Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have quite a few power banks/battery packs lying around the house, but they are all for smartphones and tablets. This is my first power pack that features an AC outlet. It is definitely bulkier; you're not slipping this guy into a pocket for the evening, but the tradeoff is a lot more capacity and power available. To start, while it's still quite portable, the size and weight mean it's more of a backpack option. The handles on top are nice, I guess, but I just ended up leaving them folded and moved it by grabbing the whole thing like a brick or something. The plastic housing is sturdy and unassuming. I could do without some of the "ruggedized" styling but it doesn't affect the performance so it's not an issue. All the jacks and ports are solid and have just the right clutch power...not too hard to plug in but not loose enough that the cord pulls out immediately. Really this takes the cake for having an outlet anywhere you want. I've used it for air mattress air compressors, a fan, a laptop (make sure your charger is compatible with the voltage/amperage provided), a portable projector (excellent for a movie night against the side of the house or garage), to power a surge strip with several low voltage items plugged in, and of course - I've used it to charge my phones, tablets, etc via the USB outlets. The lights on the outside are nice but I would always prefer to use my flashlight; these are enough to see where you're going and light up a work area though! It includes a power cord for charging from AC outlets and a barrel-style 12V car adapter for on-the-go recharging. I appreciate the flexibility but kind of wish it included an onboard storage cubby for the cords. I just keep them in a ziplock in storage with the unit, so it's just a "wishlist" type of feature request. I don't own a solar charger, so I can't speak to how well this integrates with a solar setup. I do imagine though that, since the company makes a companion solar panel, that they interface well. Always important to temper expectations for travel solar, though...it takes a long time to charge gadgets and is mostly an emergencies-only use case. The only real quibble I have is that the display is only a few bars of light. I found myself frequently wishing for a more detailed gauge or display. It would be extremely useful to know discharge rate, estimated remaining capacity, etc. I ended up just bringing along one of my Kill-a-Watts to estimate AC power drain, which worked well. You could even bring a USB multimeter if you were really concerned about also measuring USB drain, but IMO that's less of a factor.