00:00Spending $20 or less on a portable charger sounds like a steal until it dies faster than
00:06your phone.
00:06So today we're putting some of the internet's favorite cheap chargers to the test.
00:11This is Value Verified, the series where we buy the most popular, best reviewed and aggressively
00:17cheap gadgets and figure out if they're actually worth your money.
00:24We grabbed a few of the top portable chargers under $20.
00:27These are the ones that show up first on Amazon, have thousands of reviews and at least a four
00:33star overall rating.
00:34Here's how we tested them.
00:36Every charger gets plugged into the same phone running at 100% brightness on 5G.
00:41We tracked three things and we'll go through the results one by one.
00:46First, how long can all of these actually keep a phone at 100%?
00:50This one tapped out after three hours and 11 minutes, which is not amazing compared to
00:56the others you'll see in just a moment.
00:58But in its defense, this is the only one on the list with a 5000 instead of 10,000 mAh
01:03battery.
01:04We wanted at least one MagSafe option on this list.
01:07At the middle of the pack, get it?
01:09This one lasted 5 hours and 17 minutes, pretty much the average.
01:13And this one, the best at 5 hours and 57 minutes.
01:17For context, this one has the highest quantity of ratings almost 80,000 people have reviewed
01:22with 80% giving 5 star ratings.
01:25Before we move on, let's take a look at the results for all five in this first test.
01:32Next, how long does it take each charger to go from 0 to 50% on a 65 watt charger?
01:38We definitely appreciated the chargers with actual percentage readings for this one.
01:43This one was the worst, which in this case is the longest amount of time, right?
01:47One hour and 44 minutes ended up being over three and a half hours for a full recharge.
01:53These three were pretty much all the same, just a couple of minutes difference to 50%.
01:57But then this recharged significantly faster, 50% in just 46 minutes, a full charge under an
02:04hour and a half.
02:05Not too bad.
02:06Here's one more look at the results for the second test.
02:11Finally, how long does it take each charger to take a dead iPhone to 100% charge?
02:17We ran this test in increments of 25, 50, and 100%.
02:21Gonna start with the loser here.
02:23No surprise really, it's the 5,000 milliampere battery.
02:27Respectable to 25 and 50%, but at 79%, it just had no more juice to give.
02:32This was actually the slowest charger in every single increment, taking nearly two hours and
02:3720 minutes to fully juice the phone.
02:39But 44% left on the charger is interesting.
02:42The other three were not only the best, but pretty much the same with really just a few
02:47minutes difference at every marker.
02:49All also had about 40% left on the charger.
02:53So are portable chargers under $20 actually worth it?
02:57Let's recap.
02:59Fast, lasts the longest, actually delivers, Amazon reviews did good on this one.
03:04Not fast, but reliable for a long charge, plus the integrated AC plug and cables are added
03:10convenience.
03:12Landed in the middle of pretty much every test, another integrated cable here is nice, another
03:17safe option.
03:18Basic is in the name, and it's just that.
03:21Boring, even.
03:22Results were solid, but you need your own cables, no display, reliable, but no frills.
03:28As far as MagSafe chargers go, this is probably the best you'll find for the price, but don't
03:34expect it to be a real game changer when it comes to charging your phone.
03:38Overall, all turned out to be better than expected for the price.
03:42Cheap tech isn't all bad, but it can be inconsistent.
03:45And that's exactly what we're testing on Value Verified.
03:48Tell me what you want us to test next.
03:51The more suspiciously cheap, the better.
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