Baseus’ new PicoGo AC22 Ultra-Mini power bank is essentially what happens when someone tries to squeeze a full workday’s worth of backup power into something that disappears in your pocket next to your keys and AirPods. It is a 10,000mAh brick on paper, but in the hand, it feels closer to a chunky charging case than the brick-like battery packs most people are used to lugging around.
The headline spec sounds almost like a dare: a 2.8 x 2.4‑inch body, roughly AirPods-case territory, at about 172 grams. That size matters more than any milliamp-hour number because it shifts how you treat a power bank; this is something you toss into a jeans pocket without thinking, not a “tech accessory” that lives in a backpack for emergencies. If you’ve been burned by thick, 20,000mAh slabs that technically solve battery anxiety but are annoying to actually carry, PicoGo is clearly targeting you.
What makes this little block more interesting than a cute form factor is the 45W USB‑C output. That power level has quietly become a sweet spot: fast enough to top up modern phones at near full speed, happy with tablets, and capable of nudging some ultraportable laptops out of the danger zone when you’re watching the battery hit single digits mid-flight. No one is pretending this replaces a dedicated laptop charger, but the idea that you can keep a MacBook Air or similar machine running long enough to finish a deck or file a story on deadline is a big step up from the “just for your phone” packs of a few years ago.
Baseus also leans into convenience with a built-in USB‑C cable that tucks into the body, so there’s always at least one cable on hand. That might sound minor until you remember the last time you had a fully charged power bank and zero cables to connect it to anything, which is far more common than people admit. Between the fixed cable and the USB‑C port, PicoGo can charge two devices at once, which is exactly the sort of real-world scenario—phone plus earbuds, or phone plus handheld console—this size class naturally invites.
There is, of course, a catch: price. Baseus is targeting $59.99 at launch, which pushes this firmly into “premium compact” territory rather than impulse-buy accessory land. That pricing becomes more noticeable when you look at other 10,000mAh, 45W pocketable chargers that undercut it while offering similar power and sometimes more ports or little extras like a display. Early reactions from enthusiasts are already doing that mental math—great concept, but maybe a generation too early for mainstream wallets.
Zoom out a bit, though, and PicoGo fits neatly into a broader shift that’s been happening in power banks over the past couple of years. Big capacity is no longer the headline; it’s about how efficiently brands can pack that capacity into shapes and sizes people will actually carry every day. You see it in ultra-slim magnetic banks that cling to your phone, in card-sized 5,000mAh slabs, and in these new “mini bricks” that chase AirPods-like portability while still pushing 45W output. Baseus already plays in that ecosystem with other PicoGo models and slim Qi2 banks, so AC22 feels less like a random experiment and more like an evolution of a design language centered around pocketability.
In day-to-day use, the appeal is pretty simple. For most people, 10,000mAh is the comfort zone: enough to fully recharge a flagship phone at least once with change to spare, enough to keep a tablet alive on a long commute, enough to rescue a Bluetooth speaker at a picnic. Wrap that in something you barely notice in your pocket and back it with safety features like overcharge and short‑circuit protection, and you’re in the sweet spot for travelers, commuters, and anyone who spends too much time refreshing their battery percentage.
If you are shopping purely on value-per-rupee or value-per-dollar, there are cheaper 10,000mAh 45W options that make more practical sense than this first-wave AirPods-sized brick. But that has always been the trade in consumer tech: you pay a little extra to get early access to what feels like the next normal. PicoGo AC22 looks like one of those products—slightly ahead of its time on pricing, very on time in terms of what future everyday power banks will look and feel like.
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