Jackery Explorer 240D Arrives as One Serious Contender In The World Of Portable Power Banks, Complete with 80,000mAh LiFePO4 Battery

Jackery places the 256Wh LiFePO4 battery at the heart of the Explorer 240D, priced at $139 (was $209), which packs the equivalent of eight normal 10,000mAh power banks into a single small compact. That 256Wh battery corresponds to some very useful power: you can charge a laptop a few times, keep a drone or camera running for an extended period of time, and charge your phone as well as tablet without worrying about it.

Four ports are available to handle the load, with three USB-C connectors and one USB-A, and they can deliver a continuous 200W of power combined. One of the USB-C connections can even deliver 140W on its own, which is adequate to charge power-hungry devices like a MacBook Pro quickly.

Portability is the overriding theme of this design. The Explorer 240D weighs only 4.85 pounds and stands 6.7 inches tall. It also has a handy tiny strap that acts as a carrying handle and a charging wire, allowing you to grab it and go without the need for extra parts. The fact that it is 70% smaller and 46% lighter than comparable portable power stations is simply icing on the cake, especially because comparable versions with similar capacity typically include AC converters. Jackery purposefully avoided including an AC plug in this one, opting instead for a DC output, which makes more sense in practice for charging modern gadgets that already require conversion from AC to DC.

The Explorer 240D charges rapidly and in a variety of ways; simply plug it in via the AC-DC dual connection, and you’ll be at 80% in approximately an hour. Full charge takes slightly longer, around 3.5 hours via USB-C or car adaptor. If you’re in a distant location with no power outlets, you can utilize a solar input of up to 100W to recharge it.

The LiFePO4 cells have a 10-year lifespan and can maintain at least 70% capacity after 6,000 charge cycles, which is comforting. The battery management system keeps everything running smoothly even when you’re pushing it to its limits, so you don’t have to worry about overheating or voltage drops, even if you crank it up to 200W. It’s also quite resilient operationally, working in temperatures as low as -4°F or as high as 113°F, however extreme temperatures may reduce capacity slightly.