Anker's fastest power bank is matching its lowest price

My army of portable chargers has eight soldiers. That's a little ridiculous, but the variety lets me choose the right charger for the day's needs, whether it's my sleek MagSafe charger that keeps my iPhone going for long days or a bigger brick for my iPad, camera, and other devices when I expect heavy use. My collection has grown over the years as charging technology has improved, but this is far more than most anyone should need.

I'm looking forward to beefing up my kit Anker Prime 27,650mAh Power Bank (250W) I’ve been keeping an eye on it, and now seems like a good time to buy it since it’s matching its all-time low price of $124.99 on Amazon ($55 off) and is also available directly from Anker with the code WS7DV2MTYMJVIt's compatible with the optional $69.99 magnetic charging base, but you can also use the included 140W charging cable to charge the power bank or charge your USB-C device.

For most techies, a $125 power bank is just overkill. If you're only concerned about charging a phone and maybe a Nintendo Switch or the occasional pair of earbuds for a long walk, you could easily get by with half the price. But when you're regularly carrying laptops, tablets, cameras, and other devices that you can't always wait to charge, it's easy to stretch your budget for something like this.

It's a little bulky and heavy compared to the average power bank – it's small enough to be “portable,” but definitely not for pockets – however, the 27,650mAh capacity might be worth the heft. Starting from 100 percent, it can fully charge a small laptop like a MacBook Air, and devices with smaller batteries can get several extra cycles. Cheaper power banks can do this too, but you're really paying for the charging bandwidth here.

The 250W max throughput (the fastest available among Anker's smaller options) is split across two USB-C ports that can each charge devices at up to 140W (if used alone) and one USB-A port that can go up to 65W. If you're charging two devices, you can simultaneously draw up to 140W and 100W from each USB-C port, or 140W and 65W from USB-C and USB-A.

With three devices, the USB-C ports still offer plenty of headroom at 140W and 92W, but the USB-A port takes a sharp drop to 18W — still suitable for charging phones or small accessories at decent speeds. One caveat to all this: a built-in mechanism periodically reduces charging speeds when the power bank is below 55 percent capacity, which Anker deems necessary to preserve long-term battery health.

I also like the built-in display that shows the power bank's total capacity and how much time it has left to fully charge (Anker claims it can go from empty to full in just 37 minutes), as well as the current power being supplied to each port. There's also a companion app that will show all of this, as well as a feature that lets the power bank emit a sound to help you find it.