Compact battery pack speed-charges with your MacBook’s cable

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Charge this one with your MacBook Mag Safe power adapter in about 15 minutes.
Charge this one with your MacBook Mag Safe power adapter in about 15 minutes.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Best List: Super Charge Powerbank by Quarter

Power banks and external batteries are everywhere these days, including airports, drug stores and (my favorite) at the Apple Store. I’ve used quite a few of them and, while many are kind of cheaply made, a few are pretty well-designed and useful.

Quarter’s Super Charge Powerbank is one of the latter. Just 15 minutes hooked to your MacBook MagSafe power adapter cord will give it enough juice to fully charge your iPhone. You can charge with a typical micro-USB cable, too, but you won’t get that fast a top-off.

The little brick is just a bit smaller than my iPhone 6 Plus, making it perfect to toss in a bag with the rest of my mobile work kit. Its lovely, brushed-aluminum chassis fits in perfectly with my MacBook’s look and feel, and it’s got a sweet little ledge and hole in it that accommodates a carabiner clip or wire connector — I clip it to the key holder built into my messenger bag to keep it steady and secure.

You can’t go wrong paying 60 bucks for a solid battery charger. The Super Charge Powerbank’s 5,000-mAh capacity is just enough to ensure another full iPhone 6 Plus charge for me during a busy day, and being able to stick my MacBook’s power adapter on it for 15 minutes to recharge the battery pack itself is a thing of beauty. Heck, there’s even a $16 car adapter that has the same MagSafe-style adapter on the end so you can charge up on your quick drive to the coffee shop.

Quarter’s got a great little thing going here; check it out on their fund-raising page and pledge your support for your own unit (be sure to engrave it, too!).

Price: $59 list/$39 preorder

Buy from: Pozible (crowd-funding pledge)

Cult of Mac’s Best List is a roundup of products that will keep us forever young. Read more Best List mini reviews.

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