The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, happens every January in Las Vegas. It is the showplace of new product announcements and is the largest convention exhibit on Earth. The show is so large I learned that there are no other convention center outside of Las Vegas big enough to house all the exhibitors. Imagine the biggest show or sporting event or concert you ever went to…now multiply that by 10!
CES showcases everything from new cars to new televisions to new digital health inventions and is my favorite show to attend. While many of my colleagues talk in negative terms about the vastness, tiredness and noisiness of CES – I love it! Where else can you see a device that prints designs directly on fingernails, to drones that replace fireworks, to tiny arcade systems that fit on your shelf, to foldable computers – all within 15 feet of each other! Answer: nowhere else.
This year, I’ll be attending CES to launch some new innovative smarthome devices that can prevent water damage to homes, automatically arm and disarm a professional security system, and meet with partners who use Wi-Fi signals to automate lights, detect falls and calculate respiration rates.
For the first time, I’ll produce a quick video montage of My Greatest Finds at CES 2023 for our YouTube channel, and I need to be prepared. I already have the lightweight camera, wireless microphone, tripod, memory cards, and travel bag, but I realized one big problem I needed to solve first. Power!
You see, with more than 100,000 people using their cell phones, and with all the Wi-Fi networks that are set up at the show, a typical mobile phone constantly hunts for reception and wireless networks and this drains a phone’s battery in half the time as normal. Likewise, shooting video uses power and open outlets are very hard to come by.
I did a bunch of homework on the type of power bank to bring with me. My requirements: it had to have at least a 5,000 mAh battery, be lightweight, deliver at least 30W of power, and have two or more USB-C ports. After researching many, many options I decided that I needed a device which could also function as a charger to directly charge my iPad and iPhone and eliminate one other device to carry.
After all this research, I’m happy to say that I found the best option available: The Anker 733 Power Bank.
This one 11 oz device does everything I mentioned above, while also powering a MacBook up to 65W (when plugged in). So when I get to the hotel, I’ll plug the Anker 733 into the wall and it will charge my devices while simultaneously charging its internal battery. Then when I’m off to the show, I’ll unplug the Anker 733, drop it in my bag, connect the cables to my camera and DJI mic to top off those batteries while I explore the vast show floors.
Keep watching this space for more updates. I’ll let you know what I discover and how well the Anker 733 Power Bank performed.
Here are a couple of other types of power banks that you may also be interested in: