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Ever run out of power and really wished you could carry a 110V wall outlet with you? Maybe in the wilderness, maybe outside where there's no convenient outlet, maybe because of a blackout. In all situations, the Renogy Phoenix 100 Mini Power Station is a great solution, a portable 27,000 mAh battery unit that lets you charge your laptop, power a mini-fridge or keep your CPAP machine working during a blackout.
Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ checks out the Renogy Phoenix 100 Mini Power Station and finds it can power quite a bit, including offering full voltage for his MacBook Pro charger!
Check it on https://www.renogy.com/
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0:00
Never run out of power with this mini power station. Let's have a look
0:12
Dave Taylor here and I'm looking at this. This is the Renogy Phoenix 100 mini power station
0:18
And it's pretty awesome actually. It's a 27,000 milliamp hour battery basically
0:25
So that's so much power that you can actually plug in 110 volt devices and charge them or power them
0:33
So you could run a fan. If you want to use a really nice cooling system while you're on a hike
0:40
you could use that by plugging it in. You can even charge your laptop
0:44
Yep, you can charge your laptop off of this device. We'll get there in just a second
0:49
But let me show you the top here. It's sort of a close-up and you can see one of them is labeled input
0:55
That's the micro USB. That's how you charge this thing. So you charge it and it takes a couple hours
1:02
Gives you a little LED display on the front which is really nice so you know how charged it is
1:08
And I think if I push the button you can see here's all the lights. This is fully charged
1:13
This has a lot of power in it. This is about 10 times the battery of your smartphone
1:18
Just to give you sort of a measure there. Now it comes with overcharge, short circuit and surge protection circuitry built in
1:25
And there's a fan on the bottom because batteries generate heat when they're in use because of the chemical processes, right
1:32
So that's why we have computers and tablets where they swell or they burst or something because they generate heat
1:40
That heat doesn't have anywhere to go. So this isn't going to have that because it has a cooling system built in
1:45
So that's pretty handy. Now the outputs are what this is really all about
1:50
And on the output side there is a USB-A aka USB 3.0 and that gives you 5 volts of DC at 2.4 amps
2:00
That's pretty good amperage. And then there's a USB-C and that also gives you the same sort of characteristics
2:06
5 volts DC with 3 amps, a little bit higher. But the real shining glory of this is the AC
2:14
And you'll notice as a whole that gives you the ability to plug in a grounded plug. This is not grounded
2:21
If your device needs grounded power because of, I don't know, whatever, maybe possibilities with short circuiting or something
2:28
then this has protection but your device doesn't necessarily. So this is not something I recommend you use with a grounded plug
2:36
But if you have a 2-prong plug like for example my MacBook Pro charger 2-prong plug, then this is a glorious thing
2:45
And this generates 110 volts at 60 hertz and it's rated for 85 watts which is plenty but it can peak at up to 100 watts
2:55
So what does all this mean? It means we can charge and power things
3:00
So let's start out. I'm going to just go ahead and plug in the USB 3. This is a Qi wireless charging station
3:08
And then I have my Xiaomi Mi 9 smartphone. I'm in the middle of reviewing this so stay tuned for that review too
3:17
It's a really sweet phone. But put it on the wireless charger and it is charging
3:23
So this thing can power my wireless charger. Whatever. It's not that hard, right
3:28
So now USB-C and let's take the other end and let's try a different thing
3:34
Let's try plugging the phone into the USB-C and it's charging. Again, not a huge surprise. There's plenty of devices on the market that can help you charge your phone
3:47
But let's do this instead. Let's actually plug this in to my charger. Unplug this
3:55
And then we're going to just sort of shuffle things around a little bit. What I'm going to do is I'm going to plug my MacBook charger into this
4:03
And there's a little green light. Sometimes I find you have to push the power button to get this plug to go live
4:12
They say that in the instructions. And we already have the fan. I'm going to put it close to the mic so you can hear it
4:20
So it's pretty inoffensive, but you do notice it. But of course it's totally worth it because it's going to charge my MacBook Pro in the middle of nowhere
4:30
I can be on a hike or something or like on some great meditation retreat up in the mountains
4:35
Pull this out. Plug it in. And now let's have a quick look
4:39
And I am indeed charging. And as you can see from this hardware profile snapshot, it's getting the full 60 watts out of this
4:48
This is a 61 watt charger actually. But it is indeed charging my computer at full speed
4:55
It will charge faster if I leave it closed. But this device is actually a bit of a rock star. It's awesome
5:02
So I'm going to unplug it again because I just want you to be able to see the dimensions
5:07
This is, and there's the sort of rubber seal on the top. This is not IPX7 or anything
5:14
I would not use this in the rain. That would end badly. But it is totally portable. It is 17.8 ounces, so it's about a pound
5:23
It basically feels like a heavy can of soda. And you can see by the height, this is 5.8 inches tall
5:31
This is just a smidge taller than a can of soda. So if you're drinking Monster Energy, this is probably smaller than that Monster Energy or Arizona Tea can that you consume
5:42
Similar dimensions. You can see across the top, it's 2.7 inches across and this way, obviously, since it's square
5:50
So super easy, super portable. I don't know that I would put this in my pocket
5:55
It's a little smidge big and heavy for that. But this is something you could easily throw into a backpack
6:00
And then while you're at your campsite overnight, you can use this to power some lamps or to charge up your GPS
6:07
Whatever it is you need to do. This, of course, also is a really great emergency fail safe
6:13
If you keep this charged and for some reason you lose power, this gives you emergency power for whatever devices you really, really need
6:21
When otherwise all your electricity is gone. So I'm a big fan. And you know, like I said, 27,000 milliamp hours is a lot of battery inside this thing
6:32
So do not just throw this in the garbage if it ever goes bad on you, but they have a warranty too
6:37
So you want to check that out. So anyway, all that's left to talk about is the price
6:42
But before we get to the price, let me ask if you can subscribe to my channel
6:47
I get tons of devices. I'm super honest with all my reviews and I appreciate when you subscribe
6:52
Next up, well, I don't know if it's next up, but coming very soon is my review of this
6:58
And this is the, let me just sort of unlock it so you can see
7:02
Unlocking. Maybe I'll use a different figure. Okay. Well, anyway, this is the Xiaomi Mi 9, which is their new flagship phone
7:14
It is gorgeous. It's really cool and at a startling price. And that you will find out about by, you guessed it, subscribing to my channel
7:22
So please do so. Awesome. Now, this is the Renogy Phoenix 100 mini power station and it's $159.99 at renogy.com
7:35
So it's pretty expensive compared to smaller, lighter batteries. But seriously, why would you want like a 10,000 mAh when you can have 27,000 mAh
7:46
This thing's very cool. It is definitely a keeper. And if you have any worries about power ever going out or you want to be super mobile and still in control
7:56
and be able to charge your laptop in the middle of nowhere, this is a really awesome device
8:01
So that's all I got. So I will hope to catch you in my next video
8:19
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
#Laptops & Notebooks
#Consumer Electronics
#Power Supplies
#Gadgets & Portable Electronics