Stuffcool Snap Review: The ultimate compact power bank for iPhones?

There was a time when one of the first things that we purchased after getting a new iPhone was a power bank. For quite a while, iPhones were notorious for their poor battery lives – getting through a day without having to recharge it at least once was unthinkable.

That era seems to have fortunately passed, but the power bank remains a key iPhone accessory, especially if you are not using the Max or Plus models, which are blessed with big batteries. But keeping a power bank handy is still a very good idea, and if you are an iPhone user, we think the succinctly named Stuffcool Snap is as good as it gets for iPhone charging right now.

Stuffcool Snap: Compact and easy to use

There are two main reasons for this – convenience and speed. The Stuffcool Snap is very compact. Unlike other rectangular or square-shaped, chunky power banks, it is more like a trapezium, with a slim top curving out into a slightly wider base. It is 77mm long, 47 mm tall, and 24 mm thick, and is about 100 grams in weight. It can easily fit into most pockets, although its shape may seem a little odd – perhaps it could have had straight sides like the iPhone itself. Perched right on top of the charger is a lightning connector with a cap on it, which can be removed while attaching the connector to an iPhone (the cap remains attached to the power bank, though). While on the left side is a USB Type C port, and on the right is a button to switch the power bank on and off. The power bank is made of plastic and has a very solid feel to it.

Using the Stuffcool Snap is as simple as attaching it to the lighting port of an iPhone, iPad, or AirPods case. We did not even need to switch on the power bank, as the devices started charging the moment we connected the Snap to them.

While it can charge any device with a lightning port, the portable charger works best with the iPhone. We used it with the iPhone 14 series, and as the power bank is very compact and connects directly to the device without any cable, we found that we were able to use the iPhone comfortably even when it was being charged.

Stuffcool warns against placing an iPhone that is being charged by the Snap in your pocket as it could damage the lightning port, but you can easily keep it on a table and use your phone normally as it charges. The lightning port attaches firmly to the base of the phone, so there’s no fiddling with cables or magnetic connectors, and the power bank remains attached even if you use the phone for a call – it does not wobble.

Stuffcool Snap: A snappy charger indeed

A huge edge that the Stuffcool Snap has over wireless charging power banks (if you are seeking a cable-free life) is the speed at which it charges devices. It charges at a very impressive 20W, the same as Apple’s official 20W charger. As a result, it can deliver a decent battery boost to your device in a short time.

For instance, it took our iPhone 14 Pro Max from 20 percent to 50 percent in about twenty minutes and to 71 percent in 40 minutes, even while we kept using the phone normally on a 5G connection! It could charge an iPhone 14 Plus from 0 to 50 percent in about half an hour, and an iPhone 14 Pro can go up to 90 percent in about an hour.

A point to note here is that it does not seem likely that the Snap can recharge any of the iPhone 14 Pro series from 0 to 100 if you keep using the phones in the process, even though it has a capacity of 5000 mAh, Stuffcool says this is the price one pays for using PD charging. If you are one of those who is looking for a power bank that can recharge your iPhone fully a few times, Snap is not for you. The charger itself gets charged at 18W through the USB Type C port on the side and gets fully charged in about 90-100 minutes, which is pretty brisk for a power bank. There’s a Type C to Type C cable in the box along with the power bank.

Stuffcool Snap Review: Pricey, but the premium is for simple, speedy charging

All of this makes the Snap a great option for those who want something that can recharge their iPhone quickly with minimum fuss to get it comfortably through the day. If, like most people, you start looking for a charger when the battery level drops to close to 20 percent, then it is a fair chance that the Snap could take it to 80 percent easily or even top it up in less than an hour. And it all happens quickly. You just plug it into the lightning port and continue using the phone if you so wish. It is a fair chance your iPhone will get enough juice to get it through the day in well under an hour.

You do not have to worry about carrying cable or getting the correct magnetic attachment alignment that you often have with other power banks. Just for the record, it can totally charge up AirPods and AirPods Pro, but it cannot be expected to take an iPad to more than 40 percent from scratch – mind you, even that is a fair bit, given an iPad’s excellent battery life.

This is not to say that Snap is perfect. At Rs 2,299, it is expensive for a 5000 mAh power bank. You can get a 20000 mAh power bank for that much. The Snap also can charge just one device at a time and can only charge devices with lightning ports. It is a very iPhone/AirPods/iPad (older ones) device. When one invests in the Snap, one is paying for the compact form factor, ease of use, and speed of charging here, not for mAh capacity or multiple device connectivity. It would also have been a little extra handy if the base of the power bank had been flat, as it could have even served as a stand for the iPhone while charging it.

It charges without wires at wired charging speeds, is easy to carry around and use, delivers a good enough battery boost to see you through a day’s iPhone use, and gets charged reasonably quickly – all of which make the Stuffcool Snap perhaps the ultimate iPhone power bank.

It is not perfect, and it is a little pricey, but it just works. Just like the phone, it charges!

Buy Stuffcool Snap