With the ever increasing need for portable gadget power the promotional power bank has now become one of the must-have and best-selling promotional products.

Available in a wide variety of styles, colours and qualities promotional power banks can accommodate budgets from £3.00 – £30.00+ per unit.

Below are the ten key facts you need to know about portable power chargers.

1. Used for charging a multitude of electronic devices, promotional power banks are usually rated by:

• battery capacity (milliampere hour or mAh),
• output capacity 0.5-1A (smartphones) or 2.1-3A (smartphones and tablets),
• speed at which they charge (the higher the input rating the quicker it’ll re-charge your device).

2. The time it takes a power bank to charge a device is not affected by whether it’s a 2A or 1A model.

3. Most smartphones have batteries of around 1400-2900 mAh, while tablets and iPads in the region of 8000-12000 mAh.

Therefore, it’s important to choose the right promotional power bank – a basic 1000-2000 mAh won’t be much use for charging a tablet.

4. A power bank’s stated capacity won’t be the actual power delivered.

Expect roughly 80-90% of that claimed by the manufacturer. As with flash drives, some capacity’s lost in heat and voltage conversion.

5. The size (number of cells) of a power bank’s battery is directly proportionate to its weight and size.

The bigger the battery, the heavier and less portable it’ll be.

6. Lithium batteries – generally used in portable power chargers – are classed by airlines as dangerous goods.

Check carefully with your supplier if your promotional power banks need to be flown to an event.

7. Badly manufactured promotional power banks can be dangerous.

One example is the recent EE near disaster, when 500k had to be re-called because of overheating. Ensure your supplier can show you Material Safety Data Sheet certificates and Safety Data Sheets.

8. Promotional power banks are currently the best selling gadget on the market and look likely to stay that way.

Prices vary from around £3 to £100, which often is linked to battery size, the cheapest being around 1000-2000 mAh and the largest over 20,000 mAH!

9. Good quality power banks include a CPU inside to prevent over charging, over discharging and short circuits.

Some even have a ‘smart chip’ to act as a secondary guard.

10. The next generation of portable power chargers will have another purpose – as charger but also as a speaker, torch and so on.

For more information and expert advice, contact us at sales@arcadiaonline.co.uk.

Make Memorable Merchandise

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Jason Markwick

Having worked in Promotional Merchandise for the last 25 years I have been exposed to all aspects of the industry. Starting out as an account manager working with some of the worlds leading brands, I have learnt to understand the needs of a client, manufacturing processes, and what it takes to deliver a successful promotional campaign that is on brand, on time and within a given budget.