Excitrus NitroCharge 30 Power Bank REVIEW

An efficient wireless charging bank compatible with MagSafe.

We all need extra power to tote around with us these days. Whether it’s for our smartphones, tablets, headphones, or laptops, portable power banks have become a necessity. There are many different types of power banks out there and ones with magnetic charging seem to be the most popular these days. I have an iPhone 12 Pro and it is equipped with MagSafe charging, which I like to take advantage of whenever I can. So, power banks with magnetic charging really catch my eye.  The NitroCharge 30 from Excitrus is exceptionally intriguing because of its 30W wireless power bank. 

DETAILS

The NitroCharge 30 is the “world’s slimmest and lightest wireless 30W power bank with magnetic positioning.” The magnetic charging pad ensures that connected phones always charge at the fastest speed possible. The power bank is 100% compatible with MagSafe charging and features quick recharge. It is actually a 3-in-1 charger and offers USB-A and USB-C charging as well as the wireless option. It offers passthrough charging and eight different types of electrical protections from overcharging, etc. The battery only weighs 0.57lbs (259 grams) and measures 5.6 x 2.9 x 0.7 inches. It’s roughly The same size as an iPhone 12 Pro, but double the thickness. Information on the power bank state that it can recharge to 70% power in just 1 hour. The wireless charging pad has a 10W wireless charging coil built-in while the USB-A port provides up to 18W and the USB-C port provides up to 30W. 

USER EXPERIENCE

The packaging of the NitroCharge 30 is very plain. It comes in a brown cardboard box that has some wrapping on it. The wrapping labels the product that is housed inside the box. One thing struck me about this packaging. Why is it so big? The battery is only a little larger than an iPhone 12 Pro and it only comes with a charging cable and a packet of instructions and accessories for magnetic mounting. It seems like the packaging for this product could be rethought and sized down. 

The battery itself is pretty impressive. It has a fabric finish and a “+” that indicates where to place your phone for magnetic charging. The border of the battery is plastic with a shiny finish. It has two USB ports – one Type A and one Type C – on the end of the unit. There is also a mode button on the side. When you press it once, the display activates and shows you the amount of battery that is left for charging. The manual explains that the lighting bolt symbol appears when the NitroCharge 30 is charging a device in high speed and the icon flashes when it is in the process of charging a device wirelessly. There is also a percentage icon (%) in the display window that is steady when it’s in ‘normal’ mode and it blinks when it’s charging a device in Bluetooth Device Charging mode. The battery will go to sleep when it’s not been used for 30 minutes or you can press/hold the mode button for 3 seconds to put it to sleep. 

What I found is that the lightning bolt flashes automatically when the battery is activated. I wasn’t able to get it to not flash unless a device was plugged into one of the ports. The same was true for the percentage icon. I was able to ‘place’ the battery into fast charging mode without something being plugged in by double-pressing the mode button. This isn’t something I would consider a flaw in the design, but it’s something that should probably be updated in the manual. 

Out of the box, the battery had 0% available for charging. As the specs indicate, I should have been able to charge the power bank up to 70% within an hour. I was actually pretty excited that there was no charge on the battery because it gave me the option to be able to run this test. After about 30 minutes, the battery had a charge of 45% and after 87 minutes, it had a charge of 94%. Based on the specs, the battery should charge at a rate of 1.16% per minute. I ended up with a charging rate of approximately 1.08% per minute. The first 30 minutes were closer to the specs with a charging rate of 1.5% per minute. That makes me wonder if maybe the battery ends up trickle charging after it reaches a certain percentage as Apple products do. 

I plugged in an iPad Pro (11-inch, 2018) into the USB-C port to confirm that it would receive a charge – and it did. I also charged a set of headphones using the USB-A port. I was unable to successfully test the USB-C port’s compatibility claim with a laptop because I did not have a laptop that only required 30W to charge. I also placed my AirPods Pro on the wireless charging area and they were able to gain a charge. Since I had an iPhone 12 Pro, I didn’t need to use any of the magnetic accessories that are included with the battery in order to take advantage of the wireless charging features. I think it’s great that Excitrus included the adhesive metal plates in case someone didn’t have a MagSafe compatible phone. One of the tests I completed was to charge my iPhone 12 Pro wirelessly. I charged it for 30 minutes and made notes every 10 minutes to see what the battery’s charging progress was. When I started the charging test, the battery on my phone was at 63%. As I mentioned above, Apple iPhones start trickle charging when they reach 80% to preserve its long-term battery life. So, after 26 minutes, I had to discontinue the charging test because the battery reached 80%. That ends up giving the wireless charging function of this battery a 0.65% per minute charging rate.

During the charging process, I did notice that moving the battery around could cause the phone to lose its magnetic charging connection. There were a couple of times that I bumped the phone while it was on my desk charging and a few seconds later I heard the charging chime. So it was like the phone got dislodged from the magnetic charging base and then reconnected. Aside from that, I didn’t have any issues with the power bank providing power to any of the devices that were connected. 

CONCLUSION

The Excitrus NitroCharge 30 is a powerful charging companion for all types of users. Because it provides up to 30W of power delivery, it does have the ability to charge laptops and tablets easily, but the magnetic charging feature is really what sells this power bank for me. It seems to be very efficient as a charger and it’s compact enough to carry in a small bag or purse. I do believe I will be keeping this in my collection for quite a while. 

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