Portable batteries have always been helpful, but as more (and larger) devices migrate to the USB Power Delivery charging standard, batteries have become even more invaluable for travel and backup. Power banks with a high enough charge rate can now be used with many modern laptops, in addition to the usual mix of tablets, smartphones, handheld consoles, and accessories. I've been testing the Blade portable battery from Baseus for about two weeks now, with a maximum charging rate of 100W and a total of four USB ports. It has worked pretty well in that time, despite a few limitations, and it's probably worth picking up if you're in the market for a new portable battery.

About this review: Baseus sent the Blade 100W battery to XDA Developers to review in late March. Baseus did not have any input on this review.

Baseus Blade 100W Power Bank: Pricing and Availability

The Baseus Blade 100W is only officially available through Amazon, though there are a few third-party listings at other retail sites and stores. The regular price is $99.99, but as of when this review was published, Baseus offered a $5 discount with a 'Clip Coupon' button on the product page.

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Baseus Blade 100W Power Bank: Design and Hardware

This battery is definitely on the large side, measuring in at about 13.5 x 16 x 1 centimeter (5.3 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches). However, since it's still relatively thin, it will slide into the pockets of most bags without a problem. Four rubber feet along the corners keep it from sliding around on a flat surface. There aren't any markings or logos on the battery, except the "100W" marking that looks like the font Disney uses for the Tomorrowland areas in its theme parks. Sadly, this battery will not play Space Mountain's tunnel music while charging.

Four ports are lined up against the top of the battery. The two USB Type-C connectors are both capable of charging at 100W, though not simultaneously — more on that in the next section. There are also two USB Type-A ports, which max out at 30W (again, not simultaneously). Most devices charge over USB Type-A at 5W-18W, so that's plenty of power.

The only other design feature is the front LED screen. When the battery is on, it shows you the remaining charge level (of the battery, not the device being charged), the current charging rate with volts and amps, and the estimated time remaining until the battery is drained. You can multiply the volts and amps numbers to get the current wattage. Also, when the battery isn't charging anything, the display can give you the current battery level if you press the power button at the top.

The LED screen is an interesting feature that most portable power banks have, but it's not useful for much more than checking the battery's remaining charge level (which most other batteries can do with a series of dots). If you have multiple devices plugged in, the screen only shows the charge rate for one of the devices, instead of all of them combined. The device it picks for the charging rate indicator also seems random, so if you have a laptop and a mouse plugged in at the same time, it might choose the mouse.

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Baseus Blade 100W Power Bank: Charging

The Baseus Blade battery has a total capacity of 20,000mAh, which is enough to fully recharge most phones and tablets several times over. The main selling point is that it can output 100W over the USB Type-C ports, using the USB Power Delivery standard (USB-PD), which is useful for more power-hungry laptops like the 2021 MacBook Pro. If you plug in another device on the other Type-C port, the charge speed is split across those devices. The battery itself charges at up to 65W over either of the Type-C connectors.

This battery also has two USB Type-A ports, which can each support a maximum of 30W. Baseus says the Type-A ports work with Huawei FCP (which Huawei used before its 'SuperCharge' technology) and Qualcomm QuickCharge 4.0, and when I tried them with my Galaxy S10e and Galaxy S22 (which support QC), I reached about 10W.

I tested the Baseus Blade battery with a few laptops and phones, including a Surface Laptop 4, Dell XPS 13, Asus Chromebook, Galaxy S22, and Google Pixel 3a. The battery seemed to charge all of them at the highest supported speed, though the battery has occasional difficulties with two devices charging over USB Type-C at once. For example, plugging in my Galaxy S22 and Surface Laptop sometimes gave me the full charging speed for both, and other times the phone was capped at 10W.

The one caveat to my testing is that I don't actually own anything that can pull 100W over USB Power Delivery, so I can't test the advertised maximum speeds for this battery — my Surface Laptop 4 maxes out at around 60W, which the battery matches without a problem. However, multiple customer reviews on Amazon confirm it works at 100W with laptops like the Surface Book 2 and MSI Stealth 15M Gaming Laptop. Given those reports, and the battery's performance in my own testing at up to 60W, I don't have a reason to think Baseus is falsely advertising or anything.

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Should you buy the Baseus Blade 100W Power Bank?

The Baseus Blade is a capable portable battery for charging nearly everything USB-powered, including many laptops. I do have a few complaints, like how the display doesn't show the total charging speed for all connected devices, and the charging speeds sometimes do not max out with multiple devices connected, but otherwise, the battery works exactly as advertised.

The large size and lack of wireless charging support mean this battery is definitely better off staying in a bag with your laptop or tablet, rather than taken anywhere you go with your phone. Still, even if you don't plan on using it with a laptop, the high capacity gives you plenty of charges for the average smartphone.

You should buy the Baseus battery if...

• You have a laptop with USB Type-C charging
• You want to charge up to four devices at once

You shouldn't buy the Baseus battery if...

• You want a compact portable battery to carry with you all the time
• Your devices don't support fast charging over USB Power Delivery (like older OnePlus phones)