What I am packing this trip

#1

Off for 5 days trip, 2 6 hour flights and 5 hotel nights business trip, these are what gadgets I’m packing:

  • Phone - OnePlus 6, with its DASH charger and its cable, with ATT SIM
  • “laptop” - Huawei Mediapad M5 10.8"+ folio keyboard, with T-mobile SIM
  • LG Watch Urbane 2, with ATT MVNO Truphone LTE SIM in
  • Bose QC35 , for flights and for hotel
  • Anker Slim+ , for when moving around
  • Anker Powerport II 2, for charging Powercore, Bose, Slim+, laptop
  • An Aukey 12W tiny folding pins charger as backup charger or if I need more than 3 recharge ports (rare). Anker makes something similar now.
  • Anker Slim 5000, is good form factor for pockets, like recharging the Bose while moving.
  • Anker Powercore 10000 to get me to with the Slim 5000 to about 1300mAh which is my max need.
  • An Anker 6ft Powerline USB-C (laptop/phone to the Powerport)
  • A few misc shorter cables including MicroB to charge the Anker products :rage:
  • Anker Bolder LC40 (newer type) for emergencies (the odd hotel smoke alarm).

With 5 days clothes including to allow for rain and chilly weather takes up most of a 35L backpack the type which fits under most aircraft seat but easily over-head bins.

What I would have liked to have packed a little different, so for next time:

  • An Anker Powerport PD 4 port, doesn’t yet exist :frowning:
  • An Anker Powercore PD 13000-15000 2 or 3 port doesn’t yet exist :frowning:
  • An Anker USB-C NC like the Life NC but USB-C, doesn’t yet exist :frowning:
  • An Anker Powerline just a few different length USB-C, like a 6", a 12", a 3ft and a 6ft, some of them exist :no_mouth:

Includes shoe for scale, excludes phone taking the picture.

IMG_20190203_000400-1152x864.jpg1152×864 262 KB

Clockwise

  • shoe, for scale.
  • Marmot rain jacket
  • Montane rain pants
  • bag of toiletries (including toothbrush @fhassm )
  • Bose QC35 with Anker Powercore Slim 5000 in its external pouch, you can not really see it.
  • bag of clothes (5 days) inside of which is a PHD Minim vest which gets me to freezing weather, and men’s clothing.
  • a padded water resistant laptop case, I can carry a few items in this and last all day.
  • Huawei “laptop”
  • Oneplus DASH charger+cable, Anker Powerport II 2, Anker Powerline 6ft cable
  • Anker Powercore 10000, Aukey 12W, Anker LC40, 6 inch C cable, watch cable.
  • in the bag are some protein bars not shown and you can just see an REI 500ml bottle.

IMG_20190202_235950-864x1152.jpg864×1152 275 KB

IMG_20190203_012513-1088x816.jpg1088×816 206 KB

12 Likes
2019 Community T-Shirts Have Shipped!
#2

Nice! I see there’s lots of anker products on there!

#3

Sure would be nice to ditch the Micro USB cables for one USB-C–one Cable to rule them all (yes, I’m thinking of “Lord of the Rings” for some reason right now). I think on my last trip, I ended up taking 1 Micro for the PowerCore 10400 & Vortex, and (for some reason) 2 Lightning cables for my 1 iPhone.

2 Likes
#4

Yes, USB-C both ends cables are physically smaller. I am about to carry MicroB cables and a USB Type A chargers because Anker is stuck in the past. I am carrying a USB-A to MicroB cable to recharge my Powercore because… I am carrying that cable as I need it to recharge my Soundcore Slim+ and Anker has not yet made USB-C smaller Powercore and when you recharging many items concurrently you need a 3-5 port USB-C charger.

It’s all the little details like I learned to carry a flashlight, yes, the Anker MicroB recharged flashlight. They cause the MicroB cable to exist which then causes the USB Type A socket to exist, so then you need to carry a Type-A Powerport. Most of my Type-A needs are low wattage (e.g. a flashlight) but to recharge these all in parallel ends up needing many Type-A ports all the ports bigger, the cables bigger. If Anker would simply embrace Type-C at the product level I can then carry less A cables, need less A ports, and so the Powerport can be smaller.

1 Like
#5

Why not just either get the 3 in one cable or an adapter so you can use 1 type of cable and then the adapter? It would help cut down on clutter

3 Likes
#6

Is there some space left for a toothbrush? :joy:

2 Likes
#7

Good idea, I did think of that but all my longer cable needs are USB-C and its only shorter cable needs are MicroB, so its a few shorter A to micro and a longer A to C.

My 2017 vision of 2019 was not this, we’d have a 100W USB PD and it feeds a hub and then we’d have a laptop and phone and a powerbank and headphones all recharging off it. Anker is about half of the problem, the laptops, phones are not centralizing on a common charging tech is exasperating the challenge for Anker.

On the +ve side is I have about 48 hours of total gadget power, 3 phones and can handle the 'teens for a brief time.

Yes easily, I am annoyed as it didn’t fit in my 18L backpack. If you squint you can see a toothbrush in the bag on the right. Europe makes us place liquids in separate bags removes so that bag is for Europe trips.

Done. Edited original post.

1 Like
#8

Pics or it didn’t happen :stuck_out_tongue: That’s a lot of Anker goodies coming along on the trip. :slight_smile:

#9

I think you should get a bigger bag for travelling like a 60L…that’s what I use​:+1::wink:

#10

The smaller the bag the better, easier to carry on and you don’t have to have e it checked which cost more money. Plus it’s easier to just grab your bag and go when it’s smaller. You also only carry what you need and nothing more

2 Likes
#11

This bag is even bigger than that I use for a 4 week trip. :grin:
Not carrying such a lot of technical stuff! :joy:

But I have in mind to carry the RoboVac with me. :wink:

1 Like
#12

Love all the things you wish you could bring but youre doing pretty great with what you have

1 Like
#13

Just need some anker apparel :yum:

#14

I have the 3-in-1 cable from Anker, this is a life saver :smiley:

#15

I know. I usually use a 18L day sack but the Bose over-ear tip me over. The good news is 35L is lightly packed so it shapes easily to any luggage spot.

So imagine me stood behind passengers with their roller bags, what am I thinking.

#16

Indeed. The smaller the bag the better:

  • board last, no angst for luggage space
  • can change aircraft easily, including small aircraft.
  • easier in / out hotels, taxis.
  • if someone else has a legitimate need for more luggage, they have that space you did not take.

This is the biggest I carry when I am not carrying a tent.

The worst biggest luggage size is to pack for New York this time of year as it has a unique problem of it is rainy cool one day and freezing the next. It is actually less luggage to go to, say, Chicago, as it’s proper cold all the time, and down clothing is less volume packed than are waterproofs.

Nope. It will be undoubtedly be cheap cotton and cotton is the worst travel material. I use “one on, one in the wash, one ready to wear” method of a hotel sink of hot water and a bar of soap and its dry in a day or so dripping over shower. Cotton takes longer to dry. Wool and polycotton is easier to wash and dry. Once you get to 3 sets of clothing approach a 3 week trip is same luggage as a 3 day trip.

If Anker wants to pay me to design their apparel, I am cheap at $250/hour.

#17

I was always wondering what the “roller bags” are thinking when I show up with my rucksack! :joy:

Very easy to find it under all the “black business suitcases”.

Think I have to use this again when carrying the ZERO and the ROBOVAC. :joy:

1 Like
#18

Well - I pack totally different items … some books, my gameboy …clothes - and of course the toothbrush …The Robovac has to stay at home and do his work.

#19

Reminds me of the old style, knapsacks.

There was an Agatha Christie mystery done around diamond smuggling and a backpack like this (it was double lined, is all I’m saying)

#20

So back home now after 5 days. Tech worked / didn’t work.

Worked:

  • turned out I needed to spend like 8 hours a day on my “laptop” without power sockets nearby so the “laptop” good battery life and USB-C recharging off Powercore was the perfect answer.
  • often I’d have no opportunity to recharge at evening so I was like 14 hours between wall-charger so carrying Powercore to survive tech-heavy day was the perfect use case for Powercore.
  • one day I was carrying the laptop in that pouch with its charger/cables all day and its an easy light carry, so that’s like 14 hours tech-heavy usage in a small bag and devices nearly fully recharged still at bedtime.
  • on my flights I used the Bose QC35, worked fine and the Slim 5000 is a good flat form-factor recharger for the Bose in the taxi time between flights and bedtime.
  • the 6ft cable is perfect when distance to wall, like it worked well when in bed, laptop on my lap and plenty of cable length to the wall. That 6 inch cable is perfect for when just sat at a desk and put the Powercore next/under device with no desk clutter.
  • as I was on the offensive when stationary keeping Powercore connected to my devices (swapping between laptop, phone, watch), which meant when moving all my devices were nearly fully charged, I did get back to bed with nearly fully charged devices so I was continually safely with spare device power to handle any unexpectedly bad day (weather, etc) which did not happen.

Didn’t work:

  • I tried lasting a day with just carrying the Slim 5000. It barely lasted til lunchtime, 5000mAh was way too little. So I had to carry 10000mAh. If I had to rely on 5000mAh then my devices would be less charged by end of day and more vulnerable to (didn’'t happen) overnight issues. Then I hit the problem of Anker’s lack of USB-C everywhere. My cable I had to make the Slim 5000 recharge my phone / laptop could not be reversed to recharge the Slim 5000 as it did not have USB-C recharge port. I hadn’t packed that day a MicroB cable. So proof that Anker’s lack of USB-C input Slim 5000 causes adding a cable. This is a simple example of why Anker’s glacial lack of embracing USB-C when devices are USB-C is causing you to carry an extra cable just to compensate for Anker’s slowness in embracing USB-C.
  • The 10000mAh when it was used did last all day but it would be nearly empty and it is a slow recharger so it really does need 8 hours to recharge itself. This makes it a “just enough” product of its just-enough mAh for the day and just recharges fast enough to be fully charged the next day. The Powercore 10000 remains the densest, smallest, lightest for 10000mAh, hence in a just-enough it remains Anker’s best product when you’re carrying everything on your back. That is disappointing Anker has not improved on a 2 year old product.
  • I tried using both my Slim 5000 and the 10000 together one day, that meant I easily had spare mAh at end of the day but I didn’t have enough faster 12W ports for all the recharging of both Powercore and my devices at night. This meant I was actually needing that Aukey 12W (of which Anker makes what appears identical product now) just to get port count up to 5 to recharge them all and I was still wanting a 6th port because the 10000 was a slower recharger.
  • while 10000mAh is just enough carried energy it is a nuisance of 1 ports, I’d ideally like 2 or 3 ports so I can sit down with all devices kept charge and just unplug something when moving. I kind of got that with two Powercore but then that causes too few Powerport ports problem.

Conclusion: Nearly perfect, difficult to improve.

10000mAh just used by itself worked “just enough” and the Slim 5000 as spare mAh (I needed 10Ah) and good form factor at times. I don’t really see anything Anker is currently making would make it sufficiently better to spend a lot of $$$ on anything better. I’d ideally like say a 2 or 3 -port 10000 which recharged faster like of USB-PD off a 4-port USB PD, I’d still carry the Slim 5000 for form-factor situations and as spare power. But A slim 5000 with USB-C input and output and Anker selling USB-C input Soundcore would then make a full system. Such products nearly exist from Anker but recent releases they trade more ports for bigger size so its not clear overall if its any actually better. Anker’s shipping MicroB Soundcore products means I must carry a Powercore with Type-A ports which makes the Powercore bigger, and a cable for that.

So what means is Anker has not really, yet, made anything which is a game changer in technology for a few years now, if anything they are part of the problem holding everything back, every time they try to improve things they have worsened something else, the trade-offs are very slight and rarely worth upgrading from products which are still working perfectly fine.

Anker needs to:

  • ship Soundcore with USB-C
  • come up with smaller size USB-C Powercore
  • not dilly dally wait for smaller higher power Power Delivery USB-C multi-port products.
1 Like