What does mAh mean?

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Wat betekent mAh?

When you are looking online for power banks or other devices with a built-in battery, you will often come across the term mAh. But what exactly does mAh stand for and why is it important to pay attention to when buying an electronic product?

What is mAh?

mAh stands for milliampere hour and is often used to describe the capacity of a battery. It indicates how long a battery can power a device. Below is an explanation of what MAh means:

  • milliampere (mA) : A measure of electric current, with 1 milliampere (mA) equal to one thousandth of an ampere (A).
  • Hour (h) : A measure of time.

Assuming a phone uses an average of 1,000 milliamps per hour (mAh), a phone with a 5,000 mAh battery can last 5 hours without recharging (because 5,000/1,000= 5).

mAh does not take voltage into account. This makes mAh mainly a good way to compare batteries with the same voltage, such as smartphones and power banks. If you want to compare batteries with different voltages, you can better use Wh.

In general, a phone does not use 1,000 mAh, but rather 300 mAh. This depends on how you use your phone and what you do with it. If you watch a lot of videos, the average mAh is much higher than if you only use your phone occasionally to make calls. mAh is calculated as follows:

An electronic device can also have a charging speed of X number of amperes (A). For example, our MOJOGEAR MINI XL EXTRA FAST 20,000 mAh power bank has a charging speed of 3A, which is equal to 3,000 mAh. So it takes 6.66 hours to charge this power bank (because 20,000/3,000 = 6.66).

What is the difference between mAh and Wh?

mAh indicates how much electrical charge a battery can store and Wh indicates how much energy a battery can store and deliver.

Wh (Watt hour) can be calculated as follows: Wh = (mAh × V) / 1000.

Because mAh does not take voltage into account, it can give a distorted picture when a device or battery has a higher or lower voltage. A battery with 10,000 mAh and 3.7 volts can charge a device less often than a battery with 10,000 mAh and 7 volts. Because of this, Wh is used more often when comparing products with different voltages, such as laptops, electric cars, drill batteries, etc.

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How many times can I charge my phone with a power bank?

Suppose you bought a power bank. This power bank has a capacity of 10,000 mAh. Your phone has a capacity of 5,000 mAh, then you expect to be able to charge your phone about 2 times. However, that is not entirely true, because a power bank has a certain efficiency. Every power bank loses some of its capacity when charging another device. Most power banks have an efficiency of about 80-85%. This means that the actual number of mAh of a 10,000 mAh power bank is actually 8,000/8,500 mAh. This means that you can charge a phone with a battery of 5,000 mAh approximately: 8,000 mAh / 5,000 mAh = 1.6 times your phone with a power bank with 80% efficiency. Suppose you have a power bank with a capacity of 20,000 mAh, then you can charge your phone: (20,000 * 0.8) / 5000 mAh = 3.2 times.

Does a higher mAh always mean a longer battery life?

In general, when a phone has a higher mAh, it also means that it will last longer. However, this is not always the case. One phone is namely more economical than the other, for example due to the difference in screen size of the phone. When a phone has a 5 inch screen (relatively small these days), it will use considerably less power than a phone with a larger screen of, for example, 6.5 inches.

In addition, phones and brands also differ in the efficiency with which they use power. An Apple iPhone often has a smaller battery than an Android phone, but iPhones use power more efficiently, which means they can still be used longer than Android devices. An important factor in this is the operating system developed by Apple itself: iOS. This ensures that the operating system and the hardware (the phone itself) are perfectly matched.

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