SmallRig Nano36 and Nano72 Introduced – Rig-Mountable Power Banks With Retractable USB-C

by Alexandra ThompsonSeptember 14^th, 2026

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SmallRig used its IBC 2026 booth to detail the Nano36 and Nano72, two USB-C power banks built around a 1/4″-20 threaded hole, locating pins, and a detachable V-mount plate, rated at 10,000mAh (36Wh) and 20,000mAh (72Wh) with a retractable USB-C cable running out of the body. Manny Moreno took us through both units, including the 100W bidirectional charging on the larger model and pricing that starts under $65.

Power banks are already on camera rigs, phone cages, and light stands, usually held there by a clamp or a cage built for one specific pack. Rather than design a cage for every power bank on the market, SmallRig built its own with the mounting hardware included.

SmallRig is not new to power. We have covered the VB99 SE mini V-mount battery, the XTouch X99 with its touchscreen display and app control, and the 221Wh X221, and the company brought a wider IBC lineup to Amsterdam this year, including the iPhone 18 cinema kit we looked at separately. The Nano series is the first time SmallRig has approached the consumer power bank format with production rigging attached to it.

Mounting comes first

Both units carry a 1/4″-20 threaded hole with locating pins around it, which is what separates them from a standard power bank with a flat back. The pins stop the pack rotating around a single screw, so anything that threads on stays where it was put. A detachable V-mount plate is included, and according to Manny the threaded hole also opens the units up to Arca-Swiss plates, NATO rails, and the rest of SmallRig’s mounting range.

That covers the two situations the product is aimed at. On a cinema rig, a pack that mounts properly can sit where a battery would sit and feed a monitor or a wireless transmitter over USB-C. On a phone or a light, it can ride on the same hardware the rest of the rig already uses. SmallRig also sells dedicated power bank holders for third-party packs, so this is the company taking the same problem from the other direction.

The cable is built in

The more unusual part is the 70cm retractable USB-C cable integrated into the body. It works in both directions: connected to a compatible charger it recharges the power bank, and connected to a device it delivers power, with the unit automatically detecting the direction of the power flow.

Manny’s point about that was less about convenience than about cable quality. He explained that the built-in USB-C cable is designed and rated for the power levels the Nano units support, so users don’t have to rely on an unknown third-party cable that may limit charging performance. With the cable integrated and specified by SmallRig, the supported power level is built into the system rather than depending on which cable happens to be available.

There are ports on the top as well, so the integrated cable isn’t the only route in or out. The top USB-C port works in both directions like the cable, and there’s a USB-A port alongside it.

What each model delivers

The two units are separated by more than capacity. The Nano36 holds 10,000mAh (36Wh) and takes around 30W of PD power in, which Manny said he has seen briefly peak higher before the unit settles back to protect the cells and the control board. Output runs higher than the input figure, although Manny did not pin the exact ceiling down, and the top USB-C and USB-A ports are available alongside the integrated cable.

The Nano72 holds 20,000mAh (72Wh) and moves 100W of PD power in both directions, which is the figure that makes it a realistic laptop charger as well as a camera accessory. As Manny framed it, finding a cable that will actually hold 100W is the part you no longer have to think about, because the cable that does it is attached to the pack.

The naming is doing deliberate work here. The Nano36 and Nano72 are named for their watt hours rather than their milliamp hours, which is the convention used by V-mount batteries rather than by consumer power banks. Manny said both figures are printed on the base of each unit, which matters more than it sounds: a crew used to 99Wh V-mount packs and a creator used to 20,000mAh phone chargers are describing the same quantity in two different units, and on a mixed set that conversion gets done in someone’s head at the wrong moment.

Air travel and the 100Wh line

Capacity also has a regulatory dimension at the moment. Both units sit below the 100Wh threshold that airlines generally apply to lithium batteries in carry-on baggage without prior approval, although the newer restrictions we covered in our guide to flying with batteries in 2026 are mostly about how power banks may be used in the cabin rather than about capacity alone. Those restrictions vary by carrier, so a sub-100Wh rating does not by itself describe what is permitted on board.

Charge times, as measured at the booth

Manny had been using demo units for around two weeks and gave his own figures rather than the company’s. Running 100W into the Nano72, he said he had taken it from empty to 97 or 98 percent in under 30 minutes, and that a partial charge on the Nano36 from around 20 to 80 percent took roughly an hour. These are unverified single-unit figures, and as Manny pointed out, the remaining bottleneck is usually the power supply you plug into rather than the pack itself.

Display, protection, and weight

Both models carry a TFT color display that shows charge percentage, input and output power, temperature, cycle count, and battery health, which is the kind of readout that has migrated down from V-mount batteries like the XTouch X99 over the past couple of years. Battery health in particular is useful on any pack that gets shared around a team, because it gives a reason to retire a unit before it fails on a job.

The housings use a drop-resistant coating with silicone covers over the ports, and SmallRig lists short-circuit, overcurrent, overtemperature, overvoltage, and undervoltage protection, plus the battery management boards Manny said the company already uses across its other power products. The Nano36 is listed at 292g (10.3oz), which is heavier than a comparable consumer power bank and a fraction of the weight of a 99Wh V-mount pack.

Price and availability

Both units are available now. Manny put US pricing under $65 for the Nano36 and under $85 for the Nano72, with European pricing converted directly from those figures. Street prices already vary between retailers, so it is worth comparing before ordering. For more information, please visit the SmallRig website.

Would built-in mounting points and a retractable USB-C cable make a power bank more useful on your camera rig? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!

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