MiPow Power Cube 8000L power bank review
MiPow’s Power Cube 8000L might look pretty cool and feature a built-in Lightning connector for charging your iPad, iPhone or iPod on the go, but it’s an incredibly expensive power bank that does little to justify its price. Read our MiPow Power Cube 8000L review.
Our Verdict
It’s very difficult to recommend this MiPow Power Cube 8000L with its extravagant price tag. If you happen to find one in your Christmas stocking, though, you won’t be disappointed.
MiPow’s Power Cube 8000L might look pretty cool and feature a built-in Lightning connector for charging your iPad, iPhone or iPod on the go, but it’s an incredibly expensive power bank that does little to justify its price. Also see: Best power banks.
You can’t deny the MiPow Power Cube 8000L looks good. Our review sample has a pinkish-red anodised aluminium alloy chassis mixed with soft grey rubber. A soft carry case is supplied in the box to keep it safe on the road.
The grey underside doesn’t sit flush with this case, with a gap running along the MiPow’s edge that you can fit a thumbnail into, but this doesn’t detract from the Power Cube’s sturdy feel.
We like the built-in Lightning connector, too, which is certified by Apple; not so much the grey button sticking out of the MiPow’s side that must be used to access it, though.
Those flaws aside, this looks like an expensive power bank. And it is. At £84 the 8000L is four times the price of some of the power banks we’ve seen, and it does little to justify this (although we expect that Apple certification cost MiPow some).
There’s no support for high-end features such as auto-on/-off and passthrough charging. There’s no LCD screen. There’s no LED flashlight. And we can’t even say the Power Cube is particularly light or compact for its capacity – 92x92x17mm and 220g, the 8000L has only an 8000mAh capacity, which means it’s actually heavier than some higher-capacity banks such as the 159g Lumsing 10400mAh Power Bank.
You should get around three full charges for your iPhone 6 from this power bank when you consider that some of this energy is lost through heat generated and voltage conversion. MiPow claims an 85 percent efficiency rate, which should result in around 6800mAh available for powering your devices.
The MiPow uses a four-LED system to show you how much power remains, in common with almost every other power bank on the market. Each LED represents 25 percent or 2000mAh of power.
On the plus side this power bank is fast to charge both itself and any attached smartphone or tablet, with both input and output specified at 2.1A. It’s not restricted to iDevices either; a USB output lets you plug in any USB-powered device, you’ll simply need to supply your own cable.
Specs
MiPow Power Cube 8000L: Specs
- 8000mAh power bank
- 2.1A Micro-USB input
- 2.1A USB output
- Lightning output
- carry case
- 92x92x17mm
- 220g
MiPow Power Tube 3000 review: A great power bank for iPhone users
Worried that your power bank could be a fire hazard? MiPow’s Power Tube 3000 syncs with the JuiceSync iOS app for monitoring temperature and remaining capacity. But how does it fare as an iPhone power bank? We find out in our MiPow Power Tube 3000 review.
Our Verdict
MiPow’s Power Tube is an appealing power bank for iPad and iPhone users. Even at its lower price the 3000 is expensive when you consider that most power banks at this capacity cost around £10. However, the built-in Lightning connection means you won’t need to carry additional cables, and the ability to monitor the temperature through an app will sway many users.
Worried that your power bank could be a fire hazard? MiPow’s Power Tube 3000 syncs with the JuiceSync iOS app for monitoring temperature and remaining capacity. But how does it fare as an iPhone power bank? We find out in our MiPow Power Tube 3000 review. Also see: Best power banks 2018.
We received our MiPow Power Tube from GearBest. It is also available in the UK via Amazon, but it’s much cheaper over at GearBest – £34 vs £44.99. If you do decide to go with the cheaper option, read up on our advice on buying grey-market tech.
Well, we really thought we’d seen it all with power banks. But the MiPow Power Tube 3000 has something entirely new: built-in Bluetooth. This enables it to pair with MiPow’s free JuiceSync app on your iPad or iPhone and allow you to monitor the remaining battery capacity and power bank’s temperature. You can also set an ‘Away Alert’, which will warn you if you accidentally leave behind the power bank. Also see: How to improve smartphone battery life.
The ability to monitor the power bank’s temperature will be a nice touch for those concerned by power-bank safety in the wake of claims that certain EE Power Bar models can be a fire hazard.
By default the alert is set to trigger at 55ºC; when we first plugged in the MiPow to our iPad it recorded 25ºC and within a few minutes rose to 29ºC. The hottest it became during our testing when discharging was 42ºC.
With a 3000mAh capacity, of which you’ll likely see not much more than 2000mAh (some is lost through heat generated and voltage conversion), you can expect one full charge for your iPhone or iPod and potentially a little bit more, depending on your model and its battery capacity.
As with many power banks the MiPow uses a three-LED system to show you how much power remains. Through the companion app you can see the exact battery percentage, but to be fair you’re only ever going to get one full charge out of this power bank, so how handy this will prove to be is debatable. You can set the app to warn you when the remaining capacity gets down to 30-, 20- or 10 percent remaining. Also see: Best desktop chargers 2015.
At this able size and with only a 5W output the MiPow isn’t really designed for iPad, certified by Apple as ‘Made for iPod’ and ‘Made for iPhone’. It did work with our second-generation iPad mini (sometimes iPads can be fussy with slower outputs), although you shouldn’t expect a full charge. Indeed, in our tests with the screen on so we could monitor the app our battery capacity went up only a few percent. To begin charging you simply plug it in and press the power button. Also see: Best MiFi 2016.
It’s not possible to simultaneously charge your iPad or iPhone and the Power Tube – not only would the design make doing so difficult, but the lack of passthrough charging makes it impossible.
The MiPow Power Tube is exactly what it sounds like: a compact tube with a rubberised coating that comes in black, grey, blue or red. It has an end cap that is tethered to the Power Tube via a built-in Apple certified Lightning connector. Also under the cap is a full-size USB connection, which allows the MiPow to refill its own battery at 5W, either by plugging it into a USB port on your computer or directly into a USB wall charger. That’s not especially fast, but at this capacity it’s not too much of a problem. Also see: How to charge your phone or tablet faster.
The MiPow Power Tube feels very well made and we wouldn’t worry too much about slinging it in a bag (or it’s small enough to go in a ). But MiPow does supply a soft carry case in the box.
Note that if your device does not have a Lightning connection the MiPow Power Tube is not for you – there is no way to connect your own cable to charge an Android device or an older iPad or iPhone.
Where next? Visit Apple Advisor.
Specs
MiPow Power Tube 3000: Specs
- 3000mAh power bank
- certified for iPhone 5/5c/5s/6/6 Plus, iPod touch 5th-gen and iPod nano 7th-gen
- 1x 5W (5V, 1A) USB
- 1x 5W (5V, 1A) Lightning connection
- 3-LED status system
- JuiceSync companion app
- no torch
- no passthrough charging
- no auto-on/off
- 25x25x105mm
- 85g
Review: MIPOW Apple Watch 6,000mAh Portable Charger
With so many power banks on the market, it means that there are a variety of types of chargers that you can use for charging certain devices. For example, there are USB-C Power Delivery portable chargers that can be useful for charging USB-C compatible laptops, and if you have a USB-C smartphone you can use the power bank to charge a smartphone, too. There are also power banks that have built-in charging cables that are really only reliable if you’re charging them with the compatible device that the cable is for.
In this case, this MIPOW Apple Watch portable charger is really only meant for those that own an Apple Watch and also use an iPhone, as the power bank uses a magnetic charger and a built-in Lightning cable.
Power Capacity:
For the most part, Apple Watch power banks have low power capacities, but this MIPOW portable charger actually has quite a high power capacity of 6,000mAh. Well, it’s still a low capacity in terms of what portable chargers feature, but it’s a lot for charging an Apple Watch and also for smartphones, too. Let’s see just how much of the power capacity you’re actually able to use.
3.7 x 6,000 = 22,200 / 5 = 4,440
DevicesMIPOW Apple Watch 6,000mAh Portable Charger (Output Capacity = 4,440mAh)Device CapacityMIPOW Apple Watch 6,000mAh Portable Charger Left Over Capacity after One Charge
Overall, you’re really able to use about 4,440mAh of the power capacity on this charger and this is actually a lot when it comes to charging an Apple Watch. That’s because most Apple Watch models have a 250mAh battery capacity, while the Apple Watch Series 3 has a slightly higher battery of 279mAh. So overall, if you’re only using this power bank for charging an Apple Watch and not charging another device at the same time, then you can very well charge the watch to its full power about 15 times.
As a result, this charger can last you a very long time.
Another thing to use the power capacity for is for charging smartphones, or at least, iPhones and iPads because the only other charging option that this power bank has is a Lightning charging cable. The iPhone X has a 2,716mAh battery and the iPhone 8 has a 1,821mAh battery. SO if you want to use the power capacity to charge smartphones, then the power bank can deliver about a 1.5 full charge. So it’s not just an Apple Watch portable charger, it also makes a great iPhone charger, too.
Charging larger devices such as iPad isn’t the best use for this power bank as it doesn’t have nearly enough power capacity to charge a tablet to its full power.
Output Charging:
There are two main ways to use this charger, and that would be using the Magnetic charger to charge an Apple Watch or the built-in Lightning charging cable. The magnetic charger has a 5V/1.0A charging speed, and so it can charge your Apple Watch at its max charging speed.
While the built-in Lightning cable has a 5V/2.4A charging speed, which is actually quite fast for standard charging and so it’s able to charge an iPhone at a fast rate.
Input Charging:
To recharge this power bank there’s a Micro-USB input port, the use of a Micro-USB input is the most common standard type of a port to recharge a power bank. However, with this charger, we feel that the usage of a Lightning input would have made more sense as this is an Apple user-focused product.
The max recharging speed of this charger is 5V/2.0A and so if you want to recharge the power bank at its max charging speed then you should use a 2 Amp USB wall charger.
Size and Weight:
This is definitely a mini power bank because of its size and weight. The charger has a length of 4.4 inches, a width of 1.6 inches, and a thickness of 0.8 inches. The weight of the charger is 5.5 Ounces. So you can fit this power bank into your. and hold it if you’re charging your smartphone and want to use it at the same time.
When it comes to charging your Apple Watch, you’re going to have to set this power bank down as you would with any Apple Watch charger.
Functional Components:
It’s an easy power bank to use. At top of the charger there’s the large and most noticeable part of the power bank which is the magnetic charger, and under it are four White LED power capacity indicators. Then on the top siding is where you’ll find the built-in Lightning cable charging that fits into the power bank and can be completely concealed when you’re not using it.
To the right of the charger is the Micro-USB input port for recharging and then to the left is the power button that you have to press to begin charging.
Structure and Material:
The build quality of this power bank quite good, as most of it is made of Aluminum, while the white piece of the charger is made of plastic. It’s a well-built power bank that’s feel premium, but at the same time, this isn’t a rugged power bank, so we recommend keeping it safe from high and hard drops.
Tech:
On the side, this charger does get a little warm if you’re charging an Apple Watch and a smartphone at the same time.
Reliability
The reliability of this power bank is actually very narrow and that’s not a bad thing as the purpose of this charger is for charging an Apple Watch and also for charging iPhones because of its built-in Lightning cable. It’s because of those specific charging capabilities that this power bank is best used if you own an Apple Watch and an iPhone, which you likely do if you’re reading this review.
So Andriod users should not purchase this power bank.
Summary:
Power:
There’s actually a good amount of power capacity to use for charging an Apple Watch multiple times and for charging smartphones, too. The use of two charging methods is also quite helpful.
Design:
The charger has a very small form factor that makes it possible to take anywhere that you want.
Build:
The build is rigid with this power bank and it feels great to use. That said, this charger is not shockproof, and so there’s really no telling if it can withstand a hard-floor fall.
Reliability:
The reliability of this power bank is meant for Apple Watch and iPhones users. You can’t make use of this power bank if you own an Android smartphone or a different SmartWatch.
Specs of the MIPOW Apple Watch 6,000mAh Portable Charger:
Apple Watch Magnetic Charger: 5V/1.0A
Built-in Cable: 5V/2.4A
- Input: 5V/2.0A
- LED Power Indicator: Four LED Power Capacity Indicators
- Size: 4.4 x 1.6 x 0.8 inches
- Weight: 5.5 Ounces
Conclusion:
This MIPOW Apple Watch charger has two very reliable charging methods that will serve someone that owns either an Apple Watch and an iPhone, very well.
Review: MiPow’s Power Tube 3000 Battery Pack is Compact and Cute, but App Needs Improvement
There are hundreds of external battery packs available for the iPhone, but only a small subset of those are given the Apple seal of approval and offered in Apple retail stores and the Apple online store. MiPow’s 3,000 mAh Smart Power Tube is one of the newest portable batteries Apple offers, with a lot of perks like built-in charging cables and an accompanying app.
Design and Features
MiPow’s Smart Power Tube is, as the name suggests, tube shaped. While it’s small enough to fit comfortably in a bag or a purse at just over four inches long and an inch thick, it’s an odd shape for a and it isn’t as convenient to use while charging an iPhone like the flatter Mophie-style battery packs. It comes with a little matching carrying pouch so it can be dropped in a bag without worrying about scratches and scuffs.
The Smart Power Tube is available in black, white, gray, and a handful of bright candy colors: turquoise, green, and pink. A smooth, soft-touch material covers the outside of the Smart Power Tube and a metal Band separates the body from the cap of the device. On the metal Band there are three LEDs that display the power level and a button that activates the Tube when it’s plugged into an iPhone.
Underneath the cap, there’s a USB connector for charging the internal battery and a cleverly placed Lightning cable that connects the Power Tube to an iPhone and also holds the cap of the device in place. On the whole, the Smart Power Tube feels like a premium product with coordinated colors, clean lines, and quality materials.
Given the size of the Smart Power Tube and the short Lightning cable, it was awkward using my iPhone while it was charging with the battery pack. With the Mophie battery pack I regularly use, it can be positioned out of the way behind the phone, but that was difficult with the Smart Power Tube because of the cap connected to the cable.
With the cap in place, the Lightning cable built into the Smart Power Tube serves as a little handle for carrying it, which is a nice touch. It’s the perfect size to fit around a finger. Speaking of the cap, I should mention that it needs to be removed in a specific way. According to MiPow, it should be removed using an upward swipe with a thumb rather than pulled with the hand to prevent damage to the Lightning cable.
A thumb swipe where the Lightning cable is located pops the cap right off, whereas pulling from the top takes a lot more force, so I can see how the Lightning cable could accidentally be damaged from being opened the wrong way. I am concerned about the long term viability of the Power Tube given the potential for damage to the cable, but I gave it a good stress test (I yanked on it really hard several times) and the cable remained securely in place.
I tested the Power Tube with my iPhone 6s Plus. I drained the battery completely to the point where the iPhone turned off, and then plugged in a fully charged Smart Tube. I plugged my iPhone in at 6:30 p.m., and by 10:00 p.m., I had exhausted the Smart Tube’s battery. For an iPhone 6s Plus with a 2,750 mAh battery, the Smart Tube charged it to 77 percent. Repeated charging sessions offered similar results.
The Smart Power Tube is not going to charge an iPhone 6s Plus to full, but it is going to provide enough power for a full charge for the smaller capacity iPhone 6s, which has a 1,715 mAh battery. It’ll also provide enough power for earlier iPhones like the iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s.
As for charging, I plugged it into my Retina MacBook Pro in at 9:30 a.m. and it reached a full charge at approximately 12:30 p.m., which is in line with the estimated four hour charging time that MiPow lists for the device. It does not offer passthrough charging, so it’s not possible to charge the MiPow and the iPhone at the same time through its Lightning cable.
App
The Smart Power Tube is able to connect to an iPhone via Bluetooth to allow iPhone users to monitor its power level via an accompanying MiPow JuiceSync2 app. While this seems like a cool idea on the surface, it felt like a gimmick to me.
The app displays the power levels of the iPhone and the Power Tube, along with details on how much standby, talk time, and Internet usage that power equates to. The design of the app is outdated and it can be difficult to interpret the information at a glance. iPhone battery level is at left, and Power Tube battery is at the right. At the top, there’s a number that is the combined battery level between the two.
MiPow’s app will send alerts when the Power Tube battery is low, when the iPhone gets too far away from the Power Tube, and when the Power Tube temperature gets too high. None of these features were useful to me during my time testing the device, nor was a dedicated feature that’s meant to allow users to find a lost Power Tube.
Find Me turns on the LED lights of the device, but since there’s no sound, if it’s hidden away in a drawer or in a bright room, there’s no way to see the light. It has a radar that seems like it’s meant to determine distance, but it didn’t work for me, fluctuating between full bars and two bars even when right next to the Power Tube.
There were a few other app functions I wasn’t able to get working or that didn’t work well. A tracking feature is supposed to record the point at which an iPhone and the Power Tube lose connection, but I couldn’t get it to record my location, despite having location services and all alerts turned on. A Ring Me feature is supposed to cause the iPhone to ring, but it didn’t. Interestingly enough, the button on the Power Tube did control the volume on my iPhone when connected via Bluetooth, allowing it to be used as a remote to snap photos.
Getting an alert when the iPhone is moved out of range from the Power Tube is the only semi-useful feature because it can remind users not to forget the Power Tube (or the iPhone, if the Power Tube is in a bag and the phone itself is left behind), but that feature alone didn’t seem worth the battery drain I experienced from the iPhone’s Bluetooth connection to the Smart Tube. It also didn’t seem to trigger reliably in my testing, waiting until I was far out of Bluetooth range before sending a notification.
For reference, the battery monitoring app that accompanies the Power Tube was responsible for approximately 12 percent of the overall battery drain of my phone over the last several days, and on par with background usage of social media apps like I used the app with its full capabilities enabled for testing purposes, but disabling its ability to use location services may cut back on that battery usage.
The Smart Power Tube can be used entirely without the app, which would be my preferred use case. The three LEDs on the side display enough information about its battery level, and since it always takes the same time to charge and discharge its battery into an iPhone, there’s little need to get details on its power level in the app. I didn’t feel like connection features were worth the loss of battery life, but people who want a closer look at battery life or reminders not to forget their Power Tube might have a different opinion on the app.
Bottom Line
Since this is a 3,000 mAh battery, it’s best for iPhone 6s users and those with earlier iPhone models. It’s not going to charge an iPhone 6s Plus to full, and it doesn’t offer enough capacity to be suitable for an iPad. For an iPhone 6s Plus or iPad user, I’d recommend a significantly more powerful external battery pack.
At 49.95, the Smart Power Tube is priced on the higher side, but it comes in a cute, compact package and it has a built-in Lightning cable and USB connector for charging. It’s something a lot of people might pick up on a whim when visiting the Apple Store.
The included features aren’t going to be worth the extra money for most users when simple battery packs can be purchased for half the cost on Amazon, but some may appreciate the convenience, the design, and the accompanying app that gives a clear picture of the charge level.
Buyers should be aware of potential downsides to the Power Tube, including its odd shape that prevents the iPhone from being used comfortably while charging, the need to be careful with the Lightning cable, and the battery drain the Bluetooth connection and app cause.
- Cute design with fun colors
- Portable
- Integrated Lightning cable
- Integrated USB connector
- Button on Power Tube serves as iPhone camera shutter (via Bluetooth)
- 3,000mAh battery is only suitable for smaller devices
- Shape is somewhat awkward
- Integrated USB connector limits recharging methods
- App isn’t very useful
- App drains battery
How to Buy
The MiPow Smart Power Tube can be purchased from the online Apple Store for 49.95.
Note: MacRumors received no compensation for this review.