How many mAh power bank do I need for my iPhone?

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Hoe kies je een powerbank met de juiste capaciteit voor je iPhone

You know how it is: you're on the road and your iPhone is almost empty, but there's no power outlet anywhere. A power bank is the perfect solution for this, but how much capacity do you need to charge your iPhone? Is 5000 mAh enough or should you opt for a power bank with 10,000 mAh or even 20,000 mAh? In this blog we explain exactly how much capacity your power bank needs to have to charge your iPhone.

How many mAh does my iPhone battery have?

The power bank you need for your iPhone depends on the iPhone model you have. Battery capacities range from approximately 2,500 mAh for smaller and older iPhones to approximately 4,700 mAh for newer models like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and 16 Pro Max. The capacity you need therefore varies by model.

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

Suppose you have a power bank with a 10,000 mAh capacity and your phone has a 5,000 mAh capacity. You'd expect to be able to charge your phone about twice, but that's not entirely true. Every power bank has a certain efficiency and loses some capacity when charging another device. Most power banks have an efficiency of around 80-85%. This means the actual mAh capacity of a 10,000 mAh power bank is actually 8,000/8,500 mAh. Pay close attention to this when purchasing a power bank.

Here's how to calculate how many times you can charge an iPhone with a 5,000 mAh battery using a power bank with an 80% efficiency:

8,000mAh / 5,000mAh = 1.6 times

Suppose you have a power bank with a capacity of 20,000 mAh, then you can charge your phone 3.2 times, because:

(20,000 * 0.8) / 5000 mAh = 3.2 times charging.

Below you'll find an overview per iPhone model with the battery capacity and the number of times you can charge the model with a 10,000 and 20,000 mAh power bank.

Does a higher mAh always mean a longer battery life?

In general, when a phone has a higher capacity (mAh) battery, 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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