Sharge Shargeek 170 power bank hands-on review: The new shape of charging?

The Shargeek 170 turned up in a box with a lot of bubble wrap (and an ICEMAG, but that's for another review), clear film and no retail packaging, probably due to its current Kickstarter reward status.

This was as disappointing as it is understandable, although the experience is somewhat balanced out by the fancy "240W" USB-C to -C cable (boxed) that was also thrown in, as well as a 140W PD 3.1 power brick, finished in white as opposed to the orange versions available on Amazon. The latter might also be a pre-retail preview as it was also not packaged - which, as its casing was damaged on removal from the shipping container, was a shame.

It wasn't too badly damaged to function, however, and lost no time in powering the 170 up, which was the first thing it did as the power bank was completely dead on its unboxing.

The new Sharge charging accessory combination reached a peak of ~131W and took just under 50 minutes to charge in full, which, given all the operating variables, was an acceptable performance for their rated specs.

Now, I was disappointed to find out that neither the Storm2, 2 Slim or Chargeasap Flash Pro would work with the laptop, possibly because those power banks are on older Power Delivery standards. It also initially failed to respond to the Shargeek 170 either, which was also disappointing. A bout of troubleshooting revealed that the USB PD 3.1 port will only work when the laptop is powered off - nevertheless, the 170 could stillonly charge the Slim 5 14 by ~40W at the most.

Sharge also asserts that the 170 functions as a bi-directional charger. In other words, it should act as a sort of replacement power brick for the Slim 5 14's type-C charging port in combination with a fast enough power brick (like the Sharge 140W PD 3.1 adapter that also came with this review unit). 

And yes, the "Two-way Fast Charging" is operational, although, again, it doesn't re-fill the 14-inch Legion PC at the advertised rate. Even the 140W power brick could only power it at ~80W.

Luckily, I still had my old Razer Blade Stealth around, and could test the 170 for PD at up to 100W (with an official Razer cable). This gave a result of 70W at most, which is consistent with other power banks and chargers I've tested.

Let's test smaller devices now, starting with an iPhone. I'm sticking with a 13 Pro, as I'm aware that not all of us are in a position to upgrade to type-C quite yet.

The Lightning-enabled former flagship charges at no more than 9V/2A - as it seems to do with every gadget I test, even though it is in theory capable of more. This fruit-phone...well, it's consistent, at least.

Moving to the more universal USB type-C realm, we find the Galaxy S23 Ultra (drafted in following the sad and premature demise of my Galaxy Note 10+ from previous reviews) exhibits Fast Charging 2.0, which is Samsung for ~23W, or ~65 minutes of 0-100% charging time.

That was also disappointing, as the 170 is rated for the S23 Ultra's full rate of 45W (or 15V/3A) as well as 140W. Then again, I've had similar results with Samsung mobile devices and other power banks, even with the smartphones' own OEM cables.

It is also very bright, which enhances its general appeal as a desk-toy. On that note, it has good viewing angles in real life, although it does admittedly come across as way more reflective on camera.

All in all, I like the idea of the Sharge 170, even if this review unit didn't manage to live up to all of its 140W hype with the Legion Slim 5 14.

Lenovo's support material does specify a 20V/7A output for this kind of performance, whereas the power bank is rated to go at up to 28V/5A - then again, that makes the laptop's failure to use the 20V/5A output as the Blade Stealth did even more of a perplexing mystery.

Nevertheless, it remains that I could not verify Sharge's input/output claims for the 170 in full with the testing equipment to hand - even though I should have been able to. Then again, it is possible that it, like its power brick, was slightly damaged in transit: I could not get its screen to cycle through multiple modes with the power button, as with the Storm series, as normal. (According to Sharge, retail/Kickstarter units should be able to do that.)

It also refused to charge its 2 smaller siblings at once, which would have been helpful in high-wattage testing. Therefore, stay tuned while I source a second "140W USB" device to confirm or disprove these findings in a follow-up to this review. In the meantime, the 170 has exhibited the ability to discharge at well over 100W, at least, and to handle USB-PD duties at the 100W mark.

Finally, this power bank never seemed to get warm enough to so much as warrant breaking the FLIR One thermal imaging camera out: another encouraging indicator of long-term performance. I'd call this an incomplete win for Sharge's latest high-tech power bank, which is still available on Kickstarter for a limited time.

I have now been sent the retail version of the Sharge 170, and can confirm that this one is fully functional, and also charges as fast with a 140W power bank.

It comes with its own carrying bag and 240W cable, which I imagine many customers will appreciate especially if they don't have the latter.

All in all, I feel the 170 is one of the best power banks Sharge has made so far. It is on par with the 130 (or Storm2 Slim) in terms of looks, although it still falls behind the 100 (or Storm2) in terms of practicality - that model does have its own DC port and temperature read-out after all. Then again, the 170 is the most up-to-date, especially in terms of charging speeds. Therefore, those with newer USB-C laptops might benefit most from this accessory. It is still up for pre-order via Kickstarter at the time of writing.