MiPow’s Power Cube 8000L might look pretty cool and feature a built-in Lightning connector for charging your iPad, iPhone or iPod on the go, but it’s an incredibly expensive power bank that does little to justify its price. Also see: Best power banks. You can’t deny the MiPow Power Cube 8000L looks good. Our review sample has a pinkish-red anodised aluminium alloy chassis mixed with soft grey rubber. A soft carry case is supplied in the box to keep it safe on the road. The grey underside doesn’t sit flush with this case, with a gap running along the MiPow’s edge that you can fit a thumbnail into, but this doesn’t detract from the Power Cube’s sturdy feel. We like the built-in Lightning connector, too, which is certified by Apple; not so much the grey button sticking out of the MiPow’s side that must be used to access it, though. Those flaws aside, this looks like an expensive power bank. And it is. At £84 the 8000L is four times the price of some of the power banks we’ve seen, and it does little to justify this (although we expect that Apple certification cost MiPow some). There’s no support for high-end features such as auto-on/-off and passthrough charging. There’s no LCD screen. There’s no LED flashlight. And we can’t even say the Power Cube is particularly light or compact for its capacity – 92x92x17mm and 220g, the 8000L has only an 8000mAh capacity, which means it’s actually heavier than some higher-capacity banks such as the 159g Lumsing 10400mAh Power Bank. You should get around three full charges for your iPhone 6 from this power bank when you consider that some of this energy is lost through heat generated and voltage conversion. MiPow claims an 85 percent efficiency rate, which should result in around 6800mAh available for powering your devices. The MiPow uses a four-LED system to show you how much power remains, in common with almost every other power bank on the market. Each LED represents 25 percent or 2000mAh of power. On the plus side this power bank is fast to charge both itself and any attached smartphone or tablet, with both input and output specified at 2.1A. It’s not restricted to iDevices either; a USB output lets you plug in any USB-powered device, you’ll simply need to supply your own cable. Read next: How to improve smartphone battery life. Marie is Editor in Chief of Tech Advisor and Macworld. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our English language, French and Spanish consumer editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry’s transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.
