22 MACWORLD DECEMBER 2021
MACUSER REVIEW: ZMI POWERPACK NO. 20mmmmm
ZMI PowerPack
No. 20
PROS- High capacity
- Fast, flexible recharging
- Extremely high charging
output.
CONS - Badly translated manual
with extremely tiny type.
PRICE
$49
COMPANY
ZMI
ZMI also incorporates a special low-
current charging mode for Bluetooth and
similar devices that work off the Type-A
port. To enable, it simply requires double-
pressing the “capacity check” button on
the battery’s side next to a three-character
LED display.
The LED display provides some
feedback and details about what the
PowerBack No. 20 is up to.
While charging, the current
capacity is shown as a
percentage and the last digit
flashes until fully charged;
while providing power to an
attached device, the current
charge level flashes. (A
translation problem refers to
the LED display as a “nixie,” a
kind of tube-based display
invented in the 1950s and now
an object of tech nostalgia.)
The only negative about the product
is that while an accompanying manual
has a few crucial and useful details, it is
set in type smaller than 5 points.
Whether your eyes are young or old,
that’s simply too small. The manual is
also one of the worst translated I’ve
read in years—particularly problematic
with a lithium-ion battery that comes
accompanied by a list of precautions
and warnings. Nevertheless, we all have
pocket electronic magnifying glasses
and can work out the sense.
On the positive extras side, ZMI’s
design is a thing of near perfection. It has
almost the perfect minimalism of an
Apple product, with the fewest possible
buttons, display elements, and ports to
provide a powerful product that makes
no compromises—even on charging the
right price.
The current $149 price tag
($50 off list price) is a bargain
for those who need this kind of
on-demand power and the
ability to recharge a power
pack quickly. Until recently,
many high-power-output
batteries took multiples of their
discharge time to recharge,
making them less useful for
travel and emergency
purposes. ZMI has it all going
on both ways. ■The attractive design includes an LED display
that flashes one digit while charging.