Remember those cute little robot charger blocks we wrote about a while back? UGREEN, the company who made them, has brought that same robotic charm to their new “Uno” MagSafe power bank.

Like the wall chargers before it, this magnetic wireless charger has a display on the back that shows different facial expressions based on the battery level of your iPhone:

You’re not going to get crazy wireless charging speeds here — just 7.5W — but you can always switch to 20W wired charging via USB-C if you need that extra speed boost. Either way, having this handy robot pal chilling on the back of your phone brings a certain kind of joy that’s hard to quantify.

Did I mention it has a built-in kickstand for hands-free use?

Get this awesome MagSafe charger for $45 on Amazon.

Buy Now

True to the “Fusion” in its name, this nifty dual-port gizmo from Anker combines a 10,000mAh power bank and a 20-watt wall charger into one. The USB-C port supports Power Delivery and Quick Charge technologies for rapidly charging a phone, while the USB-A port outputs a respectable 12W of power for less urgent charging needs.

When no wall outlet is available, the device becomes an independent portable charger that can power an iPhone 15 a couple times over, or an iPad mini once. An LED indicator dial on the side lets you see at a glance how much charge remains, which is nice.

Get this power bank wall charger for $55 on Amazon. If you need something even more powerful, consider its 65-watt GaN-powered sibling, released two years after.

Buy Now

Released a month ago as part of their popular MagGo family of MagSafe-compatible battery packs for iPhone, Anker’s Qi2-certified MagSafe power bank brings the latest wireless charging technology to your iPhone 13/14/15 series.

With 6,600mAh of power capacity — which can be wirelessly delivered at full 15W speed! — this handy little magnetic charger essentially doubles the battery life of your iPhone and then some, so you can freely use the device all day long without fear of running out of juice.

What’s more, the power bank doubles as a foldable stand, allowing you to charge your iPhone even while you comfortably watch videos hands-free. This also makes it an effective nightstand charging solution.

Get this awesome new Qi2 MagSafe power bank for $70 on Amazon in your choice of black, white, or blue.

Buy Now

Charging an Apple Watch on the go can be a bit of a pain sometimes. At home you might have access to a nifty charging dock, or maybe you have one of those docks that can be powered by an iPad’s USB-C port. But what if you’re out and about with neither of those things nearby?

That’s where Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro BPD005 portable charger comes in handy. It’s a 10,000mAh power bank that has an Apple Watch charging puck built into one end. Just click your watch onto it and it’ll charge from 0–80% in about 45 minutes — no clunky cable or tablet port required.

While your Apple Watch wirelessly charges at 7.5W, you can plug your iPhone into the USB-C port to simultaneously fast-charge it at up to 20W. The charging puck also supports pass-through charging so your watch (or AirPods Pro case) can be charging while the power bank itself refills.

This is a superbly handy gadget to keep in your day bag, and you can get it for $100 on Amazon.

Buy Now

While my trusty iPhone 11 and 8th-gen iPad are both still alive and kicking, they’re reaching that stage where their batteries don’t hold a charge as well as they used to. So maybe it’s fortuitous for me that Anker has released a power bank with a fold-out Lightning connector to help keep them charged throughout the day and beyond.

This pocketable and iPhone-case-friendly battery pack can hold up to 5,000mAh of power and offers up to 12W of charging speed. On the side of the unit is a USB-C input for charging the power bank when it’s not connected to your Apple device, and there are four LED indicators on the front to let you know how much charge is left in it.

Keep your mobile Apple devices juiced by picking up this Lightning power bank for $32 on Amazon.

Buy Now

If you’re one of those people who spends any amount of time on flashlight forums and such, then the Sofirn LT1 is likely already familiar to you and needs no introduction. For the rest of you, the main thing you need to know is that it’s an awesome LED lantern that makes every cheap plastic lantern you’ve ever used look like a piece of junk.

The LT1 is rated IPX7 waterproof and sports a solid anodized aluminum body and cap fitted onto a frosted hard plastic diffuser, which offers an even 360° spread of light that can be smoothly ramped anywhere from soft/warm white (2700K) to neutral/daylight white (5000K).

As for the light emitters themselves, the LT1 comes equipped with eight Samsung LH351D LEDS — four 5000K 90CRI and four 2700K 90CRI — that all fire downward from the cap through the tapered diffuser tube, at a maximum of 800 lumens.

All of this is powered by four of the company’s own 3000mAh button-top lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, which are connected in parallel so you can technically run the lantern on just one battery in a pinch. Those same batteries allow the LT1 to be used as a portable power bank for charging your phone or other small devices!

There are also ¼″ screw mounts located both in the base and on the side for mounting on a tripod:

This is the type of lantern you’ll want to have around whenever you go camping or fishing, during power outages and other emergencies, when your car breaks down at night, or simply as mood/reading lighting on your patio or bedside table. No matter where you use it, you’ll find the light always fits your needs nicely.

Pictured here is the green edition.

…and here’s the orange one.

If you notice in the Amazon listing, there’s a “BLF” in the product name, given prominent placing right after the brand name and before the model number. What does that mean, you might ask?

Well.

As it turns out, this lantern began as a three-year prototyping project between a guy at Sofirn and BudgetLightForum user “DBSAR” (aka “DBSARlight” on YouTube). It was a whole Thing™.

I’ve taken some editing liberties here:

As we all know, 99.99 % of LED lanterns available commercially are absolute crap in stock form, usually with crap tints, inefficient garbage 5mm LEDs, low run times, bad modes, made from cheap plastic and components, low output, very glary on the eyes when at eye levels…the bad list goes on. I have some 125 + LED lanterns in my collection, and at least 95 % of them are modded in some way at different levels. Almost none of them however have the “perfect” set of perimeters to serve as a perfect lantern for camping, power outages, survival, long term use, compactness, durability, output balanced with run times, good useful modes for lanterns, etc.

What I will be building here is a compact, durable lantern with the best perimeters and features that my best lanterns have combined into one, using known components, to combine the best run times, output, lighting tint, least glare, compactness, and features.

During the time between the announcement in February 2016 to its initial “group buy” release in October 2019, the LT1 underwent a seemingly endless amount of revisioning and development thanks to a crazy amount of input from the rest of the BLF community:

BLF member DBSAR started playing around with the idea of taking a BLF Q8, cutting the top off, attaching a circular diffuser, and then relocating the MCPCB with LEDs down-firing at the top of the light to create a lantern. The idea caught on like wildfire, with the group-buy continuing to grow before finally being capped at 3,000 units. Other well-respected BLF members such [as] ToyKeeper (firmware), Lexel (driver design), and many others joined with Barry of Sofirn to bring the BLF LT1 to life.

It’s actually something of a miracle that this thing reached market at all, but it’s here now, and all that work was worth it.

Sir Alec Issigonis said that “a camel is a horse designed by committee.” With so many people trying to include their wishlist in the design of this lantern, there was a real chance that the LT1 might have ended up a camel. It didn’t.

—Jools Stray, Three Points of the Compass

Anyway, I’ll spare you the novel’s worth of other details I could get into and tell you that the Sofirn LT1 can be yours for $79 on Amazon. There are also beautiful green and orange editions that cost a bit more.

Buy Now

Anker products have been making several appearances here on T&T lately. What can I say? They routinely put out great stuff.

For example, their new 321 PowerCore 5K MagGO battery, which is essentially a newer version of the 521 model we covered a while back, is a magnetic wireless power bank that can be stuck right onto the back of your iPhone 12/13/14 (with or without a MagSafe-compatible case) to keep it charged throughout the day and beyond.

With 5,000mAh of power capacity, this external battery has enough juice to fully charge an iPhone 14 and then some. However, keep in mind that it’s not an official MagSafe-certified charger, so it will only deliver a modest 7.5W of charging speed. That said, considering the low price of the thing, I’d say it’s an acceptable tradeoff.

Get this magnetic battery pack for $32 on Amazon in your choice of white, black, green, pink, or purple.

Buy Now

Anker’s 633 MagGo magnetic battery is a clever way to keep your MagSafe-compatible iPhone charged up wherever you go. It snaps securely onto the back of your iPhone and begins delivering 7.5W of wireless charging, offering up to 10,000mAh of extra battery life to your device. Pretty straightforward.

What makes it extra neat is the kickstand on the back that you can pop out, allowing you to continue watching videos or having FaceTime calls while charging the phone, without having to futz around with cables or wall adapters.

If you need a bit more charging oomph, you do always have the option to connect the iPhone to the charger with a USB-C cable for 20W charging, or to the USB-A port for 18W charging.

Note: The only included cable is a two-foot USB-C to USB-C. You’ll also need to provide your own wall adapter if you want to recharge the magnetic battery that way.

Get the Anker MagGo 633 for $80 on Amazon in your choice of black, blue, or white. You might also check out the rest of the MagGo line for other nifty charging solutions.

Buy Now

They say that two heads are better than one, but what about three? That seems to be the ethos of this folding LED work light from EverBrite, which has a rather interesting design.

Rather than having a single light that aims only in one direction, it has three different lights in a row, the outer two of which can each be swiveled back to create differently angled configurations as needed, including an ‘omnidirectional’ arrangement. There’s also a kickstand on the back that doubles as a carry handle:

The light contains a 7,800mAh rechargeable battery, which can last different amounts of time based on the lighting mode(s) you use:

• High: 3,000 lumens (3.5 hours max)
• Medium: 1,500 lumens (5.5 hours max)
• Low: 1,000 lumens (8 hours max)

In a pinch, the light’s USB-A output port can also be used as a power bank source for charging other devices. Pretty awesome to have on a job site!

Get this foldable work light for $40 on Amazon.

Buy Now

Yeah, I know, it’s a little weird to write about an accessory for iPhone models that are about to become old news in just a few days, but the ProGrip kit from ShiftCam is definitely worth your attention if you’re planning to hold onto any size iPhone 13 (or 12 or 11) and photography/videography is a big part of what you use that device for.

With a design inspired by DSLR cameras, the ProGrip adds a comfortable and ergonomic photo-shooting grip to your iPhone, complete with a wireless shutter button that seamlessly pairs with your camera app and allows you to take photos with your index finger, just like the real thing.

The grip and shutter button alone are cool enough, but then you discover that the device also acts as a 6,400-mAh wireless (Qi) power bank that keeps your iPhone topped up through longer shooting sessions. You can even hook up a second small device via USB-C and charge it up as well.

Moreover, the ProGrip includes industry-standard tripod and hotshoe mounts that allow for expansion of your shooting setup in various ways, plus you can use the thing as a freestanding dock when it suits you.

Buy Now

Most of what you need to know about NEBO’s “PaL+” 3-in-1 pocket tool is right there in the post title. It combines three handy utilities that serve very different purposes:

1. A 3-inch serrated folding blade made from 420 stainless steel that locks when open. Can be removed via the single screw when you need to carry it on a flight.
2. A 2,200mAh power bank for those times when you need to emergency-charge your smartphone. (Uses a standard USB port, not USB-C. Crossing my fingers for a future revision there!)
3. A 400-lumen flashlight with three light modes: High, Low, and Strobe. You could blind someone with this thing, it’s no joke. Combine that with the built-in knife and you actually have a decent self-defense tool here.

The body of the multi-tool is made of anodized aluminum and is both water- an impact-resistant. It can definitely take a beating, although you obviously shouldn’t actually submerge the thing in water.

Get the NEBO Pal+ for $32 on Amazon.

Buy Now

No matter where your adventures take you, you’ll never have to be without power for your devices again thanks to this solar-powered wireless charger. With an awesome 36,000mAh of battery capacity and the bonus ability to get a bit of extra juice straight from the sun in an emergency, you’ll be ready to face anything without fear of your phone, tablet, or laptop dying at an inopportune time.

This is an adventure-ready charger too, with a rugged design that’s built to withstand water, dust, and drops without missing a beat. The three bright LEDs on the back of the unit are particularly useful to have in dark situations, whether you’re out on the trail or stranded on the side of the road at night.

The power bank is Qi-enabled for wireless charging by default, but does come with all the cables you should need: a USB-C one, a micro-USB one, and a Lightning one. And because there are three outputs at the end of it — one USB-C output and two regular USBs — you can actually end up charging four devices at once!

Get this nifty charger for $47 on Amazon.

Buy Now

It comes in any color you want, so long as that color is white.

—David “MacSparky” Sparks

Yesterday, Apple quietly launched their new MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone 12. Like the Anker PowerCore Magnetic 5K I wrote about in February, you simply stick this little power bank directly on the back of your compatible iPhone, where it delivers 5W of charging power (which can be monitored from the iOS battery widget).

As I predicted in that post, the MagSafe Battery Pack technically can charge at a full 15W, but only when you have it connected via Lightning cable to a 20W charger or higher (examples include the Aukey Omnia or any of these Anker wall adapters). Doing this will charge the Battery Pack and the iPhone simultaneously.

Perhaps most interestingly, MacRumors reports that the Battery Pack introduces reverse wireless charging for the first time ever in an Apple product:

When attached to an iPhone that’s charging via Lightning, the ‌iPhone‌ can deliver power to the MagSafe Battery Pack, which is the first instance of an ‌iPhone‌ being able to route power to an accessory device.

[…]

Apple has suggested that ‌MagSafe Battery Pack‌ users might want to use the ‌iPhone‌ passthrough charging feature when the ‌iPhone‌ is connected to a power source like wired CarPlay and is able to charge both accessories.

This convenient, travel-friendly little doodad is $99 from Apple’s site. I expect it will work for future iPhone models as well, if you’ve been thinking of upgrading when the next cycle rolls around.

Buy Now

It looks like Anker might’ve beaten Apple to market, because they’ve announced an upcoming magnetic wireless power bank that you’ll be able to stick right onto the back of your iPhone 12 and keep it going when you need it most.

With 5,000mAh of battery capacity, this charger has enough juice to power…

• An iPhone 12 mini to 100%, with 20% more to spare
• An iPhone 12 to 95%
• An iPhone 12 Pro to 97%
• An iPhone 12 Pro Max to 75%

Now, what you’ll have to keep in mind is that it’s not an official MagSafe-standard charger, so it’ll only be able to charge at 5W max, compared to the full 15W speed that Apple’s own accessory will likely be able to pull. But hey, it’s just $40, and I’d be real surprised if Apple beat that. (Not to mention, they haven’t officially announced anything yet.)

The first round of PowerCore Magnetic 5K chargers will start shipping on March 3rd, 2021. However, those pre-orders have already sold out, so if you put in your pre-order now (as of February 24th, anyway) then yours should ship around March 17th.

Pre-order

I don’t know about you guys, but here in OKC we just got through a couple days of freezing rain. After stupidly using my bare hands to move a bunch of huge tree-cicles off the road this morning so people could get by, I found myself wishing I’d had a good hand warmer.

In the short amount of research I’ve been able to do, this one by OCOOPA looks to be a very solid choice. It holds up to 10,000mAh of juice, apparently enough to run the thing for around 8–15 hours, depending on which setting you use: low (~95°F), medium (~116°F), or high (~130°F, which is honestly hotter than most people need). And yes, it heats on both sides.

The device also doubles as a handy (get it?) battery bank, with three ports — USB-C, USB-A, and Micro-USB — for charging other things you have around, like your phone. Obviously, doing that will shorten the life of the hand-warming feature until you recharge it again.

All of this comes in a TV remote-sized package with rubberized sides and an ergonomic shape for easy holding.

You can get the 10,000mAh version for $33 on Amazon. They also have a version of it with Power Delivery for $37, which can be fully recharged in half the time.

Buy Now