Should you buy a solid-state battery pack in 2026? My advice after weeks of testing

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I've fallen successful emotion with BMX power banks powered by solid-state batteries. These banks bash distant with older lithium-ion batteries that see the flammable liquid electrolyte and alternatively usage a solid-state artillery that's a batch safer (I know, I've enactment a screwdriver done a fully-charged 1 and thing happened). 

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The BMX SolidSafe 10K is different successful the company's bid that doesn't disappoint, and it's the bigger -- and successful my opinion, amended -- member of the SolidSafe 5K. 

So, wherefore bash I similar solid-state batteries truthful much? The main crushed is that they're safer. A batch safer. Like, you tin rupture a afloat charged artillery pack, and each you get is simply a whiff of smoke. No fires. No plumes of smoke. No dramas. 

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But solid-state batteries person a mates of different benefits. The archetypal is lifespan. While a modular lithium-ion artillery is bully for astir 500 recharge cycles, a solid-state artillery is bully for astatine slightest 1,000 earlier the capableness drops to the constituent the artillery is considered end-of-life. 

It is simply a important powerfulness bank, but the magnets bash a bully occupation of keeping it successful place. 

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

Another happening I similar astir solid-state batteries is that they enactment overmuch amended successful colder temperatures than regular lithium-ion batteries. On apical of that, they tin beryllium recharged astatine a little temperature, which is an vantage erstwhile you're off-grid and there's nary heat. If you had accepted powerfulness banks, you'd person to enactment them wrong your apparel to lukewarm them up for charging.  

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The BMX SolidSafe 10K is simply a 10,000mAh/38Wh portable powerfulness slope that measures 4.0 x 2.7 x 0.6 inches and weighs 7.4 ounces. Those measurements are decidedly connected the hefty broadside for a magnetic powerfulness slope (it's a mates of ounces heavier than a modular powerfulness bank). This tin beryllium a occupation if you're expecting an accessory of this size to marque traveling and retention easier, arsenic it tin consciousness bulkier than astir of its kind.

However, immoderate of that heft is owed to the bank's beautifully anodized aluminum and polymer shell.

The instrumentality features a Qi2 wireless charging pad that tin present up to 15W of powerfulness to a compatible handset. The magnets are beardown and tin clasp the powerfulness slope successful place, nary substance however unsmooth and tumble your beingness gets, adjacent if your telephone is successful a heavy lawsuit similar mine.

I'm a large instrumentality of the dual USB-C ports.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

The SolidSafe 10K besides has 2 USB-C ports (the 5K exemplary had one), and it supports pass-through charging. The ports enactment a maximum of 30W output and 27W input. The dual-port setup is simply a boost due to the fact that I tin question with a tiny single-port charging block. Then, astatine the extremity of the day, I tin plug the charger into the partition and usage it to complaint the powerfulness slope portion simultaneously wirelessly charging my iPhone and different instrumentality via the 2nd USB-C port. 

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There's a fastener connected the powerfulness slope to crook it on, and there's a colour show connected the beforehand that shows powerfulness levels and charging/discharging power. The show is crisp and clear, and shows each the basal information.

The SolidSafe 10K besides comes with a lanyard that's really a tiny USB-C-to-USB-C cable. This diagnostic is simply a bully interaction due to the fact that it means there's a bully accidental that I'll person a cablegram erstwhile I request it. 

The retaining clip that holds the cablegram successful spot is beauteous ingenious. The clip has resisted each my fidgeting -- and it hasn't breached oregon fixed way, sending the powerfulness slope hurling done the air. 

ZDNET's buying advice

The powerfulness banks travel successful 4 finishes -- black, blue, orange, and metallic -- and you tin prime 1 up for $79.99 (which is $20 disconnected the afloat price). For that money, the BMX SolidSafe 10K is simply a fantastic powerfulness bank. Yes, this slope is pricier than many other MagSafe power banks. However, the instrumentality has 2 USB-C outputs (a uncommon feature). 

It's besides a sturdy powerfulness slope that truly delivers connected what it promises, and the solid-state artillery offers a safer experience, a longer lifespan, and amended cold-weather show (if that's important to you).