As a rule, when buying a portable battery for a mobile device, experts advise avoiding cheap models, especially those whose specifications seem too good to match the price at which they are sold. But from time to time there are products that refute this rule. An example of this is the Xiaomi Mi 10400 Power Bank.
Inexpensive and powerful
Like Xiaomi smartphones (and not only), the price of the device is much cheaper than similar offers of competitors. In comparison, a 10,000 mAh branded battery typically costs about $ 100. How much will the Xiaomi Power Bank 10400 mAh external battery cost? Just $ 13.99.
Of course, there are other affordable and powerful energy banks. The regulars at Taobao will confirm that low-cost external batteries abound in the Chinese Internet market (such as Romoss), but there may be problems with their delivery and warranty.
So, is the Xiaomi Mi 10400 Power Bank worth the money spent on it?
Design Overview
About the design of the energy bank, in addition to the fact that the $ 14 product looks and is assembled very well, the following can be said. The main body is cut from a single piece of aluminum using a CNC machine and anodized so that the surface becomes slightly textured and creates additional grip with the hand. Xiaomi claims that the coating does not deteriorate when exposed to water, does not corrode, and can withstand loads of 50 kg (although users do not recommend checking this). The surface also passed a 300-fold abrasion test. The metal case allows you to quickly get rid of excess heat, which extends the battery life.
The only plastic parts of the Xiaomi Mi 10400 Power Bank are the upper and lower ends of the device. At one end is a standard USB port for output, a Micro-USB input jack, 4 LEDs and a round button for checking capacity. At the other end are specifications and regulations. Xiaomi representatives are confident that the buttons and ports do not require explanation, so I did not even bother to label them.
There is no need for a power switch, as the battery activates automatically and charges the device when it is connected using a USB cable. The purpose of the capacity check button is to turn on LED indicators that indicate how much charge is left. In short, each indicator corresponds to 25% of the charge. When the battery is fully charged, all LEDs light up and do not blink. The brightness of the indicators is sufficient - not too bright to dazzle at night, and not very dark to be invisible in bright light.
Contents of delivery
Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 10400 Silver is sold together with a 16 cm long Micro-USB flat cable and user manual. Given that the rechargeable device should not be too far away, this is one of the few cases where it makes sense in such a short length. Users like the flat cable, as this shape prevents it from tangling easily. Power adapter not included.
Reliability and durability
Some more technical data. According to Xiaomi, the Micro-USB port of the device can withstand 5000 cycles of use, and the larger USB connector is designed for 1500. Xiaomi even presented the results of electrostatic discharge tests: 8 kV at contact and 12 kV for air. It is obvious that the manufacturer is trying to do everything possible to assure potential buyers that the Xiaomi Mi 10400 Power Bank is a quality product, despite its low cost. In fact, the above data is not all. The device has been tested in conditions of low and high temperatures, high humidity, temperature fluctuations and in a salt chamber.
The company claims that the portable battery is equipped with 9 levels of protection. These include a mechanism for controlling the heating temperature, input and output voltages and currents, preventing short circuits, overcharging or discharging, and the ability to reboot in unstable environmental conditions.
Performance
The model comes with a lithium-ion battery manufactured by LG or Samsung, with a capacity of 10.4 A ∙ h, which corresponds to 37.44 W ∙ h at a voltage of 3.6 V. As follows from the explanations of experts, due to the loss of power during the conversion of voltage and circuit resistance, the number of recharges that an energy bank provides is not determined by simply dividing 10400 mAh by the battery capacity of the charging device. According to Xiaomi, the Mi Power Bank 10400 mAh can charge the iPhone 5s 4.5 times, 2.5 times the Mi 3, and one and a half iPad iPad tablets. According to user reviews, these figures seem quite accurate, since they managed to recharge the iPhone 5s, whose battery capacity is 1560 mAh, four times, and they still had a little charge.
Thus, the efficiency of the device is about 93%, which gives a clean 7000 mAh. This is much more than what most power banks sold on the market offer.
Charging speed
In addition, the owners are very pleased with the power of the input and output current of the energy bank. To be precise, the device can output up to 2.1 A, which is great for tablets and smartphones that can take more than the standard 1 A. Even the input charging port is designed for currents up to 2 A. This is unexpected for such a cheap power bank. because there are many expensive batteries on the market that are not capable of taking more than one and a half amperes. In other words, Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 10400 mAh charges pretty quickly. According to the manufacturer, this takes about 5.5 hours when using a dual-amp adapter or about 10 hours with a 1 amp adapter.
The device is able to charge and charge at the same time. This option is offered by only a few power banks, and it is necessary when the number of available outlets is limited - for example, when traveling.
What's inside?
Users who could not come to terms with the fact that a high-quality external battery can cost so little were able to verify this by looking at what's inside it. The device consists of four batteries produced by LG, each of which has a capacity of 2600 mAh, which in total is 10400 mAh. According to the manufacturing company, Texas Instruments controllers were used in the energy bank. Indeed, the external battery runs on the TI BQ24195 chip. The circuit also uses an 8-bit microcontroller of South Korean production ABOV.
Advantages and disadvantages
So is it possible to recommend an external battery Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 10400? Of course, yes. And not only because it is cheap - the energy bank is inexpensive and does its job well. For a battery with a capacity of 10.4 A, h it is compact, it provides a current of 2.1 A at the output, it can quickly be charged with a two-ampere current, and the components used look convincing.
Does the device have disadvantages? If you find fault with the little things, then we can say that it is strange to have only one output for an external battery of such high capacity. This means that it is not possible to charge more than one device at a time. Again, you can always buy another portable power bank and connect it with an elastic band - you get two ports and a bank with a capacity of 20800 mAh for just $ 28! Secondly, the power adapter is not included in the package, which can become a problem if there is no excess in stock. Finally, iOS users will have to find their own Lightning cable.
Finally, if for some reason 10400 mAh seems too much, you can purchase an external battery of the same manufacturer with a capacity of 5200 mAh. It is smaller, and seems to consist of similar components, except that the number of batteries is reduced to two, and only 1.5 A can be obtained at the output.