Anker 737 Power Bank Review: When 630g Is Worth It

Quick verdict: the 737 is the right power bank if you genuinely charge a laptop away from power — air travel, conferences, fieldwork, long days out. It is the wrong power bank for almost everyone else, because it weighs around 630g and a phone-only user is carrying a brick for no reason.

What it solves: charging a laptop at full speed when there is no outlet available.

How we reviewed this

Documentation-based review of Anker’s published specifications. We have not measured capacity or output with test equipment, so every figure quoted is the manufacturer’s stated figure rather than a measurement we performed. We publish no star rating.

What is documented

Where it is genuinely excellent

The 86.4Wh capacity is the correctly chosen number. It sits just under the 100Wh threshold that most airlines allow in carry-on luggage without approval. A larger cell would trigger the approval process and a smaller one would not charge a laptop twice. This is a specification designed by someone who understood the constraint.

140W from a single port is the feature that matters. Most banks in this class advertise a large total output and deliver a fraction of it from any one port. The 737’s ability to put 140W through one USB-C port is what makes laptop charging realistic rather than a slow trickle.

The wattage display removes all doubt. Seeing exactly what each device is drawing settles the “why is this charging slowly” question instantly. It is the most-praised feature among owners and the least-emphasised one in the marketing.

Remaining capacity is shown numerically. Knowing the bank is at 42% before a flight is far more useful than a four-dot indicator that could mean anything.

Where it makes real compromises

630g is heavy. This is the central trade-off. Carried in a backpack all day it is noticeable; carried occasionally in a travel bag it is not. If your laptop rarely leaves a desk, this weight buys you nothing.

It needs a fast charger to refill quickly. The bank accepts up to 140W input, which is excellent — provided you own a 140W charger. Refilling it from a standard 30W phone charger takes most of a day, and this is the most common source of buyer disappointment.

A 16-inch workstation still outruns it under load. 140W covers a 14-inch laptop comfortably. A large workstation drawing more than that under heavy sustained work will still lose battery slowly while connected.

Three ports but shared output. Plugging in multiple devices divides the available power, so charging a laptop and two phones simultaneously means each gets less. Read the simultaneous output figures if you plan to charge everything at once.

Who should buy it

• Travellers with a thin laptop who want a full charge away from an outlet
• Remote workers and field engineers who cannot rely on finding power
• Anyone who wants certainty about what is charging, via the wattage display
• Households with several USB-C devices and one shared high-wattage charger

Who should skip it

• Phone-only users, who should buy something pocket-sized
• Anyone unwilling to carry 630g
• Buyers with no fast charger, for whom refills will be painfully slow
• Users of 16-inch workstations under sustained heavy load, who need wall power

Alternatives worth considering

• A 10,000mAh bank with 20W output — for phones and earbuds, and it fits in a pocket
• A 20,000mAh bank with 65W output — a middle ground: lighter, still able to charge a thin laptop slowly
• A second laptop charger left at the destination — cheaper and lighter than a bank, if you always return to the same place

Charging & Power

Anker 737 Power Bank

86.4Wh, 140W through one port, and a display that answers every charging question. Worth the weight only if a laptop is involved.

The bottom line

The 737 is a well-specified product built around one constraint — the 100Wh airline limit — and it respects that constraint rather than ignoring it. Where it succeeds is in delivering enough power through a single port to charge a real laptop, which most banks in this class cannot do.

The question is not whether it is good. It is whether you carry a laptop. If you do, the weight is justified. If you do not, buy something a third of the size.