REVIEW – I am getting ready to go on the longest vacation trip of my life in a few months. We will be gone for 13 days on a seven-day Alaskan cruise and a three-day land trip to Denali National Park. I know that electrical outlets and charging places will be hard to come by, so I have been looking for a good portable power bank. I recently reviewed the Sharge Disk and was impressed with the build quality and features of the portable storage system. When I discovered that Sharge wanted to have their new Shargeek 170 Power Bank reviewed, I jumped at the opportunity.
What is it?
The Shargeek Shargeek 170 is a power bank with 24,000 mAh capacity and a charge output of up to 170 watts. It can charge up to three devices simultaneously and looks pretty cool while doing it.
What’s in the box?
- User manual
- USB-C charging cord
- Storage pouch
- Shargeek Shargeek 170 power bank
Hardware specs
- Transparent Prism Silhouette.
- 3-device Fast Charging.
- 170W Max Output.
- 140W Max Input. Recharge from 0%-50% in 20 Mins.
- 24,000mAh All-day Power.
- Smart Display.
- IP66 Water Resistant.
Design and features
The Shargeek Shargeek 170 is six and a half inches long and two and a quarter inches tall. My kitchen scale says it weighs right at one pound and eight-point three ounces. The three sides of the triangle are a solid piece of acrylic. The front display is behind the wall of acrylic. I think seeing the full circuit board behind the display is pretty cool. The next two sides let you see how the six batteries are packed into the device, with one side displaying some information on the battery and the other with a graphic and the letters SP170. This design lets the device be IP66 water resistant. You can use it by the pool where it can get splashed with no problem. Just don’t throw it directly into the pool!
You will find the single power button on the side to the left of the display. A long press will turn the power bank off and on. Double-clicking it will put it in low current mode, where it will stay that way for a maximum of two hours, or you can double-click again to turn it off. There are also two USB-C ports and one USB-A port.
The other side of the Shargeek Shargeek 170 power bank has a very handy display of the output wattages available for each port if it is being used by itself, or in conjunction with other ports.
The charging cable that comes with the power bank is a heavy-duty braided cable with a nice built-in velcro strap.
Below is a picture of the display. It is quite bright and very easy to read. Note that the ‘Low current mode’ display only shows after double-clicking the power button. I also want to note that this is what the display looks like in person. The colors are accurate. My pictures below do not do the display justice. You would use the low current mode when charging smaller devices like music earphones and smartwatches. I will note that I charged my Air Pods just fine in regular mode on the Shargeek.
Setup
Setting up the Shargeek Shargeek 170 is pretty simple. It does not come with an AC power adapter. I think for the price of the device, it would have been nice to have a good 100-watt power adapter included. The display screen is really helpful in showing you how much power is coming into the device and how long it will take to charge with the current incoming wattage fully. My first AC adapter was weak and only provided 11 watts of input. Charging the remaining 34% at that rate would have taken over three hours. My second power adapter gave over 60 watts and would finish charging in 32 minutes. I looked around my house and remembered that I had the power brick that had a USB-C port on it from my MacBook Pro. I received just over 130 watts of power when I plugged the cord into that adapter. That would give me a 0-50% charge in under 30 minutes.
Performance
My iPad Pro was down to zero percent battery power when I hooked it up to the Shargeek Shargeek 170. It pulled around 25 to 25.5 watts, and it took just over two hours to charge fully. It took that long because I noticed the iPad started pulling less power after it reached about 55% capacity. Apple does this to protect the device’s battery. Towards the last ten minutes, it only pulled 2 watts or less to get that final five percent topped off. When fully charged, the Shargeek 170 still had 57% of its capacity left.
I plugged in two iPads simultaneously, and the output more than doubled. The second iPad is a newer version, and it probably pulls more watts at the beginning of its charge.
I also tried charging my Macbook Pro. It was down to 57% battery, and the Shargeek had a max output of about 131 watts but hung around closer to 100 watts. I never did get it to output its max 140 watts at any given time.
What I like
- Very cool looking power bank. It gets noticed by other people.
- It comes with a nice charging cord and storage bag.
- High output and input capacity.
What needs to be improved?
- I wish it came with a 100 watt adapter.
- A bit pricey.
Final thoughts
Sharge sells some very nice top-of-the-line products. All of their items are well-designed and have excellent features. I believe they try to market themselves as a high-end manufacturer in their product space. As such, they tend to charge a premium for their devices. I can find no faults with the Shargeek Shargeek 170. It performs exactly as it should and looks great. It is a fast-charging and re-charging device. If you can afford the price point, I highly recommend their products.
Price: $169.99
Where to buy: Sharge and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Sharge.
