#CAR BATTERY INDICATOR CIGARETTE LIGHTER PORTABLE#

None of our picks for the best USB power bank have an AC outlet, and our favorite portable laptop chargers have just one outlet that can power only lower-wattage gear. At least one AC outlet: A single AC outlet is a bare-minimum requirement, since the majority of gadgets-from desk lamps to baby monitors-run on AC power.An informative display: Though most portable power stations have a battery meter so you can see how much charge you have left, we preferred displays that provided an estimated percentage of the charge over vague displays that consisted of just a few line segments.Handles are a necessity to lift something this bulky, and since in some cases youвЂ™re going to be moving these around quite a bit and using them outdoors-in a backyard or at a campsite, for example-we wanted them to be resistant to scuffs and scratches. A rugged and portable design: We assessed the quality of each portable power stationвЂ™s exterior materials, as well as any extra features like wheels or handles.Anything heavier than that can be hard to load and unload from a car, or to carry around a house in a blackout. But even so, we set a weight limit at 50 pounds, a heft that one (strong) person or two people could reasonably carry. A maximum weight of 50 pounds: Most portable power stations are too big and heavy for the average person to carry them for long distances on foot.Lower outputs are fine for charging phones and most other electronics, but if you want to charge a few devices at a time (especially if one is a high-powered device like a laptop), you need 100 W or more.

An output rating of at least 200 W: To separate the portable power stations from their smaller, less powerful counterparts ( USB power banks and portable laptop chargers) we required each of our main and budget contenders to be rated for at least 200 W, and we wanted the lightweight (under 5 pounds) contenders to be rated for at least 100 W.When it comes to batteries, capacity is king. We made this a requirement for our main picks, and strongly preferred it for our budget and lightweight contenders. (For a variety of reasons, less than 100% of a batteryвЂ™s designed capacity is actually available for use.) Put another way, thatвЂ™s like running a 60 W device-such as a MacBook Pro, projector, or tabletop fan-for five hours. A battery capacity of at least 300 Wh: A watt-hour (Wh) is literally the measure of watts per hour, so a battery with a 300 Wh capacity offers the equivalent of running a 300 W device for one hour.

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