Monday, April 08, 2019

Power Bank Update: Situation Resolved

As you may recall, I had an issue recently where I ordered a power bank*, didn't get the one I ordered, and the one I got was non-intuitive to use and didn't come with any instructions.** To update the questions I had then, yes, the company did credit me back the money. No, their website never showed the item as out of stock. And also, after I got an email from them encouraging me to review my purchase, I posted a one-star review listing the facts of my experience, and the review has not appeared on the website. Unimpressive.
*BTW, I'm using the terms 'charger' and 'power bank' without any difference in intended meaning.
**I did in fact contact the manufacturer and ask if there was any sort of user guide or manual they could send me: the answer was no, "this item does not come with a manual but maybe I can help assist you. What are you having issues with?" Which, since I didn't feel like asking for all instructions on how it worked, was not that useful.

I decided that since I did still want a charger, I should look at reviews, and ended up reading through PC Magazine's best of, learning about the various features to decide which mattered to me and which didn't, and getting one of their recommendations, the Anker PowerCore 10000. And so far, I'm quite pleased with it!

What I wanted:
  • Small in size (both inches and weight)
  • Enough power to give me a few charges, but not needing enough to last me for days without access to a plug
  • Easy to use
Here it is, in its little pouch:
And out, with pen for scale:
The Welcome Guide is small* (and oof, small print), but contains all the info I needed.
*Which it has to be, to get all the info, in ten languages, on a piece of paper about three inches by twelve. Even using both sides, that's impressive.
That is, it tells me how to make it charge a device*. How to charge it, in turn, What the little lights mean. It has little lights to tell me it's working!
*It works for both the little tablet and my dumb-phone, but not the iPad, at least not with the cord that was included.

Though I haven't traveled with it yet, I am optimistic that this is just what I need. So that's a happy ending to an odd episode.

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