Verdict
The DJI Power 1000 takes a different approach to many portable battery power stations, skipping a couple of common features in favour of comparatively small and light packaging. The result is quite a portable device with a fair bit of storage and a high maximum output power.
On the flipside, DJI’s modular approach means you’ll need to buy adaptors to add solar charging, or even simply to charge up from a car socket, and that pushes up the price. This power station isn’t the best choice if you need the features it’s missing, but if you want portability and a decent peak power, the Power 1000 has it covered.
Pros
- Quite portable for its capacity
- High peak power output
- Clear and helpful screen
Cons
- Not many ports
- Optional modules add to cost
- No app
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Medium power storage, high outputThe Power 1000 can store 1,024 watt-hours of electricity, and manage a sustained output of up to 2.2 kilowatts. That gives it the grunt to run household devices, but it doesn’t store enough power to run them for long. -
A bit stingy on featuresThis power station has four USB ports, but only two mains outputs. If you want to charge in a car, or from the sun, you’ll need to buy extra adaptors – and if you want app control you’re out of luck.
Introduction
The Power 1000 is one of two portable battery power stations from DJI, which is most known for its drones and camera equipment. It takes a slightly unusual approach: while most rivals include features like car and solar charging connectors as standard, here they’re optional extras. This modular approach could be a good thing however. With a limited range of standard ports, the Power 1000 remains compact and fairly light for a power station that can store 1,024 watt-hours (just over one kilowatt hour) of power.
Despite its middling storage, the DJI Power 1000 has quite an impressive 2200W (2.2kW) peak power output. That makes it capable of powering some washing machines and other power-hungry appliances through the most demanding part of their cycle. It’s important to understand, though, that its batteries might not store enough energy for them to finish a full wash load – some wash cycles use more than the available kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity.
Design and Features
- Quite portable for this class
- Not many ports
- No app control
Lithium-ion batteries are heavy, and portable power stations contain a lot of them. The unavoidable result is that devices that can store a lot of power also weigh a lot, and aren’t necessarily very portable. With the Power 1000, DJI has tried to address that by skipping quite a few of the features you might expect as standard. Out of the box, this power station can only charge from the mains, and it can only provide either mains or USB power.
The Power 1000 doesn’t have a great range of ports, but those it has are highly specified. Its two USB-A sockets are each rated for a hefty 24W. More impressively, each of its two USB-C sockets can supply up to 140W – potentially more useful than the 100W maximum typical of other power stations. While there are only two mains power ports, together they can supply a sustained maximum of 2.2kW, or handle a 2.6kW peak for 60 seconds. That’s enough to run most modern devices, but it’s too low for many kettles and heaters, and some laundry appliances.
You won’t find a cigarette-lighter-style car output on this power station, but it does have two ‘SDC’ connectors (strictly speaking one is an SDC Lite port, but they appear identical and have identical specifications). These proprietary ports support a range of optional cables and interfaces. At the time of writing, available accessories included cables to provide a car charging port, or to charge from a car; fast-charging cables for DJI’s range of drone batteries; and a solar panel adaptor.
This last costs £49, offers three XT60 ports and can accept up to 400W of power in total. Fitted with two solar adaptors, the DJI Power 1000 can handle up to 800W of panels, but it’s a little choosy about which ones. It supports a maximum open-circuit voltage of 30W, which tends to rule out portable solar panels rated at 200W or more. DJI supplied a 120W Zignes panel for my test, which you can buy for an extra £259/$299, and there are bundle options available from certain retailers to get some of these accessories upon your initial purchase.
Proprietary drone battery charging is one of this power station’s biggest draws. There are cables for the DJI Matrice 30, Mavic 3, Inspire 3 and Air 3 series, priced at about £19/$19 each. DJI says each cable lets you recharge a battery from 10% to 95% in about half an hour, which typically means you could recharge an empty pack well within your drone’s flying time. Buy two cables, and you could potentially keep two drones flying at once.
With DJI’s drone batteries typically having capacities between 60-80Wh, I’d expect the fully charged Power 1000 to provide up to 12-16 full recharges. Unfortunately I didn’t have a drone available to verify this during my tests, but it’s clear this power station could be a great companion for anyone who needs extended flying time for one or more DJI drones.
The DJI Power 1000 doesn’t have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity hence there’s no app control. That’s a bit of a shame, but it does help to keep things simple. While it’s not waterproofed, the SDC and charge input ports are covered by flaps, which should help to keep droplets or dust out during transit. I like this power supply’s clear screen, which shows the charge state, whether it’s charging or discharging, and how long you can expect either to take. It’s bright enough that you can read it outdoors in anything except direct sunlight.
Charging
- Charge from the mains only
- Adaptors needed for car or solar charging
- Maximum 1,200W mains recharging
Most battery power stations offer mains, solar or car charging, but the DJI Power 1000 only supports mains charging by default. Its AC input socket is on the front panel, along with a physical switch to choose between a 600W or 1,200W maximum. In theory the latter should allow a full recharge in 70 minutes, but in practice it seemed very dependent on battery temperature.
While the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries used in portable power stations have safer charging characteristics than standard Li-ion cells, they still need careful management. Crucially, they can’t be charged at the maximum rate if they’re too hot or too cold, or after they get to around an 80% state of charge.
DJI says that the Power 1000’s batteries will retain around 80% of their original storage capacity after 3000 charge cycles, and at least 70% after 4000. It backs that up with a five-year warranty. We work out a rough guide to a power station’s value by dividing its cost by the amount of electricity it can store over its rated lifetime. Using the 3,000-cycle figure, that works out at a competitive 32p per kilowatt hour, or 25p per kWh over 4,000 cycles. It’s worth noting that with luck the power station should keep working beyond this point, so its real-life value could be greater.
I first tried to charge the Power 1000 with its battery pack warm, just after it had finished a discharge test. It took a few minutes to hit the maximum 1200W rate, which it could only sustain until about 30% charge, at which point it began stepping back down towards 600W charging.
I had another attempt after allowing it to cool to room temperature. Here it started at about 850-900W, and stayed there for more than 20 minutes while the temperature icon flashed on the screen, presumably telling me it was too cool. By the time it climbed to 30% capacity it had stepped up to 1200W charging, where it stayed until it was around 80% full. Even though I’d expect the Power 1000 to charge faster in slightly warmer starting conditions, it was still fully charged in 66 minutes – well within DJI’s 70-minute claim.
This power station’s battery temperature seemed to be more limiting than I’ve experienced with other products. The Power 1000 wouldn’t even charge immediately after a full-power discharge test, even at the 600W setting. Instead, it again flashed the temperature icon and ran its fans for around 12 minutes to thoroughly cool the batteries, before starting to charge normally.
To be clear, treating batteries gently is safe, and can prolong their working life, so this reluctance to charge flat out isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, if fast-recharging is essential, the Power 1000 is out-paced by competitors such as the Anker SOLIX C1000, which delivered its fastest full charge in 54 minutes.
Fully recharging the Power 1000’s 1,024 watt hour (Wh) battery at the 600W setting consumed 1,054 watt hours of electricity. Assuming the battery went from fully empty to fully charged, that equates to an impressive efficiency of 97.2%
With optional adaptors you can recharge the Power 1000 from a car power socket, or solar panels. Because the former is limited to 120W, you’d need to drive for more than eight hours to get a full recharge. I also used the supplied solar panel to charge the Power 1000. Even in ideal conditions at the height of summer, you’d need more than one panel to fully recharge within a day, and you’d certainly need more panels if you planned to actually use the Power 1000 at the same time.
Performance
- Stable power output with quiet fans
- Very efficient
- Quite quiet
I tested the DJI Power 1000 across a wide range of AC loads, from 200W up to its 2,200W maximum. At lower loads it was almost silent, and only at 2000W and above did its fans begin to impose themselves a little more. Happily, it was rock-solid across my tests, comfortably supplying its 2200W maximum for the 25 minutes that took to exhaust the battery.
Typically for a battery power station, I measured the highest overall output power when subjecting the Power 1000 to middling loads. It delivered 840 watt hours when providing 1000 watts, rising to 885Wh with a 500W load. Again, assuming the battery went from fully charged to fully empty, that equates to an output efficiency of up to 86.4%.
It was less efficient at very high and very low outputs, supplying a total of 767Wh (74.9%) when connected to a 200W load, and 771Wh (75.3%) at full power. Connected to a 60W load via USB-C, the Power 1000 delivered a total of 806Wh (78.7%).
The Power 1000 supports bypass power, meaning you can use it to provide mains electricity while it’s plugged in. In this mode the batteries will continue to charge until they’re full, although the charge rate may be limited if you’ve plugged in a very powerful device. DJI doesn’t say how long this power station will take to switch to providing battery power if the mains input is lost, but it was quick enough that my computer and NAS drive were unaffected.
One thing to note if using this power station as an uninterruptible power supply is that, like most competitors, there’s no low battery alarm, so you’ll need to keep an eye out and shut down manually to avoid losing work when the battery is exhausted.
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Should you buy it?
You should buy if you want a reasonably portable, high-power supply:
This power station is ideal if you want to recharge demanding devices on the go. It offers particularly high peak power outputs considering its size.
You should not buy if you want something more flexible:
This is quite a focused power supply, and requires adaptors for car charging or solar power. Adding those features pushes up the price, so if you need them it’s best to look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
This might be DJI’s first battery power station, but it’s an impressively well engineered device. It handled all my tests with aplomb, never getting particularly hot or noisy. My only real quibble with its performance was that it could at times be slow to charge, but that’s an inherently safer approach, and could contribute to a longer working life for the batteries.
Its lack of flexibility could be more of an issue. If you’re likely to want to charge in the car, or from the sun, you’ll find better value elsewhere: the Anker SOLIX C1000 is similarly priced and has support for both as standard. However, if you’re a drone pilot or cinematographer, the Power 1000’s potent USB-C, SDC and mains ports could deliver faster recharges, helping you get more done when you’re working away from power and against the clock.
How we test
We test every battery station we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
We test with a variety of devices to see how long the battery will last.
We test different charging methods to see how quickly the battery can be topped up.
FAQs
The Power 1000 can store 1,024 watt-hours of electricity. That’s just over one kilowatt hour. It can supply a sustained maximum of 2,200W (2.2kW), and even cope with 2,600W for 60 seconds.
All batteries experience a degree of ‘self consumption’, where their charge state goes down even if they’re not in use. It’s not a big problem with lithium-ion batteries, which lose only 1-3% of their charge each month.
If you’re storing Li-ion batteries, manufacturers generally recommend keeping them with a 40-60% state of charge, and draining and charging them once every three months or so.
