I see your Haribo gummy bear battery and raise you a pocket rocket instead

Last month, my colleague Liz Lobato He explained How the gummy bear battery bank took over the world of ultralight backpacking. I’m talking about mature, outdoorsy adults Gummy bear merchandise Beat the battery pros at their own game!

Liz and I quickly agreed: We should put it on the line. Could Gummy Bear really have the best lightweight battery, and can I bring you some solid data to prove it?

I soon discovered that the gummy bear wasn’t the only clear winner. If you’re looking for a lightweight champion…it’s complicated.

On the same day Liz posted her story, she obtained three of the lightest “10,000 mAh” batteries money can buy: $25 Haribo gummy bearthe $65 Nightcore NB10000 3rd Genand Iniu P50 Pocket Rocket, $33.

I packed a pair of precious Mitutoyo flat irons that I felt guilty about buying for months, an accurate kitchen scale, and Power-Z KM003C It allows me to record large amounts of USB-C power data directly to my computer. There will be nowhere for the lying jelly bear to hide.

Good thing too, because I quickly discovered some misleading specifications.

Damn lies and specifications

It’s not earth-shattering—each of these batteries is a little heavier, thicker, wider, or has less capacity than the marketing claims. Admittedly, I only tested one of each, not dozens or hundreds, but some of these differences are beyond my margin of error.

The Nitecore is indeed the lightest and smallest, but mine weighs a full 7 grams more than Nitecore claims it should! The Haribo gummy bear is 2mm thick and Weighs 1g more than advertised on Amazon, 4g more Advertise in Japan. The Iniu is approximately 2mm wider than advertised, according to my measurements.

While all three batteries advertise a capacity of 10,000 mAh, they are also a good example of this Why is “mAh” a misleading specification to begin withYou’ll also notice that the Iniu has 36Wh, not 38.5Wh like its peers. (Watt-hours are the “true” measure of capacity, because amps can’t tell you capacity without volts, and the voltage of these batteries varies.) However, each of them consumed different amounts of charge in my testing. When I tried to fully charge the Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 with each, recording data the entire time, I saw that the Iniu transferred about 31 watt-hours, the Haribo about 31.5 watt-hours, and the Nitecore transferred a full 33.3 watt-hours this way.

So: Nitecore is the lightest and smallest, and Saves the most electricity. Case closed? Not so fast – because how are you going to charge your phone without a cable?

Although the Nitecore costs twice as much as its competitors, it doesn’t come with a cable. The Haribo gummy Bear is under $30 with a built-in cable, and the Iniu Pocket Rocket is just over $30 with a lightweight, detachable cable on a removable lanyard strap.

You’re probably thinking, “So, what about the price? As a backpacker, I’ll gladly pay more for the lightest, most comfortable gear I can get, and not need extra ropes in my pack.”

But unless you’re a backpacker who already owns incredibly lightweight USB-C to USB-C cables, that means Nitecore and Iniu effectively weigh more than the companies claim. With Iniu’s five-gram braided nylon cable and cord, its total weight is 5.9 ounces (167 grams), not 5.6 ounces (160 grams). The Nitecore weighs exactly the same at 5.9 ounces (167 grams) after adding the lightest and shortest 10 gram cable in my house, which seems fair considering that Nitecore cable is lightweightsold separately, also weighs 10 grams.

And if you want to charge the gummy bear’s battery while you’re on the road, you’ll need a second cable, too. You cannot charge it using the built-in cable. This seems like a huge oversight.

Overall, Nitecore still delivers slight More energy per gram than gummy bears, assuming one cable per battery. But we’re talking about 10 milliwatt-hours per gram. That’s if the Nitecore doesn’t overheat when it tries to transfer that power.

When I tried to charge my Galaxy S25 twice with each of these batteries — the reason I actually took it out into the wild — I found that the Nitecore would overheat and then stop charging my phone midway through its second charge of the day. As a result, I delivered less Energy from the gummy bear at the end. I got 1.72 charges from Haribo, but the Nitecore stopped at 1.42 charges, then gave me an additional 20 percent (1.62 charges total) after I plugged the phone back in. To be clear, the overheating only occurred when the Nitecore was low on charge.

I don’t always hate overheating. I suppose it could work as a pocket warmer in the wilderness — and speaking of pockets, it’s the only one of these that’s thin and flat enough to fit on my phone in a pocket without creating a huge bulge.

But the Haribo and Iniu did not overheat or shut down during charging. Not even when I connected the Iniu to my Steam Deck to use its unique feature — the ability to briefly supply 45 watts of power to a larger gadget like the Steam Deck or a lightweight laptop. I’ve charged my Steam Deck from 0 to 51 percent this way. It spent most of that time at a slower 30W, rather than 45W, but other batteries wouldn’t even begin to charge devices that large.

I doubt the Haribo and Iniu are as durable as the Nitecore, with their eggshell plastic frames instead of carbon fiber, and I appreciate the Nitecore’s bouncy rubber corners for drop protection. It’s the only one of the three to claim IPX5 water resistance (read: rain, splashes, and small jets) as well. Overall, I certainly wouldn’t call the Nitecore a worse charger than the competition; They are more expensive and have a number of small trade-offs.

At less than half the price, with more reliable charging and a built-in cable, I’d probably choose the gummy bear instead. And for just a few extra dollars, it comes with a cable that allows it to charge larger gadgets and To be charged without the need for a second cord, the Iniu Pocket Rocket is optional. I bought all three batteries with my own money, but they are the only ones I have.