Anker 737 Power Bank Review (A1289): Still the 140W Benchmark?

The 737 makes no attempt to hide what it is: a dense, glossy black brick with a screen. Pick it up and the 630g registers immediately. That heft bought something rare when it launched, and mostly still does: laptop-class charging that clears airport security without a second glance.

The screen is what wins people over. Most banks give you four LEDs and a guess. The 737 shows exactly how many watts are flowing in and out, the battery’s health percentage and its cycle count. If your laptop is charging slowly, the display tells you why before you have opened a settings menu.

In the box you get the bank, a short USB-C cable and the paperwork. There is no 140W wall charger included, so factor that in if you want the fastest self-recharge.

At 630g and 155.7 x 54.6 x 49.5mm, this is a pack you allocate space to. Anker publishes both figures on its A1289 product page, and the weight there is the product weight rather than a shipping weight, which is a distinction worth holding on to when comparing listings.

The chunky-brick format is a deliberate trade. Anker packed 24,000mAh and a 140W-capable board into a shape that stands upright on a desk, survives being thrown into a rucksack, and sheds heat through a solid shell rather than a slim one.

Two things to know before you buy. First, the display: left switched on permanently, the bank can drain roughly 15 percent in 24 hours just powering the screen, a behaviour Anker documents in its own product FAQ. Treat the display as a check-in tool rather than a permanent dashboard and standby drain is a non-issue.

Second, the USB-A port sits at 18W, which in 2026 makes it strictly a phone-and-earbuds port. Everything serious happens over USB-C.

The headline is Power Delivery 3.1, which steps up to 28V at 5A. That 28V step is the whole trick. Older PD 3.0 banks top out at 20V/5A, which is 100W. PD 3.1’s extended power range is what lets a bank this size feed a 16-inch laptop at full tilt.

One more honest number: the 140W is a combined budget across ports, not 140W per port at the same time. Charge a laptop and a phone together and the bank splits its output. For a single-device push, it is as fast as flight-safe banks get.

Darleene’s version: one cable, one laptop, full speed. Add a second device and the speed is shared, not doubled.

The 737 charges itself while charging your devices, so it can sit on a desk as a small overnight charging hub. Pass-through shares the same power budget, so expect slower device charging while the bank fills itself.

The OLED panel on the face reports what is going in and what is coming out. The screen is useful rather than ornamental, and Macworld reads its iPhone results straight off that display. The limit is that the display tells you rates, not the state of the cells over time, and Anker publishes no charge-cycle rating for this model.

630g and 155.7 x 54.6 x 49.5mm puts this in a bag, permanently. It is not a coat pocket item and it is not meant to be.

What the weight buys is laptop-class capacity and output in a single unit. For a working day away from the mains, the trade-off is usually worth it. For a night out, it is overkill.

The upright brick shape also helps. It sits on a cafe table without rolling, and the ports face upward where the cables fall naturally.

At 86.4Wh the Anker 737 sits comfortably under the 100Wh threshold that UK CAA, EU and US rules apply to spare lithium batteries in carry-on luggage. You do not need airline approval to bring it on board.

It must travel in your hand luggage, never in checked baggage. Rules can shift and some airlines add their own limits, so confirm with your carrier before you fly.

Full rules are in our can you take a power bank on a plane? guide. Check any capacity in seconds with our mAh to Wh calculator.

The 737 carries the CE and UKCA conformity markings required for the UK and EU markets. Confirm the exact certification marks on the unit and packaging when yours arrives.

It does one demanding job exceptionally well: it puts a 140W USB-C socket in your bag that airport security will not question. The display, the dual USB-C layout and the fast self-recharge all support that single purpose.

What you give up is pocketability and some future-proofing. Newer Anker banks are lighter for the capacity or more powerful overall, but they also cost more and not all of them fly as cleanly.

The easy recommendation is for anyone who charges a 14-inch or 16-inch laptop away from the wall and wants one device that handles the laptop, phone and earbuds.

The Anker 737 has aged the way good tools age: the numbers that made it special are still uncommon, and the compromises are still the same ones. If 140W in a bag is the job, it remains one of the safest recommendations we can make.

See how we test, or see where it ranks against the rest in our best power banks 2026 roundup.