ALLPOWERS S2000 Portable Power Station review – checks my boxes for a 1500Wh power station

REVIEW – I recently reviewed the ALLPOWERS S2000 Pro Portable Power Station, which is a good all-around power station without any glaring faults. ALLPOWERS also sent the S2000 non-Pro for review, so I also tested it out, and the big question is whether or not it’s worth saving $100 over the Pro version or not, which I’ll try to break down throughout the review. I love having a couple power stations around of this size and capacity since they’re capable of running most devices for quite a while while still being portable.

What is it?

The ALLPOWERS S2000 Portable Power Station is a portable power station that boasts 1500 Wh of battery storage, 2000 watts continuous AC, and 4000 watts AC peak output. It charges slower than the Pro version, but still at a respectable 400 watts so a full recharge takes around 4 hours. It also almost the same selection of output ports as the Pro version, minus the dedicated 120V RV plug.

What’s in the box?

• ALLPOWERS S2000 Portable Power Station
• MC4 to XT60 solar connector cable
• AC charging cable
• Car port to XT60 charging cable
• Weather resistant cover
• Accessories carrying pouch
• Manual

Hardware specs

Design and features

The front of the ALLPOWERS S2000 Portable Power Station has the layout I prefer with all the output ports on the front. This helps with cable routing, and the upside down AC ports up top mean you can route cables back or to the sides without obstructing the LCD screen. The four AC ports can put out a combined 2000 watts continuous, 4000 watts peak power, which would run an appliance pulling 500 watts for roughly 3 hours.

Below the empty circle where the RV port is on the Pro version is an XT60 DC input port – for charging via car charger or solar. Control buttons below the LCD screen control the on/off state of the unit, AC ports, and DC ports (including USB). The power button doubles as a Bluetooth pairing button as well when held down, which is a strange choice – there’s no way I can find to force the whole unit to power down, it just automatically shuts off if AC+DC are turned off for a while.

The DC/USB cluster includes a car port (this is always nice for random 12V car port devices like vacuums, lights, air compressors, etc.), two type C ports (PD 100 watts between them), and four USB-A ports. Using a single USB-A port delivers up to 18 watts, but when you use more than one it spreads wattage out between devices (to ~10W per device if I’m reading the spec sheet correctly?).

Both sides look the same so I’ll only include one picture. Each has a ventilation hole to allow for cooling. The cooling fans kick on under load and sound similar to a laptop (both in volume and pitch). The handles feel very robust, but I wish they were flush with the top instead of raised – this means you can’t set something flat the full width of the power station on top.

Around back is the AC charging port, which supports 400 watts input. The Pro version does up to 1500 watts fast charging, so besides the RV port that’s one thing you lose on the non-Pro.

The top view (above) shows the texture and shape of the top of the power station. I like this area for setting devices that I’m charging (at least laptops and smaller devices). No wireless charging here, just a flat surface.

On the bottom we have four rubber nonstick pads and some technical information.

The included weather resistant travel/storage cover is a nice addition, though it’s a bit harder to pick up and move the unit with the cover zipped on.

Setup

Charging the ALLPOWERS S2000 Portable Power Station is pretty straightforward, you just plug in the AC cord to a wall outlet. It went right to 400 watts charging, and fully charges in about 4 hours from empty.

You can connect your mobile phone via Bluetooth to use the ALLPOWERS app, though it doesn’t offer any functionality you can’t get on the main screen, except for changing AC frequency from 60 to 50 Hz, and only works when you’re already fairly close to the power station (Bluetooth range). Here’s some app screenshots:

Performance

The ALLPOWERS S2000 Portable Power Station is a solid performer for it’s price point and storage capacity (at least with the sale price of $599 it was at during the review). I tested with charging laptops, e-bikes, phones, tablets, and then really pushed it with a space heater that spikes over 2000 watts and then settles to 1500 watts continuous load. The S2000 didn’t bat an eye at the strain, though it estimated 45 minutes to empty from a full charge.

ALLPOWERS also sent over a pair of 200 watt solar panels to test with. Unfortunately we had an unusually cloudy December during the review period on top of shorter days at high latitude, so the best I could get was about 30 watts input (but I also tested other similar panels and they did no better, it’s just a rough time for solar here). With these panels wired in series I can theoretically get 400 watts of input in optimum conditions, which should be more than enough to recharge the power station during the day if I’m using it for camping/RV excursions.

What I like

• Good value with the sale price (not so good at full retail)
• UPS / passthrough charging makes it good for a backup power station for important devices
• Flexible solar MPPT charging (some similar power stations are much more restrictive on voltages and max power allowed)

What I’d change

• Make top completely flat for stacking things on top
• App doesn’t seem to offer any additional functionality with limited bluetooth range
• Prefer LiFePO4 battery chemistry for longevity, though they claim nearly the same cell cycle estimate
• Sale price is competitive, full retail price is pretty high compared to similar stations.

Final thoughts

The ALLPOWERS S2000 Portable Power Station seems to be a good all around power station for the 1500 Wh class. The plentiful ports make for flexible power delivery for all sorts of scenarios. The better-than-average solar input range is nice too, giving you options on what (if any) solar panels you choose to add to your power station setup.

Price: $1199 ($699 sale at time of review)
Where to buy: ALLPOWERS (Save 10% with code: thegadgeteer ) and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by ALLPOWERS