Eggtronic Power Bar USB-C Wireless Power Bank REVIEW | MacSources
One power bank to rule them all.
How many devices do you use throughout the course of a day? Two…three…more? At the end of that day, do you find yourself scrambling to plug your phone and tablet into charging devices? What if you could charge all your devices from one power bank? This is what the Power Bar attempts to do by providing a 3-in-1 multi-device charging dock.
DETAILS
The Power Bar is a USB-C Wireless Power Bank with Apple Watch Charger built-in. There are multiple types of chargers within the Power Bar including a wireless power bank that has two wireless charging spots, an Apple Watch charger, and a USB-C charger. The USB-C power delivery port provides 30W of output power to connected devices. The Power Bar features a total output of 53W. The wireless charging surface compatible with all Qi-enabled devices including Apple AirPods Pro.
SPECS
- Model number: CBWH30A
- Dimensions: 7.30 x 1.02 x 2.67 in
- USB-C output (PD 3.0): 30W Power Delivery
- Wireless output: 2x 7.5W Qi-certified
- Apple Watch output: 5W Apple MFI-certified
- USB-C input : 5V/3A, 9V/3A,12V/2.5A,15V/2A, 20V1.5A (PD30W)
- Total output: 53W
- Battery capacity: 10,000mAh
- Color: white
USER EXPERIENCE
The Power Bar comes in a nice retail package. The front of the box features an image of the power bank along with some major details of the product (i.e. 53W Fast Charge, Certified USB Charger 30W, Made for Apple Watch, etc.). The front flap of the box opens to reveal a clear plastic window that shows off the Power Bar. I always like when packages do this so you can see exactly what you are getting with your purchase. The back of the box includes specifications about the product including battery capacity and different types of charging that’s available with the Power Bar. The box specifically describes using the Power Bar to charge “All Your Apple Devices” including iPhone 8 and newer, AirPods — AirPods Pro, Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro.
One thing I was really surprised about this product is its capacity. It’s impressive that Eggtronic made it possible for so many different devices to charge off of one power bank, but I really thought the capacity would be larger than 10,000 mAh. My main devices — Apple iPhone 11 Pro, Apple Watch Nike+ Series 4, 2016 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro with TouchBar, and Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (Gen 1) — exceed that capacity with one charge. So, if I were in a situation where all my devices were nearly dead, I wouldn’t be able to charge them all to full capacity. I say this because this type of power bank would typically join me on a weekend trip so that I wouldn’t have to pack multiple chargers for my devices. But, knowing that it’s maximum capacity is smaller than what is needed for my primary devices makes me think twice about depending on it for that purpose.
That said, I did attempt charging three devices — my iPhone 11 Pro, MacBook Pro, and Apple Watch — simultaneously to see how the Power Bar would handle that kind of power distribution. The first thing I did was to charge the Power Bar. Out of the box, it had a minimal charge and I wanted to make sure it was at 100% before I started charging my devices. Once it was, I plugged in my MacBook Pro, placed my iPhone on the wireless charging spot, and set my Apple Watch on the charging puck.
The first thing I want to note concerns the Apple Watch charging puck. The manual states that the puck should lift up. The instructions read: “lift up the push button until the spot rises up and place your Apple Watch on it.” I was unable to lift up the push button as the manual instructed so I just laid my Apple Watch on the puck flat. I would have preferred to be able to place it on an elevated charger, but I was able to charge the watch just fine on the flat puck. After 89 minutes, the PowerBar was able to charge my Apple Watch from 0% to 82%. That’s a charging rate of 0.92% per minute. This is slightly slower than other Apple Watch chargers I’ve tested, but still acceptable in my opinion.
Next, we move over to the iPhone. I placed it on the first of the two wireless charging areas on the Power Bar. The user manual doesn’t indicate the procedure for how to charge wirelessly, but I discovered that you have to tap the power button to activate the wireless charging pads. I had placed my iPhone on the charging area a couple of different ways, but the only way it started charging was to tap the power button. My iPhone finished charging approximately 60 minutes after I connected the iPhone to the wireless charging area. The iPhone had a partial charge to it when I started the charging process. That ended up being a charging rate of 0.17% per minute.
Finally, the MacBook Pro took 87 minutes to fully charge from 71% charge to 100%. I was using the laptop for a period of time while it was charging and that may have effected the charging rate, but I calculated it at 0.82% per minute.
CONCLUSION
While the Power Bar is a decent way to charge multiple devices at one time, it doesn’t seem to be the most efficient option. It does speed up when there are less devices connected to it and it works really well as an emergency charging device, but I wouldn’t use it as a primary charging option.
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Originally published at https://macsources.com on May 18, 2020.
