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I got two of these for myself last week because, for the money, they looked amazing for just over $10 bucks each. Plus, I needed for my tablet when out and about a solid option to have real power as my tiny little emergency SWAG branded ones from different companies I have received over the years no longer really hold a charge nor did they have much power even when new. Time for an upgrade as these below are in the trash now.
But does this little puppy deliver on all the points it advertises? How about I do this and put a quick list of the Pros and Cons of this unit and then talk more about my testing below that.
Pros:
- Lightweight and about the size of my phone
- Solid design and slick look
- 2 USB output ports
- Charged my phone and tablet to full (1x)
- Lights that tell you how much charge remains
Cons:
- This seems like a 10,000mAh not 15k!
- No markings what USB port is 2 amp and 1 amp
- Takes overnight to recharge
- Short USB cord (really short)
- Wall-to-USB adapter NOT included
So there is a quick list of what I like and what I do not like. This is a nice unit and I am overall thrilled for the price. However, the biggest and most glaring issue is that I can see, and my testing seems to bear this out, that this is not a 15,000mAh battery bank as advertised. I would say it is at best a 10,000mAh. Disappointing? You bet. If they had advertised it as 10k at this price it would still be a good value. The instructions say you have to cycle it a number of times to get max yield but I just don’t see it jumping up by THAT much after a few charge and drains. On to my testing.
Now this test may not be the proper way of going about this and my guess is some scientist will tell me I cannot do what I am testing and get an accurate result and this kind of electron sharing is not a good test. Maybe that is true but I plugged the fully charged GATCEPOT 15000mAh unit into my mega 20,000mAh VISNIC batter bank and you can see the results. It did not charge it to 75% that I hoped but to a much lower level. I guess the real fair test is charging my stuff I use every day. Let’s do that:
I started with my phone all but dead, I mean it had only a few percent left on the battery meter and plugged in the brick. Now to be fair I then used my phone while it charged and then including a number of calls. This I am sure had an impact on the charging performance and speed. Once it reached 100% I unplugged and plugged in my totally empty Samsung TAB 8.4
I then charged that up and the unit seemed just about empty. Here is the thing about these two units. My phone has a 3200mAh battery and the TAB has a 4800mAh batter. My simpleton math when I add those two up and we are only at 8,000mAh of power needed and the unit was spent (again keeping in mind I used my phone while it charged up).
What do these tests mean to me? Again, I think 15k is a bit of a stretch for this unit and 10k-ish is a MUCH more realistic number for this GATCEPOT battery bank. So is it worth it? Am I going to keep them? For about $10 to have a 10k battery brick ready to go that will charge my phone and tablet up works. I like how very lightweight it is and the size of the unit vs my mega 20k bank that I normally travel with.
Overall some may say you get what you pay for. Agreed. But at the same time, this unit, for the price compared to other 10,000mAh power banks, just really works for me and I am pleased with my 4 star buy! Did you order one of these units? Do you like them? – René
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I ordered 2 units as well (thanks for the referral). They are currently in the stocking for Christmas Day. Thanks for the review. I would be a little disappointed as well. I’ll have to think more about this.
An answer on Amazon indicates that the “unmarked” usb ports are both the same, connect one cable to either you will get 2 amps, cable in each, splits to 1 amp on each (with equal demand from the device to be charged)
@Les B – Ah ok. Well then no need to mark then. I will say on my AMP tester I got a tiny bit higher output on the port nearest the charging mini-port. Thanks!
“Wall-to-USB adapter NOT included” is not really fair. I have this http://amzn.to/2gPHQNK at home, so my wall is actually USB.
Now, for the test battery bank to battery bank is also not fair, since most of the times they output a different power than what it’s needed as input for loads. I recommend you the following read: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/159727-how-to-charge-your-smartphone-and-other-usb-devices-as-quickly-as-possible – that explains why negotiating power between devices is not always as simple as reading the input and ouput specs of them.
Either way, 15000 mAh is 15 Ah. At 2A is should run out of power after 7.5hs of loading and be fully-back-on after the same amount of time, if loaded via 2A usb. Did you measure the time it took for those operations?
@Tom – First thanks so much for your comment and I am jealous of your outlets (that is the first time think I have ever said that). Next, I really tried to say my 15k>20k brick test was probably not fair. Thus my phone and tablet test. I am not saying I do not like the GATCEPOT units and I am going keep them and use them but I just don’t think they are as beefy as they say. The again, for the price, I am thrilled and they do what I want them to.
Thanks for the test and review! The 3 units I purchased are going to be Christmas presents. I am sure that those receiving them will be ecstatic!
BTW, if you want a charger that includes a wall plug, take a look at:
http://amzn.to/2h6vgNx
I have their earlier unit (which had a car plug also, glad they dropped that as all rental cars seem to include a USB plug these days and it made it bulkier).