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Skil recently launched a new 20V Max 2Ah battery that charges via USB-C internally.
That’s right, you just plug in a USB-C power cord and the battery charges itself. A full charge takes 55 minutes.
That’s not all – it also serves as a power bank that’s capable of power delivery of up to 100W.
The kit comes with a 45W AC charging brick and a 3A USB-C power cord.
Price: $60 for the battery (BY5100B-00), $99 for the kit (CB5100B-11)
Discussion
The built-in charging undoubtedly adds to the size of the battery, but not by a lot, especially given that certain Skil batteries previously had built-in USB-A ports that allowed them to serve as power banks when not in use with tools.
Changing over from USB-A power connection to USB-C would have been a nice upgrade in itself, but two-way USB-C charging definitely seems even better.
The pricing seems fair as well, especially given the cost of other brands’ USB charging adapters and power delivery attachments.
Surprisingly, there’s no special naming for the two-way charging feature, unlike the PwrAssist power bank feature built into some of Skil’s first-gen batteries.
It’s unclear if Skil will be adding this to all of their cordless power tool batteries, or if their parent company will extend the same tech to Skil’s sibling brands such as Flex.
