UGreen 145W Power Bank Review – Mighty charger that can juice laptops

Power banks are an essential part of anyone’s everyday carry kit the days whether it’s to top up a smartphone midway through the day or to recharge the odd bit of kit like wireless earbuds but the vast majority of power banks in the market are only good for a top-up of a single smartphone for a couple of times at best.

The UGreen 145W power bank is an absolute behemoth of a power bank that is powerful enough to comfortably charge a laptop and multiple phones several times.

We managed to get our hands on a sample for field testing and we’ve put it to extensive use in the past couple of months on our daily work commute – here’s our UGreen145W power bank review where we share if this hefty power bank is worth your money.

UGreen 145W Power Bank Review – Build and Design

As a prolific user of public transport and a tech writer, it’s a given that I need a power bank – several in fact – to last through the day especially as my smartphone enjoys heavy usage throughout the day along with my laptop.

While a smartphone can be comfortably charged with a power bank, it’s often the case that my laptop gets precariously low on power by midday and short of plonking down at a cafe for an hour or so, there isn’t a practical way to charge it on the go. 

Even if I manage to get a spot at a cafe, half the time it’s often a Lord of the Flies scenario as everyone fights for the few working power plugs haphazardly sprinkled around any cafe. That and forking out gratuitous amounts of money for an overpriced latte so I can actually have a plausible reason to sit there and charge my laptop. Fortunately, I kissed all these indignities goodbye with this new piece of kit. Enter Ugreen’s 145W power bank.

This design features a 25,000mAh battery shoehorned into a chassis done up in matte black and gunmetal grey that is about the size of a compact paperback and which weighs a hefty 505g. It’s not particularly pocketable but can be comfortably tossed into a backpack or handbag.

Where it truly impresses is that it is capable of up to a fast 145W charge and is sufficiently powerful enough to charge an ultraportable laptop while leaving enough juice to recharge other peripherals too.

Our UGreen 145W Power Bank review unit feels very well built and can be comfortably held one handed. On the side of the power bank is a simple mono LED readout where you can see how much remaining charge is at a glance while another side features a pair of USB-C ports, one of which is for charging the power bank itself and also for output along with a USB-A port too.

Perhaps the only quibble here is that the LED readout doesn’t tell you at what charging speed the various ports are working at but it’s not a deal breaker.

Much like other UGreen power banks and chargers, the output varies depending on how many ports you use and which ports. If you solely use the marked USB-C in/out port, you get a full 140W of juice but if you use all three ports at the same time, one of the USB-C and the USB-A port get 20W each while the main USB-C port gets 100W of charge.

To achieve the full 145W charging speeds, you’ll need to use both USB-C ports with one getting 100W and the other getting 45W. This 100W charge means that the power bank is able to conceivably charge most ultraportable laptops that typically have modest power requirements and USB-C ports for charging.

UGreen quotes that the powerbank itself supports 65W power delivery to charge itself so most of UGreen’s higher end fast chargers should be able to support it.

Oddly enough, the power bank lacks wireless charging options so you’re solely reliant on cables, of which you’d have to pack several to take full advantage of its capabilities if you’re planning to charge multiple devices simultaneously. By default, UGreen ships the power bank with a simple drawstring bag as well as a rather basic USB-C to USB-C cable though they do make better quality cables as well that need to be purchased separately.

Overall build quality on our UGreen 145W Power Bank review unit is sturdy in keeping with UGreen’s usual standards of quality with the rounded edges making it easy to grasp.

Unfortunately at 505g, it’s a bit on the heavy side but it does help reduce the need to carry multiple smaller capacity power banks around all day if you’re a heavy user. One benefit of note is that the power bank is rated to be FAA compliant so it can be hand-carried on a plane. Your mileage however may vary as some airlines may have more stringent carry-on limitations for power banks so it’s still best to check beforehand before you tote it on a flight.

UGreen 145W Power Bank Review – Performance

On a regular basis, I tote around two phones a day of varying makes for work along with a Huawei MateBook X Pro laptop in a backpack along with at least two 5,000mAh power banks though this setup means that I get about a single recharge per phone and no way to recharge the laptop.

My UGreen 145W Power Bank review unit allowed me to ditch the two power banks I toted about daily to charge my phones and gave me the option to conceivably charge my laptop without having to rely on a plug point.

On a day with light work requirements and without the need to use the laptop, my UGreen 145W Power Bank review unit was able to comfortably fully charge my primary phone, a Galaxy Z Fold5 along with a back-up Galaxy S24 Ultra with both individually charged in about an hour and there was still plenty left for another full charge for the following day. After tinkering around with it, the powerbank  

On heavy work days which required extensive use of my work laptop, I was able to continue working on said laptop and still get a single full charge though this drains the power bank. The ability to charge a laptop on the go is especially liberating, allowing me to be more productive without having to worry about nursing the laptop’s battery enough to last through the day or having to find a charging point.

Most of the time I find a happy balance with enough charge to fully charge a phone and enough of a top-up on the laptop to last through a working day. 

Charging my UGreen 145W power bank review unit took awhile and with a compatible 65W charger with power delivery from UGreen it managed to get a full charge in a couple of hours. 

Should you buy the UGreen 145W power bank?

The UGreen 145W power bank is a sturdily built, effective design capable of fully charging a laptop or several phones and tablets multiple times with fast charging support.

Frequent travellers and mobile workers will appreciate the potential of the design and is a productivity game-changer though it does not come cheap and is somewhat on the heavy side.

Specifications
Price RM332.30
Ports 2x USB-C (One in/Out, One Out Only), 1 x USB-A (Out only), 145W total
Supported protocols PD 3.0 + QC3.0
Battery capacity 25,000mAh
Size/Weight 160 x 81.3 x 27.9mm / 505g

UGreen 145W power bank review sample courtesy of UGreen. For more details and to purchase please visit https://shopee.com.my/UGREEN-145W-Power-Bank-25000mAh-Portable-Charger-USB-C-3-Port-Digital-Display-Fast-Charging-Powerbank-iPhone-15-Pro-Max-i.331309804.18288569978