I thought power banks were basically finished.
Make them smaller. Give them more capacity. Add faster USB-C charging. Stick a screen on the side. Add magnetic wireless charging. Maybe build the cable into the body so I don't have to dig through my bag looking for one.
What else could you possibly do?
Apparently, put liquid cooling inside one.
UGREEN has introduced the MagFlow Pro Magnetic Power Bank, a 10,000mAh magnetic power bank with something called CryoPulse. This isn't just a fancy name for a metal heatsink either. There is an actual micro-pump circulating coolant inside the power bank, and UGREEN even added a transparent window so you can watch it moving. (IFA Exhibitor News)
I have been playing with gadgets long enough to remember when a power bank was basically a chunky battery with a USB-A port. Now we're talking about cooling systems that sound like they belong inside a gaming PC.
And I kind of love it.
There is a real reason behind the madness. Wireless charging generates heat, and faster wireless charging generates even more of it. The MagFlow Pro supports Qi2 25W wireless charging, so managing that heat becomes increasingly important if you want charging speeds to remain consistent instead of throttling as temperatures rise. (UGREEN US)
UGREEN claims its cooling system can reduce peak temperatures by as much as 10°C compared with its stated industry reference. Those are manufacturer testing figures, so I'd want to see independent testing before getting too excited about the numbers. But the engineering idea itself makes sense. (IFA Exhibitor News)
The rest of the power bank is fairly serious too. There's a 10,000mAh battery, up to 45W wired output, a built-in USB-C cable that doubles as a carrying strap, and a display showing charging information. (UGREEN Official Site)
But nobody is going to talk about the strap.
They're going to talk about the tiny liquid-cooling system inside their power bank.
And this is what I find interesting about gadgets right now.
For a while, consumer technology started becoming a little predictable. Phones became rectangles with better cameras. Chargers became smaller. Power banks became thinner. Every year brought improvements, but fewer things made me stop and say, wait, they actually built that?
A liquid-cooled power bank does.
Is it necessary for everyone? Probably not.
Is it slightly ridiculous? Absolutely.
But I'd rather see manufacturers experimenting with strange engineering ideas than another power bank whose biggest innovation is being 3mm thinner.
After 20 years of playing with gadgets, the weird stuff is often what makes technology fun again.
More weird gadgets, please.
Reference: UGREEN MagFlow Pro and CryoPulse technology