[Currently this is only available on Kickstarter with $20 off: https://sharge-1.kckb.me/fef79082. It should be on Amazon soon].
The Sharge Shargeek 140 can fast charge almost every gadget you own including a lot of the latest laptops, and it looks impressive with its transparent design and a colour smart display. I’ll test it to its limits to see if it can meet its marketing claims. So let’s take a closer look.
Overview
The Sharge Shargeek 140 is a simpler, more compact and lighter version of their Shargeek 100, previously called the Storm 2.
In the box you get the charger itself, a rather thin pouch and a 100W USB-C cable which is a nice bonus, but mine didn’t include any instruction manual.
Like most of Sharge’s power banks it has an appealing design, with a clear plastic casing which shows off the neatly arranged internals.
You can’t quite make out the exact battery cells used like you can on the Shargeek 100 with its Samsung 18650 cells. But Sharge’s marketing info does confirm these are also quality Samsung cells, and this time the slightly larger but higher density 21700 cells.
I’m not sure how easy it would be to replace the cells, but you can at least easily open up the charger – you just need to remove the three screws at one end. I had to open it to blow out some dust that was trapped inside.
Four of these cells provide 20,000 mAh compared to 25,600 mAh for the eight 18650 cells in the chunky Shargeek 100. That’s 72 Wh versus 93.5 Wh when using the correct capacity measurement, which can be compared with any battery pack regardless of the voltage. I’ll be testing its capacity claims shortly.
The Shargeek 140 is slimmer and lighter than the Shargeek 100, but it’s still not pocketable. It weighs 469g and measures 157 x 65 x 31mm. That’s 154 Wh / kg and 228 Wh / l – these measurements will be useful as I review more portable power banks in this 100W plus category.
Sharge’s naming convention is confusing to say the least. Not only have they changed their name from Shargeek to Sharge, yet still retained Shargeek for their large power banks. But also they are using 140 for this power bank and 100 for its larger, more capable and more expensive model.
The 140 actually refers to the total output of both its USB-C and USB-A output. It still has the same maximum 100W from one output as the Shargeek 100. Which is less than a lot of comparable portable power banks in this category and price range which have a 140W maximum output for the latest 16” MacBooks Pros for example.
And more disappointingly it can’t charge as fast as the Shargeek 100 either. The 140 maxes out at 65W with a capable charger, compared to 100W for the Shargeek 100.
The end of the unit has just two ports, a 40W USB-A port and a 100W USB-C port that can also be used for charging.
Both ports can be used together, but they are very close to each other.
I had to remove a raised badge on one USB-A cable so I could use it together with a USB-C cable for some of my performance tests.
Below the ports is a power switch. A long press turns the display on and off. When switched on the 24mm x 11mm colour display lights up. The display comes on automatically and stays on when you connect any device.
It’s a simpler display compared to the Shargeek 100, but the font on the 100 is so small, all the extra information it shows is barely readable anyway.
The power bank has very comprehensive support of all the latest charging standards as you can see. Including USB Power Delivery all the way up to 20V at 5A.
Both via the USB-C port and USB-A port which has support for Qualcomm QC 3 all the way up to 20V. There shouldn’t be much you can’t charge at full speed with this power bank.
The display still shows the remaining charge or discharge time based on the current input or output, the output and input power in Watts and the remaining battery capacity.
I used the power bank to charge a 14” MacBook Pro that can charge at up to 100W, an iPhone 15 Pro Max that will charge at up to around 25W and various other devices. It worked as expected and in general use didn’t get particularly warm.
The two ports are a little limiting. It’s handy having a USB-A port – there are plenty of devices that either don’t have USB-C or don’t support USB-C to USB-C cables. But I would have liked to see an additional USB-C port so I could at least charge my laptop and phone at the same time.
And since the single USB-C port is also for changing the power bank, you then only have the USB-A port available – so not great for passthrough charging.
Performance
To properly test the power bank I connected it to my Kunkin load tester which I set to pull the full 5A at 20V off the 100W USB-C port via power delivery.
The unit still didn’t get too hot as you can see from the image off my thermal imaging camera above. But after around 25 minutes it shut off with no message.
If I turned the load on again, I did get an Overload message in red. So I’m assuming the unit is protecting itself from overheating. If I left it a while I could then use it again for a minute or so before it shut off. This is a limitation of these more compact units, but it’s unlikely you’ll be drawing a full 100W off it constantly in normal use.
Since the power bank has 140 in its name, I also fully loaded it with the 100W load on the USB-C port and the USB-A port’s maximum 40W load – 20V at 2A.
It was able to deliver its full almost 140W full output, but only for around 10 minutes when the USB-C port shut off.
Since I couldn’t test the claimed 72 Wh capacity at the full 100W without it overheating, I ran the load test at 50W, half its maximum output. Which would be more typical of normal use.
It ran for just over 1 hour 10 minutes at the full 50W before shutting off.
I measured 59.16 Wh which is 82% of its rated capacity – that’s 59.16 Wh / 72 Wh. These power banks are never 100% efficient due to heat losses and other factors, but anything over 80% is acceptable.
I charged the power bank using the supplied 100W charging cable off Sharge’s S140 140W wall charger as well as my ISDT Power 200H 100W desktop charger.
I got around 62W off its maximum 65W input. It took just over 1 hour and 5 minutes to reach 80% charge – charging at this maximum rate. It then slowly dropped this charging speed to complete a full charge in almost exactly two hours. I measured just over 76Wh charging the unit, which confirms it’s most likely using 5000mAh Samsung cells.
Conclusions
Overall the Sharge Shargeek 140 is a fairly compact, capable portable charger. It only has two outputs and they are a little close together, but between them they support pretty much every current charging standard out there – so you should be able to fast charge all your tech.
It doesn’t like being run at its maximum output for too long so I wouldn’t recommend using it to charge laptops with heavier demands. But I had no issues using it to charge my MacBook Pro 14”, and with its 70Wh battery the power bank can completely charge it from almost empty.
If aesthetics are important to you it does look good, but at RRP you are paying a bit for its looks. You can check the current price down below. There are similar priced and cheaper options available, which are at least as capable. I’ll be covering them in upcoming reviews as I try to find the best 100W plus portable charger, so make sure you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel if you’re interested!
Don’t forget to take a look at my YouTube video at the top of the page, and again please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’m releasing videos every week on the latest technology and how to get the most out of it. If you tap the bell icon when you subscribe you’ll get a notification as soon as I release a video, and there’ll be a link to my site here for the written article. YouTube is also the best place to leave a comment. I read all of them and respond to as many as I can!
The charger is currently available discounted (save $20) on Kickstarter: https://sharge-1.kckb.me/fef79082
Amazon links:
Sharge Shargeek 140: https://amzn.to/3yc7VnL
Sharge Shargeek 100: https://amzn.to/3wAJOOX
(As an Amazon affiliate, I get a small commission from purchases made via any Amazon links.)
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