Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition Review – Compact Companion For Any Trailblazer

Mobile accessories are becoming more must-haves than a nice-to-have item in our world today. As we rely more and more on phones and devices through all day use and with battery tech currently not progressing much, the solution to having an-all day battery is to just have an extra battery.

That’s where power banks come in, and Ugreen has been a trusted name in this front for some time. And now they’ve launched a collaboration with Hoyoverse’s Honkai: Star Rail, the popular free-to-play RPG on mobile, consoles and PC, with a line of special-branded Ugreen products.

That’s where the Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition comes in. It’s a special variant of Ugreen’s existing Nexode Pro Power Bank, now adorned by the Honkai: Star Rail character Yao Guang and her colours.

Is it worth getting? We’ve put the power bank to the paces, and as expected, this is perfectly good power bank for many regular use cases, with one potentially contentious design choice.

Build Quality

The Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition is one solid power bank in the hands, and more importantly, it can be grasped fully in the hands. Relatively speaking, it’s tiny! But dense! The footprint of the power bank is slightly smaller than your average card, but the height of an entire card holder box, though obviously with more weight. There are battery cells inside, not cards.

You can also put the Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank in the front pocket of a trousers if needed be, it’s that compact. It shouldn’t take much space in your daily travel pack, too.

Design-wise, the Nexode Pro Power Bank looks sleek. There’s a screen that displays the battery charge percentage, if it’s charging in or charging out, and the wattage of the charge. There’s a button to wake up the screen, as it only lights up when it’s actively charging or being charged.

The printed Yao Guang that resides on this special edition of the Nexode Pro Power Bank looks immaculate and well-executed. There’s a nice texture to it, with the outlines of the character slightly raised. There are also extra flourishes on the side and back of the unit that doesn’t use the premium printing like the one in front, but blends with all the legal labels.

How well the print can resist from dings and scuffs throughout its lifetime remains to be seen, but if you spend the extra money to have your oshi on adorned on this power bank, you’ll likely treat it with more care. And you should. Unlike some other more premium power banks, this one doesn’t have any anti-slip grip on the back and you don’t want this very decorative brick to get dinged.

However, there is one design aspect of the Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition where you either love it or hate it: it has a non-removable USB-C cable built in. It’s not the retractable one either, there will always a loop of that nylon-braided flat USB-C cable jutting out on the side of this power bank, with a plastic bit at the middle to create this loop. Apparently, this is intended to be a loop where you can hang the power bank.

As risky as it may sound to the uninitiated, the cable does that job rather well. I left the power bank hanging on this USB-C cable loop with my house keys for a night and it can hold its of weight like a champ with no noticeable issues afterwards. Ugreen claims the braided cable has been through 10,000 stretch and swing tests.

This is impressive, but I still wary if it can last long term. If the plastic bit is broken, the whole cable loop thing won’t work anymore and you’re left with a dangling cable. And if the cable goes faulty, you’re stuck with a dangling faulty cable that can’t be replaced. Again, you better be taking extra care of this power bank just in case, there are a few points of failure built in this, it’s not quite as robust as the less-sophisticated power banks where it’s just a battery pack and nothing else or the fancier one with retractable built-in cables.

The Nexode Pro power bank does have two holes you can tie a strap to, one is included in the box.

The short 22cm length of the cable means it can be awkward trying to charge and use the same device. Though it’s nice that you can always charge something with it, handy if you’re in a pinch when you don’t have an extra USB cable with you.

Charging Performance

The Ugreen Nexode Power Bank is advertised as a 10,000mAh power bank. It uses two 5,000mAh cells with a rated capacity of 5,6000mAh.

The Ugreen Nexode Pro power bank supports Quick Charging (supported by various devices), Programmable Power Supply, Power Delivery (supported by some thin laptops and portable gaming PCs), Adaptive Fast Charging (for Samsung devices), Fast Charge Protocol and Superfast Charge Protocol (for Huawei devices) charging protocols. Essentially, this power bank will trigger the faster version of a device’s charging, which you can usually tell when a fancy animation appears when you plug it in.

Through multiple tests using my Poco M7 phone, the Nexode Power Bank gets it from 20% to full charge in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. An hour charge brings it to a good 70%-ish charge. A thirty-minute charge gets the phone to more than 50% battery.

Depending on how big your device’s battery is, the Nexode Pro Power Bank can either can provide one or two full battery charges. In the case of the Poco M7 which has a 70,000mAh battery, well, that’s 70% of the capacity of the 10,000mAh power bank should it charge from zero, so that’s only one full charge out of the power bank.

Of course, devices with smaller capacity batteries like earbuds can be charged more than just twice with the power bank, though don’t expect you can top multiple phones and tablets with this power bank even at 100% power.

The charge capacity here, of 10,000mAh is standard as power banks go, though on the lower side of standard (there are bigger capacity power banks out there). It’s also acceptable for in-flight use (36Wh rated energy, under the limit of 100Wh for most flights). But most importantly, it isn’t as bulky as a standard old 10,000mAh power bank.

Here’s a comparison with Ugreen’s own basic 10,000mAh power bank. The Nexode Pro is tiny!

Topping up power into the power bank can take some time though. A full charge from a 0% requires you to leave it for a whole three hours using a 33W phone charger. But the good thing is, it’s smart enough to manage the wattage, lowering or increasing it on its own so that it doesn’t get hot when charging, as well as discharging. The worse it gotten was being mildly warm.

You can use all three ports (well, two ports and one non-detachable cable) to simultaneously charge three devices at once, but they all charge at a lower wattage rate. Not an ideal use case, as not only you’re charging slower but also that 10,000mAh capacity isn’t that much if you’re charging multiple phones or a laptop rather smaller devices, but you can.

However, having all the ports and that cable labelled with their max input and output wattage is a great touch. I wish all USB-C cables label their max wattage.

Value

The Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition retails at RM189, but you’ll likely can get it much cheaper on Shopee and Lazada due to the platforms’ regular discounts (at the time of writing, a promo on Shopee listed this power bank at RM147).

Obviously, you’re paying more for the HSR branding compared to the more utilitarian base Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank. But Ugreen does make this special edition feel special. There’s a more involved unboxing experience, the box design looks cool and there’s a pouch bag included as well.

Is it worth getting a Nexode Pro Power Bank compared to another cheaper 10,000mAh power bank? It actually is. Compared to the more basic Ugreen power bank of the same capacity, the Nexode Pro Power Bank charges and discharges faster, doesn’t get too warm while doing so, and is tinier. You’re paying for a more efficient power bank rather than for a power bank with bigger charge capacity, but those little quality-of-life improvements adds up making the price worth your while.

Verdict

The Ugreen Nexode Pro Power Bank Honkai: Star Rail Edition certainly has more appeal to fans of the game—it’s one way of guaranteeing Yao Guang to “come home” that isn’t just a collectible or merch but as something functional.

And as a functional power bank, it’s mighty useful of a purchase thanks to its reliable charging and compact form factor. Treat it with care, and it’ll let you go the distance with your devices to last the whole day so you can do work or play games with your device worry-free, as any good power bank should.

Review unit provided by Ugreen.