Hi,
I always carry a whole lot of stuff in my bag, because I want to be ready for any unexpected scenarios that might happen, and one essential everyday carry (EDC) item is my trusty power bank from Xiaomi.
I’ve used a fair number of power banks, from those brandless freebies you get from going to some exhibition to Samsung’s power bank. The Samsung one used to be my favourite for a year or 2, I got it as a package deal when I bought my old tablet. During that time I bought the older version of the Mi power bank 10400mah, it has more capacity than the Samsung one and it charges faster too, but its slightly heavier.. So its quite taxing on my shoulders. I know. its only a few tens of grams difference, but I don’t know leh, I can feel the difference leh.
That was about 3 – 4 years ago, so now fast forward to this year, earlier this year I notice there’s a new 10000mah Mi power bank in the market. Its smaller and lighter than the original 10400mah version, so I decided to just buy it at think later. I got it at $20++ with a black silicone skin to protect it. Now i’m rarely out and about without it on me somewhere. Its becoming essential these powerbanks and Xiaomi’s offerings still gives me the best value for the money. So much so that I recently got a pink one for Claire too (so she can stop leeching my powerbank).
Heck I even use it to charge my Sony a7 mark II when I forgot to charge it.
Using it is super straight forward: you’ll be given a short 20-30cm long microUSB cable, plug the big head in the Mi and small head into your phone and it starts charging your phone. Do the reverse with a mobile phone charger or computer and you’re charging the Mi. In actual usage, I believe its output is 2A because it charges as fast as my Samsung ‘fast charger’, cool right?
The power button you ask? Well I believe thats for show. LOL. I only use the power button to check how much juice I have left in my powerbank when I’m not using it to charge my phone. The charging is all plug and play, no need to press the button.
The aesthetics was good for the price, it uses a aluminium case around the core plasitic battery module. And it comes in different colours too, Pink for wifey. Whats more, its readily available in local e-commerce shops and even popular now stocks them too!
One thing to note is that I think they don’t give you a lightning cable so Apple users would have to get their own cables. Not a deal breaker to me though.
Cheers
Simon Tey
P.s. I think recently I saw an even newer version of the 10000mah powerbank and seriously I have to focus on controlling my unquenchable thirst for new gadgets. I wanna buy it…
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