My laptop battery died mid call in a coffee shop in Medellin

Last Thursday I was on a Zoom call with a client and my battery went from 20% to 0 in about 3 minutes. I was at this busy cafe in El Poblado and couldn't find an outlet anywhere. Had to run back to my Airbnb with my tail between my legs and reschedule the whole meeting. Does anyone else keep a portable charger just for their laptop when working from random spots?

3 comments

3 Comments

jessica7071mo ago

Took me way too long to learn this but the real trick is getting one of those pass-through power banks that can charge while you're also using it. I picked up a 20000mAh Anker for like 60 bucks and now I just leave it plugged into my laptop all the time when I'm out. Got stuck at a park bench in Santa Fe last month for 4 hours with no outlet nearby and the thing kept my laptop going the whole time plus charged my phone twice. Just make sure you get one that actually supports the wattage your laptop needs or it'll drain slower than it charges.

caseythompson1mo ago

Wait, you mean I don't have to live my life tethered to a wall outlet like some kind of charging gremlin? I've been that person with three different power banks and still running out of juice by noon. I bought a cheap one from Amazon a while ago and it was basically a paperweight - drained faster than it could fill anything. Ended up buying the Anker 737 after reading a bunch of reviews and now I laugh at people who think they need to huddle around a Starbucks outlet. Just don't ask me how many times I've forgotten my actual laptop charger at home because I got too comfortable with the power bank. That's a different kind of stupid tax right there.

aaron_mitchell1mo ago

@caseythompson is living the dream with that Anker but honestly the real hack nobody talks about is keeping your laptop brightness at like 40% and turning off bluetooth when you're running low. Sounds dumb but it buys you an extra 15-20 minutes easy.

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