Anker 737 Powerbank - What Cable Do I Need To Charge It?

Anker 737 recharging inquiry and suitable wall charger inquiry

Anker 737 Charger (120W) 1.5 hrs $79.99
Anker 717 Charger (140W) 1.0 hrs $79.99

If a charger uses USB-C plug it MUST adhere to USB-C spec...if not...you can sue the manufacturer for big bucks. USB-C spec is more than just a plug. It is is a smart device. There's a strict negotiation protocol that ensures the device charged gets the correct voltage and amperage at correct stage of the charging process.

I've charged my mobile phones with 25W phone charger all the way up to 130W laptop chargers. They all work well.

What is more dangerous is to use a crap cable to charge a device over USB-C than using an oversized charger. The cable may catch on fire. So folks, DON'T buy cheap USB-C cables for charging and MAKE SURE it's rated for at least same PD spec as the charger you use it for or beyond.

For charging over USB-C, you have 3 major Power delivery standards. PD1.0 (fixed power levels up to 100W), 2.0/3.0 (dynamic power levels up to 100W) and 3.1 (dynamic power levels up to 240W) All of these are extended properties of the USB-C spec and requires serial data negotiation to get voltages beyond 5.5V and currents beyond 2A. If the charger and the device can't come to an agreement, the max power you get is 10W.

Here is a condensed and easy to read version of USB-C specification. It does not cover everything, but contains the most important information related to this thread and charging over USB-C:
Manhattanproducts.eu - USB-C PD charging

I just buy thunderbolt 3 cables nowadays. More expensive I know but ease of mind that I've not got a crappy USB-C cable is worth it.

He is also over that Bleeping Computer with a six-month-old topic:

Anker 737 Powerbank with Dell XPS 15 9520? - External Hardware

He is wasting everyone's time, cross-posting simultaneously in multiple Forums. He obviously seeks attention, not information or answers.

Has anyone ever seen a topic that he marked as "Solved" on any Forum? He just goes on and on and on . . .

Just my two cents. Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

garioch7 said:

He is also over that Bleeping Computer with a six-month-old topic:

Anker 737 Powerbank with Dell XPS 15 9520? - External Hardware

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BTW, the OP may have asked the same question on the following forums:
Dell: Anker 737 Powerbank With XPS 15?
linus tech tips: Anker 737 Powerbank with Dell XPS 15 9520?
macRumors: Anker 737 Powerbank - What Adapter or Cable Do I Need To Charge It?
tenforums: Anker 737 Powerbank - What Cable Do I Need To Charge It?

garioch7 said:

He is also over that Bleeping Computer with a six-month-old topic:

Click to expand...

6 months ago? Here’s a man that likes to take his time making decisions lol
I agree, it’s unacceptable and seriously insulting, it’s an abuse of members good nature and their time.. newmann, seriously, enoughs enough.

I have created several posts on this. Why? Because I didn't even get a clear answer on my questions. For example I asked this in the dell xps forum and either I got a few answers or no answers. And the answers I got were they were not sure about the answer. So if people on that forum doesn't know, then how would I know then? I was perplexed on why a simple question didn't get a yes or no answer so that is why I asked this in many forums for different opinions. I then get many different answers.


I then bought the anker 737 and am confused why it didn't include a cable to charge it. So I then asked do I need to buy an anker usb c cable to charge it? This is a legitimate question. For someone that doesn't even use usb-c chargers, how would I even know this? I didn't even know my apple 13 mini adapter charger was usb-c until recently. I just know I use it to charge my iphone 13 mini. And I use another wall adapter and charging cable to charge the old iphone SE. I don't even know what is the purpose of those 140w and 100w chargers that are being sold by anker. I read people who have a macbook use it though and buy it and I thought... why would you need that when you can just connect your macbook charger to the wall. Get it?


Some of you say I'm asking this in multiple forums. Look at the responses that I gotten throughout the forums to my questions. The answers vary differently. It's not like I got a few replies and all were the same. If it was, then I wouldn't ask anymore. I asked could I use the Apple 20W usb-c charger to charge the anker 737 which I use to charge my iphone 13 mini? Several posters here said yes you can do that. Blink, who is a moderator here who is extremely helpful and knowledgeable tells me yes I can but it will take a long time. He says the dell xps 15 9520 usb c charger that I use for my xps laptop should work but there is a risk in it so he advises not to. Thus if it works, it would charge the anker 737 much faster than the apple 20w usb-charger.


Compare that with other forums. On linustechtips, several posters told me I could use any of the 3 chargers I have with it and there is no risk at all. They said all of them would work and there is no risk. Those answers are thus much different from the answers here.


Bleepcomputer forum, there are a few helpful posters but most of them don't even seem to read the answers I get. I didn't even get a clear answer where other users agree. People say check out the manual. I did take a look at it. Moderator Blink posted a portion of the manual in the topic but when you read it, it still doesn't answer the question if you can use a 20W apple usb-c charger or a dell xps usb-c laptop charger that you already have for the laptop. If the xps usb-c laptop chargers the anker 737, why in the world would I pay $80 or $60 for an anker usb c charger when it isn't necessary?


Also how many of you even have powerbanks? Most people don't even have more than 2 and the ones they have are the small ones for their phones only.

newmann said:

I then bought the anker 737 and am confused why it didn't include a cable to charge it.

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So you're saying that the place where you bought the Anker 737 from didn't give out any specs to what you were buying? I find that hard to believe. I don't know where you bought it and how much you paid for it but if you're in the US you could have bought an Anker 737 from Amazong for $89.00 and that includes a charger. You have had some very helpful repliesto this thread and your others but you refuse to except them and keep repeating the same questions over and over. Like the story of the boy who kept crying wolf, people are going to stop listening (replying) to you.

If you don't know bye now you never will. It is time to close this thread.

newmann said:

I'm pretty sure this is the charger that came with my xps 15 9520 and I use this to charge my xps 15 9520 laptop.

So will this work to charge the anker 737 or not? Is it safe to use this with the anker 737 to charge?

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@Brink told you it wasn't really safe to use the Dell charger. He knows what he's talking about, so if it were me, I'd listen to him. He told you Options 1 and 2 would be slow, but safe. He told you there is a difference that makes the Dell brick charger unsafe, so it's up to you.

The ball's in your court.

@newmann

After closer inspection of the Dell USB-C charger, I found out that it will NOT be able to charge your power bank. This is because ot only supports 2 output modes.
1. 5V/1A --> 5W
2. 20V/6.5A --> 130W

These two levels aren't compatible with the Anker powerbank as it adhere to PD specs. The Dell charger use a proprietary spec to get 6.5A output at 20V. USB-C PD 2.0/3.0 specify max of 5A at 20V (100W)

So you will have to buy another charger to charge your powerbank in a reasonable time. You can NOT use the Dell laptop charger.

Sorry for the confusion and inconvenience.

Furthermore I read somewhere that Dell limits foreign chargers to supply only 65W of power to their laptops. I don't know if this is true or not, and I can't verify this, because I don't own a Dell laptop.

Why I mention this, is because the above would mean your Anker PowerBank might only supply 65W of power to your laptop or in worst case only 5W. Neither would be sufficient to change the laptop battery fast enough while using it.

What comes to multiple posts on different forums...it's warranted as nobody seem to have any clear answer to this. EG. nobody knows the correct answer or gives out either confusing or contradictory ones.

Thus it has also taken a long time to come to a final conclusion. So please folks, have some understanding. This is a complicated topic with no clear answer until someone actually buys same products and physically test what works and what does not.

The Anker Powerbanks are quite expensive and I personally wouldn't be putting out that kind of money until I am certain that it will work for my use case.

So please give OP a break here.

SlicEnDicE said:

What comes to multiple posts on different forums...it's warranted as nobody seem to have any clear answer to this.

Click to expand...

That doesn't mean they should ask the same questions over and over again on the same forums.

Winuser said:

That doesn't mean they should ask the same questions over and over again on the same forums.

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Ditto!

The only specs I looked at with the anker 737 was that it had 24000 mah and I could charge my dell xps 15 9520 with it. That was the most important thing. I know it would be able to charge my iphone 13 mini as well but being to charge the laptop is the most important thing. What specs are you talking about exactly? You mean if it's compatible with a charger I have? I didn't even know the anker 737 didn't provide a cable to charge the anker 737 itself. I thought why did it come with just a usb c to usb c and how could I even charge the anker 737 at all. That is when I read people buy those 140w or 100w or 65w anker chargers to charge this anker 737 and I thought... you have to pay for that as well?


I bought the anker 737 while in the US. Where is this anker 737 from amazon that is 89 dollars and includes a charger? That doesn't exist. Show me the link for that. I bought the anker 737 from anker website, not amazon.

Yes Brink told me there is a risk using the dell xps 15 9520 usb-c charger that I already have for my xps laptop to charge this. So because of that, I didn't use it and just used the 20W Apple usb-c that I use for charging my iphone 13 mini. I trust pretty much everything Brink says.


But other posters in other forums like linustechtips all told me it's perfectly safe to use the dell xps charging cable for it even though I asked it a few times. Every single poster there who replied to my thread seemed very knowledgeable... go read some of their long replies to my question on this and you will notice what I mean. They also use numbers to show and explain so it's hard to argue with them. So you have several posters there who are very knowledgeable say it's perfectly safe. Not only that, I spoke to anker support on this. You know what they said? They said they had to check and then told me yes I can use the dell xps 15 9520 usb-c charger to charge the anker 737. So what do most of you had to say about that then? So people say ask anker which I did... and now anker is wrong correct?

Okay thanks for showing the math there on saying this dell xps 15 9520 usb-c charger won't charge the anker 737 powerbank. So it's not worth even risk connecting to it to check right as there could be damage to either the anker 737 or the dell xps 15 9520 usb c charger itself? Brink says there is a risk but I'm not sure if he meant it might work or not. The posters on linustechtips showed the math where it would work though so again mixed opinions from people here which is the problem.


Yes I read it is true Dell limits the foreign chargers when connecting to the dell laptop but I believe it's 90w and not 65w. I had tested charging the dell xps laptop to the anker 737 and it showed 60 watts but then went down to 40 watts and below. But this was when the xps laptop still had over 85% battery. So I assume if I charge the xps laptop with the anker 737 when the xps laptop battery is say 20%, it might be 90w.


Yes that is correct. The issue here is when checking answers at different forums, there are multiple different replies to this. There is no clear answer to this and it's either confusing or contradictory. Put it this way. I ask this on the dell xps forums and people don't know the answer to this... that forum should have dell experts there and either no reply or not sure... then it's doesn't get a clear answer. The anker support person gave me what is apparently the wrong answer when he says yes you can use the xps 15 9520 usb-c charger to charge this anker powerbank.


Very few posters except a few get this situation. If I asked this and few people on this forum said straight up yes or no and I got the same answer in other forums, then I am not going to ask this anymore. The issue is I'm getting conflicting information from different posters on different forums. And like the person mention, the anker powerbank isn't exactly cheap so that is why I ask this.


Thus not only do I not want to risk damaging that, I don't want to risk damaging my dell xps 15 9520 usb-c charger either. And before all this, I did research to make sure the anker 737 would charge the dell xps 15 9520 without an issue. This is important because you don't want to risk damaging an xps laptop.


Do most of you just decide to plug in adapters and cables when you are not sure if it would cause damage or not or want to make sure first? I don't want to do that on a new item I just got. Also what are most of your responses now after I told you the anker rep said no issue with the dell xps usb charger working to charge the anker 737? None of you have a weird situation like this where you get mixed answers from multiple posters.