When away from 240 volt power sockets, having a 5 volt portable charger bank is a neat way to charge phones and other bits of kit when no power is available. Power banks alleviate the worry or batteries running out and are particularly useful on boating holidays, camping festivals and hiking trips where you won't have access to electrical sockets.
The AINOPE Explorer X2 portable charger isn't too heavy and it's very compact so it fits well into a backpack or bumbag, meaning you can easily take it in and out to charge gadgets such as vape pens and e-cigarettes. The body construction of the AINOPE Explorer X2 is made of matte thermoplastic material. Total weight is 335 grams, measuring 14cm long, 6cm wide and 2.3 cm thick.
There is really no better way for handy charging on the go than taking a power bank with you. A power bank serves you well when you need it the most like in a concert or motorway traffic jam. When buying a power bank, you want to look for some key features, including mAh capacity, current draw and safety features. The AINOPE Explorer X2 has a 20,000 mAh (77Wh) capacity, which means if your phone has a battery capacity of 2,000 mAh you can recharge it ten times over.
With that said, the real capacity of power banks is always much lower; hence why you want to look for the power bank's "rated capacity" which isn't always listed. AINOPE does list the rated capacity of the Explorer X2 power bank at 12,500 mAh, which also takes into account the conversion loss of the power bank converting 3.7V to 5V.
If you want to find out the "real" capacity of any power bank, you need to use the formula (3.7 x mAh capacity/5) so in the case of the AINOPE, it is 3.7 x 20,000/5 which equals 14,800 mAh. Since the rated capacity is 12,500 mAh that means, the AINOPE Explorer X2 loses 2300 mAh during the process of converting 3.7V to 5V.
More important than mAh capacity though, it's "current draw" and that is because devices (i.e. phones, tablets, etc) require anywhere from 1 amp to 2 amp to charge their batteries. Many new devices today (i.e. tablets, phones, etc) feature "quick charge" technology which requires 2 amps or more.
The AINOPE Explorer X2 can output both fast charge (5V/2 amps), as well as slow charge (5V/1 amp) via a second USB port. When you have two devices plugged-in, the built-in "smart circuitry" kicks in, allowing the AINOPE Explorer X2 power bank to deliver as much charge as it's needed via both USB ports up to a maximum of 2.1 amps from both USB ports.
Any power bank delivering more than 2 amps is classed as high speed charging, which means less time charging your devices as long as they support fast charging like the iPhone XS Max and Samsung Galaxy Note 9 whose built-in batteries take approximately 1.5 hours to recharge.
Safety is also very important in a power bank so, most new power banks these days will feature at least over-charge protection so the power bank will automatically switch off after full charge is complete. While the AINOPE Explorer X2 does feature over-charge protection, it doesn't appear to have built-in over-voltage protection (OVP) and over-temperature protection (OTP).
A couple other features the AINOPE Explorer X2 power bank has going for is a digital power indicator and pass-through charge so you can charge the powerbank and anything connected to it at the same time from the same charger adapter.
Most power banks typically feature led indicators to show you how much charge is left but a digital LCD display is way more convenient because you can tell exactly how much battery charge is available so you don't have to guess.
As far as charging the power bank itself, the AINOPE Explorer X2 power bank is not as quick to charge as a power bank with quick charge input. It can take up to 24 hours to fully charge the Explorer X2, which is a very long time but the power bank does hold its charge well and that is the main thing. If you're looking to buy this power bank, you can get 50% off using discount code: OJ6OEMKL (the code expires on 27th September 2019)