Previously, I’d used the NEWDERY Portable Power Bank, and it was something of a marvel for its time. It had it’s troubles, however. One of them was the Apple Watch charge point not being magnetic. Because of that, this power bank would be a pain to use in the car and keeping the watch on the charging surface when in motion¹. It was still nice to have something I could use to charge an iPhone and Apple Watch on the road. Then, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) chimed in and said,

CPSC Warns Consumers to Immediately Stop Using NEWDERY Power Banks Due to Fire and Burn Hazards; Risk of Serious Injury or Death.

Enter Anker’s MagGo Power Bank. It uses a similar style as the NewDery with the same 10000mAh battery, but improves on it in some ways not related to risk of death.

There’s a nifty clasp on the one USB-C cable that just needs to be pulled back and then it locks in the device’s housing. That way, it feels like the cable’s not going to get snagged on anything (unless it’s in a purse I guess), and the loop left behind doubles as a handle to carry with. The block is still heavy, so if you’re putting this in a bag and backpacking, keep that in mind because it all adds up.

This power bank sports a small screen, it’s tiny, but it shows a ton of great info like charging percentage, charging speed and that blue/green half-moon is a progress bar. It’s nifty when you’re charging the power bank and want a quick glance at the charge level. To activate the display, you press a small button on top, or pop up the Watch charger apparatus. The sides of the power bank have a kind of bumpy texture; helpful for gripping the thing. Thankfully on the bottom there are rubberized bumps that help avoid slipping off everything, but perhaps in the next iteration.

In sum, this sturdy product is a winner and worth checking out if you need power on-the-go. Likely it’s available at all the big box and Amazon stores as you read this with Holiday 2025 imminent. It’s a battery pack, so let’s hope this is not recalled or marked as dangerous by a safety commission any time soon.

1. This may have been because earlier generations of the Apple Watch did not make use of a magnetic charger. ↩︎