this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
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Buy it for Life
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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!
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Indeed, laptops and even more so power banks, strike me as some of the least BIFL products in existence. Only Smartphones and wireless a earbuds might be worse.
If the child is amenable, a used thinkpad with Linux will keep running smoothly basically forever, take a beating, and be serviceable.
And get them in all kind of arguments over office formats.
Not literally "for life", sure, but high quality powerbanks can last a long time.
Mine will turn 10 years old in a couple weeks, I see no signs of aging yet.
I have a 21800mah (edit: it's 26800) Anker power bank from like 2015 that is by far the most reliable power bank I've ever had or seen. I have older and newer banks die, even others from Anker, but not that one. It doesn't have PD, only quickcharge 2.0 (edit: 3.0) or something, it's like a green label on that port. It's enough to sustain my Samsung ultra phone like 3-5x+ completely, still, after all these years. I do try not to leave it in really hot or cold places though, like in the car. It IS like a flat half of an actual brick, though, and the body is actual metal.
Looked it up, I think it's this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K6TA748
I'm blown away that the product even still has a listing on Amazon, even if it might be discontinued (not sure). If you CAN get this battery, I give it (and only it) an absolute 10/10 rating. Just don't expect to charge anything like a laptop, Switch, or even a Steam Deck at normal speed. Phones, though? Chefs kiss.
Edit2: looked around a little bit, and it does seem to be discontinued. I wouldn't buy from ebay or a used one, but I don't think I'd sell mine. Not even for a thousand dollars. That sounds crazy, but when I need a reliable bank for a road trip or camping, having a really reliable battery pack is worth a FUCKTON of time testing and finding a good product, that I'm just not excited to try again any time soon. Reliability in something like this is worth a lot to me.