We live in an era of notifications, and the little beeps and pings that our many personal devices make have become part of daily life. While most of these stimuli elicit curiosity, the one that no user wants to hear from their device is that which indicates a dying battery. Fortunately for us, power banks have stepped in to save the day, but the sheer number of devices and price points makes picking one to buy a task in itself.
The international market is flooded with big name brands such as Anker, Jackery and Aukey, but here in India, a little home-grown company called Ambrane has been gaining notice with affordably-priced, high-capacity battery packs. Their latest offering is the 13,000 mAh P1313, and it’s been hard at work powering up our gadgets for the past week.
The package contains the power bank and a small white USB cable that handles charging duties. The cable isn’t very long, which is usually a tactic adopted to minimise energy loss, and is the micro-USB variety, so modern gadgets with USB-C will require their own cables. Our review version was dull gold, though the power bank is also available in silver, pink and black colours. The surface has a slight texture, which means it is unlikely to slide off surfaces like our glossy in-house Anker Astro E5. It looks good, though the strip housing the four blue LEDs that display charge level and the intersecting squares that adorn the sides detract from the appearance somewhat. The P1313 also features a flashlight, activated by double-pressing its power button.
The device has two ports, and like our Astro, these are said to be capable of intelligently pushing out power up to a maximum of 2.1A at 5V, depending on the connected device. This is a welcome departure from having to look at the ratings of each port before plugging in.
Coming to the job it was made for, the Ambrane has been a reasonably robust performer. We used the more expensive, but slightly larger, 16,000 mAh Astro for comparison, and the Ambrane held its own well, except for the fact that it is let down by the cable it ships with. Using the Ampere app (available for free on the Play store), the average charge indicated was around 360 mAh at 4V (there are always energy losses involved) while using the Ambrane cable. The same cable plugged into the Anker power bank yielded similar results with our Moto G4 Plus, which is capable of fast charging. For reference, the G4 Plus’ included fast charger displays a figure of 2620 mAh on average at the same voltage.
But let’s not rubbish the device itself based on the cable, which may have been an issue with our unit. Switching the stock cable for the ones we had lying around saw the Ambrane go toe-to-toe with the Astro, both outputting a combined total of around 2,000 mAh on average with two devices connected. This means the power bank more or less delivers on Ambrane’s promise of a 2.1A maximum output.
The power bank can hold about three charges on an average for a 3,000 mAh device, and takes five hours or more to charge, which is to be expected for its capacity. The indicator lights are not always reliable at indicating charging progress, and sometimes we’ve found that the device is out of juice even though a light appears on the body.
In the end, the Ambrane P1313 is a decent offering, though the company-reported price of Rs.2,999 is a little steep.
However, some online retailers have it in stock for half that price, which is an acceptable deal. It’s charging rates are par for the price, provided you have a higher quality cable than the one that ships with it.
Despite the 13,000 mAh figure, don’t expect it to be able to charge all your portable devices multiple times in one go. But for someone looking for a decent-looking power bank that does the job without breaking the bank, the P1313 gets the job done – if you get it at a price point under Rs. 2,000.
