Ahhh, the power! In this case the EcoFlow River mobile power station, a beautifully designed and crazy useful device for those who want or need more than just a little power in odd places. A few numbers for your perusal: 11 pounds, 116,000mAh, 500 watts. That's enough to charge your phone about 50 times, your laptop 10 times, your personal massage device… well, OK now that depends. But even if these are optimistic numbers, that's a heck of a lot of charging.
The River is about the size of a smallish car battery but much lighter, and with a convenient full-length handle on top. On the back: a car charger port, power in and two AC three-prong outlets with a button to enable their use. On the front: four USB ports (the two on the right are Quick Charge 2.0), two USB-C ports (both Quick Charge 3.0), two DC outlets and a power button. The River can be charged in six hours with the wall adapter, 9 hours with the car charger and 10-15 hours with a solar panel (sold separately, not tested).
Pressing the power button lights up the LCD screen to show a large, easily readable battery charge indicator with hours remaining. In testing we found everything about the River to be seamlessly integrated, and the experience of using it is a delight given the number of options it has. The River has a form factor that fits neatly between the small portable batteries and the expedition sized ones. It will fit in a medium size backpack, you could carry it on a bike, and it disappears into a car. The best part: EcoFlow says the technology inside the River is sophisticated enough to let it hold its charge for a full year. Just few more hours on Indiegogo to pre-order!
One response to “EcoFlow River Mobile Power Station”
I was thinking from the name it was going to be a miniature hydroelectric turbine. It isn’t? Dang.