Introduction
What’s the solution when your phone’s battery is running out? Besides finding a socket plug, the best way to charge your phone is to use a power bank. There are quite a few good ones selling now in the market, but not every power bank is affordable or having a big capacity. ASUS recently sent us the new ZenPower Pro, and I’ve been using it since then. It’s review time!
Portable Design
I was using the 9,600mAh ZenPower before ASUS sent us the ZenPower Pro, which has 10,050mAh capacity. It is slightly bigger than the regular ZenPower, but consider it has a bigger battery capacity, I’ll pass this time. To be honest, I don’t really feel anything different, since I keep it in my bag most of the time, and it is just slightly bigger.
The ZenPower Pro has the same rectangular shape with rounded longitudinal edges as the regular ZenPower. As I mentioned just now, it is slightly bigger. The power bank is made up of aluminum material, and I don’t recommend you to put your phone on top of it while charging, as for sure your phone will get scratched.
Now to the important part of the design, I’m surprised to see that the ZenPower Pro actually has two USB output ports — one without anything special and another one with silver lining comes with Quick Charge 2.0. There’s also an LED flash, a charging port, a charge indicator, and a power button.
Quick Charge 2.0
Not many power banks like the ZenPower Pro feature Quick Charge 2.0, and I really glad that ASUS did include it. ASUS claims that the ZenPower Pro comes with 18W output and engineered to charge at the top speed. That’s been said, if your phone supports quick charging, it should be able to charge your phone quickly just like when you connected to the wall charger.
In my case, I charge my Xperia Z5 Dual using the ZenPower Pro. Do note that my Z5 charging speed isn’t as fast as other fast charging supported devices even though it supports Quick Charge 2.0. To test out how fast it can really discharge, I’ve charged my Z5 with two different ports, the normal one and the silver lining one. It turns out that the ZenPower Pro delivers what it is advertised to do in terms of charging speed. I was able to get between 1.5 to 2 times faster charging speed using the ZenPower Pro.
In terms of temperature, the ZenPower stays relatively cold when charging my phone. I do really appreciate ASUS for doing this as my wall charger will actually heat up if I’m using it to charge my phone.
The ZenPower Pro features an LED flash, which can be turned on by holding the power button for 2 seconds. The LED is pretty bright and there are two brightness levels to adjust, all you need to do is just double tap the power button. ASUS claims that the LED flash has enough power to shine for up to 4 days.
The ZenPower Pro also supports pass-through charging, which allows you to charge your phone while charging the ZenPower Pro. However, at the end you’ll notice that the ZenPower Pro will get drained faster than it can be charged if you are charging your phone with the fast charging port. This is all because the ZenPower Pro only supports 10W input power, but discharge at 18W.
Final Words
Pricing at RM129, the ASUS ZenPower Pro is a portable power bank that comes with many features. I really like the idea of having two ports to charge two devices at once, plus one port actually supports fast charging. Its size is smaller than most power banks and I’m impressed that its temperature stays relatively cold even when you are charging your phone. If there’s one thing that I’m not satisfied with, it’s the battery capacity. But hey, ASUS actually bringing the ZenPower Ultra (20,100mAh) to Malaysia as well.
Yay
- Portable size
- Supports fast charging
Nay
- Input power is smaller than output power