20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Bank Hands-On
With the recent political turmoil happening in Malaysia, Xiaomi Malaysia went out to Istana Negara…
and the Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia to support members of the press by providing them with free 20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Banks.
We were quite intrigued by the power bank too, so we went out to purchase one for ourselves as well.
Out of the box
The packaging makes it very obvious that it’s a Redmi product. It’s quite simple, and you get the essentials. The Chinese variant doesn’t come with a USB cable, but the 20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Bank offered in Malaysia officially comes with a short microUSB cable. A USB-C cable would have been preferable since most of Xiaomi and Redmi’s lineups are now on USB-C, but hey, I guess Redmi’s priority is to make sure you have a cable to charge it.
Let’s start off by saying the 20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Bank isn’t exactly a looker. The plastic enclosure doesn’t attempt to convince you that it is anything other than plastic, with a matte finish on the top and bottom surfaces while the sides are glossy. It’s also a rather huge brick, comparable to some laptop’s power adapters, but it is a 20 000 mAh power bank, after all.
On the right side there’s a power button, and over here on the top you find the input and output ports. Interestingly Xiaomi decided to support both USB-C and microUSB inputs here to reduce the need to go hunt for cables when you finally need to recharge the 20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Bank.
While the panels are relatively bare, I would say it bodes well for customizability. Time to get some stickers to personalize it, I guess?
Specifications
[table style=”table-hover”]
| Capacity: | 20 000 mAh (3.7V, 74 WHr) |
| Battery type: | Li-Po battery |
| Supported input(s): | USB-C, microUSB Up to 5V@2.1A (10.5W), 9V@2.1A (18.9W), 12V@1.5A (18W) |
| Supported output(s): | 2 x USB-A Up to 5.1@2.4A (12.24W), 9V@2A (18W), 12V@1.5A (18W) Both ports in use: up to 5.1@3.6A total (12.24W) |
| Safety features: | Temperature protection Input overvoltage protection Output overvoltage protection Output overcurrent protection Input anti-reverse protection Battery over-charge/over-discharge protection Short circuit protection Reset protection |
| Dimensions: | 154 x 73.6 x 27.3 mm |
| Weight: | 446 grams |
[/table]
Quite a performer
Straight out of the box, the 20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Bank came with around 50% charge, which is indicated by the LEDs on the edge with all the input and output ports. So we immediately put it to the test with my POCOPHONE F1 and Mi 9, both of which support Quick Charge 3.0 up to 18W charging.
For the POCOPHONE F1, I managed to clock 16.34W, and the device also detected the charging speed to be “quick charge”. There’s no mention of Quick Charge 3.0 compatibility for the Redmi Power Bank though.
Meanwhile for the Mi 9, it went slightly above 18W, at 18.191W. Now the next step is to use both of its ports at the same time.
With both a Mi 8 and POCOPHONE F1 connected, the recorded amount of power delivered to the POCOPHONE F1 was 8.684W, which is almost exactly on the money. Redmi claims a total output of 5.1V/3.6A (18.36W) when both of the 20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Bank’s ports are used simultaneously, so we are quite near half of that.
To test the promise of fast charging input as well, I plugged the Redmi Power Bank into the POCOPHONE F1’s 18W Quick Charge 3.0 power adapter. And lo and behold, I got 16.965W going into the power bank, which is a respectable figure indeed. We didn’t test how long it takes to fully charge the powerbank, but it should take anywhere between 4 to 6 hours.
TL;DR?
[table style=”table-bordered”]
| One Device | Mi 9: 18.191W POCOPHONE F1: 16.34W |
| Two Devices | ~17.868W |
| Recharging (input) | 16.965W (with 18W Quick Charge 3.0 power adapter) |
[/table]
Conclusion
The 20000mAh Redmi 18W Fast Charge Power Bank is available at varying prices in the market, but we got ours at RM99. Xiaomi Malaysia only officially offer the Redmi Power Bank at their physical stores. The support for fast charging both in and out of the power bank is definitely nice to have, and should provide a good option for a quick top-up of your smartphone battery.
I am not so happy with the weight and size, but you are getting enough power to juice up your smartphone for a weekend with the Redmi Power Bank. No wall sockets required. I hope our media friends over at Putrajaya and Istana Negara won’t have to really be on standby for a whole week to cover the news though…
