When it comes to external battery chargers, understanding mAh isn’t a step that you can skip.

There are tons of different options out there in the portable phone charger category and because of this, there is a great deal of selection available from which you can choose when it comes time to make your purchase. You may think that the physically smallest one will be the most convenient for you, but unless your device has enough juice to get the job done, you’ll only be disappointed.

That’s where an understanding of mAh comes into play.

It isn’t sexy, but it’s integral to choosing the right power bank. The term mAh stands for “milliampere-hour” or “milliamps hour”. It is the type of measurement that is used to tell you how much power you’ll get out of your portable cell phone charger. Without getting into the science of it, you can still understand exactly how looking at this measurement will let you choose the right power bank for what you need it to do. The key is in understanding that your cell phone, tablet, MP3 player, digital camera, and even laptop batteries are all measured in the same way.

Have a look at the portable cell phone charger mAh and compare it to that of the device batteries you want to power-up.

The Mogix external battery charger has a massive 10,000 mAh. To put that into perspective, the iPhone 6 battery is 1,810 mAh. This means that you should be able to get 5 full charges out of it. That said, it’s important to recognize that there is more to it than just dividing the battery charger’s mAh from that of the device battery.

Why? Because other factors can come into play. For instance, if you leave your device on while it charges, and you have battery draining apps running, or if you’re actually using it while it charges, then it will require more time and power to recharge than it would if you shut it off completely.

If you use an iPad, then you will absolutely require a larger portable cell phone charger because their batteries are huge. Depending on the model, they’ll range from 6600 mAh to 11,560 mAh, so be aware that you’ll receive only one charge from this power bank, and a smaller one likely wouldn’t do you any good at all.

So that’s essentially the trick! Compare the mAh of the devices you use (and the way you intend to use them, even while charging) to that of the backup battery pack that you want to be sure that it will live up to your expectations. That didn’t hurt too much, right?