Look! It’s a Lighting cable! It’s a power bank! It’s the Jackery Jewel!

The Jackery Jewel may look like a Lightning cable that has just eaten a battery, and that’s kind of correct. You can use the Jackery Jewel to connect your iPhone to a USB charger or your computer for syncing. But it also comes in handy for those “oh crap” moments when your phone is about to die and you’re searching for a place to plug it in.

The built-in 450mAh power bank may be small, but it packs enough juice to keep you connected. I found that it adds about a 20% charge to my iPhone 6S, which can help tide me over until I can find an outlet.

PROs

• Built-in 450mAh Power Bank: OK, so 450mAh isn’t a lot of power, and you’ll find power banks that are only slightly larger and have at 2600mAh of power. But that fact that it’s built-in to a Lighting cable really sets this unit apart. You you can connect the cable to your phone and get about a 20% boost to your battery until you get to a USB outlet. Once you connect the cable to a computer or a charger, you can continue charging your phone while the built-in power bank also recharges.
• MFi-certified Lightning cable: This unit also works as a regular Lightning cable when you need to simply plug your phone in to charge or if you need to sync your phone with iTunes on your computer. Thanks to the MFi-certified Lightning connector, I have not received any error messages while using this cable.
• LED indicator: A single LED lets you know the charge status of the Jackery Jewel. A red LED indicates that it is time to recharge the cable (which can be done by simply plugging it into a USB port) while a blue LED indicates that it is fully charged.

CONs

• Power bank placement: The battery portion of the cable is closest to the Lightning connector. This isn’t an issue if you’re laying your phone on a table. But if you pick up your phone to use it with this cable attached, the power bank kind of flops around and pulls on the Lightning connector. I would have preferred that the power bank be located at the other end of the cable closest to the USB connector.

Overall, this is a handy Lightning cable that not only functions fine as a regular iPhone cable, but the built-in battery provides a nice 20% boost when you’re not connected to an outlet. It may not be ideal for extended periods away from an outlet, but can come in handy if you need to run to a meeting or run a quick errand and you only need a small boost to your phone until you get back.

Check out the Jackery Jewel on Amazon!

—Sample provided for review