We've reviewed tons of portable batteries and chargers here at Talk Android. We recently covered one with a huge capacity that can handle all the gadgets around your house, for example.
But what if you wanted something that could charge more than just your phone or laptop. Maybe, for example, your gaming PC, or your TV. Maybe your oven and microwave?
Sounds ridiculous, but that's exactly what the EcoFlow DELTA PRO is made to do. No, it's not a portable battery to hook your kitchen appliances up to, but it's essentially an enormous electric generator that can keep the electricity going even if you don't have any otherwise. It's a little out of the ordinary for us, but we took one for a spin to see if it's worth the hefty asking price.
Big battery, big design
This is a 3.6kWh battery. Which is… large. There are no graphene battery tricks here, either; it's just big. The DELTA Pro tries to stay as sleek as possible, especially relative to other gas-powered generators. There are two wheels installed on the bottom, plus a grip on the opposite side to make it easy to pull it along almost like a suitcase. It weighs around 99lbs/45kg, so you'll really appreciate those wheels and mobility when you need to move it around.
The front of the power station houses a large LCD screen that details what's going on with the battery, including the remaining charging/discharging time, warnings and connectivity notifications, charging speed, and more. These icons are hidden until they're relevant (like the carbon monoxide alert, for example) so it's not cluttered, but it'll always keep you informed at a glance.
Below that is a plethora of ports to charge, well, everything. You'll get two standard USB-A ports, two high-speed USB-A ports, two 100W USB-C ports, four 20A output sockets, a single 30A output socket. Seriously, plug everything in.
The back of the station houses all of your charging ports. You'll get the standard port if you want to charge the battery up in your house, but there's a port for connecting it to your car, solar panels, or an EV charging station. You've got options.
Extra features
But where's the fun in a new gadget if it's not smart? It's 2022, I need to be able to connect everything to my smartphone. Don't worry, EcoFlow has you covered there, too.
Yep, this has both WiFi and Bluetooth to get connected to a companion smart app on your phone, available on both iOS and Android. That WiFi radio basically turns this generator into an IoT device, which you can access away from home so long as everything is connected to the internet. Not so great in a natural disaster, power outage kind of situation, but somewhat useful otherwise.
If you don't want to connect it to the internet, you can still use old-fashioned Bluetooth to control things like charging speeds, discharge rate, remaining battery, and more, although this is all stuff that's available on the front screen as well.
Like we said, in modern times pretty much everything has to be able to connect to the internet your phone, and this is no exception. It might be a little superfluous and clunky, and it might not fit every use case (especially for a device like this) but it's not a detraction. We'd probably nix some points here if the device wasn't fully capable from its front screen, but EcoFlow covered that end.
Real world usage
So how does this thing really hold up? For most people, it's probably entirely overkill, and that's okay. It's not a casual device for a day trip to the beach.
But there are a couple scenarios where the EcoFlow DELTA Pro actually makes a ton of sense, and buying into the ecosystem here can solve some problems for certain people.
On its own, this is a fantastic device for taking on a multi-day camping trip, or stashing away before bad weather hits. Where I'm at it's not too uncommon for a particularly bad hurricane or tornado to knock out power, potentially for several days at a time. The DELTA Pro can step in and keep you entertained, give you access to cooking appliances or keep your freezer running, and keep your phones and laptops charged without really struggling. Ditto for a camping excursion.
And if you want to dig in deeper, with the optional extra battery partners and solar panels and home integration kits that EcoFlow offers, you can very easily set up a small (albeit expensive) farm of these to connect to your house and keep everything running, including AC and all of your appliances, for at least a couple days to try and wait out any power outages. Or grab the DELTA Pro and a solar panel, load it into an RV and spend your summer without stressing over power and electricity. Even without additional charging you're getting a ton of usage out of a single charge from this due to its sheer size. Small TVs and laptops won't even make this thing break a sweat.
It's clearly not a device for everyone, and the eye-watering $3600 price tag and equally pricey accessories means this isn't something that you'll be picking up on a whim. It's definitely an investment. It can be a worthwhile investment, if you're the target customer, whether you're just extremely outdoorsy, weather prepping, or you're just trying to move off the grid. But if you get a chance to play with one anyway, they're definitely pretty cool.
