You’re driving along in the middle of nowhere, late at night and it’s puring with rain – you have an accident with another vehicle or drive into a tree or ditch. The engine’s out, your seat belt is jammed, and so are the doors. Moreover, your smartphone is low on power and you need to stay on top of recovery and general help. This is the somewhat extreme scenario for which the gadget reviewed is designed. It’s perfect, though you’ll likely get weekly use out of it coming back from the pub in a much less dramatic environment. Or just mark this as a potential gift for someone for whom you think any of this fits the bill?

The Choetech TC7 is an emergency flashlight, 5200mAh charger, seatbelt ripper and window smasher, all in one. And it’s fully waterproof down to 3 metres, so you don’t have to worry about dropping it in ditchwater in the example above. In short, it’s perfect for keeping (charged up and) in the car glovebox and, at just over £20 it’s about the right price for a present for someone you care about, perhaps?

The gadget is made from heavyweight plastic, with rubber seals around the main entry point, the twist-to-open head. I’d have liked to have seen a rubberised finish all over, for maximum grip, though the design does include moulding detail that helps in this regard, as shown above. The gadget comes with a spare microUSB charging lead and some basic instructions.

The core feature is probably the flashlight, which has a single high power LED that can be run at three different intensities (shown below is the dimmest). 

Powering the light is the main rechargeable battery, of course, rated at 5200mAh at 3.7V. As it sounds from the product description, this can also be routed out through standard USB, uniquely. Twist the head off and there’s a standard socket, outputting at 5V, giving you around 4000mAh of charging capacity for a smartphone. As usual with emergency chargers, there’s a ‘quarterly’ LED display to show the current charge, accessed by short pressing the main torch button.

And, of course, the microUSB port is for charging the Choetech TC7 up again when needed. This can easily be from the car itself using a standard USB output from the dash, or at home as you’d expect. 

Turning to the related car emergency features, here’s the integral seat belt cutter, essentially a deeply recessed razor blade – safe from the smallest child fingers, thankfully:

And, on the TC7’s end, a rubber-capped metal point – designed to break safety glass if you’re ever trapped in a vehicle. The rubber cap is a close fit and is also tethered, thankfully, so won’t get lost in time and thus render the tip a danger.

All in all, a really rather clever accessory that’s earned a place in my own car glovebox and with occasional attention/charging every few months. Just in case the unthinkable happens! You can grab the TC7 here on Amazon UK or similar.