Testing 5 Amazon Power Stations Under $250—Are They Worth It?
Today at The Solar Lab, we’re asking a simple question: do you really have to splash the cash to get a half-decent power station, or can you just pick up a cheap model from Amazon that will get the job done?
To answer this, we bought five entry-level power stations from a few cheap brands on Amazon. As always, this isn’t some covert advertisement for any of these power stations; we just genuinely want to see if the bargain buys can actually deliver the goods.
Every single power station we’re looking at today was priced on Amazon for under $250 when we ordered them. So if nothing else, they’re all pretty budget-friendly, but are they even worth their low prices? Let’s dive in and take a look!
Meet the Contenders
We settled on five power stations during our Amazon shopping spree, each with its own quirks and (sometimes questionable) features. Here's the lineup:
1. The Enernova Emergency Power Station: The most expensive unit in the group, and, weirdly, one of the most fragile looking, this little power station supposedly boasts a 288Wh battery with a 600W inverter. While this sounds great on paper, the plastic casing feels like it might not stand up to real-life testing. But hey, at least it comes with a fancy interchangeable handle?
2. The AllPowers S300 Portable Power Station: The most feature-packed and arguably the ugliest, this lightweight power station almost looks like a World War II lunchbox. But as we often say, looks aren't everything—performance is what matters most. Like the Enernova, it sports a 288Wh battery, but a less powerful 300W inverter. To our surprise, it even supports app functionality—although the app is pretty much useless.
3. The GooLoo Power Station: The name says it all—this thing is a gooey mess. It’s got a 299Wh battery and a 300W inverter, but with a logo that looks like it was stuck on with a dollar store glue stick and a screen that’s barely readable, it’s a hard sell.
4. The Takki 200W Portable Power Station: This tiny 200W mini power station features a 148Wh battery, but it is easily one the weirdest looking units we have ever reviewed. For starters, the entire thing doubles as a big flashlight. With two AC ports, a couple of USB-C ports, and two USB-A ports, it could be pretty handy, and the massive LED light might help you avoid tripping over in the dark, but is it much more than an overpriced floodlight?
5. The AimTom Power Station: When we first unboxed it, this screenless, feature-poor power station had us seriously questioning our life choices. It only sports a 194Wh battery and a tiny 100W inverter, which, even at just $125, still makes us feel like it’s pretty pointless. But hey, it’s still worth testing out.
The Control Unit:
To act as a sort of control for our tests, we’re also going to take a look at an affordable power station from a more reputable manufacturer—the Anker PowerHouse 522. With a retail price around $260, this little unit offers similar affordability to some of these Amazon power stations, but it’s made by a brand we are familiar with and, more importantly, trust.
Who knows, maybe the Amazon power stations will give Anker a run for their money (we doubt it).
Our First Impressions and Rankings by Features
We decided to rank these units based purely on their features before putting them through any real performance tests. And wow, even for budget-friendly options, some of these little guys were seriously lacking.
6th Place - The AimTom:
This thing has just one DC input, one AC output, three USB ports, and that’s about it. It’s like the sad, unloved middle child of the power station world. There’s really just not a lot going on here.
5th Place - The Takki:
We started affectionately calling this little unit the “Chicken Tikka”, but that alone didn’t win us over. It has two AC ports, two USB-A, two USB-C ports, and a DC output. That’s all, but at least it has that big flashlight on the back—so it’s got that going for it.
4th Place - Anker 522:
Surprisingly, our control unit only made it to fourth place on the features front. Anker is certainly a well-known brand, but this unit didn’t exactly wow us when it came to extra features. Some of their more premium power stations are known for having incredibly innovative and impressive features, but the 522 is pretty underwhelming.
It’s got two AC ports, two USB-Cs, two USB-As, and a 12V car socket. It also sports the signature Anker unibrow light, which we’ve always been big fans of, but at $260, it technically doesn’t even make our budget cut of under $250.
3rd Place – The GooLoo:
Despite its unfortunate name and horrendous display screen, it packs in two AC ports, two USB-C ports, two USB-As, a 12V output, and a couple of barrel connectors. It even has a built-in flashlight and a display screen that is incredibly difficult to read, but it’s still there. Not bad from the little Goop Master.
2nd Place – The Enernova:
With a wireless charging pad on top of the unit, two AC ports, three USB-As, a USB-C in and out, a 12V plug, a solar input, flashlights on the side and front, and even a detachable handle, the Enernova really stands out feature-wise. Too bad it feels so fragile.
1st Place: The AllPowers S300:
Surprise, surprise, the ugly duckling takes the crown. It has two barrel connectors, three AC ports, multiple USBs, a 12V DC car socket, a wireless charging, two built-in lights, AND a smart app. The app is pretty terrible, but it exists, which is more than we can say for the others. Plus, it actually does allow you to control stuff like the built-in lights from a distance, which could be pretty handy when you’re camping, or if you get a sudden power outage at home.
Weight and Portability Test:
It’s not even worth breaking down each unit according to weight and bulkiness, because, in all honesty, every single one of them easily passes the test. In fact, when we ran our signature “Tiny Baby Lift Test”, it turned out that he could curl all of them at the same time.
If you’re just looking for something small and portable that you can take with you camping, or just leave in the trunk of your car for emergencies, any of the five Amazon units and the Anker 522 can all meet those needs.
Efficiency and Performance Testing: Do They Actually Deliver?
Time for the real test: how efficiently do these units use the power they store in their batteries?
Keep in mind that hardly any power stations are ever going to achieve a 100% efficiency rating, as they have internal power requirements, including stuff like running the inverter, cooling fans, display screen, and more. Still, a good power station should hit around 80% efficiency, which is important to remember when you’re testing mini power stations that have such tiny internal batteries.
To test these little fellas out, we ran each of them under a load that was close to inverter size to see how long they lasted. This allowed us to get a fairly decent picture on whether or not they lived up to their output rating and storage capacity. Here’s how that testing played out:
6th Place - AimTom:
Once again, the little screenless AimTom comes in at dead last. With its itty bitty 100W inverter, we decided to test the unit out against an 85W load. Theoretically, it was supposed to last for 137 minutes with this kind of load, but it actually tapped out after just 101 minutes. This gives it an unimpressive efficiency of 73%. It’s kind of like that friend who says they’ll help you move but leaves after carrying one box.
5th Place – The AllPowers S300:
With a 288Wh battery and a 235W load, it was supposed to last 74 minutes. It managed just 56 minutes, putting it at 75% efficiency. The screen was also lying to us the whole time about how much battery was left—it claimed 2% for eight whole minutes!
As we’ve said plenty of times in the past, extra features are great, but how a power station actually performs is far more important.
4th Place - Anker 522:
Surprisingly, the Anker 522 only landed the 4th place spot. We fully expected a well-made product from a reputable manufacturer to destroy the other power stations on performance, but that wasn’t the case at all when we tested the efficiency rating.
The Anker’s 299Wh battery and 300W inverter should have lasted 66 minutes when tested them against a 270W load. Instead, it gave up after 50 minutes and 20 seconds, for a fairly unimpressive 76% efficiency.
What is worth pointing out is the fact that the Anker was by far the coolest unit during and after the testing, which might explain some of the lost efficiency due to the internal cooling fans. When you’re talking about power stations, having a unit that doesn’t overheat often says a lot about its durability and lifespan. Those crummy power stations that feel hot to the touch when they’re running usually die prematurely.
3rd Place – The GooLoo:
Despite the goofy name, the GooLoo performed decently with its 299Wh battery and 300W inverter when we ran a 250W load. It should have lasted about 72 minutes, but it actually lasted 58 minutes and 37 seconds. Might sound mediocre, but that’s a fairly solid 81% efficiency rating. But be warned—when this thing hits 15% battery, it tanks fast. If you end up picking one up, don’t count on being able to charge anything important with those last bits of battery power.
2nd Place – The Enernova:
With its 600W inverter, the Enernova handled a 510W load test like a champ. Its 288Wh battery should have lasted 33.8 minutes, and it hung in there for 33.1 minutes, giving it an impressive 98% efficiency, which is incredibly solid for any power station, never mind a cheap Amazon buy.
The impressive efficiency rating is clearly the good news, but the bad news? It smelled like burning plastic the entire time. That doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence that it will continue to function this well for very long.
1st Place - Takki (The Chicken Tikka):
This little guy absolutely crushed it. With a 148Wh battery and a 200W inverter, it lasted 54 minutes on a 175W load, giving it a ridiculous 107% efficiency. Turns out that it’s much more than just a flashlight—it’s a powerhouse. However, its charging speeds didn’t quite match up to its impressive efficiency rating.
The Final Test: Charging the Power Stations
Now that we have a clear picture of features and efficiency ratings, let’s see how quickly you can actually get power into these little power stations.
Solar Charging:
\We also tested how well these units charged using a solar panel. Each power station has a DC input, so we connected them to a budget-friendly Shade Stopper 100W Solar Panel, which allowed us to see how quickly we could charge up their internal batteries with solar power. Turns out, all of these units could accept solar power, which was all we really wanted to test here.
It’s a bit difficult to get accurate head-to-head testing data with solar charging, as charge speeds will vary depending on the intensity of sunlight at the time of testing. But still, the fact all of these power stations can be charged using a basic and affordable solar panel is a big plus.
AC Charging:
Every power station can also be charged with AC power. Each came with the adapter required to plug them into a standard wall outlet, but how quickly they charged with AC power varied drastically:
Tied for Last Place – The AimTom and Tikka:
After 5 hours, these things weren’t even fully charged. With such tiny batteries, this is a bit of a joke. It’s just painfully slow for not a lot of pay off. The fact they don’t even have screens, so you can’t tell how much longer you’ll have to wait, or what your battery percentage is, is just straight up mind numbing.
4th Place – The GooLoo:
Despite its bulky charging cable and power block, it only has a 90W AC charge rate, meaning it took an excruciatingly slow four and a half hours to charge its 299Wh battery. Brutal.
3rd Place – The AllPowers:
This one surprised us, especially given that the Amazon description plainly says it will take 7 to 8 hours just to charge the battery. The 80W AC input took four hours and 16 minutes to fully charge the battery. Not bad, and even better when we expected it to take double that.
2nd Place – The Anker 522:
It did exactly what Anker said it would. Anker advertises it as taking three and a half hours to charge the battery to 100% with AC power. It was bang on—we charged it to 100% in three hours and 31 minutes. With that said, we were able to hit a 99% charge in just two hours and 45 minutes, but it said on that 99% for a really long time.
1st Place – The Enernova:
No surprises here, we fully expected the Enernova to be one of the top performers. It fully charged in two hours and 14 minutes—super fast. However, it stunk like burning plastic and you could probably cook an egg on the wireless charging pad. It just kept doing well in tests, but the overheating issue did not leave us feeling confident it’s going to be winning tests for very long.
Our Final Ranking: Should You Buy One?
When it was all said and done, we had a pretty clear idea which power stations were worth spending money on, and which ones were a complete waste of time. We also tested how well each power station could handle surges, which isn’t something we ranked, but we still wanted to check out. This did slightly influence our rankings, but it was mostly based on the more important performance factors, like efficiency ratings and charge speeds.
We also played around with these power stations for a couple of weeks after the testing, which impacted how we feel about them. Some did alright, others just kept performing worse and worse, which is pretty brutal for only having them for a matter of weeks.
When everything is said and done, here's how the rankings shook down:
6th Place – AimTom:
Just complete junk. We’d strongly recommend avoiding this unless you’re looking for a paper weight that can store a tiny bit of power. With no screen, poor performance, and just barebones features, there’s not a lot to like here. There’s a reason we didn’t even bother providing a link. Just stay away from it.
5th Place - The Takki:
Takki lands in fifth place, and unfortunately, its shortcomings start to show when you put it through its paces. It simply didn’t perform as well as the higher-ranked models, and while it’s still usable for basic tasks, and would make a pretty nifty camping light, we can’t recommend it as a long-term investment.
4th Place – GooLoo:
It may look like a traditional power station, but it’s just not that great. It struggles a bit in terms of performance, the screen is complete junk, and it just feels really cheap. To be fair, it is cheap. At under $200, you can’t expect much, and, well, it doesn't deliver much either.
3rd Place – AllPowers:
Next up is the AllPowers, which came close to matching the Enernova, but it fell short in a few key areas. While it has a respectable capacity and output, some of its features felt a little underwhelming compared to what you get with the similarly priced Enernova.
However, if you’re looking for a reasonable option, AllPowers holds its own. It just doesn't quite have the same features Enernova brings to the table.
2nd Place – Enernova:
Enernova took the crown as the best of the Amazon budget power stations for good reason. Its performance was solid across the board, offering decent power output and efficiency. It's got the basics right, and for a budget unit, it really impressed us. It offers a decent balance between price, performance, and features, making it the best overall in this group.
While it may not have all the bells and whistles of premium models, it does the job reasonably well without breaking the bank. Keep in mind that it’s probably not going to be a reliable long-term option, as that burning smell and overheating issue is no joke. Still, Amazon claims it has some kind of warranty, so maybe you could return it if it does light on fire?
1st Place – The Anker 522:
Here’s where things take a turn. While Enernova may have come out on top among the budget brands, the Anker 522 beats all of them for one simple reason: reliability.
Unlike the budget Amazon brands we tested; Anker is a reputable company known for making high-quality products that offer reliable performance. The Anker 522 will perform the same five years down the road as it does the day you unbox it. By that time, the cheaper options would probably just be sitting in a landfill somewhere.
Sure, some of the budget Amazon stations even beat the Anker if a few tests, but all of the overheating issues and the complete lack of transparency with these unknown brands has us feeling pretty sketched out.
When it comes to choosing a power station that can act as a long-term investment, Anker is just the clear winner. You might pay a bit more upfront, but you’re buying peace of mind knowing your power station will stand the test of time. No gimmicks, no cheap parts, just a solid device that will keep you powered up when you need it most.
Our Final Thoughts
While budget power stations like the Enernova and AllPowers can offer decent performance for the price, if you’re looking for something that will last, just go with a reputable brand. Reliability, durability, and long-term performance matter, especially if you’re going to be using these things to charge expensive electronics, like phones, laptops, and tablets.
So, if you’re in the market for a budget power station, consider what’s most important to you—short-term savings or long-term reliability. If it’s the latter, better brands like Anker or EcoFlow are worth every penny.
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