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Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Anker 757 PowerHouse Battery Review: Crazy Fast and Powerful - Review Geek

Rating: 9/10 ?
  • 1 - Absolute Hot Garbage
  • 2 - Sorta Lukewarm Garbage
  • 3 - Strongly Flawed Design
  • 4 - Some Pros, Lots Of Cons
  • 5 - Acceptably Imperfect
  • 6 - Good Enough to Buy On Sale
  • 7 - Great, But Not Best-In-Class
  • 8 - Fantastic, with Some Footnotes
  • 9 - Shut Up And Take My Money
  • 10 - Absolute Design Nirvana
Price: $1,399
Anker PowerHouse 757 portable battery charging
Cory Gunther

If you go on outdoor adventures and camping trips or live somewhere with frequent power outages, having a way to recharge all your gadgets is essential. And while Anker is a well-known brand for charging accessories, its new massive 757 PowerHouse portable power station is another beast entirely.

Here's What We Like

  • Plenty of Power
  • Portable (kinda)
  • Tons of ports and AC plugs
  • Built-in camp light
  • Solar-friendly

And What We Don't

  • Super heavy
  • Expensive

A portable power station is a lunchbox-sized battery pack full of ports allowing you to power and charge everything you own. I’m talking about phones, laptops, drones, fans, an electric grill, heated blankets, speakers, small appliances, medical equipment, or even an e-bike. The Anker 757 clocks in at 1500W of power thanks to a 1229Wh LFP battery.

These days, power stations are one of the best gadgets you can own. Plus, since they use batteries instead of combustion like a generator, they’re entirely safe to use indoors or in vehicles.

At $1,400 and over 43 pounds, the 757 PowerHouse is expensive and not all that “portable.” Still, it strikes a good balance of portability, affordability, and power options compared to others on the market. In fact, it offers more ports than most, not to mention up to 100W USB-C power delivery charging.

After using the Anker 757 PowerHouse camping and at my family cabin, I can safely say it’s one of the fastest and best options around.

Specs

  • Battery Capacity: 1229Wh
  • AC Output: 1500W (Pure Wine Wave)
  • AC Power Surge: 2400W
  • Dimensions: 18.2 x 11.3 x 9.3 inches
  • Weight: 43.9lbs
  • AC Outlets: 6 (3 two-prong and 3 three-prong)
  • Ports: 4 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 1 120w car socket
  • Light: 3-Stage LED Light Bar
  • AC Input Recharge Time: 80% in an hour, 100% in 1.5 hours (1000w wall plug)
  • Solar Charge Time: 80% in 3.6 hours
  • Usability: Charge 13 devices simultaneously
  • Other: Solar input and breaker reset on the back

Out of the Box

Anker 757 powerhouse box contents
Cory Gunther

Out of the box, the 757 PowerHouse is a little bigger than a car battery or YETI cooler, and it’ll be more than halfway charged, but you’ll need to plug it in once to “activate” it. The box comes with the Anker 757 PowerHouse, an AC wall charging cable, a car charger, a parallel solar connection cable, and a nice dust-proof bag to keep it covered during your adventures.

You’ll notice the home AC charging plug doesn’t have a huge power supply or transformer box in-line, which makes it easy to pack and store the 757’s charging cable. I hate those, so I’m glad to see Anker did away with it here.

A big benefit of the Anker 757 is that you can recharge it using solar panels. You can get Anker 625 solar panel for $329. Or, use the included parallel solar connector cable in the box to pair multiple solar panels (even from different brands) together for a faster recharge. It’s an ideal gadget for Overlanding, RVers, or living the van life.

Design and Ports

Anker 757 Power Station
Cory Gunther

The Anker 757 PowerHouse is heavy, durable, and built to stand up to your outdoor adventures. And while it looks like a nice aluminum finish, the entire thing is made from plastic. It features two oversized handles to help you carry it, which is necessary given the weight.

There are large fan vents on both ends, covered with fancy blue-accented plastic, giving it a bit of style. You’ll hear those fans when you charge the Anker itself or add a heavy load to the machine, but it’s extremely quiet. There’s no comparison between the small fans for cooling and the roar of a big, loud, obnoxious gas-powered generator. The Anker 757 Powerhouse is nearly silent.

Anker packed the 757 full of charging ports to keep anything and everything powered up or recharged. Up top, there’s a convenient amber LED light bar with three different brightness settings, and it’s great for giving you a soft glow in a trailer or tent.

Anker PowerHouse 757 ports
Cory Gunther

Under the LED light is a display full of helpful information. Showing the battery percentage, power saving mode, estimated battery life given the current power draw, and even a little icon for USB-C or A if those ports have something plugged in. The screen is bright, easy to see, and auto-dims after a few seconds to reduce battery usage.

I also really like that when anything is drawing power you’ll see a little “output” status that shows how much power is actively in use. For example, I’ll plug in my Galaxy S22 and see it suck down 26w of power, or when I use the 100W USB-C port on my MacBook, it draws over 90 watts, which is impressive. It also helps you know everything is working right.

Under the display is a 120w car socket to the left, one 100W USB-C port, one 60W USB-C port, and four 12W USB-A ports in the middle. Then, to the right, you’ll find three regular AC outlets for typical household items and three additional bigger 3-prong AC outlets. Yes, that’s six AC plugs in total. For comparison, the Jackery Explorer 1500 only has three AC outlets and three USB ports, and it’s more expensive, but it also packs a bigger 1534Wh battery.

There’s a dedicated power switch with a tiny blue LED to send power to the AC or car outlet, and you’ll have to push that button to turn on those areas of the battery.

Charging Performance

Anker 757 charging a drill battery
Cory Gunther

The Anker 757 is crazy fast and powerful. At one point, I had eight things plugged in at once, including my Ryobi drill’s battery pack, a speaker, an electric chainsaw, three phones, a DJI Mavic controller, and my small 10,000 mAh portable battery.

Having 3-prong AC options is great for plugging in bigger items like a refrigerator. Last weekend I powered a corded electric chainsaw to cut down some trees overgrowing the cabin. Overall, it combines to offer 1500W of total power, or a power surge of 2400W to fire up and run something like a Keurig machine. We ran the Keurig six times on the first morning, only using like 7% of the battery.

During the entire time I’ve enjoyed the Anker 757 PowerHouse, I’ve never drawn so much power that it shut down, I never had to use the reset switch, and it charged everything I plugged in without any fuss. Being able to watch the display share all the relevant stats is kinda fun. And, of course, one of the pups came to see what I was doing out in the trees.

Cory Gunther

If I took this camping and only had to recharge my phone, run a small light or two and a fan in the tent, and top off my laptop, it could easily last more than an entire week. Anker says the 757 PowerHouse can recharge a smartphone 97 times, a laptop 17 times, run a fan for days, or keep a refrigerator running for 22 hours in an emergency power outage.

Seriously, that’s a lot of power. It can also be used as a UPS (uninterrupted power supply), with constant power that’s stable enough to run a computer, appliances, or a medical CPAP machine. Just keep in mind that this device isn’t built for large home appliances like a Microwave.

That all said, I do wish more of those USB-A ports were USB-C, as almost everything I use runs on a Type-C connector. On the plus side, you can plug 13 things into all 13 ports simultaneously, and it works, so long as you’re not going beyond the battery’s limit.

Anker 757 PowerHouse using 1222Watts of power

Speaking of reaching the Anker 757’s limits, nothing I plugged in took things too far. As you can see above, I plugged a massive heater into the battery, drawing 1,222W, and it instantly started blowing hot air and warming up the cabin.

That’s pretty impressive, as most smaller systems don’t have enough of an initial power surge to run something like a heater.

Anker 757 PowerHouse vs. Anker 545 PowerHouse

Cory Gunther

I quickly wanted to share a few photos comparing the new Anker 757 to the older Anker 545 portable power station, which is about half the size with a 778Wh battery and 770W output power. The older Anker on the right only costs $699 and still has plenty of ports and two AC outlets, but it’s also smaller and more portable.

Depending on what type of devices you need to power or how much power you need will help you choose which size is right for you. The Older Anker 545 has a similar LED light on the back.

Anker PowerHouse LED light
Cory Gunther

Honestly, this new Anker 757 PowerHouse is seriously impressive, but it’s also huge and heavy. I’ll likely opt for the smaller sibling for small day trips or tent camping. However, whenever I go on an extended trip, head to the cabin, or know multiple people are coming, I’ll absolutely charge up the 757 and ensure I have enough juice to go around.

Charging the Anker 757 Back Up

Anker 757 AC and solar ports
Cory Gunther

On the back of the Anker 757, you’ll find a flap hiding the solar and car charger inputs, the overcharge reset button, and the AC input to recharge the portable power station itself.

One of the most impressive features of this device, and exactly why I chose it over others on the market, is how fast the unit itself can recharge. You plug it into a typical home AC wall plug, and it charges at an insane 1000W. As a result, it recharges the entire battery from dead to 80% in an hour.

Anker 757 wall AC plug port
Cory Gunther

As an example, the Jackery Explorer 1500 takes nearly five hours to recharge. That’s a huge difference and worth noting. Being able to plug it in an hour before a camping trip (or after a weather alert warning) and knowing I’ll have plenty of power gives me peace of mind.

While I’m talking about the internal battery and the competition, the Anker 757 has a new LFP (LifeP04) battery inside instead of a traditional lithium-ion cell. Anker says this is closer to what you’d find in a modern electric vehicle, and it’ll remain healthy after 3,000 charging cycles, which is why they’re able to offer a 5-year warranty on the device.

For comparison, typical lithium-ion options from the competition only last around 500-700 recharge cycles and only come with a one or two-year warranty. Again, the Anker 757 PowerHouse gives me peace of mind.

Power Saving Mode

Anker 757 power saving mode

Another thing I wanted to quickly mention is the convenient “power saving” mode Anker added. To the left of the display is a switch to enable or disable the power saving mode, and with good reason.

In power saver mode, when something like a smartphone or laptop battery gets full, the PowerHouse will turn itself off after a few minutes. However, several larger devices like a refrigerator don’t need constant power and will draw juice intermittently. Turning off the power saver mode will ensure the AC ports are always on and ready even as your CPAP machine, fridge, or heater turns off and on as needed.

It’s basically a switch to turn off the intelligent overcharging and auto-shut-off mode for devices you want to be able to get power when necessary.

Conclusion (Should You Buy It?)

Anker 757 PowerHouse with LED Light on
Cory Gunther

At the end of the day, your main question is whether or not you should buy one. This is an easy YES. Not only does this thing offer an insane amount of silent power, but it’s perfect for camping and the outdoors with a built-in light and solar panel support. Add in the fact that I can charge almost every gadget, coffee machine, and accessory I need simultaneously, and it’s a win-win.

Personally, having six AC outlets AND a 100W USB-C port is what made me want it. Not to mention that no other portable power station of this size can completely recharge from zero to 100% as fast as the Anker 757 PowerHouse.

If you want insane wall power on the go for your adventures or as an emergency backup, get the 757. The only reason I’d recommend something else is if you need absurd amounts of power or want something more portable like the smaller version shown above.

While $1,400 is a pretty steep price, you get what you pay for, and the Anker 757 PowerHouse portable power station is as good as it gets.

Rating: 9/10
Price: $1,399

Here’s What We Like

  • Plenty of Power
  • Portable (kinda)
  • Tons of ports and AC plugs
  • Built-in camp light
  • Solar-friendly

And What We Don't

  • Super heavy
  • Expensive

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Anker 757 PowerHouse Battery Review: Crazy Fast and Powerful - Review Geek
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