EcoFlow Rapid Magnetic Power Bank 10000mAh Review

Introduction

EcoFlow is mainly known for its power station batteries; the kind you might get to ward against a power cut at home. The EcoFlow Rapid is much more of an everyday portable power bank. 

You get 10,000mAh capacity, up to 65W output and 15W wireless charging too, with Qi2 support. And some of the design quirks are smart, or at least cute.

With the power and capacity to jump between phones, laptops and other devices, it’s handy. But its charging versatility could be better, and I had trouble getting the wireless pad to charge close to its maximum speed. Is this one of the best power banks? Let’s find out.

Design

• 275g weight
• Plastic metallic finish
• Integrated kickstand

The EcoFlow Rapid is a battery bank of two faces, in an entirely positive way. 

Look at it from its silvery side and the EcoFlow Rapid seems much like an ordinary mid-size battery bank. It’s a brick, but one small enough to comfortably fit in a coat pocket. It’ll squeeze into jeans pockets too, not that you’d want to keep one there all day. 

However — and it took me a while to realise this — the shiny silver part under the screen flicks out from the body, to turn into a stand. 

This makes sense when you flip the EcoFlow Rapid over to reveal its wireless charger pad, the border of which is marked by a circle pattern. 

A slickly hidden stand earns the EcoFlow Rapid some design points. But I’m not 100% in love with the outer design. My main complaint is that while the screen’s chrome-like translucent finish looks good, it is very scratch-prone. Glossy finish plus soft plastic and no bundled carry case? Trouble is ahead. 

I’ve tried to treat the EcoFlow Rapid kindly, having encountered similar designs before. But, sure enough, it has already picked up a few annoying light scratches that the finish highlights. 

The kickstand below the screen is metal, and while it doesn’t have a heavy-duty hinge, it does feel moderately sturdy. Just don’t let any unruly kids’ fingers get too near it. 

The main part of the body is a fairly unassuming dully metallic silver plastic that apes the look of anodised aluminium. And the rear wireless panel part has a rubbery surface. This provides some handy friction when the EcoFlow Rapid is sat on a table, and if you use it more like a phone dock while charging wirelessly. 

One warning: when used “portrait” (as designed for iPhone use), just one corner of the sharp kickstand rests on the table/surface on which you put the EcoFlow Rapid. I can picture this thing leaving scratches or gouges in a softer wood table.

There are just two cabled power connectors here, and one is built-in. A short 5cm-ish cable slots into the top of the casing, so you don’t need to bring a cable as well as the battery. 

An additional USB-C sits on the side, and both are “in/out” connectors. This means they can be used to charge the EcoFlow Rapid or to charge other devices. 

Features

• (Entirely optional) phone app
• Custom “screensavers”
• “Find My” feature with beeper

The screen is my favourite part of the EcoFlow Rapid. It’s delightfully nerdy, and leans into the low resolution of the panel with a stylised blocky look. 

When charging the EcoFlow Rapid you’ll see an estimate of its charge level to the hundredth of a percent. And the wattage output when charging something else. 

It’s only a tiny little screen, but that kinda-scratch-prone translucent top surface hides its borders. 

Download the EcoFlow phone app and you can also draw your own “screensaver” graphic, which appears briefly as the display times out. There are presets too. 

The app setup process is a little convoluted, forcing you to make an account. But this does make some sense when EcoFlow’s catalogue is full of far larger, more expensive and more feature-packed battery units than the little Rapid. 

It connects over Bluetooth, and you can even use it to find the charger, although the little bleeper inside this battery is so quiet you’ll be hard-pressed to hear it until you get fairly close. 

Performance

• Capacity and charge speed match claims
• Limited support for other charge standards
• Poor multi-device charging speed
• Issues with wireless charging at full speed

The EcoFlow Rapid is a 10000mAh power bank (a 5000mAh version is also available). It took 45.36Wh to fully charge the battery, which is 12259mAh assuming 3.7V, currently used as the industry standard voltage measure for these devices.

It took around 80 minutes to fully charge the thing, although as usual, the last few percent dribbles in slowly. After an hour, it was already at 94%. It does hit 65W when being charged, as promised, for at least the first 25%. Then it drops down to around 45W, then 30W (at around 75% charge). 

When charging other devices with the non-integrated connector, I found it can reach 60W output too, as long as whatever you’re charging supports 20V input. In theory, it should reach 65W, but I found devices were unable to sip that extra bit of current.

Still, 60W is enough to comfortably charge most slim and light laptops at near full (or full) speed, although some of Anker’s higher-end batteries (like the Anker Prime) can reach 100W. 

It’s not great at managing the charge level of more than one device, though. When I tried plugging in a MacBook Air and a phone, each only received around 7W. I also tried a more power-hungry Windows laptop, and while it charged at 60W just fine on its own, when the battery was also plugged into a phone, the laptop wouldn’t draw any charge at all. 

Judging by what I’ve seen, it looks like the outputs are limited to 5V when two things are connected to the EcoFlow Rapid. And 15W output is the shared maximum. The 60W reserve isn’t shared out with anything like the flexibility you might expect. 

There are limits on charge output while charging the battery itself too. I saw it reach 14W (around 20% speed) charging speed while outputting 6.8W to a phone. But the EcoFlow would sometimes refuse to output any power at all while charging, generally with laptops that will only accept a higher level of input before actually commencing charging. 

This stuff can be annoying, but it’s an attempt to prevent the EcoFlow Rapid from getting too hot, which could shorten its lifespan. 

The EcoFlow Rapid sucked up 45.36Wh of power when charging, and I found it outputs 35.42Wh to actual devices. This suggests efficiency of a solid but not remarkable 78%. I’ve seen a few in this category just tip over 80%. It equates to an output of 9572mAh when talking about the conventional 3.7V gadget voltage standard. 

As such, it will easily charge a phone from flat to full, and may get you around 50% charge of the average laptop. 

And on the wireless side? The EcoFlow Rapid’s Qi2 pad is rated for 15W output and, unlike some models, you don’t need to press a button to activate wireless charging. It’s smart enough to work out when it’s required and do the job itself, although you can disable it too.

The magnets on the back are easily strong enough to clasp an iPhone securely (they won’t do so for other devices). But the most I saw my test iPhone draw was 8.9W, not the hoped-for 15W. The same was true for other phones that support higher-rate wireless charging too.

Also, keep your expectations in check for phones that have faster charging but don’t use the USB-PD standard. I tried an Honor phone and a Huawei phone, both capable of 66W charging. They peaked at 18W. This is a pretty common effect among power banks, but still worth noting.

Should you buy it?