REVIEW – The portable power station market seems beyond saturated to me at this point, but companies continue to put out new models. Extra choices and competition are always good for us consumers though, right? I agreed to review the OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station because it would fill a missing niche in our household – a station portable enough to easily move from room to room or take on trips, but with enough storage to be worth actually taking somewhere (my other power stations I’ve previously reviewed are all large home-backup style ones or smaller than this and die pretty quickly with any demanding load).
What is it?
The OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station is a portable power station with a 960 Wh capacity and a variety of output options including AC outlets, USB-A/C, and DC/car outlets. You could add a solar panel and create a solar generator system, or recharge it from mains or a car when needed.
What’s included?
- OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station
- AC Charging Cable
- Car Charging Cable
- Solar Charging Cable (MC4 connectors)
- Manual and warranty info
Tech specs
Click to expand
- Size: 15.2 x 9 x 11 inches (386 x 228 x 280 mm)
- Weight: 27.6 lb (12.5 kg)
- Cell chemistry: LiFePo4
- Cell degradation rating: 3500 cycles to 80% capacity
- Capacity: 960 Wh
- LED Light: 2 Watt, low/medium/SOS settings
- Operating Temperature range: 0-40 ℃ /32-104℉
- Storage temperature range: -10-40 ℃ /-14-104℉
- AC charging: US Version 12V-48V/ 15A, Maximum 500W
- UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply): Yes, 10 ms switchover
- Solar charging (MPPT): Maximum 500W,12V-48V/ 15A
- Car/DC charging: 2V/8A – 24V/10A
- AC power output (x4 ports shared): 1200W(100-120V),2400 Surge
- USB-C outputs: 1 x 100W PD, 3 x 20W PD
- USB-A outputs: 2 x 5V/2.4A
- DC Outputs: 2 x DC5521
- Car Output: 1 x 12V/10A
- Warranty: 1 year (+2 more with registration)
Design and features
The OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station has a pretty standard layout, with an information LCD screen top and center, a cluster of USB outputs below that for charging all your USB devices, up to 100 watts PD (good enough for nearly all laptops these days). To the right is the Power switch and LED light, and to the left we have car and DC output ports.
The light is bright enough for camping or emergency use, but it’s no floodlight. It alternates between different light intensity settings and an SOS morse code flashing mode.
Each cluster has an on/off switch with an LED indicator light to visually show if they’re on or off. The USB-C port selection is generous, though I’d have preferred two higher power PD outputs in order to allow two people to run laptops simultaneously (you’ll need to connect one of them to an AC outlet if there’s two of you using the station at once).
The car port can put out up to 10 amps, which is great for inflatable toy inflators we use regularly (like stand up paddleboards).
Up top is a pair of metal handles, with cloth grips. There’s no wireless charging up top (not something I really look for, but some stations have it so if you need that this one might not be the best for you). When folded down, the handles are not flush into the top of the power station. You can still stack things on top of it, but it’s not as stable as it would be if the handles went fully into the body or to the side when folded. What I do like about the handles is that it’s easy to carry this power station around with one hand – something not easily done with similar power stations I’ve tested in the past.
A lift up flap on the right side exposes the four AC outlets (the on/off switch for this cluster of outlets is above the flap up panel). The outlets can push out a sustained 1200 watts with a surge wattage of 2400 watts, so enough for all but the most demanding devices. Napkin math says a 50 watt freezer would run for about 20 hours nonstop (or 100 watts for just under 10 hours), so it’s a good capacity for portable refrigerators/freezers, most CPAP machines, etc.
The back shows some specifications and certifications.
The left side has the two input options: AC and DC. You can use any of the three included cables (AC, Solar, and Car), which will connect to one of these two input ports. If you’re charging via AC the power station can take up to 700 watts. There’s a reset button above them in case the Battery Management System shuts the unit down. Above that you can see the ventilation holes as well. The fans were among the quietest I’ve used on portable power stations, even at full tilt for 15 minutes (1000 watts output), so if a quiet power station is important to you, this one might be perfect.
The solar input is a standard MC4 connector which is common on many solar panels (and you can get adaptors for other common plugs). You can pump up to 500 watts in via solar.
Assembly, Installation, Setup
The OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station had about 25% battery when shipped to me, so I started by plugging it into AC power, and it immediately shot up to the advertised 700 watts input and was full in about an hour (they say 1.5 hours from empty). Besides this, there’s no setup or installation required, unless you’re adding a solar panel to create a solar generator system where the solar panel charges the battery by day, and the battery can run things indefinitely as long as the 24 hour usage doesn’t exceed the daily solar input.
Performance
I started testing the OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station with my favorite stress test – a small space heater. This device spikes to near 2000 watts when starting and pulls 1200 watts when running, which is just under the P1201’s max ratings. The system didn’t skip a beat running the little space heater, although it was draining the battery alarmingly fast (as expected, running 1000+ watts will mean less than 60 minutes runtime on a 960 Wh battery capacity).
I recharged, and then tested running a laptop on USB-C PD, as well as a variety of other devices on USB-A, 12V car ports, USB-C (iPad Pro 13), and various other AC devices. Everything worked exactly as expected, with drain rates right on track for the rated specs.
I also let it sit for a few weeks after the initial stress testing, and it’s still at the exact same % remaining 2 weeks later – some power stations will drain during storage which can be very annoying when you go to grab them in a blackout.
What I like about the OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station
- Very nice capacity and output versus weight and size
- Lots of USB ports as well as laptop USB-C PD – good for the ever-increasing number of USB devices in our house
- Price is better than the average for the capacity, ports, and LiFePO4 chemistry
- LiFePO4 chemistry should mean much longer operational life with less degradation than Li-On
- No phantom drain
What needs to be improved?
- Some people might want wireless charging, many competitors have it
- Having one more USB-C PD 100 watt port (or even a 60W) would be perfect for me and my wife on the go or in blackouts
Final thoughts
While we have most of our critical things on larger backup battery power stations (freezers, internet infrastructure, home server), it’s nice to have this OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station on hand for the random stuff. Camping trips, activities involving inflatable toys, or running a small electric cooler for a day or two is easy now. I went into this review without high expectations but found no major flaws, and when I saw the retail price I was impressed that much more with this power station. If you’re looking for a long-lasting fairly portable power station with decent battery life and generous ports, the OUKITEL P1201 Portable Power Station might just be the one you’re looking for!
Price: $499.00
Where to buy: Amazon or OUKITEL
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by OUKITEL . OUKITEL did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
