[Music] Foreign Abbott and I'm here today to give you a Review and a little bit of a Demonstration of two products from Powerness and one is the hiker u500 Portable power station and the second is The accompanying solar panel which is Called they call it the solarx s120 a Little bit unique in the solar panel in That it is actually 120 versus 120 watt Output making a little bit higher Capacity than what most panels are in Competing panels and there are some Things about the solar panel in Particular that stood out to me as being You know kind of unique and interesting And so it was really that that kind of Attracted me to take a look at them Obviously at this point I have reviewed Products from a variety of different Manufacturers you know similar products In this vein but there were a few things That stood out to me about that so I've Been spinning now close to two months With both the solar panel and then also The u500 here and so I'm going to give You some of the the basic specs things You can look up but then also kind of my Personal observations in using them Things that I like things that I don't Like quite as much and so we'll dive Into that the first thing I will say Though on a very positive note is when
It comes to Value these are really Really competitively priced and in fact Since the time that I first look at the Price to the present they've had either It's a sale or a price drop and the Prices have become even more competitive And so right now you can get this you Know 500 watt u-500 you know power bank System portable power Power Station you Can get it for only 299 US Dollars it Actually makes it cheaper than like I've Been using this jackery unit which is a 300 watt unit and I really like it it's Small it's Compact and there's certain Things that I do with it and I've been Using it now for quite a long time and So but I will note that you can get this 500 watt unit considerably less than What you can get this 300 watt unit with Current pricing also very competitively Priced is the solar panel and the solar Panel in particular I think is a really Strong value because it brings some Extra things to the table compared to Some others that I've looked at and Right now it's available for 169 US Dollars so about 170 bucks and it gives You a lot of bang for the buck for that Money so breaking down a few of these Things first of all just kind of General Specs this unit right here obviously From the name u500 it is a 500 watt unit But with you know of AC power with a Maximum of a thousand watts in Peak or
Surge power available it is not as small As what the jackery 300 watt unit is but As you can see it is still you know Quite Compact and easy to move around Weighs in at 5.2 kilograms or about 11 And a half pounds and so I can I've kind Of used these two units in a largely Similar kind of way so just to give you A quick kind of look at how I personally Use units like this I actually like to Keep a unit like this in my desk at home Because what I do is I have it in a Cabinet to where I have it kind of just Set up as my my power station there and So whether it be my phone or charging my Cameras I just can keep everything Discreet and all the way and keep a Cleaner desk surface and I've been using This unit in largely the same way though It has a few extra capacity that we'll Talk about and so I've been using this In a similar fashion but rather than Having you know 300 watt maximum output Or Mac should say maximum it's 600 watt Peak here but 300 watt continuous power Available and AC this is a little bit Larger capacity 500 and a thousand watts And it has a larger 515 watt hour Battery both of them are pure sine wave Inverters you know all of those typical Things another area that's a little bit Of improvement is I believe that the Jackery is rated for 500 life cycles of Charge and this is rated for a thousand
So just a little bit more capacity there In the battery both in the size and then Also its ability to be recharged So some general observations about this There is a lot as far as just the finish On the Plastics it almost has a bit of a Soft touch and in a few of the key areas Like for example on the handle there's Some rubberized surfaces to whereas a Byproduct you know maybe this matters to You maybe it doesn't matter but a lot of The places that you touch the touch Points on here do have a pleasing Quality to them so I do appreciate that Now on a negative front it has as far as The input the DC input it is a Proprietary four millimeter and I say Proprietary it's proprietary in the Sense that it's different from all the Other different units I've used from Four or five Brands and so it is a Smaller four millimeter input there is No Anderson style input on this and so While as we're going to see the actual Solar panel is really flexible for being Used with other platforms this is less Flexible in that none of the existing Solar panels I had had an input that Would go into it so I had to use the Powerness input on that that's certainly A negative in my mind it just kind of Limits the flexibility a little bit now One of the other things I noticed in Terms of actually charging this unit a
Few observations obviously typically you Have you can use solar if you have that Available you can use an AC adapter and You can use a DC adapter if plugging Into like a car or something like that And then also in this case we have one Of the ports here is a power delivery Standard USBC Port that can be both an Input and an output and so in both cases You can either output up to 60 watts or Input up to 60 watts and interestingly You can use both of these at the same Time and so you can use the dual charge Mode to where you're charging to AC both With this and then also into a power Delivery which obviously means you have To have something sending the signal at The other side so an adapter of some Kind But you can actually have the charging Time and that's a good thing because if There's one thing that I'm critical of Here is that this unit does not charge Particularly fast I was interesting in Looking at the adapter and looking on The back and pulling up the specs I saw That this is only able to push out 72 Watts which if you're familiar at all With charging things like this that's Not super fast and so a byproduct of That is that if you want to charge this More quickly you want to utilize that Dual input because that allows you to Essentially half the input time so you
Can get 72 Watts off the AC adapter and 60 watts out of the power delivery and So obviously you're up to 132 Watts Total there and that will get you allow You to charge it in I think about two And a half hours and so I'll throw up a Graphic here quickly to show you that so Actually the fastest single charging Source for this is actually the s120 Solar panel and I've seen as much as 110 Watts coming into this with another unit On its readout and that gives me just One criticism before we look at the Solar panel itself there is one Criticism that I will throw out there And that is that the there is while There is a really effective readout for The output and a lot of good information On the stream unfortunately it just Shows you that it's charging it doesn't Tell you how much power is coming into It and where that is a little bit of a Liability is that often I have used that Input power to help me to optimize the Placement of a solar panel to see where I'm getting the maximum solar energy Because of not having that readout on This unit itself it does a little bit Limit that optimal placement now Fortunately as we'll see when we take a Look here at the solar panel itself it Actually does have an LC read LCD Readout on it which is really unique Amongst other such panels that I've used
And that does help a little bit but Unfortunately if you're trying to set Optimal position and trying to look at That you're putting yourself into a Really awkward position trying to see The read out it'd be much easier to see It on the screen it's one criticism There now I love the panel let's dive in And take a look why as you can see Spring comes slow around here but over The winter this has been my charging Area it's the place where I get the most Light though here in Ontario Canada over Winter Solar is a little bit of a challenge When it comes to charging however it was The power Nest solar panel that in many Ways was the most intriguing thing to me When the company approached me about Doing a review of their products at this Point I have reviewed similar products From quite a few companies four or five Of them at this point and so there were Some things about the solar panel that In particular stood out to me as being Unique the first of those is that as you Can see this is a 100 watt solar panel From a competitor and this is a 120 watt Panel from powerness and so I was Attracted both to as you can see the Compact package there and so the Difference being is that this 100 watt Panel well it is a nice easy design it Folds out and it's just that simple the
Power Nest is a four panel fold out However it uses it has a great handle on It something that the blue Eddy panel That I reviewed before was far less Robust but also what you can see is that We have got four panels here rather than Just two and so it's a little bit of a Less stable platform for initially Folding out though in each one of these Sections there are velcro held kind of Kickstands that come down And allow you to position it to the Sun Now unlike what I have seen for example In the blue Eddy panels you only have One option here as far as your angle Though you can play with it a little bit But there's not like individualized Settings you can actually put tension on To change the angle lap however the Other thing that really stood out to me Was inside the panel itself where you Have access to the various output Settings and this is what really really Was attractive to me number one we have An actual LCD readout here and so it Gives you information about what kind of Output you're putting in terms of the Amps and so that is interesting But then also as far as direct charging There's a little bit more thought that's Been put into that and so number one you Have got attached you've got a USBC Cable that allows you obviously to Connect into any number of things these
Days and directly charge them including Cameras which has been the main Application for me but also of course my IPad for example uses USBC I I've heard That Apple is going to move towards even With their phones USB standard but Obviously if you're using any kind of Product from Android those are almost All Universal USBC so direct charging of Those type devices and then also there's A USB a port here that you can actually Plug into and so that was intriguing to Me and then also they have worked Towards flexibility with other platforms Now one of my critiques that I'm going To give of the the hiker u500 is that it Has a proprietary charge port here that Unfortunately is not shared across any Of the other platforms that I've used So in an effort to kind of alleviate That what they have done is giving you Three different options here for uh ends That you can put into various obviously Other power stations to charge them so It makes this particular panel uh really An interesting pickup even if you own a Blue Eddie or a jackery or some other Brand it will be compatible with them And frankly this is a great panel design And the price point on it right now it's On sale for only 170 bucks that is a Great price for 120 watt panel and it is Efficient even in my kind of limited Capacity here over the winter in another
Power Station that actually measures Input and I was able to get 110 Watts Even in the winter out of 120 watt panel Which is pretty good efficiency so Obviously there's a lot to commend about This the solar panel when it comes to The price when it comes to the Flexibility of what it can charge and Then those outputs based right on it It's small form factor I love it I would Take more of those in a heartbeat let's Talk about a few more things about the Power Nesh unit which I'm actually Planning on using in this this office in The same way that I use this one in my Home office there's a few things that I Like better about this I know I've kind Of hit some of the critical points Already but one of the things I like That the jackery doesn't have and that Is to have wireless charging you know When you have the appropriate input on You set it on it starts charging and it Actually consistently charges which Hasn't always been my experience and so You can actually charge your phone this Way whereas I found a little more Intermittent with some others you get up To 10 watts of uh wireless charging on This I've also found that because of the Large capacity battery that charging my Camera and my other electronics is a Much smaller hit in terms of percentage Than what the Explorer 300 is and as a
Byproduct I don't have to take it out And and frankly I don't use I don't use This AC adapter once to charge this kind Of the way I like to use these is I like To charge my small devices through them And then I want to solar charge it so I Feel like I'm charging everything for Free and maybe that's just a Psychological thing but that's the way I Like to use these I just find that I Don't have to take this out to charge it Nearly as often and on the the positive Note is that I I also like the fact that You actually are getting the largest Input from the solar panel and I Actually find that it I feel like Relative to other units that a charge is Relatively fast through those means now I ran my typical power test I mean you Know all the typical things I can do With these units I've come to kind of Recognize a standard here's a little Chart that shows you how often you can Charge phones or laptops and other Things you can do there's a few tests That I like to do to see if they can Handle it and so obviously a unit with This kind of capacity is not going to Handle my big tea kettle that even like The Explorer 1000 couldn't handle but I I did try I have a 900 watt travel Kettle that I tried with that and so Things started as you can see here with It but it uh in protecting itself it
Shut down after just a few seconds and So while that 900 watts does fall within The peak surge of a thousand Watts this Unit is obviously a little bit more Sensitive for how long of time you spend Near that maximum area and so I thought It would get me long enough to get kind Of over that Peak Surge and then the Ongoing draw would fall down maybe Closer to the range it didn't work out Quite that way and so as a byproduct it Wasn't quite as flexible for doing that Now when running something like a Blender depending on the draw the Blender you can run something like that And and so again that you know there's Much more of a quick spin up with a Blender and then a the power usage drops And so but certainly moving Peak power From 600 to a thousand watt limit or 300 To 500 watt definitely expands the range Of potential targets for it at the end Of the day this unit has a lot going for It there's a lot of you know versatility Here you know a built-in LED light which Certainly helps in a power outage type Situation it has lots of ports here Including a grand total of five Different USB ports and frankly those Are kind of a big deal these days you Want to be able to just directly charge And things like that and some of these Have different capacities I also I do Appreciate the fact that not only does
It have that power delivery USB port but It also has a USB a 3.0 that can have Power output as high as 18 watts and so There are some things I found that Actually charge a little bit faster if I Use that port and so having that has Also been a bit of a nicety two AC ports You know nothing particularly unique About that so there is some flexibility As far as your outputs lots of different Ways to charge a lot of different things Now obviously what really stands out to Me is what a great value this is at 300 Bucks this is a lot of bang for your Buck and I feel even more strongly about The 170 dollars for the solarx s120 Solar panel which I really really like So at the end of the day I there's a lot Of things I'm encouraged about there's a Few areas I'd like to see improve that I've detailed here but hopefully this Will help you to make an informed buying Decision which frankly is what these Type of reviews are all about I'm Dustin Abbott and if you look in the Description down below there are some Buying links there links where you can Get more information links to follow Myself or Craig on social media to Become a patron or to get channel Merchandise if you haven't already Please like And subscribe thanks for Watching have a great day and let the Light in
[Music] Foreign
