I’ve had an Apple Watch for years, but owning one and actually wearing one have turned out to be two different things. My first was a Series 3, which I bought around 2021. A year and a half ago I replaced it with an SE 3 with GPS for $249. I like my Apple Watch a lot! Unfortunately, I’ve always been terrible at keeping the thing charged. Enter this dumb little JOYROOM device.
First and foremost, let no one tell you that an Apple Watch doesn’t need to be charged all the time. At its peak, my old Series 3 lasted about eighteen hours, so overnight charging seemed like the obvious solution. The USB-C port on my cheap IKEA nightstand dutifully handled the job, but bedroom geography worked against me. I charge my iPhone on the stand to the left of my headboard, where Zulu the cat naturally points me when I sleep. The Apple Watch puck lived on the stand to my right. Many mornings, I sprang from slumber, grabbed my phone, and completely forgot the watch.
My current Watch introduced another problem: I actually want to wear it while I’m asleep! I’ve found its sleep-tracking report extremely useful as I’ve become more health-conscious, which makes leaving the thing on a charger all night a little self-defeating. Eventually my commitment to keeping it charged every day collapsed, and the watch fell out of use- particularly while I was looking for work. Once I started a new job, though, I realized the Watch might actually be useful on my wrist. Naturally, it was dead.
I brought my $30 Apple charging puck to work, which solved the problem. I could charge the watch while I caught up on tasks in my office and wasn’t worried about it tracking my steps. Then, inevitably, I forgot to bring it home for the weekend. I was out of luck: unlike most of Apple’s portable devices, the Watch has no charging port- it’s all wireless, all the way. I tried holding a USB-C cable in its general proximity, then moved on to Lightning. No luck. Growing desperate, I blundered my way backward through the Apple legacy catalog: 30-pin iPod connector placed on the Digital Crown, FireWire and Mini DisplayPort threaded through the band, MagSafe taped taped to the side button, and even a USB-B cable strapped to the band release. For some reason, none of these unrelated and obsolete connectors wanted to charge my watch.
That’s when I turned to Amazon and bought this JOYROOM Portable 2000mAh Wireless Charger. I’m no stranger to the bizarre world of Chinese Amazon brand names from China, of course. Not that long ago, I bought an iPad keyboard case from a brand called APHBZGE, an emblem that looked less like something you’d pronounce than the result of Zulu walking across my keyboard. Compared to APHBZGE, JOYROOM sounds like a household name.
The JOYROOM cost me $13.67 in late August. Now it shows up at $16.99 for me, but I’d probably still buy the thing. It’s a tiny power bank roughly the size of a large car key fob, with a 2000mAh battery, a digital charge display, and a USB-C port to fill ’er up with all those juicy electrons it depends on. Aesthetically, the JOYROOM is nothing special. I’ve found that its matte finish eagerly collects fingerprints and errant strands of fiberglass roving, while a leathery loop keeps it firmly attached to my keychain. The charging puck itself is built right into the face. From a functional standpoint, there’s nothing to unfold, plug in, or lose- especially since it’s on my keys.
My watch died over the weekend, and the JOYROOM arrived Sunday. I ripped it out of its generic packaging and found the charger along with a three-foot USB-C-to-C cable that I’ll probably use to charge my vape somewhere. For reasons I can’t explain, I waited until I got to work to actually test the thing. That’s when I discovered something remarkable: it worked perfectly!
The JOYROOM did exactly what it said on the tin. I stuck my dead Apple Watch to the side of it, wrapped the band tight, pressed the inconspicuous power button on the side, and my watch battery climbed from zero to 98 percent in maybe forty-five minutes. No cable dangled from my computer, no charging puck had to be retrieved from home, and I didn’t have to dig through a drawer in search of some obsolete old cable that wouldn’t work anyway. One downfall is that it won’t charge your phone via the Qi standard, but the listing didn’t say it would.
Numerous Amazon reviews contend that this little device will charge an Apple Watch three or four times before it needs a recharge itself. After a few weeks of use, I can confirm that it does! I don’t expect to venture to Zanzibar, New Glarus, or the Econo Lodge in Marston, Missouri, anytime soon, so three or four charges should suffice.
After about a month, that’s really my verdict on the JOYROOM: it solves an extremely specific problem I probably shouldn’t have in the first place! My Apple Watch is useful when I remember to wear it, and now I have a charger attached to something I’m considerably less likely to leave sitting on the wrong nightstand. For thirteen bucks and change, that’s good enough for me: so long as it holds up for a couple more months.
