Power banks for everyday travel: six from a 122 g magnetic slab to a 99.75 Wh laptop brick, plus the 2026 flight rules

The MagGo is the bank you carry when you did not mean to carry a bank: 102 × 70.6 × 8.6 mm, 122 g, magnetic. It snaps to the back of a MagSafe iPhone and charges it wirelessly at up to 15 W under the Qi2 standard, or through its single USB-C port at 20 W; that port also recharges the bank, from empty in under two hours with a 20 W charger and a 3 A cable. Anker rates it at 5,000 mAh and, unusually, tells you what that means: an estimated 2,750 to 3,500 mAh delivered, or roughly one charge of a current iPhone.

Anker does not print the watt-hours; at 3.7 V the 5,000 mAh cells are about 18.5 Wh, far under any limit. Anker lists the phones it will not fit — the iPhone 16e, the 12 and 13 mini and the SE — and describes the warranty only as hassle-free (the listing says 18 months).

This is a day-out bank, not a travel bank: one top-up, no cable to carry, and the phone stays usable while it charges. For a weekend, two devices or an Android without magnets, move down the list.

The INIU’s number is 45 W: from either of its two USB-C ports it will run a Samsung’s Super Fast Charging or keep a MacBook Air alive, from a 10,000 mAh bank that weighs 182 g and measures 11 × 6.7 × 1.8 cm. There is a USB-A port for old cables, a 12 cm detachable USB-C lanyard cable, a torch, and PD 3.0 with PPS in the protocol list. INIU’s warranty is three years — the longest in this article — with a 30-day money-back period.

The catch is in INIU’s own spec: use two ports at once and the total output falls to 15 W. This is a one-device-at-a-time bank, and the second port is for the earbuds afterwards. Recharge input is 27 W; INIU states no time. INIU does not print watt-hours either — about 37 Wh computed — so at a strict gate you would be explaining arithmetic.

For a commute, a day trip and a Samsung that wants its fast mode, it is the best value for weight here. The Amazon listing is the P41-E2 variant; INIU also sells a P50, a different model — check the code.

Anker’s answer to the forgotten cable is to build it in: a short USB-C cable is fixed to the body and doubles as a carry loop, alongside a USB-C port and a USB-A port. Output is 30 W from the cable or the port and 22.5 W from USB-A, with a total of 24 W when several devices share; input is 30 W, which Anker says gets the bank to half in about 45 minutes. A colour display shows the percentage rather than four dots.

The price of the cable and the display is bulk: 104 × 52.3 × 26 mm and 215 g, chunkier than the INIU for the same nominal 10,000 mAh (about 37 Wh, computed — Anker states no Wh). Anker’s warranty is hassle-free, 18 months per the listing. One clarification worth making: this is the A1259, not the A1257 that Anker recalled in the United States in 2025; none of the banks in this article is on Anker’s UK recall list.

For a phone and earbuds in a bag, with no cable to lose and a readout you can trust, it is the pragmatic 10K.

Samsung’s own battery pack is here for two reasons: it speaks Galaxy — 45 W Super Fast Charging 2.0 with PD 3.0 PDO and PPS — and it prints its capacity in watt-hours, 74 Wh, on the specification page. Three ports (the listing says three USB-C), a 0.3 m C-to-C cable in the box, 152 × 76 × 25.5 mm, and 402 g by Samsung’s UK page (the listing says 350 g; we record the conflict).

What Samsung does not publish is as notable: no per-port split, no input wattage or recharge time, no warranty period on the page. The 45 W is the phone’s number; for a laptop it is a trickle. And 402 g is a lot to carry for a phone bank when the INIU does 45 W at 182 g.

Buy it for a Galaxy household that wants the manufacturer’s own accessory and a Wh figure on the case, and for the reassurance that comes with both.

The UGREEN is the honest laptop bank. Its specification table prints 20,000 mAh at 3.6 V (72 Wh) and, on the next line, the rated capacity actually delivered: 11,300 mAh at 5 V. USB-C1 gives 100 W — enough for a 14-inch MacBook Pro or any 65–100 W Windows laptop — USB-C2 gives 30 W and USB-A 22.5 W. It takes 65 W back in and refills in 1.6 hours, with pass-through charging, so it can sit between the wall and the laptop overnight. An LED display shows the charge; 139 × 80 × 26.5 mm; 420 g; two-year warranty.

The trade-offs are those of any 20,000 mAh bank: 420 g and the size of a paperback, and the second USB-C port is a phone port, not a second laptop port. The protocols cover PD 3.0 with PPS, so a Samsung fast-charges from it too.

For a working day away from sockets — a train, a library, a café with no tables near the wall — this is the one, and the printed 72 Wh means no questions at the gate.

The Prime is engineered to the airline limit: 26,250 mAh and a printed 99.75 Wh, which Anker calls hand-luggage approved and which sits a quarter of a watt-hour under the 100 Wh line at which approval would be needed. Either USB-C port delivers up to 140 W at PD 3.1’s 28 V level — the full speed of a 16-inch MacBook Pro — the USB-A gives 22.5 W, and the total across three devices is 300 W. It recharges at 140 W per port or 250 W across two, and a display plus an app show what each port is doing.

Anker is candid about delivered capacity: about 15,200 mAh, with energy loss “typically 30–45 %”. The cost is the bank itself: 159.9 × 38 × 62.7 mm and 600 g, a brick that lives in a laptop bag. The warranty is Anker’s hassle-free, 24 months per the listing; Anker’s page does not state it.

For a long-haul flight with a laptop and a phone, or a day running two laptops off one bank, nothing smaller does it. For a phone, it is absurd.