursal for astir people.

Most people, moreover tech savvy Verge readers, don’t moreover request a powerfulness slope that tin output 140W of powerfulness transportation complete USB-C. The mostly of non-gaming laptops require 65W aliases less. And the superior computing instrumentality for astir group — the telephone — only requires astir 20W.

We surely don’t request powerfulness banks pinch built-in hotspots erstwhile that’s already built into our Android and iOS phones. Baseus made 1 anyway.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity are becoming a communal characteristic successful immoderate flagship powerfulness banks. I’m each for remotely monitoring monolithic powerfulness stations utilized to powerfulness off-grid homes and campers, but not a portable powerfulness slope that’s charging the telephone successful your manus aliases is plugged into a adjacent wall jack.

All these other “features” conscionable adhd weight, size, and costs to powerfulness banks. They besides summation the consequence that thing will spell incorrect connected a instrumentality that’s meant to ever beryllium pinch you and conscionable activity erstwhile you request it. And powerfulness banks don’t request any extra help justifying a recall.

One powerfulness slope inclination I can get down is integrated cables for illustration the retractable type recovered connected EcoFlow’s Rapid Pro Power Bank 27k (note the deficiency of “X” successful the name). Always having a decently specced cablegram that matches the device’s max input and output is ace convenient. I for illustration that Kuxiu’s S3 MagSafe powerfulness bank, for example, neatly wraps the cablegram astir the chassis to plug into a hidden USB-C jack. That measurement the cablegram tin beryllium replaced if it frays aliases breaks.

I’m besides a instrumentality of adding kickstands to MagSafe powerfulness banks that prop phones up astatine your preferred perspective for extended viewing aliases recording. More importantly, a fewer companies are now adopting semi-solid authorities chemistry that makes their powerfulness banks little susceptible to thermal runaway, which was an manufacture plague successful 2025. They costs much to buy, but they’re cheaper to ain complete their extended lifetimes.

The fastest and astir powerful powerfulness banks pinch tons of gee-whiz features will often make headlines for pushing the letter cover of what’s possible. But the “best” powerfulness slope mightiness not beryllium champion for you, erstwhile basal affordability is each you really need.