Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank Review: Tough, but not indestructible

Powerbanks are nothing new, but Laser’s 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank is built a little different.

Pros	Cons
IP64 rated water resistance	USB port cover does not feel robust
USB-A and USB-C ports	You can get 10,000mAh power banks for less
Included torch works well	Power indicators are a bit simplistic

Score: 3/5

In this review

Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank Design
Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank Performance
Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank Conclusion

Design

Portable powerbanks can be incredibly useful, because while we’ve seen some solid improvements in battery performance over the years – even if you think your phone lasts no longer than the older models did, it’s doing a lot more with that power, for example – there will inevitably come that time when you’re stuck without power.

They are a bit dime a dozen, however, with casings and capacity typically the only way you’re going to tell them apart.

Then there’s the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank, which is actually a different style of powerbank, largely because it’s built with rugged outdoor pursuits in mind. You know, those places you might go where actual power sockets are relatively thin on the ground. If you’ve not been outdoors in a while, it is actually true that power sockets don’t grow on trees.

The issue with using a powerbank in a more outdoors sense is that most powerbanks aren’t all that rugged. The Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank boasts of having an IP64 rating, and it’s really important to understand what that covers (and what it doesn’t) before using it. If only somebody had written a guide to such matters… oh, look, here’s one:

Why your waterproof phone isn’t actually “waterproof” the way you think it is

If you don’t want to read through that full guide, IP64 means that the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank should be fully protected against dust, but it’s only covered for water ingress in terms of water splashes.

It should survive a little rain, but it would be really bad idea to go swimming with it at all, and dropping it in the ocean would almost certainly lead to its demise – and possibly the demise of any nearby fish, so don’t do that, OK?

Physically, the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank measures in at 123x62x28mm with a carrying weight of 203g, which basically means it’s like having another large-ish smartphone in your bag or pocket before heading outside.

Most of the powerbank is wrapped in textured rubber save for the rounded end – I’ve no idea why it’s not completely covered, but it isn’t – with a carabiner hook for attachment next to a small inbuilt flashlight at the top.

To the side of that sits the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank’s two power ports, hidden beneath a rubber protective flap. In terms of durability it’s my least favourite part of the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank, simply because it’s held on by an incredibly thin length of soft rubber.

I’ve not torn it off deliberately, but it does not feel robust, and it’s not hard to imagine it simply shearing off if pulled the wrong way, leaving both ports exposed. At that point I suspect the IP64 rating might be moot.

It’s also worth noting that while it has a level of stated water resistance, there’s no claims made about shock/drop resistance here at all. The rubber coating would probably help it survive small drops – I’m not keen on starting fires, so I’ve not been brutalising it with a hammer, to be clear – but this isn’t a totally ruggedised unit, just a slightly more robust one.

Performance

The Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank isn’t just a powerbank, but also a small torch, which is an interesting addition to this kind of gadget. Accessing the torch is managed via a side button that also acts as the on/off button for checking capacity (more on this shortly). A short press shows you the power, while a longer press turns the torch on. Once it’s on, short presses of the power button cycle through three brightness settings, as well as an SOS flashing pattern.

This isn’t some high-intensity beam that’ll save you when the horror movie villain comes calling, mind you. It’s more of a simple lower-intensity torch, but the idea here is at least sound, because if the powerbank has power, it’s also got scope to act as a simple nighttime illuminator.

The Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank has a stated capacity of 10,000mAh, delivered either via a USB-A port (output only) or USB-C port, though that also does double duty as the input port for charging. You get a simple USB-C to USB-C charging cable in the box, and that’s your lot.

10,000mAh is a respectable battery capacity, but quite how long it will last depends on what you’re charging with it. I tested across a range of gadgets; smartphones are an obvious target and I had few issues with Samsung, Google, Apple and Motorola phones taking a charge from the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank.

It’s also rated for Power Delivery at up to 30W, which raises the prospect of using it to top up more power-hungry gadgets such as laptops. I had my doubts here, because I’ve hit some power banks in the past that state that they’ll do this kind of activity, only to find that the laptops I had to test with were less than interested in viewing them as suitable power sources.

The Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank managed well enough across both a MacBook Air M2, which stated that it wasn’t charging from it, though it did in fact take on a couple of percentage points of battery capacity while using it, as well as the HP Omnibook Ultra Flip that I’ve got in for testing at the moment. That protested that the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank was a low-power device and suggested using a more appropriate charger… but it too did work, although not for that long.

The rub with using a powerbank for this kind of activity is that the batteries in most laptops are considerably larger than those found in smartphones or other small gadgets; as an example adding just three percent battery capacity to the HP Omnibook Ultra Flip used around half of the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank’s battery capacity… ish.

I have to use imprecise language like “ish” there, because the capacity meter on the Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank would be Jean-Luc Picard’s favourite; there are just four lights to show how much battery capacity you’ve got left.

I’m not a huge fan of this approach because it at best gives you a by-quarter rundown of how much power you’ve got, and of course if you’ve only got one light left, there could be 1% or 24%, and you’ll only know when it runs out. I very much do prefer power banks with LED or LCD numerical indicators on them.

Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank:
Alex’s Verdict

The Laser 10,000mAh Outdoor Activity Powerbank is very much a niche tool for a specific kind of purpose. If you just want a regular powerbank, there are simply too many of those to possibly list, and many of them can be yours for less than the asking price of this unit.

However, if you do want a powerbank that’s slightly more robust than most competing units, and you’ve also got scope to make use of its limited torch, then this could be a good option for you.

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