Anytime you’re not at your desk, but are still using electronic equipment, you’re bound to start thinking about power sooner rather than later.
For a while I have been carrying a rather bulky and heavy Anker 737 power bank in my laptop bag, especially if I know I’m going to be away for a while, but I have always found it disappointing. I know some people are amazed that it will charge their cell phones multiple times in a row, but for something that cumbersome I just don’t feel all that impressed that that’s all the power I can squeeze out of it. On the contrary, I’m always a bit disappointed when I can’t even manage to recharge both my laptop and phone with it if they’re both close to dead, and the power bank is fully charged. It feels like for something that difficult to carry around, I ought to at least be able to charge my laptop a few times with it.
I know that realistically what we’re up against here is not so much product design, but rather physics. There’s only so much energy you can store within the cells inside the power bank. Not only that, but beyond the 24,000 mAh capacity you start running into regulations that prevent customers from being able to carry the power banks onto planes, so most companies generally avoid going over that threshold.
Instead, if I want something that will be able to power my laptop (and more) for multiple charge cycles, you start getting into large power bank / “solar generator” territory. Even the smaller ones are akin to lugging around a small cooler with you. That just isn’t feasible for most situations, unless you’re going to be stuck in one spot for a long while and having that with you would make a significant difference (I thought about getting one to bring with me to the hospital). Really, though, those are best used at home to get by when the power goes out, or perhaps while camping or working outdoors away from a grid-connected power outlet.
Rather than relying on these band-aids, I think the best strategy is to continue to work to make devices more power efficient and give their built-in batteries as much capacity as possible. While I adore my Framework laptop and wouldn’t want any other make or model right now, the one thing I am envious about is the power capabilities of the M-series Macs. I had the pleasure of using one for a couple weeks a while ago, and the battery is insane. You can get 10+ hours on a single charge with a smaller battery, easily, and going 15+ is not out of the question. If my Framework could last that long, I’d never really need portable power in the first place.
But for now, I do need that extra power, so what’s the answer? For me, it’s just making sure I always carry around a small (GaN II) power brick and USB cable, and being shameless about borrowing power where I need. In a hospital bed? At a cafe? Some random hallway? No problem, thanks for the free electricity. And if that just isn’t an option? Well, at least I can get one recharge out of the larger power bank I mentioned above.
I do think that as laptops continue to get more power efficient, and as battery technology improves, we’ll be able to achieve a nice middle ground: a serious battery bank that is easier to carry around in a bag without weighing you down, paired with a laptop that can go 15+ hours continuously on a single charge. With that, a good recharge will get you to 30+ hours, and would meet the needs of 99% of the population I suspect. All in all, I just want to be able to take my laptop wherever I want to go, and not have to worry about losing power.