This year I’ve tested a lot of portable power stations. From Ecoflow’s enormous Delta Max to Excitrus’s pocket-sized 100w power bank, it’s a booming market for power on the go. And one of the biggest names in the business is Anker, which has been offering its brilliant little 521 Portable Power Station for some time now.
One thing I love about it is its compact size. For a portable generator that offers a pure sine wave inverter, it’s one of the smallest and lightest solutions on the market. There’s a 240v power socket which can deliver up to 300w, which is perfect for laptops, cameras and high-speed smartphone charging, and a suite of 12v connections including a 60w USB-C port and two USB sockets.
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It can accept a charge at up to 65 watts, which will allow it to top up its 256wh batteries very quickly from the mains, and, cleverly, you can charge it through its USB socket if you have no access to mains or you’ve forgotten the DC charger.
The digital display is very good, offering just the right amount of information, including a bold percentage meter showing how much juice you have left, and clear input and output data. Oh, and I love the light strip on the front. It takes up very little power, but it’s very bright. Extremely useful outside.
The other thing I like about the Anker 521 is its price. It’s no secret that portable power stations don’t come cheap, but shop around and you can find Anker’s power station for less than £500. That makes it one of the cheapest power stations packing in a 240v socket.
But the best thing about the 521 by far is its portability. Unlike most of the power stations on the market, it’s so much lighter – it’s just over 4kg. And that’s an important consideration for camping and it makes it perfect for a festival.
So while it doesn’t have the power of some of the bigger, more expensive bits of kit on the market, its trump card is how easy it is to carry around. And unless you’re wanting to power a kettle, or a powerful tool of some kind, this will fit the bill perfectly.
