One of the most annoying things about the Nintendo Switch is the mediocre battery life that Nintendo went for on the device. You can get about three and a half hours of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before you need to recharge, which isn’t too bad for a portable console-quality game. That’s not too bad, but it’s also not great if you have a job with a lot of downtime or a big commute.
We reached out to RAVPower to ask them if their 26,800mAh USB-C power bank would be able to charge the Nintendo Switch while it’s playing and they were gracious enough to send us a review unit to perform a bunch of tests with the Nintendo Switch. We’ve had the power bank for about two weeks now and we’ve performed various tests to determine how well it works with the Switch.
Test #1: Play Time
For this test, I wanted to see how long I could keep the Switch continuously running while it’s attached to a power bank. I used a small piece of flexible wire to hold the right analog joy-stick at a slight angle so the screen wouldn’t ever go off and set up my phone’s timer to see how well the Switch could last.
I recharged the power bank each night for five nights so I could have five samples of time to determine how well the power pack was able to keep the Nintendo Switch running. Here’s our times:
- Day 1: 9 hours 41 minutes
- Day 2: 10 hours 21 minutes
- Day 3: 10 hours 48 minutes
- Day 4: 9 hours 58 minutes
- Day 5: 10 hours 11 minutes
The average of our test times is about 9 hours and 58 minutes, which means this power bank will give you around 10 hours of charge time each day. It’s also interesting to note that the power bank will give you a decent charge while you’re playing the device, while the Anker power bank we tested provided only a trickle charge.
Test #2: Number of Charges
The next test I wanted to run was to see how many times I could charge the Nintendo Switch from the power bank before I have to re-charge the power bank itself. These power banks are so massive that they take about 10 hours to re-charge themselves, so making sure you have plenty of power is definitely a priority.
Once again, I timed the time it took to charge the Nintendo Switch from 0% to 100% using just the power bank. It takes about two and a half hours to fully charge the Nintendo Switch and you can get about 3 full charges of the device before you’ll need to recharge the power bank itself.
Overall, I was highly pleased with the performance of this power bank, especially because it has additional ports so you can charge controllers and other accessories with you. Tossing one of these in my bag while I’m on the go is the best way to assuage low power fears for smartphone users and thanks to the USB-C port on the Nintendo Switch, you can now charge and play at the same time!
Should I Get One?
Since RAVPower offered us their latest power bank to test with the Nintendo Switch, they also provided a 20% off discount code for any of our readers who are interested in picking up this power bank to use with the Nintendo Switch. It normally retails for $79.99 on Amazon, but you can use code RAVPB058 to save $16 off that price for a final price of $63.99.
If the 26,800mAh power bank is a bit too large for your blood, RAVPower also offers a 20,100mAh power bank that’s a little cheaper on your wallet. You can get a discount on this power bank too by using the code RAVPB043 at checkout. This power bank retails for $49.99, but you save $10 with the code for a final price of $39.99.
Both of these discount codes will be available until April 14th, so you have a few days to decide if you want to take advantage of these deals.
