Introduction

Ugreen has been around for over a decade now, and is mostly known for its consumer electronic devices and accessories including cables and chargers. The company has since added earphones, power strips, power stations, and even NAS solutions to its portfolio in recent years, and we’ve examined some of them already. We’ve seen larger power stations shift from using Li-ion cells to LiFePO4 batteries for longevity, and it seems this is now trickling down to smaller power banks too.

I imagine nearly everyone reading this review has a power bank in their possession, or has at least used one before. These tend to be small for portability, and yet larger and heavier than they need to be given the relatively older battery tech inside. We are still only just seeing silicon anode batteries used in expensive phones now, and it will take a while before that is scaled up for use everywhere, but LiFePO4 allows for larger capacity batteries, faster charging on both ends, and more charge/discharge cycles while still maintaining good battery health. The Ugreen Nexode 300W—the product name skips the space between the number and the unit, don’t blame me—is a 48000 mAh power bank that uses this newer battery technology in a far more portable form factor. It is still too large for you to carry on a plane, even assuming regulations allowed for it, but there is a market for something this size as evident by the product having sold huge numbers at various retailers in the short time since release. I ended up getting one myself, and then Ugreen surprised me by sending a Nexode 130W (20000 mAh) power bank as a bonus. In return, I figured I might as well make a quick look article on both, but focusing primarily on the larger unit.

Packaging and Accessories

The Ugreen Nexode 300W power bank ships in a reasonably sized white cardboard box with the brand logo, a render of the product, and salient features listed on the front. We see the product specifications on the back accompanied by contact information for the brand itself. The box opens from the top to reveal an accessory box surrounded by thick foam, which in turn adds protection to the power bank inside—there is another foam sheet at the bottom to snugly hold the power bank between the two. Ugreen provides some paperwork in the form of a detailed user manual, a simpler set of user instructions, and a note that I assume talks about how to recycle if you are in France for some reason. More important is the USB Type-C to Type-C power cable, although it is not one of the better Ugreen cables which ships with the brand’s GaN chargers we’ve seen before.

Closer Look

The Nexode 300W is easily the largest power bank I’ve used, so much so that it hedges the gap between a power bank that you might be thinking of in your head and some of the smaller power stations which come with a carry handle. At 143 x 105 x 77 mm and weighing over 1.5 kg, it even has a carry handle to further blur the lines. But place a “small” phone next to it, such as my Samsung Galaxy S23, and suddenly it looks more reasonable. The design language and color scheme follows the rest of Ugreen’s Nexode line of chargers, power stations, and power banks alike, with a gray-blue color applied to the chassis. On the front is a large LED display, with the various ports seen below. You get three USB Type-C ports, with one doing double duty to also charge the integrated battery, and two USB Type-A ports. I appreciate that the max power output is marked below each port, and the multitude of charging voltages also helps add compatibility to a lot of different devices. A large power button in the middle helps turn the device on or off. The right side simply confirms the battery capacity and the maximum total power output, with more detailed information on the back for single port output as well as using multiple ports together. Notice a set of rubber pads here, allowing you to place the power bank with the ports facing upward too. The handle is also substantial enough to allow easy transportation.

I suspect most people will use this with the ports facing forward, and the traditional bottom side has more substantial padding as a result. Not like this thing is going to move on its own anytime soon though, but these will at least prevent scratches to the resting surface or the chassis. On the left side is a white light bar with a tactile switch at the bottom, this allows you to have three modes of lighting—low brightness static light (150 hours of use with a fully charged battery), high brightness static light (115 hours of use), or an SOS-style blinking light (115 hours again). If you plan on using this for, say, a camping trip then the light will be bright enough to illuminate a small area. Turning on the power bank means the LED panel also turns on, and this provides real-time information on the current battery level in addition to the current input and output power values.

There’s a lot of Nexode DNA in this power bank, be it in the form of the multitude of protection protocols implemented with the NTC (negative temperature coefficient) thermistor used for temperature measurement, sensing and control, or the various options available to charge and discharge the battery. Ugreen allows for up to 140 W of fast charging over Type-C, allowing this massive battery inside to go from 0-100% in 1.5 hours—the Ugreen Nexode 140W GaN charger will work nicely thus. The EV-class LiFePO4 battery is also rated for 3000 cycles of use while maintaining >=80% capacity, compared to ~500 cycles for standard Li-ion batteries. You can then plug 1-5 devices simultaneously to use the battery inside, allowing up to 300 W of total charging power as seen above. With nearly all my electronic devices now charged over USB, I got this for use when I needed power where either there was no AC wall port easily available, or simply when on a hiking/camping trip. It’s been working great so far, but keep in mind this is not a cheap product in either sense of the word. The Nexode 300W power bank is currently discounted to $170, down from its $200 MSRP. Those outside the US get worse pricing, with EU customers currently paying €180 (inc. VAT) and UK customers suffering more at £180 (inc. VAT).

Bonus: Ugreen Nexode 130W Power Bank

The Ugreen Nexode 130W power bank comes in a smaller box, which is no surprise given the product is smaller too. The front and back of the box are analogously similar to that on the larger Nexode 300W power bank, although we see there is now an inner cardboard box with an emoji face indicating what to expect. The power bank comes inside a wax paper wrap for a pristine unboxing, with accessories placed alongside in a separate compartment. This time round, we get a generic help guide in addition to the expected user manual and instruction set, with a shorter cable and a soft cloth drawstring bag rounding things off. The case is large enough to accommodate the power bank and the cable, making this now easy to chuck in your backpack for use.

Chucking in a backpack seems like a must-do when you see this power bank goes for a rectangular cuboid form factor that is chunkier than the usual flat form factor used by power banks. This makes the Nexode 130W almost impossible to pocket, unless you have cargo shorts/trousers on. The power bank measures at 131 x 54 x 51 mm and weighs 475 g, and the design language again matches the overall Nexode product family. The front side has the Ugreen logo at the bottom and a multicolor TFT LCD screen at the top. The power distribution specs are seen on the back, where we have a set of rubber pads too. There isn’t much else to see on the longer sides, with more of the same branding to confirm the battery capacity (20000 mAh) and total output power (130 W) printed here. I am not sure why Ugreen is naming its power banks based on the max output power rather than the battery capacity itself, but it does feel catchier compared to the typical power bank that only supports slower charging (think 15-30 W).

The shorter side nearest to the display is where you will see the ports, with the Nexode 130W power bank having two Type-C ports, with one doing double duty for input and output, and single Type-A port. The USB-C1 port is blue to indicate it is the primary port and is rated for up to 100 W of power out, and 65 W of power in. USB-C2 can put out a max of 30 W, with the USB-A port maxing out at 22.5 W. The ports can again be used individually or together, which in turn gives the 130 W max power output rating for this power bank. There’s a switch on the side to turn on the power bank and the screen, with the latter now going the emoji face route too. Expect to otherwise see an indicator of trickle charging, the current battery level and estimated run time under the current in/out parameters, and the status of the ports in use. You can also swipe to see the real-time voltage, current, and power curves for the ports. But note that this power bank uses a Li-ion battery, restricting it to ~1000 cycles at >=80% capacity. Charging also takes longer at ~2 hours if you use a 65 W charger, so now you see why I was prioritizing the Nexode 300W power bank for this article. The 20000 mAh battery means you can travel with this power bank on planes though, so it has an important use case even beyond the improved portability. The Nexode 130W power bank is currently discounted to $70, down from its $100 MSRP, for those interested.