In today's hyperconnected digital age, your phone battery die isn’t just unfortunate — it can be downright crippling. There aren’t many public options available for charging your devices, so it’s practically a requirement to carry a portable charger with you. Most of them look like ugly, monotone bricks, but a few of them are cute without sacrificing effectiveness. The Yoobao Cute Portable Charger is one of these options. It comes in three cute designs and has a large-capacity, quick-charging battery.
It’s hard to generalize what design choices make a portable charger cute or not. For example, you may think a kitten-covered charger is adorable, but your roommate may think it’s tacky. What can be discussed is the intersection of cuteness, novelty and quality.
Most chargers are plain rectangular bricks for a reason: They are simple and effective. Cute chargers are also typically rectangular but have design elements that attempt to look endearing without sacrificing much effectiveness.
Novelty chargers are never rectangular bricks — they come in all manner of shapes, sizes and forms. Some novelty chargers are hidden inside stuffed animals or look like a tube of lipstick. These rarely have the capacities and charge times to be relied on as your main source of on-the-go charging, but they can be effective in a pinch.
A portable charger’s milliampere hours is a measure of its capacity. Many cute portable chargers have 10,000mAh, which is enough to charge two to three dead phones or one tablet back to 100%. It’s rare to see cute chargers with bigger capacities, but they do exist if you look hard enough — you just won’t have many design choices.
A portable charger’s amperage is a measure of how fast it can charge a device with larger numbers being faster. It’s important to note that amperage is split between all devices if your charger can charge more than one at a time. That said, most cute chargers top out around 3 amps, which is enough to charge one dead phone in under an hour.
The best cute chargers have battery level indicators, typically in the form of several LED lights. The more LEDs that light up, the fuller the battery is. It’s essentially impossible to tell when your cute portable charger needs to refill its battery without indicators unless it just stops charging — something you don’t want to happen when you’re at 1%.
Some cute portable chargers have little flashlights that can be turned off and on at the press of a button. It’s not much, but it can make charging your dead phone in the dark much easier.
Most cute portable chargers cost less than $50, as their designs are skewed toward appearance rather than performance. You may find some higher-powered cute options for $50-$100, but anything more expensive is unlikely to look like anything other than a brick.
A. Generally speaking, portable charger and power bank are interchangeable terms. It just depends on how a given manufacturer wants to market its product. That said, a few manufacturers with a wider spread in products will use the term portable charger to describe their midrange and lesser batteries and the term power bank to describe their high-capacity batteries.
A. Yes, all portable chargers are capable of charging any model of phone as long as you have a cable that can connect to your charger’s out ports and your phone’s in port. That said, some aspects of the charger — namely its amperage — may affect how well it charges certain phones.
What you need to know: This option comes in several cute designs and reliably charges on the go.
What you’ll love: It uses a 10,000mAh battery and two USB out ports with 2.1-amp charge speeds. The battery can be charged using either a USB-C cable — which is included with purchase — or a Lightning cable. It weighs just under half a pound.
What you should consider: A few consumers had issues being able to charge the power bank’s batteries, and some said it took several hours to fully charge.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
What you need to know: The little puppy paw print pushes this otherwise plain but affordable charger into cute territory.
What you’ll love: It has a 10,000mAh battery with three 3-amp ports — two USB out ports and one USB-C in/out port — that can all be used simultaneously. It includes a travel pouch and a USB-C cable, comes in black or blue and has a flashlight.
What you should consider: There are some rare reports from purchasers that it stops working after a few months, either by not holding a charge or by not charging multiple devices at once.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Hrnakdfkl Cute Cat and Bear Mini Power Bank
What you need to know: This is perfect for charging phones around your home or in an emergency charging situation.
What you’ll love: One of the portable chargers features a cat design that charges Lightning devices (iPhones), and the other charger features a bear design that charges USB-C devices. Each charger has an 800mAh battery that can charge a phone up to 20%. The base acts as a night light.
What you should consider: The chargers don’t fit over most cases, so the case will need to be removed. They don’t charge as quickly as less-novel options.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Sign up here to receive the BestReviews weekly newsletter for useful advice on new products and noteworthy deals.
Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
