The Anker Prime 27,650mAh is the most capable portable charger in its class — 250W of shared output, a 37-minute refill claim, and TSA-friendly capacity that Android Central called the best it tested in three years. The caveats: the Amazon rating drifted on firmware quirks and dead-unit reports, and it's overkill for phone-only charging. For multi-device users, it's the benchmark.
— THE VERDICT · JUDGEANY EDITORSThe Anker Prime Power Bank is what you get when a charging company decides the spec-sheet race is worth winning: 27,650mAh of capacity — 99.54Wh, a hair under the TSA's 100Wh carry-on limit — with 250W of shared output across two USB-C ports (140W each, PD 3.1) and one 65W USB-A port. Anker unveiled it at the end of 2023, and Android Central's Apoorva Bhardwaj, after testing dozens of power banks over three years, called it "the best power bank I've ever used." At launch it cost $149 on Amazon, with a gold-accented variant at $153.
The port math matters more than the 250W headline. The Verge documented the splits: two devices draw up to 140W + 100W from the USB-C ports (or 140W + 65W with USB-A in the mix); with three devices connected it's 140W + 92W + 18W. A video comparison of the Anker 1340 against Ugreen's 145W bank found it could sustain 140W through most of its charge cycle with low wall-to-output losses. Guidantech's reviewer paired it with the 16-inch MacBook Pro — whose own battery is about the same 99.6Wh — and noted one Apple-specific catch: although the bank ships with a 140W-capable USB-C cable, Apple's fastest MagSafe charging only works through Apple's own cable.
The refill side is where this brick embarrasses the competition. Most high-capacity power banks need four or five hours at the wall; Anker claims this one goes from empty to full in as little as 37 minutes with 170W dual-USB-C input. The caveat, reported by The Verge from Anker's own notes: below 55% capacity, a built-in mechanism throttles charging to protect long-term battery health, and 170W input only sustains above that line. A color display shows per-port wattage and time-to-empty, and the Bluetooth companion app adds remote stats, firmware updates, and a find-my beep The Verge singled out as genuinely useful.
The record is where the reviews genuinely disagree, and the split is worth stating. The hardware case still stands: Android Central's verdict, Bhardwaj's finding that it isn't oversized for the capacity — his own 25,000mAh banks were bulkier — and charging numbers that hold up in independent comparisons. But the owner record is messier: retailer mirrors put the Amazon listing at 4.4/5 across about 3,487 ratings, while technoqia's 2026 roundup counted 3,400+ ratings at 3.8, noting that "owners praise the raw power but report firmware quirks and the occasional unit issue." Mirrored Amazon reviews include a bank that failed after four uses and took two days to charge from 29% to 75%, plus display-calibration complaints — a video comparison found the progress readout goes inaccurate in the final charging stages. And The Verge's bottom line is hard to argue with: for phone-only charging, this is "absolutely overkill."
Technoluting's reviewer framed it best, recommending the bank for "pro" users who need power, versatility, and real compatibility across several devices at once — and ruling it out for anyone who wants something light for daily phone top-ups, since this is a 665 g brick, not a pocket accessory. That framing survives the evidence better than any spec sheet. Check the current price on Amazon; the deal history since launch suggests waiting for a sale is the smart move.