Hi all,
I bought the 10,000 maH xiaomi battery packs in june 2015 last year from gearbest after an ozb post from memory:
http://www.gearbest.com/mobile-power-bank/pp_187685.html?cur…
Just wondering - I bought two, one for the mrs, one for me. It was I think $28.58 for 2 - which was a steal. The boxes came with the scratch codes to check 'authenticity' on xiaomi website, and both passed. Yet, a few months ago the mrs stopped charging beyond 1 light (out of the 4). Mine is still going strong. I need to check if it is the cables, but I reckon it has conked.
I wanted to replace it , maybe with a similar one, as abit heavier than some battery packs but a decent small rectangle size. My only questions were:
a) the xiaomi website has them listing for $24.99 USD - which rings alarm bells: how is gearbest $23.99 inclusive of shipping - AUD…
Shopping square sells them for $29.95 without shipping:
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_421347_100_Genuine_XIAOMI…
b) It is listed as 10,000 mah, but I find my 11,000 mah "golf" charger pack from Bangkok powers my drained sony xperia z3 a good 3 or 4 times (not always form flat, maybe 20,30,40% at times) - and the xiaomi noticeably after 2 or 3 recharges juices out to the last light. In other words it dies a lot faster.
Someone mentioned that 10,000 mah capacity is different to 'conversion'? Can someone clarify?
Needless to say do different battery packs convert 10,000 mah capacities into phone charging a lot differently -w hich would explain why I feel like I get a lot longer charging time out of my 11,000 mah pack from Thailand than the 10,000 mah from xiaomi?
I would have thought 10,000 mah/ 3,200 mah battery of z3 would give me a good 3 FULL charges…
c) Any other recommendations if not the xiaomi? I'm not familiar with any other brands but a lot of online newsletters or sellers seem to flog the xiaomi these days. Is the quality good, or just it's cheap and common to be sold?
I cap it at that 10,000-12,000 mah mark for what sort of pack I'm looking for as I'm trying to not go into the big, long or wide rectangle ones that pop up the higher capacity you go as it is for the mrs - so handbags and purses sometimes are space conscious.
The 'small and cute' 4000-7000 mah ones did not seem as economical given battery sizes these days. She has the iphone 5s? or 6? forgot what it is with the lightning cable , so like my z3 I assume having something closer to 10,000 maH gives more juice before needing to recharge the battery pack.
Thanks for any thoughts.
If anyone can vouch for how 'legitimate' the gearbest or shopping square products are that'd be great. Abit worried maybe the mrs is a counterfeit, otherwise the 1 yr or so before breakdown seems abit short? Contrasting that to my 'street side' hawker where I picked up my 11,000 mah Golf battery pack - still going strong.
My 2cents, hope some of it is useful to you;
a/ there are a few other minor ways to check if your xiomi power bank is legit. an example is this link (also from a quick google search), stuff like the length of the usb cord, any branding on the usb cord, the look and branding of the micro usb port on the powerbank itself etc.
b/ 3000mah battery pack will not charge a 3000mah battery phone at a 1:1 rate. there's some funky maths behind it, maybe this article would be of interest to you (or something similar from google). The article could also explain the difference between your different powerbanks - depending on their watt-hour?
c/ if the price is too good to be true ($28.58AUD for 2?) then it probably is too good to be true. I bought mine from mushtato and they usually have them on sale at ~$25AUD each - maybe wait for ozbargain's 10th birthday sale, I believe mushtato is participating.