Never let it be said that we don’t write completely honest reviews. In this one I’ll give you my thoughts, the good and the bad, on the Jackery Mini Portable Charger
The Jackery Mini Portable no longer seems to exist. With that said, 5 years later and I’m still using mine – so I can in good conscience recommend the Jackery family of batteries, especially the Jackery Bolt, which I own and still use as well.
Important Disclaimer: I was sent a free Jackery Mini (value: $10.99 USD) to review on this site. I was not otherwise compensated in any way, shape or form. I’m also going to be brutally honest, as you’ll read (scroll down to “The Cons”).
What is the Jackery Mini?
It’s a portable battery that you can use to charge/recharge pretty much any “USB-chargeable” device. That list includes almost every smart phone and tablet out there.
The Bottom Line
If you have one or more portable electronic devices you use often enough that you find yourself having to charge them while you’re “on the go” – the Jackery Mini is a great value at $10.99 USD.
It’s small enough (see ‘The Stats’ below) to be considered totally portable. It holds enough of a charge that it’s worth the space in your pocket, certainly your bag. If you lose it, it was $11 – not the end of the world.
The Stats
You can find all of the fine details here (not anymore), but the things you care about:
- It’s 3.7 by 0.9 by 0.8 inches. So about the size of a tube of lipstick. It weighs 2.7 ounces, about as much as my keys & keychain. All in all – pretty small, pretty light.
- In theory it charges the following devices, x number of times before needing to be recharged itself:
From my experience using the Jackery Mini I have no reason to disagree with those stats. My iPhone 5’s battery is so horrible that I can get six full charges out of the Jackery Mini – but do not expect the same results if your iPhone 5’s battery is still half-way decent.
I was able to charge my 1st Generation iPad Mini from 3% all the way to 80%, and there isn’t anything wrong with its battery. I was very pleasantly surprised that it was able to charge my iPad Mini as much as it did. I play a lot of hours of Plants vs. Zombies 2 before it needs a charge, so again – from 3% to 80% is great.
It was able to charge my Samsung Galaxy Tab A from 2% to 40%. After how “much of a charge” it gave my iPad Mini, I was a bit surprised it only went to 40% on the Tab A. Regardless, 40% is another hour of fairly intensive use on that same device – I’ll take it.
The Cons
It takes about 5 hours to fully charge the Jackery Mini itself. This could be completely standard for this type of battery, I’ve never owned one of this size before. So don’t really plan on using it more than once a day, and remember to charge it at night.
The USB cable that came with the Jackery Mini, that one the device uses to charge itself, was literally the wrong kind. The unit I was sent included a Mini-B USB cable, not the Micro-B. I can’t remember any device I’ve purchased that came with the wrong USB cable. Sometimes no cable, but never the wrong one… I happen to have dozens of every possible type of cable, so it wasn’t a big deal to me. Otherwise, this would have been seriously irritating.
There’s an App. It’s supposed to keep track of how much time it thinks your battery has left, how long until a charge is complete – info like that. Please, don’t install it. It’s free so you may be tempted, but I found it to be nothing but a waste of the very battery it monitors. I won’t even provide a link to it :)
