UGREEN Nexode Air and MagFlow Air Devices
design
Two of the three devices here are power banks that share a lot of the same DNA. Both the MagFlow Air 5000mAh and the MagFlow Air Magnetic Slim 10000mAh use an aluminium shell with a soft-touch rubberised back panel, where the magnets sit. It’s a build that feels premium in hand, closer to something out of Cupertino than the slab of grey plastic that turns up in a lot of budget power banks. The soft-touch back also means there’s no need to worry about it scratching the back of your phone while it’s clamped on, it feels great.
Where the two diverge is size and what UGREEN chose to leave out to get there. The 5000mAh MagFlow Air is properly thin at 8.6mm and comes in Lunar White, Space Gray or Starlight Blue. It’s an easy thing to drop in a pocket for a day out without noticing it’s there and while it does add noticeable weight to my iPhone 17 Pro, it’s comfortable enough to keep on there while using. The one real design gripe is that it overhangs the bottom of the phone by a few millimetres rather than sitting flush within the phone’s own footprint. I understand there’s only so small you can make something and still keep everything necessary inside it, but that little chin is an easy leverage point that could get the bank knocked loose if it catches on something. It ends up feeling like I’ve picked up the wrong size for my phone.
The 10000mAh MagFlow Air Magnetic Slim, available in the same three colours, is roughly double the thickness at 13.9mm to fit the extra cell in, and it adds a built-in braided cable that’s permanently attached to the bottom corner and loops to a detachable USB-C connector. On paper that’s a neat idea: no more forgetting a spare cable. In practice it’s a slightly confusing addition to what’s meant to be a MagSafe-style power bank. The cable itself is pretty stiff and sticks out awkwardly from the end of the unit, and it’s short enough that it’s hard to work out exactly what UGREEN expects you to plug it into day to day. UGREEN also pitches it as doubling as a carry strap, but given the direction the cable sits in, any real strain on it looks like it would pull straight on the USB-C connector rather than away from it, so treating it as a strap doesn’t inspire much confidence.
The Nexode Air USB-C Charger is much more traditional. A compact 65W GaN brick with foldable prongs and a single USB-C port, it’s finished in UGREEN’s familiar Space Gray or a brighter Lunar White with a frosted glass panel around the port and fine ridges lower down for grip. It’s a compact design that leans on UGREEN’s Airpyra stacking technology, and it comes with a 3.3ft braided USB-C cable in the box.
performance
Performance-wise, when snapped to the back of my iPhone the two MagFlow Air banks behave almost identically to use. It’s worth noting the reality of the capacities though, because UGREEN’s own product page for the 5000mAh model quietly admits that real usable output sits nearer 3000mAh once conversion loss during wireless charging is accounted for. That’s just physics rather than a UGREEN failing, but it does mean it won’t take an iPhone from empty to full in one go, even though the headline capacity suggests it should. Realistically you’ll get about three quarters of a charge of a 17 Pro.
The wireless connection itself is confident on both units. Snapping onto a bare iPhone locks in firmly, and it’s still fine with a third-party silicone case on, though understandably a little less locked in than bare. What both units share, and what no company has solved yet, is heat. Clip either one to a phone and slide it into a pocket, and there’s noticeable warmth building within a couple of minutes, even in the lower-power trickle mode. Push it to full wireless speed and there’s a further bump in temperature, not quite hot enough to be uncomfortable, but close enough to notice. That’s the nature of wireless charging in an enclosed pocket rather than a fault specific to these two, but it’s not solved here either.
On the 10000mAh model, the built-in cable and the extra USB-C port mean it’s technically possible to charge three devices at once, between the wireless pad, the cable and the port. Whether anyone would actually want to is a fair question. Splitting 10000mAh three ways doesn’t leave much for any one device, so it’s a feature you might use once in an emergency and then not again. I could see it being helpful to boost your AirPods case though.
It’s worth setting expectations against UGREEN’s own standard MagFlow line here too. The regular MagFlow 10000mAh runs a 25W wireless coil and has an LED capacity display, both dropped for the Air edition in favour of the slimmer body. For anyone chasing outright wireless speed, or wanting a screen to check remaining charge at a glance, that will matter. In reality, if you’re already choosing to charge wirelessly you’re not really chasing maximum speed anyway, and a screen on a power bank has never felt like it’s that useful to me, personally.
The Nexode Air USB-C Charger is a much simpler story. It looks unassuming, more like a keychain fob than a laptop charger, but it held up reliably across everything thrown at it and never missed a beat regardless of what was plugged in. The compact form factor causes no issues in a UK socket either, sitting snug without wobbling or blocking neighbouring sockets. The obvious limitation is the single port. With so many similarly sized multi-port GaN chargers now available at a compact footprint, it’s hard to make a strong case for going single-port only. The flexibility of topping up a phone and a laptop from the same charger, even a small one, is difficult to give up once you’ve had it, and that’s the main thing holding the Nexode Air back from being an easy universal recommendation.
UGREEN does have a solution for that in the Air range, though I’ve not been hands on with it directly. The three-port Nexode Air Slim Charger opts for a flat form factor with two USB-C and one USB-A port along the downward facing edge. It’s a clever solution for fitting behind a sofa back, but that’s all I can say for now. It’ll set you back about 50% more than the single-port variant, but in concept alone I’d say that’s worth it if performance carries over.
summed up
All in, the UGREEN Air range does what it says on the tin. Everything here is smaller and lighter than the standard equivalents and for the most part the compromises are easy enough to live with. The 10000mAh model is a slightly harder sell and in my mind, its built-in cable feels like a solution to a problem that isn’t really there and if capacity is most important then I’d be looking to one of UGREEN’s more conventional power banks instead.
For anyone who wants a slim MagSafe-style top-up for a day out, the MagFlow Air 5000mAh is a strong bet, provided the slight overhang doesn’t put you off and you only need a little boost versus a full charge. The Nexode Air 65W is an easy carry for anyone who only ever needs to charge one thing at a time, though most people will likely be better served by one of UGREEN’s multi-port options instead.
