I've heard good things about this Nitecore battery pack. I haven't picked one up yet as I have a stack of powerbanks still sitting idle. But mostly because I didn't want to pay the premium for the lighter carbon fibre case.
Still, I am keen on seeing if anyone else has popped one open yet to see what sort of lithium Polymer battery they are using inside. Especially when Nitecore claim their capacity as 38.5Wh (10000mAh @ 3.85V).
I always thought the weight of the external sleeves of the Xiaomi powerbanks could have been made lighter by using other materials.
The 10000mAh LiPo battery pack inside the Nitecore NB10000 must be in the 130g range (my estimation of the case and circuitry about 20g) which is pretty good for a 38.5Wh 10000mAh pack. I have a few flat 10000mAh lithium polymer batteries (all of similar capacity of 37-38.5Wh) and they weigh in the 150g range for the battery pack alone, before you add the powerbank case and the charging controller circuitry, buttons, leds etc.
My slim 10000mAh Xiaomi powerbanks with the aluminium cases weigh about 210-220g. Interestingly one of my two Xiaomi 10000mAh powerbanks is made with 2 x 5000mAh flat LiPo packs connected, while the other has a single 10000mAh LiPo pack. The single 10000mAh pack weighs a little less (about 10g difference).
Anyway, I think the Nitecore seems like a good option, I particularly like the USB C charging port which might save you carrying a separate cable if you use newer phone that charge with USB C.
For me though, I'll wait to see if it drops to the AUD$40 mark and then consider it (It was going for around USD$50 from Aliexpress late last year)
Lamont wrote:It seems the typical output is about the same as other 10000 models-about the 6700 odd. Would you reckon that's about right?
For power ratings, Nitecore have a separate rating of 6400mAh @ 5V for this powerbank.
For mAh ratings to be relevant, you need to be compared them with the mAh at the same voltage. Eg. 10000 mAh @ 3.85V is not the same as 10000mAh @ 5V.
This is where a Watt/hour (Wh) comparison is more useful.
So for the Nitecore stated specs:
- internal battery 10000mAh @ 3.85V = 38.5Wh
- Power Rating 6400mAh @ 5V (1A typ) = 32Wh
The difference of 6.5Wh would be due to losses through the transfer of energy. This loss works out to around an 83% efficiency. I have been using a rule of thumb of around a 80% efficiency for a while since I started testing my powerbanks. When I tested the outputs of my newer powerbanks, some have shown higher efficiencies when new, of just over 90%.