I see your Haribo flat battery and pick you a pocket rocket instead

Last month, my colleague Liz Lupto described how a sticky bear battery bank is taking over the world of extreme helipacking. I’m talking about grown-ups outside, as a whole Gummy bear chili Beating the battery pros at their own game!

Liz and I quickly agreed: we should put it to the test. Could the gummy bear company really have the best ultralight battery, and can I come up with some hard data to prove it?

I soon found out that the gummy bear was not a clear winner. If you’re looking for an ultralight champ… it’s complicated.

The same day Liz published her story, I acquired three of the lightest “10,000 mAh” batteries money can buy: a $25 Haribo gummy bear, a $65 Nightcore NB10000 Gen 3, and a $33 INIU Pocket Rocket P50.

I’ve felt guilty for months about buying, an accurate kitchen scale, and the Power-ZK M003C that allowed me to log loads of USB-C power data directly to my computer. There will be no place for a lying gummy bear to lie.

Good thing, too, because I quickly noticed some misleading features.

Lies and explanations

It’s not earth-shattering—each of these batteries is slightly heavier, thicker, wider, or less capable than the marketing claims. Really, I only tested one of them, not dozens or hundreds, but some of these differences are outside my margin of error.

The Niticore is indeed the lightest and smallest, but mine weighs 7 grams more than the Niticore claims. The Haribo gummy bear is 2mm thick And It weighs more than advertised on Amazon, and 4 grams more than advertised in Japan. According to my measurements, the INIU is 2mm wider than advertised.

Although all three batteries advertise a capacity of 10,000 mAh, they’re also a good example of why “mah” is a misleading assumption to begin with, as you’ll notice that the INUI has 36WH, not the 38.5WH of its peers. (Watt-hours is the “real” measure of capacity, since amps can’t tell you capacity without volts, and these batteries have different voltages.) Even so, each of them consumed and delivered different amounts of charge in my tests. When I tried to fully charge a Pixel 9 and a Galaxy S25 with each, logging the data the entire time, I saw the Ineo transfer around 31.5 watt-hours, while the Nightcore transferred 33.3 watt-hours.

So: Nightcore is the smallest, smallest, And Offers maximum power. Case closed? Not so fast – because how else would you charge your phone without a cable?

Although the Niticor costs twice as much as its rival, it doesn’t come with a cable. The Haribo Gummy Bear is under $30 with a built-in cable, and the INIU Pocket Rocket is just over $30 with a lightweight detachable cable on a lightweight detachable lanyard strap.

You might be thinking, “So, what about the price? As a backpacker, I’ll happily pay more for light, super comfortable gear, and I don’t need an extra lanyard in my bag.”

But unless you’re a backpacker who already owns incredibly lightweight USB-C to USB-C cables, this means that the Niticor and INIU weigh more effectively than the companies claim. With INIU’s five-gram braided nylon cable and lanyard, it weighs 5.9oz (167g), not 5.6oz (160g). After adding the lightest and shortest 10g cable in my house, the Niticore weighs exactly 5.9oz (167g), which seems reasonable given that Niticore’s own lightweight cable, sold separately, also weighs 10g.

And if you want to charge the Gummy Bear’s battery while you’re out on the road, you’ll need another cable, too. You can’t charge it with its built-in cable. This seems like a huge oversight.

Overall, Nightcore still delivers A little bit More energy per gram per battery, assuming one cable per battery. But we’re talking about 10 milliwatt hours per gram. And that’s when you’re trying to transfer that energy so the Nightcore doesn’t get too hot.

When I tried to charge my Galaxy S25 twice with each of these batteries — the reason I take them really wild — I found that the Nightcore would heat up and then stop charging my phone in the middle of the second charge of the day. As a result, it was delivered less More energy than the gummy bear at the end. I got 1.72 charges from the Haribo, but the Nightcore stopped at 1.42 charges, and then gave me an extra 20 percent (1.62 charges total) after plugging the phone in. To be clear, the overheating only occurred when Niticor was running at a lower value.

I don’t always hate extra heat. I think it could double as a pocket warmer in the wild – and speaking of pockets, it’s the only one of these batteries that’s thin and flat enough to fit against my phone in the pocket without creating a big bulge.

But Charibo and INIU didn’t overheat or stall while charging. Even when I plugged the INIU into my Steam Deck to use its unique feature – the ability to deliver 45W of power to beefier gadgets like the Steam Deck or a lightweight laptop. I charged my Steam Deck from 0 to 51 percent like this. It spent most of the time at a slower 30W instead of 45W, but other batteries won’t even start charging devices that are heavily loaded.

I doubt the Haribo and INIU are as durable as the Nightcore, with their eggshell plastic frames instead of carbon fiber, and I appreciate the Nightcore’s bouncy rubber corners to protect against drops. It’s the only one of the three that also claims IPX5 (read: rain, splashes, small jets) water resistance. Overall, I certainly wouldn’t call the Niticore a worse charger than the competition. It’s just more expensive and has multiple small business processes.

At less than half the price, with more reliable charging and a built-in cable, I’d probably opt for the Gummy Bear instead. And for just a few dollars, with a cable that lets it receive larger gadgets And To be charged without the need for a second cord, the Iniu Pocket Rocket is my choice. I bought all three batteries with my own money, but this is the only one I’m keeping.