When it comes to power banks for your Android smartphone, there's a large number of products from a variety of brands to choose from. Anker is probably one of the most popular, with their 20100 mAh power bank costing roughly $50, depending on where you buy it. An often overlooked brand for power banks, however, is actually Xiaomi. Xiaomi is a company known for producing just about everything in their Mi ecosystem, and power banks are no exception. The company has made them for a while, and the Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 3 is their latest product. What makes this product stand out is its bang for the buck (as is typical with Xiaomi products). It has a 20,000 mAh capacity and charges devices at a speed of up to 45W via USB-C. The best part? It only costs around $30.
The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 3 has two USB-A ports and one USB-C port. The two USB-A ports can output at 5V/2.4A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A if only one port is used, or 5V/3A when both are. The singular USB-C port can out output at up to 45W. The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 3 can charge in just 4.5 hours if you have a 45W charger. Using a regular 5V/2A charger will take about 11 hours to charge, while an 18W charger will take 6.5 hours.
What I've loved about Xiaomi power banks is that they support passthrough charging, which means that you can plug it in, plug your devices into it and it will charge those up before charging itself. That means that you can plug it in overnight, plug in your phone and both should (hopefully) be charged in the morning - all from one charger. The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 3 also supports low-power charging so that you can charge wearables and other low-power devices from it as well. It can sometimes be the case that power banks can't output a low enough current that your device can accept.
The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 3 retails at CNY199 in China, roughly $30. Xiaomi has offered an enticing package for a low price. With such a huge amount of features and even claiming support for charging MacBooks, this may be one of the best power banks on the market to date.