Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate for Canon LP-E6NH battery replacement review: plug in baby!

Electricity is the lifeblood that keeps our latest gadgets and gizmos juiced up in the modern world, with everything from our smartphones to smart cars needing a battery to draw power from. Cameras are no different and while Li-Ion technology has seen dramatic improvements over the years, unfortunately, first-party camera batteries often don't come cheap and can sting a little to purchase.

Canon’s own proprietary LP-E6NH battery used in popular cameras such as its EOS R5 Mark I and EOS R6 Mark II costs a cool £119.99, so the costs can really stack up quickly if you require more than one. Luckily, Mathorn is here to save the day with its Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate – a Li-Ion battery designed to replace the Canon LP-E6NH with some cool new features and a price tag less than half of Canon’s proprietary cell.

So does the Mathorn MB-202 give Canon some tough competition? I got hold of one, plus a Mathorn Dual Charger and Mathorn 90cm tethering cable to put it through its paces.

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate: Specifications

• Type: Li-Ion
• Voltage: 7.2
• Capacity: 2250mAh
• Cycles: 500
• Operating temp: -20ºC - +60ºC
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 39x21x57mm
• Weight: 81g
• Warranty: 3 years

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate battery: Design & Handling

Mathorn’s MB-202 will feel very familiar to Canon users as it’s pretty much the same shape and size as the Canon LP-E6NH (as well as the LP-E6N and LP-E6 before it), and of course, this is essential for it to fit properly inside of the Canon cameras it’s intended for such as the EOS R5 Mark I and EOS R6 Mark II. But that doesn’t mean companies can’t get innovative with their cells.

We often see third-party batteries have a unique advantage over the first-party cells, in the case of Hahnel’s Extreme batteries we saw more insulation for better performance in cold weather as well as drop resistance, Mathorn doesn’t go down this route but instead has remarkably managed to squeeze a female USB-C port onto the front of the battery (on the Canon edition). This is really quite neat as it means the batteries can be charged with simply a USB-C cable rather than the bulky Canon charger. As a travel photographer, this feature excites me greatly. It also has a small LED built in to display when the battery is charging and when charging is complete.

Another travel-friendly feature was docking two batteries in the Mathorn dual charger which saves a lot of space compared to Canon’s LC-E6E and allows two batteries to be charged at once and also has a built-in USB cable so you don’t require a bulky plug. This is by no means required, but as Mathorn sent it over to me for testing with the battery I wanted to let you know that I’m a big fan.

The Mathorn MB-202 of course needs to be the same shape and size as Canon’s LP-E6NH cells to fit inside the intended Canon cameras, though this does also mean it fits inside of the Canon EOS R5 Mark II which it is incompatible with. It’s possible Mathorn can do nothing about this as Canon has seemingly slowly cut off third-party support in recent years, remind me where those Sigma and Tamron full-frame lenses for the RF mount are already? But it is a bit annoying that Canon’s old cells will work in the R5 Mark II, albeit with some of the more power-hungry features disabled, whereas the older / weaker third-party batteries are simply outright incompatible. Speaking to Mathorn, the company said it is working on a more powerful battery to rival Canon’s LP-E6P for the Canon EOS R5 Mark II, though a price and release date are yet to be announced.

Other notable features are the MB-202 claims a 12.7% capacity boost over the original Canon LP-E6NH with the MB-202 having a capacity of 2400mAh, however, I’ll put it through its paces when I come to Performance to see if it can really deliver on this. It also says there is no ‘memory effect’, though this hasn’t been a big problem since we’ve moved over Li-Ion cells, it used to be more of an issue with older NiCd cells which would hinder being able to fully charge the battery to its full potential.

The battery supports conventional charging through a Canon or third-party charger, plus you have the option to plug a USB-C cable directly into the battery to power it up and is a brilliant feature should you forget your charger or need to travel extremely light. With one powerful USB-C charger and high wattage cable you can in theory charge everything from your laptop to phone and camera batteries one at time.

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate battery: Performance

Remarkably, the Mathorn MB-202 boasts a maximum capacity of 2400mAh, a 12.7% increase from the 2130mAh capacity of the native Canon cell. However, I have seen third-party batteries claim a higher capacity and fall short of the Canon batteries in the past, whether it’s due to the Canon cells running more efficiently or another reason, so will that be the case here? Let’s put it through its paces and see how it performs…

Mathorn says its battery is suitable for 4K and even 8K video recording so to test the performance I set up my Canon EOS R6 Mark II to shoot 4K 50p video for as long as the batteries could muster and allowed the camera to fully cool down before switching to the other battery to test. Whilst Canon’s own-brand LP-E6NH cell was able to shoot for 103 minutes continuously, the Mathorn MB-202 could only shoot for 66 mins before power was depleted and the camera shut down – that means Canon’s own-brand cell can shoot for 55% longer, though perhaps this shouldn’t come as a total shock considering it’s also more than double the price.

The unique feature of Mathorn’s battery is its built-in female USB-C port which allows it to be charged without the need for a dedicated charger. This is a really handy feature, particularly if you’ve forgotten your charger as it gives you a backup way to still give your batteries extra juice and I like this a lot. It’s also going to be a hit with travel photographers looking to travel light as Canon’s LC-E6E charger is very bulky and requires a plug too, plus it’s only capable of charging a single battery at a time. Alongside the USB-C port, there is a small LED light which is red when charging and turns green when fully charged.

The charging indicator light on the MB-202 is quite small and goes from a constant red light when charging to a constant green light once fully charged. I might be nitpicking here but it would have been really useful to have several LEDs to show the charge level, this would make it particularly handy to visualize when the battery has reached 50% from a fast charge.

Speaking of fast charging, the Mathorn MB-202 has this capability when paired with a high enough wattage USB-C cable and plug. I used my Apple MacBook’s 96w USB-C charger and Mathorn’s MTC-511 cable so there should be no issues here. When I plugged the USB-C port into Mathorn’s Dual Battery Charger with just a single MB-202 cell inserted it took a rather sluggish four hours to fully charge from flat, however plugging the USB-C cable directly into the USB-C port on the battery charged it to maximum capacity in half that time.

I also plugged the MB-202 into a phone and a tablet via their USB-C ports to see what would happen and in both cases, the battery drew power from them. I was somewhat hoping you might be able to turn your camera batteries into a makeshift power bank to charge your phone up in an emergency but this doesn’t look to be possible.

One reservation I do have with the USB-C is that it is a place where dirt and debris can build up inside, I’m sure we’ve all experienced this with the charging ports on our smartphones at some point or another, so I would have preferred a small plastic or rubber cover to plug the port when it’s not in use. That said, for the majority of the time the battery will be spent inside your camera or kit bag so perhaps this isn’t a big issue. However, I wouldn’t want to drop it on a sandy beach or in muddy woods as the port feels a tad exposed to the elements.

Speaking of dropping the battery, unlike another third-party battery manufacturer Hahnel Extreme, the Mathorn MB-202 doesn’t feature any drop resistance or insulation for enhanced performance in cold weather. The plastic around the top of the USB-C port looks very thin and could be a potential weak area if dropped on a hard surface. However on other models of the battery for the Nikon (MB-212A) for example, the charging port is in the middle of the back of the battery so it’s more protected as it isn't right up against the top corner.

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate battery: Verdict

I’m always a little skeptical when a product offers more features and a better performance at a much lower price and in the case of the Mathorn MB-202 it did seem a little too good to be true. But that’s not to say it’s a bad battery, just understand that our testings showed it could only record 66 mins of 4K 50p footage whilst the Canon LP-E6NH lasted for a more impressive 103 mins. I think it’s a great thing to have another battery on the market at a more affordable price point of £54 as Canon’s LP-E6NH cells are quite steep at £120. Its battery life could be perfectly suitable for your needs and you may prioritize its unique USB-C charging possibilities over the higher price and better performance of Canon’s own-brand offering, but you’ll need to work out which is right for you.

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Canon LP-E6NH:

This is the official first-party cell for Canon’s such as the EOS R5 and R6 with a capacity of 2130mAh. Buying proprietary Li-Ions ensures no issues and Canon’s top quality too, though staying loyal will cost you as the LP-E6NH cells have a steep RRP of $80/£120!