I once counted how many devices I need to charge every day: iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, iPad, sometimes MacBook — and that’s just mine. Add my wife’s iPhone and MacBook, my daughter’s iPad and iPhone — and you get a small power station. Over the past year and a half, I’ve gone through a ton of chargers and power banks on AliExpress — from outright junk to things that actually displaced Apple’s original adapters from my desk. Today I’ll show you the ten that stuck with me: Baseus, UGREEN, MOVESPEED — brands I trust with my gadgets without a nervous twitch.
This is roughly how many chargers and power banks I currently have in rotation — and each one has a job
Baseus PicoGo: A Magnetic Power Bank You Forget on Your iPhone
I’ve been carrying it on my iPhone since March — it’s as thin as a couple of credit cards, and the charge lasts for a full cycle
Sometimes you leave the house with a full battery, and by lunchtime your iPhone is already begging for a charge. A regular power bank is inconvenient to connect, and finding a cable is even worse. Baseus PicoGo AM41 solves this elegantly: stick it on the back via MagSafe — and forget about it. Capacity is 5000 mAh, wired charging at 20W via Type-C, wireless — 15W. It attaches to iPhone 12 and newer like it was made for it.
I actually learned about this power bank from a review by our Apple expert Kirill Pirozhenko and ordered one for myself. Since then, it (the power bank, not Kirill) has been living with me in perfect harmony. The body is thin and pleasant. It doesn’t turn the iPhone into a brick. One charge is enough to bring an iPhone from 15% to 100% — more than enough for an evening outing. What more do you need?
Price: 1,950 rubles
Baseus 10,000 mAh Power Bank for Trips
Two full iPhone charges — and there’s still enough left for AirPods
If 5,000 mAh isn’t enough but you don’t want to lug around a brick, the Baseus 10,000 mAh power bank is the sweet spot. Its capacity is reliably enough for two full iPhone charges with a little left over, and 22.5W fast charging saves time.
Size-wise, the power bank is also compact: slightly larger than a deck of cards, meaning it easily fits in a backpack side pocket or simply in your jeans pocket — front or back. The body, by the way, is also pleasant and non-slip. For everyday tasks — topping up the iPhone on the go, giving some juice to AirPods — it works without complaints. A solid all-rounder that honestly does its job without pretending to be anything more.
Price: 750 rubles
Baseus Car Charger to Replace the Stock Stub
Sticks out of the cigarette lighter, doesn’t annoy — and fast-charges the iPhone
Stock car chargers usually barely manage 5W, and the iPhone running navigation drains faster than it charges. That’s exactly how it used to be for me — incredibly annoying. The Baseus 30W solved the problem: two ports (USB-A and USB-C), three versions with different port combinations, a compact body that doesn’t stick out of the cigarette lighter like an antenna.
The iPhone charges right during navigation, and the battery level goes up instead of down. The fit in the socket is tight — it hasn’t fallen out once in six months. At 640 rubles, this is exactly the case where it’s cheaper than what the dealer offers, and better too.
Price: 540 rubles
Baseus 100W: A Power Bank for MacBook
Took it on a three-day trip — the MacBook Air ran without an outlet at all
Power banks for phones — that’s straightforward. But try finding an external battery that can actually charge a laptop. The Baseus 20,000 mAh with 100W output is exactly that. It comes with a 100W cable, so the MacBook Air charges at full speed. And the 20,000 mAh capacity translates to roughly one full cycle for a laptop or four for an iPhone.
I took it on a work trip last summer, and it literally saved my workday: the outlets at the coworking space were all taken, and the MacBook was dead. Plugged in the cable — and within an hour I was back to 100%. It’s a bit heavy, of course, but that’s the price for capacity. If you travel with a laptop, this thing is indispensable — Apple doesn’t even make an original power bank for tasks like these.
Price: 3,750 rubles
