DJI Power 1000 review: with great power comes many dongles

DJI isn’t nan first sanction you deliberation of erstwhile it comes to big-ass batteries — rather nan other since nan batteries that fresh wrong nan company’s drones person to beryllium arsenic mini and ray arsenic possible. But each that clip spent uncovering nan correct equilibrium betwixt weight, size, formation time, and charging speeds has prepared nan institution to participate nan powerfulness position marketplace pinch nan $599 Power 1000 and smaller $379 Power 500. 

DJI’s attack to portable powerfulness stations is unique, I’ve learned while testing its flagship Power 1000. It features a powerful 2200W AC inverter that’s unheard of successful specified a mini package that besides hosts a humble 1024Wh artillery made from safe and long-lasting LFP cells. It’s besides 1 of nan first powerfulness stations to vessel pinch a brace of USB-C PD 3.1 outputs tin of 140W.

And to support things arsenic mini and portable arsenic possible, it eschews different inputs and outputs you’ll find modular connected astir powerfulness stations. Instead, DJI developed a versatile “Smart DC,” aliases SDC, larboard that allows you to adhd much I/O via proprietary adapters. But those SDC ports tin besides complaint a action of DJI’s ain drones faster than thing other presently connected nan market.

The large mobility I have, then, is who is this for? Just owners of compatible DJI drones aliases anyone looking to bargain a general-purpose powerfulness station?

If you want to move nan Power 1000 into a full-featured star generator, past you’ll request to bargain tons of proprietary DJI cables. You’ll request a $59 cablegram attached to a chunky MPPT star controller if you want to complaint nan Power 1000 from nan sun aliases a $49 cablegram to complaint it from your car’s 12V cigaret output erstwhile driving. You’ll besides request to bargain $22 cables if you want to adhd 12V DC outputs to nan powerfulness station. These see a car charger larboard to powerfulness things for illustration a portable fridge, an XT60 connector to powerfulness an RV’s lights, aliases a charger for RC aircraft. 

You’ll past request to bargain a $19 cablegram to fast-charge nan Intelligent Flight Batteries from DJI’s compatible Matrice 30 series, Air 3, Mavic 3 series, aliases Inspire 3 drones. I tested my Power 1000 reappraisal portion pinch a DJI Air 3 because nan batteries utilized connected nan different drone DJI sent maine to trial — a Mini 3 Pro — aren’t compatible pinch DJI’s SDC ports.

Charging nan Air 3’s artillery pinch nan Power 1000 has 1 main advantage complete different DJI charging solutions: speed. Unfortunately, charging pinch nan SDC cablegram is constricted to conscionable 1 artillery astatine a clip since DJI doesn’t yet connection a multi-battery charging hub compatible pinch DJI’s ain SDC port. You can, of course, bargain a 2nd $19 SDC cable.

In my testing, some SDC ports complaint nan Air 3’s artillery astatine up to 124W, according to nan show connected nan Power 1000, conscionable awkward of nan 125W DJI quotes. However, it only hits this max complaint charge briefly, which is to beryllium expected. Charging from 0 to 90 percent took 34 minutes, but nan adjacent 10 percent took different 19 minutes, aliases 53 minutes to complaint from 0 to afloat — 9 minutes longer than nan 44 minutes DJI promotes. That’s still amended than nan 70 minutes it’ll return utilizing DJI’s 100W USB-C charger. 

I do for illustration that nan Power 1000 shows nan real-time charging percent of nan drone artillery pinch a precision of 2 decimal points!

DJI says its different compatible drones tin return amended advantage of Power 1000’s SDC ports. The Mavic 3 tin propulsion up to 150W, for example, while nan Inspire 3 tin tie up to 200W and nan Matrice 30 bid up to 230W to easy trounce nan DJI’s ain USB-C accelerated chargers. The SDC ports tin grip up to 400W of input and 240W of output.

Speaking of USB-C, DJI’s Power 1000 is 1 of nan first powerfulness stations to vessel pinch dual USB-C PD 3.1 ports supporting a max output of 140W per larboard erstwhile utilizing compatible PD 3.1 devices and cables that meet nan Extended Power Range (EPR) specification. I was capable to corroborate pinch a random white-label powerfulness bank purchased from Amazon, arsenic you tin spot successful nan image above. Unfortunately, those USB-C ports are outputs only, truthful they can’t beryllium utilized to complaint nan powerfulness station.

The AC inverter is awesome and specced to powerfulness astir family appliances, including microwaves, abstraction heaters, and model aerial conditioners — albeit briefly. It’s rated astatine 2200W of “stable output” aliases 2,600W for “thirty seconds.” In my testing, I managed to propulsion a dependable 2400W (using 2 hairsbreadth dryers) for astir 1 to 2 minutes earlier nan portion unopen disconnected gracefully pinch a informing connection connected nan display. I was capable to past powerfulness nan hairsbreadth dryers astatine 2000W uninterrupted for a afloat 5 minutes earlier I switched them off.

Charging nan Power 1000 from an AC wall jack has its ain quirks. A move connected nan beforehand lets you group nan charging velocity astatine either 1200W aliases 600W. The instrumentality is susurration quiet moreover astatine that max complaint charge — I was measuring conscionable 26dB from a metre away, somewhat much than nan 23dB quoted connected trading materials. DJI says it’ll complaint to 80 percent successful astir 50 minutes, aliases 70 minutes to scope 100 percent — and that’s almost precisely what I saw, positive aliases minus 2 minutes.

I should note, however, that nan Power 1000 seems to person a constrictive somesthesia set for that 1200W max complaint rate. I saw it regularly throttle charging to 900W aft a dense trial session, which makes sense, but besides aft it had been conscionable sitting idle for respective hours successful a room measuring conscionable 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius).

Other observations:

If you’re a master contented creator who already owns 1 of nan DJI drones that tin return advantage of nan Power 1000’s (or Power 500) accelerated charging, past there’s small logic to look elsewhere for a caller powerfulness station, particularly if you’re only looking to support a elemental mobile workplace charged.

But if you’re looking for an all-purpose powerfulness position pinch gobs of star input that’s fresh for anything, past you should astir apt look elsewhere. While nan Power 1000 tin surely grow its action of inputs and outputs acknowledgment to those versatile SDC ports, cipher wants to negociate each those dongles and consequence getting caught retired successful nan outback aft losing a cablegram that’s only sold by a azygous company. 

The Power 1000 costs $599 earlier adding immoderate SDC adapters. That’s much costly than nan $499 EcoFlow Delta 2 and a small cheaper than nan $650 Bluetti AC180, some of which see each nan inputs and outputs you’ll request from likewise sized batteries but autumn short of DJI’s freakish expertise to supply 2200W of sustained AC output.

All photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge