Craig Lloyd
Portable car jump starters are great to have for jump-starting your car when there’s no one else around, but many of them can also charge up your mobile devices. Here are the best ones to buy if you’re in the market for a roadside life saver than can also juice up your phone.
Any good car jump starter should come with a beefy battery, and the bigger the engine that needs jump started, the bigger the battery that you’ll need. A couple hundred amps will start most smaller compact engines, while you’ll need something bigger for trucks and SUVs, like 400-600 amps.
Furthermore, you’ll want to look for starters that come with a lithium ion battery, which make for smaller overall starters that can easily fit in your hand and aren’t incredibly bulky. They also won’t take up much space in your trunk if you plan to keep one in your car at all times.
Here are a few of our top picks for a car jump starter that can also charge up your phone, tablet, or even a laptop on the go.
DBPower Portable Car Jump Starter ($70)
One of the cheapest options available is this car jump starter from DBPower for $70. We’ve featured it in the past, as we think it’s still worthy of praise.
Inside is a generous 18,000 mAh battery (the largest capacity out of the bunch) that can provide up to 600 amps to jump-start the most stubborn of dead car batteries. And the included USB ports can charge up any of your mobile devices and it even comes with laptop adapters in the box if you ever need to juice up your larger devices.
More importantly, though, the jump starter has reverse polarity protection, overload protection, and short circuit protection, and the built-in LCD screen shows you how much juice is left in the battery before you need to charge it up again. And the built-in flashlight is also pretty handy.
Anker PowerCore Jump Starter Mini ($80)
Anker is one of the most popular brands in the portable battery pack market, and their reputation for value and reliability extends to their jump starter battery packs as well, like the PowerCore Jump Starter Mini for $80.
While it’s mAh capacity is only 9,000 mAh, it can still push out up to 400 amps when it comes time to jump-start a vehicle. And it’s small enough to easily stow in the glove box or under a seat.
Like the DBPower model, this is great for smaller cars with around 2.0L engines and smaller, and the price reflects that.
Noco Genius Boost Jump Starter ($80+)
While Noco has cheaper and smaller models as low as 400A, you can get a larger model if you have a truck, SUV, or any other kind of larger vehicle, up to 4,000A for the Genius Boost Pro.
However, for most larger vehicles, you probably only need the Genius Boost+, which offers up to 1,000A for jump-starting dead car batteries, and it’s just shy of $100.
It has the USB port for charging your mobile devices, and it comes with all of the necessary safety features like reverse polarity protection and even “spark-proof technology” to cut down on the risk of sparking in the engine bay when you’re jumping your car.
$99.95 
$124.95 Save 20%
Antigravity Micro Start XP-3 Car Jump Starter ($105)
Antigravity is a company that has made a name for itself in the outdoor industry, and has a great reputation when it comes to vehicle batteries, so it only makes sense their XP-3 jump starter made the list.
It’s a tad pricier than our other options, but that’s thanks to its extremely compact size—it measures in at just 6″ x 3″ x 1″ and weighs only 10.5 ounces. Despite the diminutive size, however, it still houses an 8,000 mAh battery that can crank out 400A.
They also have larger models, like the XP-10, which comes with an 18,000 mAh battery that can deliver up to 600A. It’s more expensive, however, ringing in at $180.
Image Credit: Noco.
