[GTALUG] (off topic) What power bank should I avoid?

[Evan Leibovitch]

Hi all.

In my experience there are a lots of Chinese "brands" but few have much
longevity. Anker is one of the few that have stuck around, Ravpower is
another that has been OK for me, they have a reputation to maintain. A
number of other longtime brands such as "tronsmart" are common in places
like AliExpress and Gearbest but not Amazon. In fact you;d be surprised how
many different accessories are made by Xiaomi, mainly known globally for
phones but in the Chinese market they have a massive product like that is
exportable (in fact there are Xiaomi stores in malls across China with the
whole range).

The bought-on-Chinese-sites gear often offers better value and similar
reliability to what Amazon carries, with the trade-off of (sometimes MUCH)
slower delivery time (1-2 months is typical). OTOH, stuff valued under $50
or so is almost never stopped by customs which means no HST is assessed.

Unless it's a name with a few years on it (like one of the above), consider
any Chinese "brand" you get to be warranty-free, by the time you can make a
claim the brand will be dissolved and restarted under a new name. To some
(including occasionally me) it's been worth the risk and I've yet to be
seriously let down. Only one device of many I've bough this way -- an Anker
6-port USB wall charger I've head for years -- has underperformed over
time.  (like Lennart's experience, some USB ports broke before the
electronics did).

HTH.

Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch / @el56
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