Jackery Explorer 300 Review

Our Jackery Explorer 300 Experience

The Jackery Explorer 300 offers decent power performance in an enticingly compact package.

Its compact and lightweight design makes it ideal for on-the-go charging. We could easily fit this unit inside our tent on camping trips or toss it in the back seat of our car for easy access.

True to Jackery's design philosophy, the Jackery 300 is very simple to operate. You do get multiple outlet options, including USB-C and USB-A, along with your standard AC outlets and a 12V cigarette lighter port.

Each button and port feels well-made, and the cigarette lighter port is protected by a rubber cover. We often used the included charging port with a USB-C cable for faster charging. When off-grid, we used a 100 watt Jackery solar panel and the included cigarette lighter charger in the car for top-off charges before reaching our next destination.

The 300 is the perfect companion for charging devices and using small appliances like TVs and lights. It has enough capacity to charge our laptop a few times and recharge our phones for a whole weekend of use. More capable than a standard power bank but smaller than many other power stations, it allows for flexibility when heading out of town or supplementing your electronics away from the grid.

Our Analysis and Test Results

Power Output

The Explorer 300 delivered 247 Watt hours (Wh), which makes it one of the smaller batteries in our tests and one of the lower performers in this metric. That is not surprising considering its smaller size. It is ideal for small camping applications, not for when the power goes out at home. For example, it can recharge a typical laptop about 3 times or a phone nearly 80 times, but it can't run a refrigerator if the power goes out. We were only able to run our Starlink off this for about five hours.

Portability

Above all else, the Jackery Explorer 300 is highly portable. Weighing only 7.1 pounds, this compact power station can be easily stashed in your backpack and carried around with its built-in handle. It was our first choice when heading outside the house with our laptop. The handle is large and comfortable to hold.

Charge Time

The Jackery 300 falters here. For such a relatively small battery, it took four hours to charge from a wall outlet. By comparison, many batteries that are eight times larger will charge two to three times faster.

One positive aspect of this unit is its ability to charge with a USB-C cord, which is great if you can't find the AC wall outlet cord. The 300 also supports up to 100 watts of solar input. With a 100-watt panel, the Jackery takes about 4-5 hours to charge under ideal conditions. It can also be charged with an included carport cable.

Features

A simple power station, the Jackery Explorer 300 won't wow you with features. Its small form means limited usability is to be expected, such as the absence of expansion capabilities and uninterrupted power supply capabilities.

We would have liked to see a built-in light on the Jackery Explorer 300, a common feature equipped on many smaller power stations. The display is also quite limited, providing only basic information, such as power input/output wattage and remaining battery, displayed as a percentage. Most notably, when drawing power, its display is missing the remaining discharge time, which is information that can be handy when determining how long a device can run.