When it comes to power banks, often at times you need to carry around another cable and charger to charge it, when the juice runs out. Most of them use micro USB to charge, so that’s generally not an issue, at least for Android users. However, TYLT aims to fix that with their ENERGI 6K Smart Charger. We’ve been using it for a little over a week now, so it’s time to give some thoughts on how good or not so good the ENERGI 6K Smart Charger from TYLT really is. TYLT’s products are always high-end. When you pick up a product from TYLT it definitely does not feel cheap, and it feels very premium and especially when compared to some of their competitors. TYLT’s products are also designed here in the US (and as usual they are manufactured over in China). We’ve been able to review all sorts of products from them, including car chargers and a Qi Wireless charger, which I absolutely love. Among other items like car chargers, a Qi Wireless Car dock and more. Will the ENERGY 6K Smart Charger continue that trend? Let’s find out in the full review.
Now the TYLT ENERGI 6K Smart Charger is available in two models and two colors. It comes in a blue and a slate color. The two models are either micro USB or Lightning. Now these have embedded cables, so the micro USB version is identical to the Lightning aside from that embedded cable. So if you use both iOS and Android, picking up either model will be just fine. Although the Lightning model is $10 more at $79.99. Both the Lightning and Micro USB models are available in blue and slate, it’s not one for one model and another color for the other. The ENERGI 6K has a built in wall adapter. Which is pretty unique, to say the least. You’re able to plug in the ENERGI 6K Smart Charger into the wall and then plug your phone into it at the same time. Pretty convenient. The power button, which is located on the front in the lower right-hand corner, has an LED light to show you that the charger is on. It does change colors letting you know it’s either charging or discharging when in use. Unfortunately it does not show you how much battery is left.
The smart charger is made of a soft-touch material. It feels really nice in the hand, and like I said earlier, it feels nice and premium. It’s also pretty compact. You can stick it in your bag, and likely will not be able to find it later as it is pretty small. I’ve tossed it into one of the pockets of my Timbuk2 Messenger bag, and it fits perfectly. So it’s not floating around at the bottom of my bag when traveling, and can be found easily, when needed to charge my smartphone or another device. On the bottom of the ENERGI 6K, you’ll find the embedded micro USB cable. Now it’s not a long one, but it is enough in case you don’t want to carry an extra cable. Now since I carry a Nexus 6P, I wasn’t able to use the micro USB cable to charge my device, seeing as it uses a USB Type-C connector. However, that’s why we have a full size USB port here. Which you can use your USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable to charge your Nexus 6P (or if you have the Nexus 5X, OnePlus 2 or Chromebook Pixel). So it’s a bit of an inconvenience, but not too bad. As it is still usable. We should see more chargers in the next year or so that sport USB Type-C connectors, at least that is the expectation.
Compared to a number of other power banks or portable chargers that are available out there right now, the TYLT ENERGI 6K Smart Charger’s capacity is a bit low, coming in at just 6,000 mAh. During the time that I used the ENERGI 6K, I can say that it was enough to charge my Nexus 6P almost two full times. And that’s roughly from about 15% to 100%. Now it doesn’t have Quick Charge 2.0 or any other quick charging feature, so the ENERGI 6K does take a bit to charge up the Nexus 6P, and it will do the same for other smartphones as well, unfortunately. So it’s enough to get you through a day or maybe two days, but it doesn’t have a big enough capacity for you to just toss in your bag and use it all week long, unfortunately. However, it does charge up pretty quick, coming in at just over 2 hours. That’s the amount of time that most smartphones take to charge – that don’t have any sort of Quick Charge technology included. So not bad at all, and you can easily just plug it in at night and then plug your phone into it and charge both of them at the same time.
The ENERGI 6K Smart Charger is an interesting product. It’s a great idea, especially having the wall port included in the smart charger, so you don’t need another cable to charge the thing. However, at the price that TYLT is asking for this one, it’s a bit tough to recommend it really. The Micro USB version is going for $69.99 and the Lightning version is going for $79.99 from TYLT’s online store right now (they aren’t currently available on Amazon). If it were a higher capacity, say around 15,000 or even 20,000 mAh, then it’d be a fantastic buy for that price. But with it just having 6,000 mAh of juice inside – not even double what the Nexus 6P has – it’s a tough sell. TYLT does know how to make a great looking product and a premium product out of accessories. And if you have money burning a whole in your pocket, I’d definitely recommend this to you, but with the thousands of other options available (literally thousands) out there, it’s tough to recommend hands down.
