Use and Performance

Charging the Jackery Explorer 300 with the included power supply takes around 4.5 hours. While it may seem like it should be around 3.3 hours at best, the reality is that the PSU ends up delivering around 76 W per hour. This results in a 99% charge with another 30 minutes of a slowly reducing trickle charge to hit that 100% mark. Alternatively, with a MacBook Pro power brick using the PD USB-C port, it manages to deliver 56 of the best case 60 watts. While Jackery does not list this form of charging, it is absolutely possible and will take roughly 5.5 hours.


The third method of charging is using the SolarSaga 100. With a break in the weather, we were able to take the whole Jackery Generator 300 setup outside and managed to get a solid 62 watts with almost unobstructed, direct sunlight. Environments with full blown blue skies should be able to tickle more out, but obviously don't expect it to be as good as using the bundled power supply, for example.


The Jackery Generator 300 kit squarely takes aim at the casual outdoors enthusiast who needs portability more than massive amounts of power. This could be a weekend road tripper or back country camper, for example. While we used the Jackery Explorer indoors due to the useless weather in the Pacific Northwest this time of year, all these scenarios still illustrate the usefulness of the unit no matter its surroundings. Thanks to the PD port, you may use your modern portable device, be it a phone, tablet or notebook, and directly charge it without the need for a separate power brick, which is an excellent way to keep down the equipment you may want to take with you otherwise. In other words, the Jackery Explorer 300 acts like a universal charger. On top of that, the unit can be an excellent way to easily extend the run time of a portable projector like the Wemax Dice from a mere few hours to 10 hours or more. This is enough to have nightly entertainment for the whole family while camping outdoors during a long weekend. Overall, while it may only deliver 30% of the capacity of the Jackery Explorer 1000, its compact size and portability make it quite useful in more casual scenarios.


With the Jackery SolarSaga 100 offering the unique aspect of built-in USB-A and USB-C ports, we already took the opportunity to charge a mobile phone while my friend took Jasper for a walk along the beach. It worked flawlessly even though it was a cloudy day, which makes the SolarSaga 100 quite useful even on its own.