The Belkin BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger fuses a wall plug and battery pack in one with very good results — but that comes with a premium price for the power on offer.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 25W PD plugged in power works across a lot of devices | Unlikely to work with some high-power laptops |
| Plug transforms into 5,000mAh 20W charger on the go | 5,000mAh isn’t a lot of power |
| Multiple plug heads included make it a good match for international travellers | Expensive for the battery capacity alone |
Score: 3.5/5
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Buy the Belkin BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger! | Buy On Amazon |
As a rule, I don’t typically review plugs.
They’re just a bit too simple; put charge end of plug into device, put plug into wall, switch power on, go. That’s not much of a review, is it?
The Belkin BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger + Power Bank 5K with Travel Adapter Kit is – as that lengthy name suggests – not quite just a wall plug, even though it’s shaped like one.
It’s a fascinating hybrid of a portable power bank and 25W PD capable charger in one, an idea that feels obvious in retrospect.
But is it any good? Read on.
Design
There’s certainly little that feels all that special about the Belkin BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger + Power Bank 5K with Travel Adapter Kit’s design – and if you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to call it the BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger from now on, because even copying and pasting that astonishingly long name is tiring to my keyboard.
The BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger ships as a plain plug measuring in at 6x13x11cm and weighing in at 174 grams, a little heavier than you might expect for a plug of this size.
At its base you’ll find a power button and USB A and USB C type sockets, though only a USB C to USB C cable is provided in the box.
What you also get – and the reason it gets the “Travel Adapter Kit” bit at the end of its name – are an array of click-on/click-off type plug heads.
I’ve lost track of the number of gadgets I’ve bought and tested over the years that have come with multiple plug heads in them for shipping convenience, but here it’s a distinct feature, because the idea is that at home, I’d have the standard Australian plug in place, but if travelling I could swap that for UK, US or EU plug ends as needed.
Performance
When plugged into a wall socket, the BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger can deliver power at up to 25W, compliant with the PD standard.
What’s PD, I hear you ask? It’s the Power Delivery standard, essentially a set of rules that compliant electrical equipment uses to ensure safe and adequate charging. If you’ve ever plugged in a portable power pack to a device only to have it refuse to charge, it’s likely that it’s because it wasn’t PD compliant.
25W PD isn’t the top of the range, but it does allow it to power up a decent array of devices. Any smartphone on the market (as long as you remember to pack the right cable) will take a charge from it without worry up to 25W, though older and slower devices won’t boost above their maximum rates just because they’re charged in. For newer devices that support fast charging standards, you should see power flow through very rapidly indeed.
Taking it a little further, I was also able to happily charge a Nintendo Switch Lite from it, a Google Pixel Tablet, and even the Macbook Air M2 that I’m writing this review on.
The 25W limit may not suit all laptops that can take USB power, however, so your experience may vary.Unplugging the BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger leaves it in battery mode, where its 5,000mAh battery kicks into play with a maximum output of 20W.
The same range of devices were happy enough to take power from the BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger for as long as they could, but the catch here is that your higher capacity devices can drain that 5,000mAh battery relatively quickly.That’s just the balance between physics and producing a wall plug that didn’t weigh a whole lot more, essentially.
You could make a 10,000mAh version that would still pass the test for most airlines, but it would weigh a whole lot more, which might also have implications for how well it sat in some wall sockets, too.
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Belkin BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger + Power Bank 5K with Travel Adapter Kit: Alex’s Verdict
The BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger delivers on its promises, which is great to see. If you’re in need of a wall charger and intermittent portable charging, it’s a mostly easy recommendation.
If it’s so good, why am I saying mostly easy?
Because the one catch here is the asking price.
Here in Australia, the BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger’s RRP is $119.95, which is on the higher side for a 5,000mAh battery pack, no matter how you slice it.
If the portable battery side of matters is more what excites you, it’s not hard to get one of those for less – indeed, the previously reviewed Belkin BoostCharge Magnetic Wireless Power Bank 5K + Stand costs half the price of the BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger.
If you can get enough use out of it as an at home or in-office charger and then portable small battery on the go, however, it’s a great little gadget.
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Buy the Belkin BoostCharge Hybrid Wall Charger! | Buy On Amazon |
