(UPDATED: Please check out this article for a full review on the MAXOAK 50,000mAh battery!)
We’ve all been in a situation where our Surface’s battery died before we could get to a power outlet – I know I have. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to plug into an external battery to recharge your Surface when travelling or running between meetings?
With the Surface 3, Microsoft simplified the use of external battery packs by switching over to a standard Micro USB port for charging. So, If you have a Surface 3, take a look at this article for external battery options: External Battery For Surface 3 Tablets.
Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as easy to use an external battery pack to charge a Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book, for a couple of reasons:
- They have a proprietary power connector (but, at least, it’s the same proprietary connector for all of them)
- They have high battery capacities which means a commonly available 12,000 mAh battery would only provide a fraction of a charge (about 33% of a full charge on a Surface Pro 4).
However, it is possible to find very-large-capacity external battery packs that can be used with the Surface line, given the proper charging cable. So, I did the digging for you and came up with a quartet of options for you to consider.
The downside is that they tend to be more expensive and heavy in comparison to the smaller capacity batteries.
External Battery for Surface Pro 4 or Surface Books:Â “The CEO”
The MCT “CEO” Ultimate Battery is the largest capacity external battery option I’ve found and can can store an incredible 52,800 mAh of charge!!! In case you’re wondering,  that’s enough juice to supply more than a full charge to a Surface Pro 4 and about 80% of a charge to a Surface Book (or almost 2 full charges to a Surface 3!)
Technically speaking, the “CEO” is just a XTPower MP-50000 power bank with a 12VDC power cable for the Surface Pro 3/4/Book but, the MP-50000 is sometimes hard to find separately these days. Unfortunately, it’s pretty expensive at almost $220 USD.
If you don’t like the XTPower 50000 unit because of the price, here are a couple of other options for you that will work with the same 12VDC power cable and they all come in at only around 60% of the price of “The CEO”:
None of these three options quite offers the same capacity as the MCT solution (though the MAXOAK offering comes very close) but they can definitely help extend the time you can use your Surface, by several hours if needed.
Of course, you’ll still need a cable to connect them to your Surface. The Fitian Charger Cable Connector Charging Cord for Microsoft Surface Pro 3 seems to be about the best rated on Amazon even though the number of ratings is low.
So now you can get an external battery for Surface Pro 4 tablets or Surface Books and extend their useful lives by several hours.
Tim
