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The Apple Watch charging cable is long, and can be quite annoying to carry around. It gets unraveled in a bag or case, and ends up resembling a very white noodle that gets tangled up in everything. The Apple Watch requires daily charging, as does your iPhone. A battery pack with cables for both is an irritation we’d rather avoid on weekends away. In our UGreen 2-in-1 Portable Apple Charger review, we take a closer look at a convenient solution to this problem.
UGreen’s charger completely removes the need for any cables by having its own built-in Lightning charging cable for your phone, and a magnetic charging disc for the Watch. Inside the battery pack is a 4,400mAh cell, which in our tests charged our iPhone X up to maximum, and topped the Watch up from around 40 percent, with still enough juice inside to add more to either later on.
It has a built-in Lightning charging cable for your phone, and a magnetic charging disc for the Watch.
UGreen said it will charge an Apple Watch eight times over, or will take an iPhone 8 to full, with enough for a second 50 percent charge. In other words, we easily relied on the UGreen charger during a night away from home, as it could charge up both devices to full capacity, without the need to take any other cables or charging paraphernalia. You may get battery anxiety relying on it for two nights though.
That’s a solid benefit and a strong reason to buy the UGreen charger if you own both the iPhone and the Apple Watch. What about the battery pack itself? It has an oblong shape with rounded end pieces, and is covered in that familiar soft-touch material we find on many battery packs. It’s pleasant to hold, has plenty of grip, an the build quality is great. It’s as long as an Apple iPhone X, twice as thick, and weighs 141 grams, so it’s not light. But it’s nowhere near as annoying to carry around as the Apple Watch charging cable.
The charging system is Made For Apple certified — specifically the magnetic disc and the small Lightning cable stored in the body. It extends out just a few centimeters to neatly charge up your phone, without being a trip hazard. UGreen’s protection systems help avoid over-current, over-voltage, high temperatures, or short circuits. The body is also made of flame retardant material. During our tests the battery pack never went beyond slightly warm, just as you’d expect. On the top of the body are four LED lights. A single light indicates 25 percent charge capacity for the internal battery. A button on the side starts the charging process when you plug devices in. Finally, there is a MicroUSB port on the side to charge up the pack itself.
It’s strictly for Apple owners. There is no USB-out charging port to plug in another cable even if you wanted to; so if you have an Android Wear watch and an iPhone, don’t buy this. For Apple Watch and iPhone owners, we think this is an excellent product with a real problem-solving benefit — it’s great not having to take the silly Watch charging cable with you ever again. UGreen sells the 2-in-1 Portable Apple Charger through Amazon, where it costs $60 in the U.S., and 60 British pounds in the U.K.. At the time of writing there is a $5 off coupon available through Amazon in the U.S., making the deal more attractive.
We’ve tried other Apple Watch chargers like the Kanex GoPower that still need a cable for the phone, dual charging docks, and liked products such as Twelve South’s Time Porter, which keeps the cable and other Watch accessories organized. UGreen’s 2-on-1 Portable Apple Charger solves a travel charging problem we’ve endured on several occasions in a way other products have not.
