Baseus PicoGo AM31 Qi2 power bank review: I finally found my perfect iPhone companion

Baseus PicoGo AM31 Qi2 Power Bank

MSRP $50.00

Score Details

“A no-brainer, low-fuss, everyday carry that your iPhone will love.”

Pros

• Light, tiny, and well-built
• Strong magnetic attachment
• Built-in kickstand is a sweet bonus
• Qi2 charging doesn’t disappoint

Cons

• Slight stability woes for kickstand
• Warms up during wireless charging
• It’s not ready for a full tank top-up

Amazon

Instant Insight

The Baseus PicoGo AM31 Qi2 power bank is a lovely everyday carry (EDC) if you want something pocketable for the last-gasp power shot to your phone. It has a terrific build with strong magnets and offers the convenience of a built-in kickstand, as well.

The magnetic position lock is great, and support for Qi2 standard means your iPhone can tap into the full 15W wireless power share potential. In wired mode, you can draw 20W out of this tiny power bank. It does run warm, but not to a worrying extent.

Baseus PicoGo AM31 specs: A quick look at the numbers

I carry an iPhone 17 Pro with me at all times. Not because it’s the only phone that has my heart. Apple just has me locked in its ecosystem, and I test more experimental apps (read: TestFlight program) and beta OS builds than I can count on my fingers. It’s a great phone, otherwise, but my wayward ways are a recipe for unnatural battery drain. 

But that’s not the end of my ordeal. I love to work outdoors. Cafes. Parks. Essentially, anywhere away from my workstation. Lugging a charging kit is something I despise. My jeans pockets aren’t fond of a massive power bank either. All that puts my iPhone’s full-day battery survival in serious jeopardy. Maybe, something small, convenient, and versatile can work? 

There certainly are products that meet the above criteria, and that hunt landed me at Baseus’ doorsteps. And specifically, the Baseus PicoGo AM31 Mini Magnetic Power Bank with Stand 20W 5000mAh. Ignore the utterly loquacious name. Let’s call it the Baseus PicoGo AM31, for it’s a product that is fittingly tiny, and gets the job done — with some heat.

Baseus PicoGo AM31 build: You’ll love how tiny it is

Quick take: The charmingly small build and barely-there heft is paired with a solid build and some welcome extras.

One of the biggest — if not the defining — reasons to pick up the Baseus PicoGo AM31 wireless power bank is the size and bulk. It tips the scales at just over 140 grams, and its compact size ensures that you can keep it in just about any pocket on your attire or carry bag. And as you can see in the image below, the tiny power bank can even fit in the small pocket of my jeans. 

If you are someone who doesn’t like to carry a bag for gadgets and wires in a bag, and trust your laptop (and phone) to last the whole outdoor work session away from a power port, the Baseus PicoGo AM31 should serve as a perfect companion device. 

You can shake your iPhone without the case flying off. 

Another crucial perk is the built-in magnet. It’s pretty strong, and during my usage, the power bank never slid off my iPhone 17 Pro or the Google Pixel 10 Pro — both of which have magnetic rings underneath the real glass shell. The situation was no different with a case applied. 

I tested Apple’s TechWoven Case for the iPhone 17 Pro and the Spigen Ultra Hybrid Neo One (Mag Fit) for the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Once again, the magnetic lock is pretty strong, and at no point will the Baseus power bank slip off the phone’s cover shell. You can hold the power bank in a vertically oriented position and let the phone hang off it.

But there are a couple of problems hiding behind the conveniences. First, not all phones fit well with the power bank. Any device with a large (or tall) camera outlay close to the charging coil will create a problem. The Pixel 10 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro slot in just fine. The Galaxy S26 Ultra? Not so much, as you can see in the image below. 

Second, we have the USB-C port’s placement. The kickstand at the back is pretty useful. Whether you’re scrolling a social media feed or watching horizontal videos, it can comfortably handle any position for your phone. However, in portrait propped mode, you don’t want to tap too hard on the screen, or the phone will topple over.

It’s the placement of the USB-C port that is awkward. When the kickstand is in use, the USB-C port is at the bottom, which means you can’t charge it. Only when the kickstand is propping up the phone vertically is the USB-C port accessible for charging, or souping up another device with a cable.

 Those two are not fundamental flaws, but worth considering. On the contrary, if your prerequisite is simply a small power bank with a strong magnetic connection and a built-in kickstand, the Baseus PicoGo AM31 Qi2 powerbank is arguably one of the best bets out there. 

Build and design score: 8/10

Basues PicoGo AM31 Qi2 powerbank charging performance 

This power bank comes equipped with a 5,000mAh battery. Ideally, it should be enough for a full top-up on nearly every mainstream phone sold in the US. It can cover the iPhone 17 Pro (4,252 mAh), the Pixel 10 Pro (4,870 mAh), and the Galaxy S26 Ultra (5,000 mAh), while falling just short of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s range. 

In reality, there’s a bit of a power bleed happening, though nothing too much to worry about. You can blame the losses on voltage and thermal woes, something you will even face with electric cars and everything else in between that has an electrochemical foundation. 

I mostly used it with my iPhone 17 Pro, and it took the battery from 7% to 78% in just over two hours. On the Pixel 10 Pro, the Baseus power bank could only manage 53% top up before it died. The charging times could also have been better, but that’s what you get here.  

Broadly, it can handle a current-gen iPhone with an average Qi charging rate of 10-13% in half an hour.

I’d also like to highlight that the power bank runs hot when it’s juicing up your phone. And depending on the ambient temperatures, you may want to keep it outside your leather-lined bag or jacket pockets. Baseus says there’s a nine-layer heat protection system in place, so you shouldn’t worry too much about fire hazards. 

When I first began using it, the ambient temperatures usually hovered between 8-14 degrees Celcius (46-57 degrees Fahrenheit). I noticed that the power bank didn’t get too hot when lying outside, but I could definitely feel the warmth building up. At no point did it get worryingly hot that I had to take it off the phone.  

As I shifted back to my hometown, where th

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