The Jackery Solar Generator series consists of a Jackery Explorer and a Jackery SolarSaga solar panel. In the case of the Generator 300, the kit consists of an Explorer 300 battery pack and the SolarSaga 100 panel. While Jackery sells products with 1500 watts power output, for example, this smaller variant is really for more casual use and not those who end up at a week-long festival in the woods somewhere. But that is also what makes this so appealing. Provding 300 W of continous output means the Explorer 300 is also much smaller and only weighs just over 3 kg. And while the technical limitation of Li-ion NMC battery chemisty may be a bigger deal for professional users, a 500 charge cycle lifespan would result in nearly 10 years of weekend use for us normal folk.

The focus on casual outdoors fans is also apparent in that you are simply meant to charge the Jackery 300 with a singular input element—be it the power supply, PD power brick, your car or the bundled SolarSaga 100. Speaking of which, that solar panel, while not water proof, is still weather resistant, and its design makes it easily portable because of the built-in handle. Add that it comes equipped with a USB-A and a USB-C port and the SolarSaga 100 is perfectly geared toward casual users who also want to charge their cell phone using sunshine.

Even with all that casual goodness in such a compact package, oddly enough, the Explorer 300 lacks a built-in light, which is unfortunate as us campers can always use something to light the way to the outhouse late at night, away from the campfire. Then there is that you don't save yourself any money by splurging on the Jackery Generator 300 kit versus its individual components, so unless you really know you will make good use of the solar panel, you may be tempted to save some money by going for just the Explorer 300 at half the cost of entry compared to the kit. Alternatively, if $600 is too much, but you still want solar recharging, the Jackery Solar Generator 240 may just be right up your alley at a far more manageable $400.

The pricing structure aside, the Jackery Solar Generator 300 is a surprisingly useful and compact kit that strikes a really good balance between size and capacity and thus targets a far broader audience than the bigger 1 KW+ variants. You just end up spending slightly more per watt compared to the 1500-watt variant.