Xiaomi Power Bank 20000 165W review: power on tap

With experience, reviewers learn to take brand speak with a pinch of salt. So when I saw Xiaomi calling its new power bank “The Ultra Power Bank”, I dismissed it as just another marketing tagline. After a few weeks of using it, though, I can say the statement isn’t too far from the truth. One reason is evident in the device name itself. With a maximum output of 165W, this is the most powerful power bank I’ve ever tried. Stay with me as I take you through its features and capabilities.

Table of Contents

Verdict at a glance

Priced a shade above Rs 5k, the Xiaomi Power Bank 20000 165W offers high battery capacity, superfast charging, and lots of safety features, while the intelligent display and the built-in Type-C cable add convenience. It does command a premium and is a bit bulky too, bit scores high in terms of performance and features.

Design

It’s big. You can’t expect a 20,000mAh power bank to be pocketable, but the Xiaomi Power Bank 20000 165W is bigger than some others with similar capacities. The tall device measures 15.78 x 5.4 x 4.35cm and weighs a little under half a kg. It does, however, justify its size by offering a ton of features and oodles of power.


The steel grey body incorporates a smart digital screen on the front, a built-in Type-C cable on the right, with a Type-C port and a Type-A port on the left. The integrated Type-C cable is braided and can be looped inside a plastic cap to convert it into a lanyard, which can be quite handy while carrying the power bank around.

Features

The features this power bank offers are a big part of the story here, and for me, the smart digital screen and the safety layers stand out. The screen, or as Xiaomi calls it, the “Intelligent Color Digital Display”, shows real-time charging data that can be super useful. It shows much more than just remaining battery levels and charging status, as it can indicate power output from each port based on the devices connected and the power they’re drawing, and the time remaining for the power bank to run out of juice. And when you connect the power bank itself to a socket to juice it up, the display shows the time it’ll take to charge fully. A small touch button below the screen cycles through different pieces of info.

The power supports most charging protocols, including QC3.5, PD3.0 (PPS), and Apple2.4A, ensuring fast charging speeds regardless of the smartphone model you use. The max total output, as the name indicates, is 165W, with the integrated Type-C cable churning out 120W and the Type-C port up to 45W of power, letting you charge your laptop and your smartphone simultaneously without compromising on charging speeds. The power bank itself can be juiced at up to 90W.

Moving on to the safety features, the power bank boasts no less than 12 layers of protection:

Notably, power banks have been in the news in recent times for safety concerns, and some airlines have restricted and even banned their use. So it’s good to know that the Xiaomi Power Bank 20000 165W is safe to carry on flights, and the long list of safety features helps add immensely to peace of mind. The power bank segment is full of no-name brands, with some of them likely using low-quality batteries and electronics. One can’t take a chance with personal safety or risk spoiling expensive gadgets due to use of bad chargers, so the long list of safety features here is well appreciated.

Performance


In one word, exemplary. I tried the Xiaomi Power Bank 20000 165W to charge my MacBook Air M1, and it charged to 20 percent in just about 12 minutes, to 50 percent in around 40 minutes, and touched 90 percent battery level in 1 hour 17 minutes. The power bank itself drained to 24 percent from 100 during this process. An iPhone 17 Pro Max charged to 25 percent in 10 minutes, 50 percent in 25 minutes, and 95 percent in 1 hour 22 minutes. I also tried charging both the MacBook and the iPhone simultaneously, and was able to charge them from 10 percent levels to about 80 percent in 1 hour 7 minutes or so, indicating that the charging speeds didn’t drop much even when both devices were being charged together, compared to charging them individually. And thanks to its 90W inout charging support, the power bank juices up quite fast too, with the display indicating time to full.

Verdict


The Xiaomi Power Bank 20000 165W is listed at Rs 5,199 on Mi.com, which is a fair bit to pay for a power bank. Also, considering its size and weight, it’s not a pocket-friendly device in the literal sense, too. These, however, come across as the only downside, since it makes for a very useful accessory otherwise. As I mentioned earlier, the 120W+45W charging lets you juice up your laptop and smartphone without compromising on charging speeds, and that should appeal to those who need to be productive on the go… while travelling for work or leisure, or even during long commutes. The safety features help add to peace of mind, while the smart display is just the icing on the cake.

Editor’s rating: 8.5 / 10

Pros:

Cons

Home Reviews
© 91digital Web Private Limited. All Rights Reserved.