Hey guys I'm darren miles with Darren miles photography and I'm based here in beautiful sunny southwest florida. I'm back and I'm here to review this piece of gear that's fairly practical full disclosure OKMO.
There are a lot of practical usages for a professional photographer like myself and I'll cover a lot of that in this video this is also a real world review so I'm not going to get too much into the majorly technical specifications but rather it's more about its practical usage in my role as a professional photographer so with that out of the way let's get on to the review first up is build quality.
And let me just sum it up in one word, robust!
We're going to give this thing a 10 out of 10 for build quality.
This thing is heavy coming in at a hefty 44 pounds it's built like a little tank and weighs as much as a car battery probably because the battery that's in there is about the same size and weight as a car battery the handles are grippy and made out of a really tough plastic and aluminium alloy though I don't think you want to drop this thing because it still looks and feels kind of brittle to me buttons switches and rubber flaps they're all pretty straightforward and tactile and obvious in the end this thing is just a source of power for multiple application and build quality really can't be expected to get much better than this
The bottom line is ease of use it just doesn't get much easier than this.
As such we're going to give the power station another perfect 10 out of 10 for ease of use
The ideal user of a product like this is probably somebody who camps on a regular basis and needs power for lots of little household devices. They would take with them on a camping trip like maybe lights or a coffee maker or maybe small portable ovens or refrigerators etc. Now I'm happy to report that this device with 2000 watts available can handle them all even simultaneously but when it comes to ease of use if you know how to plug a device into a usb charging port or into a wall.
You're going to find this is incredibly easy to use. The first thing you need to do is power up the device, the second thing you need to do is power on or select the accessory that you're going to use.
Be it ac power for example and then you plug it in just like you would in an outlet in your house it's pretty straightforward from there the power lasts for days it's pretty incredible again.
I'm usually charging batteries for cameras flashes etc which don't take a lot of power and certainly don't push this thing to the limit. Now charging the power station takes about 10 hours with the standard charger that's included.OKMO also offers a solar panel. It takes to charge but with bright sunshine I'm assuming it'll probably take a little bit longer to charge than it would if you plugged it into the wall.
OKMO could be a great device in an emergency situation like a storm or a power outage or if you happen to be a camper.
I'm gonna give the OKMO an eight and a half out of ten to wrap up this review.
When OKMO first introduced me to this product i was thinking even though it's beautiful and sunny in southwest Florida. Most of the time one of the things we really know how to do well down here is storms and with storms comes power outages.
A 2000 watt power station like this would be ideal as we'd be able to power a bunch of small appliances for a period of time while the crews work to get the electricity back on my kids could power their iphones and ipads as well so for practical purposes.
The OKMO power station is pretty awesome aqua says that with normal electricity usage a household could power themselves for two to four days I'm sure that depends on exactly what it is that you're powering.
I don't think for example i could be running my air conditioning unit off of this but a small refrigerator and some small appliances no problem not to mention ipads iphones etc. To keep the kids at bay at hundred dollars the OKMO 2000 watt power station is by no means cheap and there are certainly other options available in the marketplace today.
I could see where something like this would be just great if you were to go glamping instead of camping so for value.
We gave the OKMO 2000 watt power station a 35 and a half out of 40 and our recommended rating.
The reality is there are a lot of small handheld battery packs for much less money that professional photographers can take along with them if they go on the road quite a bit as i do but there are certain situations where a device like this would definitely come in handy.
I can already hear my critics now saying things to me like why didn't you buy extra batteries why did you not double check that your batteries were fully charged before you left the house.
You should always have a backup plan.
I love it when other professional photographers pretend that they'd never been in a situation where they themselves have forgotten a critical piece of gear for a shoot.
The truth of the matter is i usually take all those precautions but nobody's perfect and sometimes you just forget there are also situations where even if i have backup batteries and power things can still happen for example there are certain times when i will do multiple photo video and 360 tour shoots on multiple houses in a row in the same day.
I use the Ricoh theta z camera for my 360 tours which is awesome but it doesn't have the greatest battery life in the world and the battery is internal meaning there really isn't a backup option that i can bring along with me which means charging between jobs is a necessity especially again if you're doing multiple ones in a row.
Yes i have a car charger for it but if your phone is anything like mine it's usually dominating that port and will run out of battery pretty quickly if it isn't plugged in it's also convenient to be able to charge multiple devices at once in the back of my car
If i need to camera batteries flash batteries the aforementioned ricoh theta camera whatever etc obviously I'm not going to carry this thing around but if i can leave it stationary in the back of my car i will definitely take advantage of it and i have it's like having an outlet from your home available at your disposal in your car it's very convenient.
I kind of like it and i take it pretty much with me wherever i go.
I've definitely found a way to work it into my workflow and to be honest it's almost become like a security blanket and i kind of like it that's a bit of a long-winded explanation for something that's pretty practical and pretty useful if you're a professional photographer who's on the go and on the road all the time like me.