You told us: Many of you have multiple power banks

Power banks are a handy accessory to have for your phone, allowing you to charge your device when you’re traveling or out of the house. But many of today’s phones also offer large batteries and super-fast charging, potentially reducing the need for a power bank in the first place.

We were nevertheless interested in finding out how many readers own a power bank. So we posted a poll earlier this week and here’s what we discovered.

Do you own a power bank for your smartphone?

Results

This was quite a popular poll, with over 4,100 votes cast as of writing. It turns out 48.65% of respondents have a power bank, making it the most popular choice of the lot. Judging by the comments, some respondents bought a power bank for outdoor trips and/or emergencies.

Meanwhile, 30.15% of surveyed readers said they actually had more than one power bank. At least one reader said they had a power bank in each car, while a couple of other readers said they had multiple power banks that were used for other gadgets too (e.g. laptops, smartwatches).

Finally, 21.19% of polled readers said they didn’t have a power bank. In other words, more surveyed readers said they had multiple power banks.

Comments

• Riku_Xander: I literally have never bought a power bank, but I own multiple from having been given them.
• Rognis: They’re useful for more than phones. I have multiple, especially since my wife has a heated vest that uses a USB-A connection.
• Joe Black: I have one or two … or maybe actually three, but they are not dedicated for my smartphone, they usually serve as an added battery to my laptops.
• thesecondsight: Even though my Moto G Power 2020 phone has a 5,000 mAh battery and is capable of going 2-3 days on one charge, I thought it would be a good idea to purchase a power bank in case for emergencies. Tornado season can be brutal in my area and my neighborhood often goes several days without electricity when an F1 tornado touches down. You can never have too much power.
• Sophia: Nowadays you can charge your phone everywhere, even planes. Our new car has a wireless charger built in too. Combine that with the all day battery of my phone and there simply is no reason to drag around additional juice.
• mattc: I take one when going away for a few days, especially when hiking, camping or biking, to charge lights, ebook, phone etc.
• Ronson Wagner: I have a bit of an addiction to buying power banks on sale. I currently have 7 of them, ranging from a little cheap one from the Walmart checkout line (about 5000mAh), to the Anker 737 (24,000mAh) that can be charged at and charge other devices with power delivery up to 140 watts. I play Pokemon go quite a bit and it’s invaluable having that backup power when I’m out and about. It also makes camping and overnight stays easier, as I can charge my hearing aids, smartwatch, phone, and tablet from one or two battery banks and I don’t have to worry if there will be outlets available or having to run a cable across a walkway to plug something in. I also have one that I have designated to power my raspberry pi 4 if I want to move it around and not have to plug it in.
• Marty: I have one but since fast charging came along, i dont really use it all. its mostly for emergencies now.
• Filament: Got a Xiaomi Powerbank, with built-in wireless charger. When I bought it my wife don’t understand the need for it. Now she regularly uses it whenever it’s inconvenient to leave the phone on the table to charge.
• EeZeEpEe: I primarily leave one in each car as a backup for just in case. For example, going to a theme park it’s better to have and no need it then need it and not have it. I rarely actually use them though.
• Elias_T: Thought I’ll never own one but due to varying reasons I had to get one of 20k mah last year and so far I feel secured whenever I’m on a long journey.
• KRB: It’s why when I purchased my current device, Moto G Stylus 2020, I made sure it had one of the biggest batteries at the time; rated for two days! In daily use it’ll get me easily a day and a half, but I’ve never been concerned about the need for a power bank. There’s an entire customer base out there that would trade thinness for a bit of heft in their devices if that heft meant it had a LARGE battery.