Jackery Giant+ review
19 Feb 2017Amazon had a deal on this power bank and with the Switch coming I thought it would be useful to pick one up. I've already got a cheap one from china, but it’s around 5,000mAh, even though it claims 30,000mAh on the back. So here’s a quick review of the Jackery Giant+.
Overview
Measuring 110x80x22mm it fits quite nicely in your hand and weighing just over 300g feels very solid. It’s constructed as a metal case with plastic end caps. All the ports are on one end (USB charging, 1A output, 2.1A output). There’s a small button on the side that you press once to wake it up or double click to toggle the flashlight on and off. On the top of the bank near the button there’s three LEDs that show how much power is left inside and gives you an idea how charging is going. It’s rated at 12,000 mAh so should be good for 4 full Switch charges.
Capacity
After plugging it in via a USB power meter it took about 7 hours to charge, gaining 10,800 mAh at around 1.8A, before it decided it was full.
However, it continued to charge, with the current dropping off slowly for another 5 hours, adding an extra 1,200 mAh before stopping.
I'm going to guess they kept the charge tracking circuit simple and just say it’s full when it stops the constant current phase, which is usually around 90% of the cells capacity with Lithium batteries. This isn’t ideal, but it a lot simpler then tracking exactly how much charge is in the battery and showing a real percentage full.
Use
After several charging and discharging cycles it seems to average around 10,000 mAh, not quite the 12,000 stated but close enough.
As I don’t tend to leave it for hours after it’s finished charging it’s probably never getting above 95%, so that seems about right.
The 2A output manages to keep around 4.97 V even with 1.8A being supplied, so should be fine for charging more hungry devices.
Wrap-up
Given it didn’t cost much, £17 on Amazon currently, can supply 2A and seems to be around the 12,000 mAh capacity claimed there’s not really anything bad to say about it. It isn’t the smallest power bank, but the size is reasonable for the capacity it offers.