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Meet the wall charger that's also a power bank

This is a wall charger that can charge up your phone when the power goes out, and a power bank that's always ready to go.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor

Some gadgets make me wonder how I managed without them. Take the Anker PowerCore III Fusion 5K. The wall charger meets power bank.

Sounds like an odd idea, right? It's actually a genius idea.

Note: The one I was sent for review is the UK version with the UK/Singapore plug on it, which is bigger and bulkier than the US plug.

Here you have a wall charger with dual 18W USB-C and 12W USB-A ports combined with a 4850mAh power bank in a package that fits comfortably in the palm of your hand (it's 3.15 x 1.18 x 2.81-in and weighs in at 8.6oz).

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Anker PowerCore III Fusion 5K

The built-in battery is good enough for a single recharge of modern smartphones such as the iPhone 11, Samsung S10, or Google Pixel 4, taking about 2 hours. The built-in battery takes about 2.5 hours to charge up from zero to 100 percent.

The dual outputs can both run simultaneously, and there's also a trickle-charging mode designed specifically for low-power devices such as Bluetooth earphones (amazing what you learn by reading the instructions!).

There is a caveat though worth bearing in mind. You only get fast 18W USB-C charging if it is plugged into an outlet, otherwise you only get 15W split between the two ports.

The charger when connected to the outlet will recharge devices attached to it before recharging itself.

I love this because it offers me the best of all worlds. I have a wall charger that keeps on working even if my power has gone out (admittedly not a common occurrence, but this has caught me out a couple of times), and I also have a power bank that fully charged and ready to go at a moment's notice.

And I love it that there's no cable to lose (even if the UK plug is bulky compared to the US offering, but that's not Anker's fault).

The PowerCore III Fusion 5K comes with a smart carry pouch and a worry-free 18-month warranty. 

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