Are $20 Portable Chargers a Steal or a Scam? | Value Verified

Spending $20 or less on a portable charger sounds like a steal until it dies faster than your phone. So today, we're putting some of the internet's favorite cheap chargers to the test. This is Value Verified, the series where we buy the most popular, best reviewed, and aggressively cheap gadgets and figure out if they're actually worth your money. We grabbed a few of the top portable chargers under $20. These are the ones that show up first on Amazon, have thousands of reviews, and at least a four-star overall rating. Here's how we tested them. Every charger gets plugged into the same phone running at 100% brightness on 5G. We tracked three things, and we'll go through the results one by one. First, how long can all of these actually keep a phone at 100%? This one tapped out after three hours and 11 minutes, which is not amazing compared to the others you'll see in just a moment. But in its defense, this is the only one on the list with a 5,000 instead of 10,000 milliampere battery. We wanted at least one MagSafe option on this list. At the middle of the pack, get it? This one lasted five hours and 17 minutes, pretty much the average. And this one, the best, at five hours and 57 minutes. For context, this one has the highest quantity of ratings almost 80,000 people have reviewed with 80% giving five-star ratings. Before we move on, let's take a look at the results for all five in this first test. Next, how long does it take each charger to go from zero to 50% on a 65-watt charger? We definitely appreciated the chargers with actual percentage readings for this one. This one was the worst, which in this case is the longest amount of time, right? One hour and 44 minutes ended up being over three and a half hours for a full recharge. These three were pretty much all the same, just a couple of minutes difference to 50%. But then this recharged significantly faster, 50% in just 46 minutes, a full charge under an hour and a half, not too bad. Here's one more look at the results for the second test. Finally, how long does it take each charger to take a dead iPhone to 100% charge? We ran this test in increments of 25, 50, and 100%. Gonna start with the loser here. No surprise, really, it's the 5,000 milliampere battery. Respectable to 25 and 50%, but at 79%, it just had no more juice to give. This was actually the slowest charger in every single increment, taking nearly two hours and 20 minutes to fully juice the phone. But 44% left on the charger is interesting. The other three were not only the best, but pretty much the same with really just a few minutes difference at every marker. All also had about 40% left on the charger. So, are portable chargers under $20 actually worth it? Let's recap. Fast, lasts the longest, actually delivers. Amazon reviews did good on this one. Not fast, but reliable for a long charge, plus the integrated AC plug and cables are added convenience. Landed in the middle of pretty much every test. Another integrated cable here is nice. Another safe option. Basic is in the name and it's just that, boring even. Results were solid, but you need your own cables. No display, reliable, but no frills. As far as MagSafe chargers go, this is probably the best you'll find for the price, but don't expect it to be a real game changer when it comes to charging your phone. Overall, all turned out to be better than expected for the price. Cheap tech isn't all bad, but it can be inconsistent. And that's exactly what we're testing on Value Verified. Tell me what you want us to test next. The more suspiciously cheap, the better.