Portable batteries are a dime a dozen — quite literally on some shopping sites — but cheap portable batteries are almost always bulky, boxy, and double as a hand-warmer while you're using one to give your phone half a charge. Well, Iceworks has a portable battery that's slim enough to fit in your hand or pocket right alongside your phone, and it won't feel like an inferno while it's giving its power to your phone. The built-in USB-C cable also means that you don't need to hassle with long cables tangling in your pocket or snagging while you walk around a convention or theme park while charging.
The hardest thing to overcome for the Iceworks 7000 is actually getting your hands on one.
The Good
- This portable battery truly is slim and pocketable
- Indicator LEDs are visible but not too bright
- Doesn't heat up much when charging
The Bad
- Currently only available in Europe via Amazon UK
- Built-in cable is short and non-replaceable
Charge me up before you go-go
Iceworks 7000 USB-C Power Bank What I like
Iceworks has a trio of power packs on the market, but the 7000 is the biggest in capacity and the only one to feature USB-C for both charging itself and charging other devices. The watchword of this charger is thin, and when I handed it to co-workers at the TV station, they thought I'd handed them an iPhone at first because of how thin and light it feels in their hand.
This power pack features a built-in USB-C charging cable that fits expertly into one corder of the charge to store flat and out of the way. The integrated cable means that it's easy to charge your phone while holding both the phone and power bank in your hand or in your pocket without dealing with bulky USB-C to USB-A cables or tons of excess cable.
The electronics inside this svelte power source is a 7000mAh battery that both charges and recharges at 5V/3A for 15W quick charging. It's not quite USB-PD speeds like you'd see with the Pixelbook's charger, but for a battery that's designed to charge while the phone is still in use and not overheat in your hand or pocket, I'm okay with that. The Iceworks recharges exactly as fast as it charges other devices, so I tend to throw it on a charger before bed so it's ready to go in the morning.
Iceworks 7000 USB-C Power Bank What could still improve
The Iceworks 7000 has a built-in USB-C cable, which is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing: the only exposed port on the Power Bank when it's not in use is the USB-C input port for recharging the battery. Curse: if that built-in cable breaks, the power bank is now a thin, black paperweight. I'm not terribly worried about the built-in cable's durability, but since that cable is nestled along one of the shorter ends of the power bank, it's a cable with no slack at all and very easy to yank when picking your phone up off the table or out of your pocket while charging.
Iceworks Global is selling its three power banks on Amazon Launchpad, but that also means that they're only available to be shipped to some European countries. Iceworks shipped one to me in Texas to review, but if I wanted to buy a second, I wouldn't be able to.
Iceworks 7000 USB-C Power Bank
The Iceworks 7000 is a handy little battery that will fit in your pocket, purse, or in your hand alongside your phone as it charges. It has more than enough juice to keep your phone going all day and all night, provided you live in a country that can buy it.
Hopefully it will become internationally available in the future — and hopefully, it can pick up some color variants along the way — but until then, if you live in Europe, this is a great little battery for long days away from an outlet or an overnight camping trip.
