Review: CUKTECH's 45W 20,000mAh power bank is affordable, fast, versatile, convenient

CUKTECH, a name familiar since 2016 with products that keep your gadgets charged through the day. I received two power bank models, the 10 and the 45W, the latest release offering some unique features that I have not seen implemented this conveniently on a power bank before at this price range.

The 10 shown above (model: PB100P), a 150W power bank with a display offering 10,000mAh of capacity, has been with me the longest and proven to be the quirkiest with what appears to be an inconsistent and fast battery drain.

The original sample was replaced by CUKTECH quickly, though the replacement also seems to drain too quickly. Investigations regarding this issue are still ongoing, and a review of the 10 on its own will be done once this is resolved. A shame because the 10 has some cool display features, such as showing individual port charge metrics, data that gadget-geeks like me live for.

The 45W is the one in focus here, though, and CUKTECH sent both colour options, grey and white, and I have to say, even though I rarely opt for white on gadgets, this one does look rather cool:

Both power banks are competitively priced, with the 10 coming in at £33.99 plus a 15% discount and the 45W coming in at £21.95 plus a 20% discount at the time of writing.

The 45W gives itself away as to how fast it charges, whilst the 10 offers up to 150W of power output when a single device is plugged in.

Specifications

I've made a few key bits in the specs table bold, as they were initial anomalies that I found interesting. These specs are taken from the back of the box which clearly states a 55W output and 40W input, the input marries up with what's online, even on the Amazon page for the power bank, but the output power shows a 10W discrepancy. I have asked CUKTECH to clarify this difference, and this is what they said:

"... We state 55W because our product supports Xiaomi's protocol and can deliver up to 55W of power when charging Xiaomi devices. We are the only brand, apart from Xiaomi itself, that supports Xiaomi's proprietary ultra-fast charging protocol.

However, since there aren't many Xiaomi users in the UK and US, so we haven't heavily promoted this feature.’

Also worth noting is the rated capacity versus capacity. This discrepancy exists due to energy conversion rates, and this topic was discussed in Reddit's Eli5 community a while ago. The comments explain the how and the why.

Build quality

The 45 is a sealed device, there is no way safely to open it up to see how it's built on the inside, but what I can say is that it is solidly built with a lot of heft which is expected given its 20k capacity.

The integrated cable doubles as a loop whereby the USB-C jack slots into a recess, allowing the cable to act as a hanging loop, perfect for outdoor use to charge devices that rely on battery power but don't have easy access to a hard-wired power source, though keep in mind the 45 is not IPX rated, so do not use in adverse conditions for obvious reasons.

The quality of the ports is also of good quality. The Type-C port does have a little bit of play when wiggling a connected cable, and no extra cables are supplied with the 45, so be sure to have compatible cables for the intended charging speeds needed on a per-device basis, a general all-rounder that I have found to work across the board is an Anker Powerline.

At 489g in weight, it's not exactly light, but it is perfectly pocketable. I had no problem putting it into one of the inside pockets on my gilet when out and about, and of course, it's easy to sling into a side bag or backpack.

There is a single button to activate the display to view the battery capacity. When charging, the display is always on and incrementing the capacity. When not charging, the display will go to sleep after several seconds.

Performance

I have been using this with several phones and devices, from my Galaxy S24 Ultra to Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and even a phone I have in for review with a 10,100mAh battery, the DOOGEE S200.

The Pixel received the most cable time, though, and typically I was seeing the 45 charge the 5060mAh battery from 1% to 100% leaving the LED battery remaining indicator displaying 69%, a figure that roughly fits in with its realistic rated figure in the specs table above.

CUKTECH's marketing claims that it can charge a Galaxy S24 Ultra 2.9 times, and my results point to this being a safe claim.

I was able to verify this result by charging the DOOGEE's 10,100mAh battery from 50% to 100%, leaving the CUKTECH with 68% remaining at the end, matching (within variance) the range reached after the charging test on the Pixel 9 Pro XL immediately prior.

The S24 Ultra can reach the maximum 45W power draw from the power bank, yet it never really felt like it got too warm to the touch during a charge cycle.

Even charging the bank itself via a 45W wall wart (40W draw) didn't warm up the housing much. Thermal control appears to be well-engineered on this.

There is not much else to benchmark here; the maximum charge rate of 45W is exclusive to one device that is connected and compatible with that rate. Plug in two devices, and that rate drops considerably as the load is shared. This is typical of all power banks, regardless of whether the other device connected only supports the slowest speeds available.

To get the lowdown on what the charge rates end up being if you do decide to charge more than one device at a time, then the below diagram visualises it perfectly:

So, if you want to make use of fast-charging beyond 15W per port, then only have the fast-charge device plugged in!

Conclusion

The CUKTECH 45 is a simple power bank that offers good charging speeds, consistent capacity performance and a level of versatility that other power banks do not, and the fact that it is so cost-effective puts it high up on my list of tech to recommend to friends and family.

It's a shame that model 10 appears to have issues with unusual battery drain, but at the same time, I am happy to see that the cheaper and larger capacity model has no such problem.

This has been one of the easiest products to review, as there are very few cons. If I was nitpicking, then I could point to its 40W input power only instead of 45W or even 55W when using a Xiaomi charger since it outputs 55W to those devices, but it's a small variance to complain about, given the price.

The fixed cable could potentially prove a problem down the line if it ever gets damaged as there is no way to replace it, and whilst the cable and the housing feel very tough, no product like this is indestructible.

Perhaps it could have also come with some rubber anti-slip pads on the underside so it doesn't move around when on a flat surface, although these can be bought for single-digit currencies on Amazon if desired.

Solid build quality, 45W PD charging to a compatible device, high capacity, fixed cable loop, can't complain really.