Baseus Magnetic Power Bank review: Real portability with power to spare

Best Prices Today: Baseus Magnetic Power Bank with built-in USB-C cable

A power bank for your iPhone is a necessity unless you stay at home all day or observe the most rigorous charging schedule. Mobile power banks used to be a metal slab with a port for attaching a cable to connect the battery pack to your power-fading phone. With Apple’s smart MagSafe technology, a new species of portable power bank became available.

MagSafe has been available on all iPhones since the iPhone 12. It allows you to magnetically clamp a compatible accessory to the back of your iPhone. The best usage is for wirelessly charging your iPhone.

Wireless charging will never be as fast as using a cable attached to a charger as it is inherently less efficient. However, it is often far more convenient than finding and then carrying around a charger and cable. (Experts warn against leaving your phone charging overnight as best practice says keep your phone charged between 30 percent and 80 percent to preserve battery health. The iPhone 15 has a setting to stop charging at 80 percent and there are charging tips for older iPhones too.)

MagSafe makes wireless charging more efficient by magnetically clamping the iPhone in place for a tighter aligned connection between the phone’s charging coil and the charger itself. MagSafe-certified chargers can wirelessly supply 15W of power to the phone; non-certified but compatible magnetic chargers are usually rated at 7.5W. (Check out out roundup of the best MagSafe wireless chargers for iPhone for more choices._)

The Baseus Magnetic Power Bank is one of our favorites—especially, but not exclusively, for the iPhone 15 family. It boasts its own built-in USB-C cable so is especially useful for iPhone 15 owners but wirelessly it works as well for iPhone 12/13/14 users too.

The cable can be used to connect to an iPhone 15 or to any USB-C charger.

Best performer in our battery tests

It has a huge battery capacity of 38.5Wh or 10000mAh. Most iPhone power banks offer less than half of that capacity, but even with alternative 10000mAh power banks, the Baseus Magnetic Power Bank came up top in our tests.

Our testing process involved running an iPhone down to 10% and then using the power bank to take the phone back to 100 percent. Then we run the phone down again until the power bank runs out of juice to keep the phone charged.

The Baseus Magnetic Power Bank twice took the 10 percent-charged iPhone to 100 percent, with a little over for a small third charge. In our test metrics that measures as a 187 percent score. The closest any other similar wireless power bank has got in our tests is 149 percent. The OtterBox 2-in-1 Power Bank with MagSafe gets close at 185 percent but is a much larger multi-function device that’s portable but not pocketable like the Baseus power bank.

Another record-breaker for the Baseus Magnetic Power Bank is its fast-charging performance. Wireless charging at 7.5W isn’t the fastest we’ve seen—although it matches nearly all other power banks—but if you charge using the power bank’s built-in USB-C cable it can reach an impressive 30W.

The integrated 5.5-inch cable is a real boon, as it means you don’t need to find a spare cable when you need to refill the power bank, and for the iPhone 15 family you can connect the power bank and phone directly. However, if you don’t yet own an iPhone 15, fear not as there’s a USB-C port that you can use to connect a USB-C to Lightning charging cable instead of using the built-in cable. That port can or the integrated USB-C cable can input recharge the power bank at 18W.

Size and design

Measuring 4.3-x-2.7-x-0.8 inches (10.9-x-6.9-x-2cm) the Baseus Magnetic Power Bank is larger than some power banks but in the same range as other power banks with a 10000mAh capacity. It weighs a reasonable 7.3oz (206g). The power bank is available in four colors: white, black, teal or yellow.

Price

The Baseus 30W 1000mAh Magnetic Power Bank is priced at $45.99, and is available only in the U.S. at this time, either direct or via Amazon.

Verdict

With its built-in USB-C cable, the Baseus Magnetic Power Bank is designed for the iPhone 15 family, but it works as well as any other wireless power bank tested here with the other MagSafe iPhones.

It boasts a huge battery capacity, MagSafe-compatible wireless charging and the fastest wired charging we’ve tested so far on any iPhone power bank.

Best Prices Today: Baseus Magnetic Power Bank with built-in USB-C cable