Accessories Review: Aukey and RAVPower Chargers, Cables, Power Banks, USB Hub, and Storage
Phone accessories can often be indispensable, especially to power users. Whether by trying to extend battery life or listening to some tunes, you probably use some smartphone accessories regularly, if not daily. From earphones to cables, charging bricks, and power banks, these enhance our smartphone experience by accentuating their pros or diminishing their cons. In this article, we will be taking a look at various phone accessories from Aukey and RAVpower, including chargers, cables, and power banks to help you compare and contrast some of the most competitive products in each category.
All accessories in this article were provided by Aukey and RAVPower for review. However, neither had any involvement in the content of this article. All views expressed herein are of the author himself.
Chargers
AUKEY 63W Dual-Port PD Wall Charger
The Aukey 63W Dual-Port PD Wall Charger is a very nice dual charger. It has two USB C ports with high wattage output. The second USB C port can output a full 60W of power while the first one can only do 18W. If you are using both ports, the charger will limit the first USB C port to 45W to give the second one a full 18W of power. This is useful if you are looking to charge both your laptop and phone quickly, as it should still provide enough power to fast charge both devices.
It does support USB PD-3.0 with dynamic detect, so you’ll be able to get fast charging in phones or laptops that support USB PD-3.0. This makes it a very reliable and relatively universal charger for most Type C devices.
The dual charger uses a GaN technology that actually reduces the weight of the charger by 30% and increases efficiency by 10%, but you probably won’t notice this since most users don’t really look at the power efficiency or weight of a charger. The charging brick is of a good size, coming in at 2.64″ x 2.52″ x 1.14″, so it will easily fit into your bag without issue if you are traveling, and it will also fit into the wall outlet while leaving other nearby outlets open, something that is very rare with high wattage chargers like this.
AUKEY 30W PD Wall Charger
The Aukey 30W PD wall charger is an insanely nice charger. It lets you fit a lot of wattage into a pretty small package. This uses the same GaN technology as the 63W dual charger above, which means it’s light and efficient while also being very small. It comes in at 1.42″ x 1.42″ x 1.26″, which is very close in size to the 5W iPhone charger Apple has included with its products for years. It has a single USB C port that outputs 30W with USB PD 3.o. For its compact size, the charger is insanely good.
AUKEY 18W PD Car Charger
The Aukey 18W car charger is also a good product. It has a very low profile that causes less obstruction, and for that, this small charger puts out a lot of power. While 18W might not sound like a lot, it is easily able to fast charge my Pixel 4 in the car for a quick top-up while traveling. Unlike the other two chargers, this one uses USB PD-2.0. This difference isn’t a huge deal at 18W, but it should still work out well. It has a single USB C port for power.
Cables
Aukey sent me two different cables, the USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable, and the lightning to USB Type-C cable. Both cables are the same in quality and build. They have a very neat braided nylon wrap that protects the cable and feels durable yet premium. This just isn’t something you can say about a lot of cables. They really shouldn’t break from constant bending, but that’s always a possibility if you abuse any cable hard enough. Both cables came with cable ties, but the USB Type-C cable came with a more premium leather band while the Lightning cable came with a cheaper plastic one. The USB C to Lightning cable comes in at a length of 1.2 meters or 3.9 feet. The USB C to USB C cable comes in at 2 meters or 6.6 feet.
The USB C to USB C cable supports up to 60W of power, so you can comfortably use it to charge your USB C laptop. The USB C to Lightning cable supports up to 18W, the maximum power lightning devices can support. Both cables support up to 480Mbps of data transfer. It’s going to be a fast and good cable for your USB C or Lighting devices.
The USB C cable comes in at $16, but at the time of writing, it’s on sale for $10. This is an amazing price for the quality and the length of cable you are getting. The lightning cable cost $22, but at the time of writing, it’s on sale for $16. The lightning cable is a little more expensive and shorter than the USB C cable, but that’s because of the Apple Lightning certification. Even though it’s a little more expensive, it’s not a terrible cable and it’s probably worth the price at $16 if you need a new cable for an Apple product.
Aukey USB C to USB C Cable || Aukey USB C to Lightning Cable
Powerbanks
AUKEY 8000mAh Wireless Charging Power Bank
The Aukey 8000mAh Wireless Charging Power Bank carries 8,000 mAh of power for your devices, which can just about charge a lot of modern smartphones twice. Even if it isn’t the biggest capacity ever, the USB output and size make up for it. It has two USB ports: a Quick Charge 3.o capable slot and another standard USB. It also has a USB Type C input/output port and Micro USB input on the side. This makes it a one-size-fits-all solution that gives you almost every charging option you could possibly need for mainstream mobile devices outside of the Apple ecosystem.
Now, what makes this product even more interesting is that it is also a wireless charger. Wireless chargers aren’t very efficient and they are pretty slow, especially with just 5W of power output through this medium. If you had a choice between wireless charging and USB charging, USB charging is the way to go because it supports QuickCharge 3.0 with an 18W output. That said, you can use it to charge wearables or wireless earbuds and also passively charge devices in case you don’t have access to cables. The use case for wireless charging through this power bank is, therefore, more of convenience instead of speed or efficiency.
Aukey Wireless Charging Battery
RAVPower Portable Charger 10000mAh
The idea of having a small charger with a high-capacity is very good, in theory. In reality, this battery pack ends up being a little too bulky for my taste. RAVPower went for a narrow and thick design. This means it’s uncomfortable in your pocket, while a lot of other batteries are not. Ignoring the shape and size, the battery is great. It has a USB C port for both charging and discharging with Power Delivery. This Type C port can output 29W of power, which is perfect for the size. Along with the Type C port, it also has a iSmart USB A port.
My other issue with this battery is the capacity. While it is a comparatively high-capacity, phones are launching with 4000 mAh to 5000 mAh batteries, making the power bank good for two full charges. Though, there are other units that have better shape and design.
USB Hub
AUKEY 4-in-1 USB-C Hub with Wireless Charging
This USB C hub is actually one of my favorite accessories Aukey sent over in their Omnipower kit. This is a really cool powerhub for a laptop. You connect it to your laptop with the USB Type C and you’re good to go. It has 2 USB A 3.0 ports, 1 USB C pass-through for power and data, and an HDMI port. Those 4 ports go along with the wireless charger built into the hub. You can connect a few different accessories to it, making it a very useful hub. Though keep in mind that its ideal use case is on a stationary desk rather than on the move.
Storage
RAVPower Mini External SSD Hard Drive
This SSD is very small and very fast. It has a small aluminum and plastic body. The body is about 4 inches x 1 inch while being very light as well. It makes it feel like an all-around awesome SSD. The unit RAVPower sent me is a 512GB drive but there is a 1TB option as well. This drive has a USB Type-C port with USB 3.1 Gen 2, which is amazing because this allows for a lot of data throughput. The drive supports up to 540 Mbps in data transfer speed. In my usage, this was pretty accurate.
There is a catch, though. RAVPower partitions the SSD with a separate drive specifically for their encryption software. This by itself is not an issue as the partition is just about 100Mb. The issue is with that software itself. Windows Explorer recognizes it as a virus, VirusTotal even found 35 engines in the software. It’s hard to recommend a product that has a “virus” included with absolutely no way to remove it. RAVPower sent me an updated .exe file, but I couldn’t test it because Gmail wouldn’t let me download the file because of a virus scan issue too! We are unable to confirm if the SSD is absolutely safe, hence, we are consciously avoiding a direct link to the product.
READ MORE: If you’re interested in more RAVPower accessories, Adam Conway reviewed the RAVPower PD Pioneer 20,000mAh power bank.
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