Crave Plus 10000mAh Power Bank Review

Power banks in my opinion are one of the more time consuming products to review for readers.  One of the reasons is not only do I have to try them with multiple devices at different output levels, but I also have to do timer tests to see how fast they charge, and do as many drain and recharge tests as possible in the span of time I have to do a review.  So for the past month I have spent most of my time using a single Power Bank ignoring all others in my house for the sake of this review.  I was sent the Crave Plus 10000mAh power bank to review and this power bank supports USB Type-C as well as can charge via MicroUSB.

Now, the first thing you will notice after you open the power bank is how solid it feels and the metal casing feels higher quality than traditional plastic shell power banks.  It has a very smooth appearance and the powerbank is almost the same size and depth of an iPhone XR.  I took a picture of it below side by side with my Oukitel K6000 LITE which is one of my review test units for power banks and Android apps.

The bottom of the power bank has your indicator for Micro-USB In, USB Type-C In/Out and the QC 3.0 USB port.  The fact that this supports Quick Charge 3 means that if you have a QC compatible device it will charge must faster than traditional devices with that USB port.  Unfortunately I don’t have a QC 3 compatible device in my house so am unable to speak to the QC 3 charging as far as testing goes.

On the side of the Crave Plus power bank is a power button and 4 little LED lights that show you the battery capacity.  Each light is approx 25% battery capacity, and you can just press the button real quick to get a battery status indicator.

For my first test I drained my Oukitel K6000 LITE which happens to have a 6000mAH battery down to 1% and then attached it to the Crave Plus to start the timer and the charging process.

Now in about 1/2 hour timer test, it only went to 15% charge in the first 1/2 hour, but this usually is the case as the lower a phone or tablet battery the slower it charges initially.

Still only 14% charge in 1/2 hour wasn’t good if you needed a quick boost in an emergency, and not having a QC 3 compatible phone is definitely gonna be a frustration here if your phone is dead.  I will tell you the phone fully charged in 3 hours and 9 minutes from 1%.

So for the next test I went with my Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ tablet which was down to 5% battery, I used my iPhone as my timer and set it beside and checked it in 1/2 hour intervals.

It took 3 hours and 12 minutes for my Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ to get from 5% to 100% charge with the Crave Plus external power bank and this was on-par with the capacity charging with the K6000 LITE phone which has about the same battery capacity.

I had my son take the CRAVE Plus to school to keep his iPhone 8 charged all day, as well as charged my iPhone XR with it extensively.  The good thing is that I was able to charge both the Kindle Fire HDX tablet and the Oukitel 6000 phone off a single power bank charge, the 10000mAH capacity really helps make sure you can charge your device multiple times before needing to recharge the power bank itself.

So the power bank which is thinner than my phone when it is in it’s Otterbox case is a great size and fit for a purse or a pocket, is really slick looking, sturdy and it does not get that hot while doing a full charge over 3 hours barely feeling warm at all.  I charged the Crave Plus via the MicroUSB (slower charging but works fine) and charged it with a USB Type-C cable and it charges much faster when charged via USB Type-C.  This devices will also charge 2 devices at the same time, you can charge one with the USB Type-C Port and one with the standard USB port.  I was only able to test this with the powerbank charging another external battery that had a USB Type-C input and a phone on the side.

Now I will tell you this in all honestly, the Crave Plus power bank at $49.99 is on the higher priced side for a 10000mAH power bank.  A quick Amazon search will show that you can get this capacity and these features in the $20 – $35 range but those type of power banks are all plastic shells.  They all are not going to have the higher quality look and feel of the aluminum case that you get here, they also tend to run warmer when they have plastic shells especially if you keep the battery in your pocket.  Because the aluminum shell keeps the battery pack cooler, it will charge better because other power banks with plastic shells which get hot will not charge as long becuase the heat wastes more power and negatively impacts the power bank. The Crave also has a MicroUSB in and the USB Type-C can be used for an In/OUT with the regular USB port at the same time.  Review from others have reported that the battery life of the CRAVE Plus is higher than average compared to other power banks but I will have to update this review several months from now to let you know how the battery is doing after hundreds of charges being used instead of the dozen or so I did during this review period.

Overall, this power bank gets a solid rating and I recommend it for the quality, durability and premium feel as well as the versatility of the ports.

You can buy the Crave Plus from Crave Direct and they have a wheel of discounts that spins when you visit so you may be able to get it cheaper than Amazon by checking there first.