Anker 87W Power Bank Review (A1383): Can It Run a Laptop?

Familiar Anker form factor: matte black, four LED dots on the side panel, and a USB-C cable tucked into a recessed slot at one end. Pick it up and the 440g registers right away. It is a bag item, not a pocket carry, and it doesn’t pretend to be.

The cable has some stiffness to it, which helps when you’re plugging into a laptop on a plane tray table or a hotel desk.

Four LED dots give a clear read on remaining charge at 25 percent per dot, precise enough to decide whether to top up before boarding.

At 157.5 x 73.7 x 25.4mm and roughly 440g, the A1383 is par for a 20,000mAh laptop bank. The two rivals in our comparison below land within 25g of it.

Three outputs on one face: the built-in cable recessed on the left, USB-C in the center, USB-A on the right. The USB-C port handles both input and output.

Anker rates the built-in cable for 10,000 bends and 5,000 twists, with reinforced joints at the root where integrated cables usually fail first.

Anker specifies overcurrent, overvoltage, short-circuit and overheat protection, and the unit carries FCC, CE and UL certification marks.

Anyone shopping for a power bank for laptop use is asking one question: does it hold a real charge, not a top-up. At approximately 72Wh rated capacity, with a typical 15 percent USB-C transfer loss, you get around 61Wh of usable output. That’s a calculated estimate, not a stopwatch figure.

Calculated estimates from manufacturer specs and typical USB-C transfer losses. Real-world counts vary with cable quality, temperature and battery condition.

On a travel day through Heathrow Terminal 5, Alisdair ran a laptop and a phone from this bank at the same time and both kept charging at a useful rate through the session, the real test of the dual-output claim. Running both USB-C outputs at once drops the per-port wattage below the 65W peak, so expect useful speed to both devices rather than full speed to each.

Recharge is around 1.5 hours from a 65W USB-C wall charger, Anker’s own published figure. A slower charger stretches that out, so pairing it with a 65W GaN travel charger is worth it if you want to top the bank up between flights.

Can a power bank charge a laptop?

Yes, but the number that matters is watts, not milliamp-hours. A phone charges fine from almost any power bank. A laptop is far pickier about its portable charger than a phone is, and the wattage is the whole story.

A laptop needs real power delivery, usually 45W to 100W over USB-C, or it’ll charge slower than it drains while you work.

The A1383 delivers 65W from one port, which covers the large majority of USB-C laptops at full or near-full speed, including most ultrabooks, the MacBook Air, and the 14-inch MacBook Pro under normal load.

A 16-inch MacBook Pro or a gaming laptop under heavy load still charges, but slower than its own wall brick. To sanity-check how many charges a given capacity gives you, our mAh to Wh calculator does the math.

Charging a MacBook

As a power bank for MacBook charging, the A1383 handles the two most common models well.

A MacBook Air, drawing 30W to 35W, charges at full speed from the A1383 with headroom to spare, and you’ll get a full laptop charge plus a phone top-up from one bank.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro asks for up to 67W to 96W depending on the model and load. At 65W the A1383 keeps it topped up during normal work and charges it fully when the lid is closed.

For a 16-inch MacBook Pro, treat this as a keep-it-going bank rather than a fast full charge.

Pass-through means the bank charges your device while it recharges from the wall. The A1383 does not support it.

Plugged into a wall charger, it prioritizes recharging itself and delivers no usable output to connected devices at the same time.

The practical fix is a routine: recharge the bank overnight or between flights, then run your devices from it through the day. If a desk-side hub is what you want, the Anker A1695 handles that role better.

At around 440g the A1383 portable charger is bag-carry only. It lays flat in the back pocket of most travel backpacks and sits cleanly in a tech organizer alongside cables and a charger. It won’t go in a jeans pocket, and it isn’t trying to.

That weight is the battery. A real laptop charge costs 20,000mAh, and the lighter banks in this class give up either capacity or the 65W output to get there.

At approximately 72Wh the A1383 sits comfortably under the 100Wh threshold that UK CAA, EU and US rules apply to carry-on power banks, so you don’t need airline approval.

It must travel in your carry-on, never checked baggage. Rules shift and some airlines add their own limits, so check before you fly: our power banks on planes guide keeps the current rules in one place.

One correction worth making: you may see this bank quoted at 74Wh in places. Anker’s own specification is 72Wh, and that is the figure that matters against the airline limit. The 74Wh in our comparison table below belongs to the Baseus Blade H1, a different bank. Check any capacity in seconds with our mAh to Wh calculator.

Anker rates the recessed USB-C cable for 10,000 bends and 5,000 twists, with reinforcement at the root joint where built-in cables usually fail.

Confirm the exact certification marks on the unit and packaging when yours arrives.

The A1383 earns its place on one thing: it is the 20,000mAh power bank that fast-charges a laptop at a genuine 65W, with the cable built in at the same speed.

What you pay is 440g in the bag and no pass-through charging. What you give up against 100W rivals is peak speed, not everyday usefulness.

If you fly with a laptop and want one bank that covers it and your phone, this is the easy recommendation.

Anker A1383 vs the new Anker A1695 25K: which should you buy?

The Anker A1695 is the same-brand step up: 165W total, triple 100W USB-C ports and two built-in cables, at around 595g.

For one laptop and a phone, the A1383 is the better carry: lighter, and further under the 100Wh airline limit. If you regularly charge two laptops at full speed, the A1695 earns its extra weight. If you need even more power, see our Anker 737 review for the 140W flagship.

The Anker A1383 is the rare 20,000mAh portable charger that genuinely fast-charges a laptop, with the cable built in and a capacity that flies.

Shortlist it if you travel with a laptop and one phone. See how we test, see where it ranks against the rest in our best power banks roundup, or if you need more power, our Anker 737 review covers the 140W flagship.