I’m really liking the new releases of lights like the Wurkkos LD15 and the Sofirn SP36 (Anduril 2 version) that can be powerbanks. I like that they can charge your phone via USB-C to USB-C cable. It makes bringing a flashlight on trips so much more useful. The Wurkkos LD15 in particular is pretty small and easy to pack. And although a 18650 doesn’t have as much power as three 18650’s or a 21700, it’s still plenty to get your phone charged up enough to communicate.
I get that you can just bring a power bank, or even one of the 18650 chargers that can also function as a powerbank (Xtar PB2S). But if you’re packing light, it’s nice to have just one light you bring that has onboard charging and powerbank, as well as being a flexible and efficient light source. It really calms my battery anxiety.
The Wurkkos LD15 is so flexible with its flood and spot LED’s. It’s not that much more heavy compared to good headlamps like Skilhunt. And it actually does work with a USB-C to USB-C cable, unlike previous version (LD20) that required a USB-A to C adapter to charge a phone. The only feature I wished it had is an indicator LED that can be left on/blinking to make it easy to find in the dark.
Any other recommendations for lights with powerbank?
Seems pretty gimicky. Why not just bring a spare phone battery to swap out? Or an actual power bank? Why drain your flashlight battery when you don’t need to
I don’t like the idea of carrying around a device that last saw a software update 5 years ago but has all of my passwords, photos, notes, calendar entries, location data, emails, two cameras, a microphone, and internet connectivity…
Phone companies basically have us by the you know what. They sell you something that you absolutely need to use every day, they design it in such a way that they steal your data without you knowing and without you caring much, then they stop applying updates within two years of purchase thus compelling you to buy a new device, and the cycle continues.
Then you have the really low life companies like Apple that push an update to you phone intentionally making it slower and running the battery down faster. When they got caught doing this, they said they were trying to “protect” their customers.
I agree. You drain your light battery & when you need light you are out of luck.
Just another “bell & whistle” that is not needed & not wanted as far as I personally am concerned.
A dedicated Power Bank may add a tiny bit of weight, but at least you can charge anything (light, phone, etc.) with it.
But, these are just my biased opinions.To each their own.
I’m with you River354. I’ve gotten several lights & chargers with a powerbank function recently and it’s really handy. I never use them on trips or anything, but when we have friends over one or two of them always need a phone charger and I can just go grab a power bank light or two.
No for many reasons. Power bank function causes excessive parasitic drain whether used or not. It adds complexity and reduces flashlight reliability. Legacy USB charging 5 or 10 watts @5V “is painfully slow and increases battery wear on today’s smart phones which require PPS. Type C is notorious for reverse charging. The devices play a game of charging each other until both batteries are dead if left connected. I will not risk connecting my phone to a cheap power source. I carry an ultralight graphene power bank with super fast charging which itself can be recharged to 5000 mAh in 20 minutes. It can charge phone flashlights and Bluetooth all at the same time. Physics dictates that a useful phone charger can not be miniaturized. The ”feature” is an undesirable gimmick in an EDC.
I would agree that the powerbank function in a flashlight is gimmicky and not very useful. You charge your phone but now your flashlight battery is dead… so you then have to use your phone’s light to see.
Equally gimmicky are every implementation I’ve seen of a flashlight function in a powerbank - crappy blue LEDs.
I don’t use this feature as i am not convinced there is not hidden malware in the lights.
That said i do fine without it but would not mind a single 21700 cell power bank from a reputable manufacturer.
But in a life or death situation i am glad the option is there.
I love this feature as well. Just carry one or more spare cells (I have a few anyway) and don’t worry about the proprietary phone battery running out.
But I’ve seen this feature not working for unknown reason in Folomov 18650 powerbank-cell. Worked in a test at home but failed in real duty. So be careful and don’t rely on it too much.
I love my lights with powerbank capability and am glad to see them gaining popularity. My Wuben C2, wuben F5, a few Acebeams (with the 21700 battery powerbank built in) even the Natfire Sf2 has one. The 21700 that comes with the Fireflies pl09 MU has one. I even used the WT90 powerbank on the cell carrier a few times. Super ha dy and better than carrying around am actual powerbank.
Seems like using a flashlight to charge a phone is like using the gas from your ATV to fill your truck. Now you can drive your truck but you can’t drive your ATV anymore. In a way it’s actually worse because a truck is a good form of transportation but a phone is not a good flashlight substitute.
Well, flashlight is not a good phone substitute either. Actually even worse than the other way around.
You have a fixed energy budget determined by what you took with you.
Powerbank capability enables you to transfer some power one way. If you choose so. It may be that you took a lot of phone power and it makes no sense to move some of flashlight power in that direction. In that case powerbank function in your flashlight is useless. And wastes some size and weight. But not much really. But maybe you took a lot of flashlight energy. And taking spare flashlight energy with you is easier than taking spare phone energy actually - just take more of those standard cells - so this function is actual flexibility.
I actually don’t like it because it adds wear cycles on the battery (plus the malware issue i mentioned earlier), in essence adding wear to two batteries but in general you don’t drain your light all the time, most people do drain their cell phone battery daily if not multiple times a day.
In a crunch being able to go from light to phone is a great backup if you need it.
I see what you’re saying, but if I actually needed both a phone and a flashlight I’d just bring a separate powerbank. If emptying the flashlight to fill the phone is acceptable then I guess I never needed the flashlight in the first place. I can see a case for the powerbank capability in a light for situations where you are limited in what you can carry and need to choose between the weight of a flashlight and a dedicated powerbank.
I think the malware issue is probably a non-issue because it would require there to be enough extra space on the flashlight chip for a program and also for the phone to allow code to be injected through the USB port with no kind of limit or security in place.
I can understand not wanting to wear out batteries for no reason but I assume that if you are using a light as a powerbank it’s not so that you can play Candy Crush until the battery dies repeatedly. Rather, I’d expect it to be to top off the phone you are using rarely to ensure communication with the outside world while camping or hiking.
