Charges small devices using wall socket-style outlet
My Powkey portable power station does exactly what I want it to do --- charge small devices when I don’t have easy access to an electrical outlet. The other power banks I own will only charge computers or other digital devices through USB, lightning or other digital ports. I bought this for the wall socket-style AC outlet that lets me charge a wide range of small gadgets. But it also offers two USB charging ports and a DC 12 port (one of those small, cylindrical jacks common on small electrical devices.) It’s very compact, somewhat larger than a typical paperback book. The Surface tablet that’s charging in this photo is smaller than an iPad, so the Powkey (which is closer to the camera) looks artificially large in the picture. The instructions that come with it aren’t great, but the operation is so intuitive that you really don’t need them. The main thing to remember is that this is only for small devices – under 65 watts. It will charge a tablet or small laptop. You can’t use it for a space heater. Your devices will obviously charge much more quickly if they have battery storage and you charge them when they are turned off. I can charge a small Surface tablet in a little over an hour and still have about 20% of the power station’s power remaining. It’s easy to see how well it's charging. A display on the front of the power station clearly shows how much power you have left. A side panel contains all the ports and two important buttons. The round button turns on the power station. A white switch must be shifted to “on” to charge your device. Turn this switch off when you are done to avoid draining the power station. It holds a charge really well in the “off” position. I didn’t use my power station for more than a week and it stayed fully charged. In addition to charging your power station from a wall charger, you can charge it from your car using the included “cigarette lighter” plug. That plug also has an adaptor to convert it to 12 V power. When I tried the car charger, the power station went from 10% to nearly full in about 3.5 hours of on-and-off driving. It seemed to charge more slowly the first two hours and very quickly toward the end. The main reason I bought this was to power a cat cam in an outbuilding that has zero Internet. This particular minicam does not use batteries. With the minicam plugged into the power station, I left the camera running on motion detection for 12 hours with a rather active cat. It used about 40% of the power station’s power in that time (it was not transmitting, just recording to a micro SD card). I highly recommend this for emergency lights or for situations where you need to temporarily plug in a small device in an area without an outlet. Read more
