Switch chews through its batteries pretty quick in handheld mode, making USB power banks a game-changing Nintendo Switch accessory. There are tons of the beefy battery boosters on the market, but nothing with the official Nintendo seal of "this will definitely not brick your console" goodness… nothing until July 10, anyway. That's when the PowerCore 20100 Nintendo Switch Edition will start shipping out from Anker, which should be cause for much-rejoicing among Switch road warriors who are cautious with their consoles.
According to Anker, the Nintendo-licensed power bank accessory was designed specifically for use with Switch, and a fully charged unit will be able to refill your system's battery two and a half times (that's "up to 15 additional hours" of playtime). You can keep playing while you're charging, naturally, and the supplied USB-C to USB-C cable will provide the highest charge rate possible - so your battery gauge will go up, instead of just going down more slowly.
The same USB-C port can be used to quickly charge supported USB Power Delivery products like iPhone X, and there's a single standard USB-A port for everything else. The battery itself takes about 3 hours to charge back up when using a Power Delivery wall charger, otherwise it can take up to 20 hours (which is sadly common for this kind of device).
Before you rush to pre-order a PowerCore 20100 Nintendo Switch Edition, you probably should compare it to the standard PowerCore 20100, which you can snag on Amazon right now. You lose the official branding and Power Delivery specification, but you get an extra USB-A port in exchange. I own one myself, and it's worked great every time I've used it with my Switch; it kept my battery gauge creeping up deep into power-hungry sessions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, even with a dusty ol' USB-A to USB-C connection.
Your results may vary depending on the device you use, of course, and that's part of the appeal of a licensed device like the PowerCore 20100 Nintendo Switch Edition: you know it's guaranteed to work with full backing from Nintendo. Having the official Nintendo Switch logo on your power bank is kinda fun too.
Need some stuff to play with all that new traveling power? Grab some favorites from our list of the best Switch games.
