Flashback: the phones that weren’t, part 1 – is 18,000mAh big enough?

Unlimited power! For a brief moment in 2019 there was a smartphone with a massive 18,000mAh battery – yes, that’s 3-4 times bigger than a typical phone battery today. However, it failed to find an audience and it launch was canceled.

We’re talking about the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop, a highly descriptive name for a unique phone. The P18K should be self explanatory. “Pop” refers to the dual popup camera (it housed a 16MP module plus a 2MP depth sensor for face scanning).

The Energizer Power Max P18K Pop was a beast of a phone with an 18,000mAh battery

This phone was announced alongside the Energizer Ultimate U620S Pop, which was basically the same phone, except with a teeny-tiny 3,200mAh battery and it measured a mere 10.3mm thick. Both were shown off at the MWC in 2019 and we spent some time at Energizer booth with this curious pair.

The Energizer Power Max P18K Pop next to its small battery sibling, the Energizer Ultimate U620S Pop

The number 18,000mAh wasn’t chosen randomly – it works out to just below the 100Wh limit for electronics that you can bring aboard airplanes. The phone certainly earned the “Max” tag.

According to Energizer, the Power Max P18K Pop could play music for 4 days straight or video for 2 days straight. There have been phones that tried to use efficient e-Ink screens to extend their endurance. Others had solar panels. The P18K Pop took the brute force approach.

Once you depleted the battery it was time to recharge. That job was handled by the USB-C port with support for USB Power Delivery 2.0 at 18W. That doesn’t sound like much, but you have to remember that this was before the 200+ watt charging craze.

Naturally, the P18K could be used as a power bank to recharge other more feeble phones. That wasn’t particularly fast either, supporting only 2.5W output. Looking on the positive side, you could top up several other phones and still have enough juice to make it to the end of the day.