A great portable battery that charges two devices simultaneously and sports a built-in flashlight for emergencies.

Whether you're heading off to work or on a flight to visit friends and family, having a solid portable battery on hand is always a great idea — especially if you suffer from lousy battery life. I've had a chance to utilize Aukey's 12000mAh External Battery Charger these past couple weeks with my Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, putting every feature to the test. Take a closer look at how this AUKEY POWER BANK performs and if it's a viable solution for your Android device.

The convenient portability of this backup battery makes it easy to carry around in your pocket, unlike its bulkier 10k Quick Charging sibling. Measuring only 5.98" x 2.13" x 0.67" and weighing in at 8.64 oz, it will fit nicely in a small purse, carry-on or backpack without hogging storage space. Colored completely black, its design is rather sleek — featuring Aukey's logo on the top that happens to double as the battery LED. The smooth exterior has a bit of grip to it, too — leaving little worry of drops.

Straight out of the box, it took around 4.5 hours to completely charge its internal 12000mAh Li-polymer battery. As it increases in life, the LED changes its coloring: 0-20% (RED), 20-60% (GREEN), 60-100% (WHITE). Aukey doesn't recommend charging your mobile device(s) and the battery simultaneously, however, to prolong the life of its battery. Featuring a 5V 2A input and a max output of 3.4A, both devices charged quickly enough for me — still leaving enough juice for a couple additional charges. Admittedly, I didn't get much use out of its built-in flashlight, but that's not to say that it doesn't have great purpose. For a weekend camping trip, I could see this flashlight being extremely handy, but it's certainly no MAGLITE.

Included with the Aukey 12000mAh External Battery Charger is a 13" micro-USB charging cable sans wall wart. Having a lengthier option included would have been nice, since I found myself just using an existing cable that was longer anyhow. Built-in is an automatic over-charge protection that will cut off the battery as soon as your device is completely juiced up. The power button is located on the side of the battery, and can be tapped once to simply check its battery life. To turn the flashlight on/off, hold it down for 3 seconds.
Final thoughts

I'm a big fan of the size of this portable battery from Aukey, along with having the ability to charge both of my devices at the same time. Its 12000mAh capacity is certainly enough to get me through a couple days without a charger, assuming I'm not glued to my phone the entirety of my getaway.

Aukey was kind enough to provide the Android Central community with an exclusive coupon code: WL8I3USF which saves you 6 bucks off this charger from Amazon. It's only valid until midnight June 7, so use 'em while they're hot!