Review: Jackery Explorer 500

One of the benefits and drawbacks of a camping trip is that you’re disconnected from the world and don’t have access to electricity. Enjoying the blissful nature without a care in the world can work for some, but it won’t work for everyone.

For those of us who need to stay connected or can’t leave our technologies and gadgets behind – meet the Jackery Explorer 500.

That’s not to say that the Jackery Explorer 500 is only good for power laptops and phones. Not at all. In fact, that would be quite a waste of all the power it has to offer. The Jackery Explorer 500 is equipped with 518Wh/144,400mAh battery capacity all packed inside a 13.32lb package.

The Design

The Jackery comes in a box-like design with a generous handle for ease of handling. It’s clearly designed for the outdoors with its rugged construction and brightly splashed orange side panels. The bright orange also serves a pretty clever functionality. It makes it easy to find when you’re digging through your campsite and also easy to spot in the dark.

All of the ports are neatly organized, circled, and labeled so you’ll never have to wonder which is which.

The LCD screen displays how much power the unit has left and also the input and output. Overall, it’s a clean and simple look that goes well with the rest of your camping gear.

The construction

This is where I want to give the engineers at Jackery some extra credit points. Jackery units tend to be better built than most of their competitors. And you’ll need to take a closer look to see that. Everything about the unit is well thought out, well-engineered, and serves a purpose.

They use Allen screws instead of Phillips to make assembling and disassembling much easier. The construction of the body is made from hard plastic that can take a beating. On the bottom, you’ll find extra-thick rubber feet that keep the unit in place on a smooth or wet surface. These feet are also held together by Allen screws so you can replace them if they become worn.

The side vents are discreet and generous enough to give plenty of airflows when you’re trying to power intense appliances.

And I usually don’t care too much about built-in flashlights because they’re often a cheap gimmick made to look like “added-value”. On the Jackery, they’re actually legit. I don’t know the exact lumen output of these lights, but they’ll likely rival whatever flashlight currently in your toolkit.

Overall, it’s one of the best build quality I’ve seen on a power station.

The ports

There’s plenty of ports here. All of your ports will be located on the front side for easy access. In the center are your three USB type-A ports each outputting 2.4A. On the right side, is what you’re paying for – the AC port. Just your standard AC port capable set at 110V 500W.

There’s also the DC ports on the left side should you ever have a need. For most practical purposes you’ll be using. The Input port is where you’ll plug the power brick or solar panel into in order to charge the unit.

All ports are clearly labeled and organized for accessibility. One thing I felt was missing was covers for the DC and AC ports. At this price range, you’d think they could cover you with a port cover. Just a minor thing I noticed.

The Capacity

As noted, the Explorer 500 is packed with 518Wh/144,400mAh battery capacity. It’s capable of 500W rated power and has up to 1000W surge protection on the AC port. This means you can plug just about anything into the Explorer including microwaves and hairdryers without concerns.

For the average city dwellers and campers, this is plenty of juice to get you through a weekend. It might even be enough to get you through an entire week.

Real-World Performance Test

At the time of this writing we couldn’t take the Jackery outside to test in the wilderness (Covid-19). So we did the next best thing, which was to test with whatever appliances we could indoor.

Phones & Laptops

We couldn’t complete this test because we couldn’t possibly use and drain our phones and laptops fast enough. We recharged a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (5000 mAh) 15 times for an entire weekend before giving up. The Explorer was at 58% strong despite our efforts.

Our two rotating Macbook Pro 15″ 2018 managed to get up to 8 cycles of charges total and depleted the Explorer’s reserve down to 42%. We had to stop our test as we’ve run out of time and had to meet editorial deadlines.

Powering a TV

For our final test we plugged the Explorer into a 60″ Sony Bravia and played Season 2 of Altered Carbon at 100% brightness. Surprisingly, it lasted for most of the reason only giving its last breath towards the end of episode 7: Experiment Perilous. That’s over 6 hours of continuous TV we managed to squeeze out of the Explorer.

Final Verdict

The Jackery Explorer 500 is a portable power station that’s versatile and reliable. Whatever your needs energy consumption needs are, chances are the Explorer will deliver. The flexibility of the AC outlet being able to handle appliances up to 500W with surge protection of up to 1000W makes it useful in just about any situation. If you live in an area where power outages are frequent, having a reliable portable power such as the Explorer 500 will give you peace of mind should there be an emergency.

At $499, it’s an undeniable value. With the build quality and average shelf-life of lithium-ion batteries, the Explorer will be your always available and always dependable backup power for at least a decade.