Switched 300W/307Wh Portable Power Station Review

This battery from Switched is a great addition to your anti-load-shedding kit of battery packs, tablets, bottled water, small nuclear bunker... you get the idea. Usage is as simple as taking it out of the box and the whole control layout is easy enough for your technology-challenged family to give it a spin. We'd have liked a few refinements but when you're breezing through load shedding and continuing to work or stream, you probably won't find time to complain.

If you’re a South African resident, you can't really afford to be without back power. This could be something as simple as a 10,000mAh internet backup or as involved as the Switched 307Wh Portable Power Station. The big difference? Battery capacity and, of course, price. Batteries are expensive. Why do you think the average EV costs more than R1 million?

If you’ve got R6,000 or so that could go into keeping a room lit and several devices (internet, certainly, and smaller TVs) powered, then Switched's 300W/307Wh battery pack is worth considering. It's incredibly easy to set up and use, it's almost impossible to make a mistake using it, and it's got two integrated lights so you can find the bloody thing in the dark.

Back before video game downloads were a serious thing, Steam proprietor Valve released a product called the Orange Box. It introduced much of the PC gaming world to Steam. Switched's orange box is considerably larger and it helps its users avoid going back to the steam age. At least, for a little while.

Constructed of a durable plastic casing (but please don't drop-test it), this 307Wh battery pack has a largely industrial design. The textured sections are broken by vents on the sides. There's a large PC cooling fan inside there and it will kick on during operation. Yes, even if you’re not drawing massive amounts of power. Thermally, it's perhaps not as optimised as it could have been.

But the front section is extremely clear and easy to understand. All of the buttons are soft-touch — you don't need to long-press anything to make it light up. Power, via a solar adaptor or the included power bar, is easy to connect. The various sections can be individually powered, so you can run a Type D plug and a 12V DC output at the same time, or just charge your various mobile devices via high-speed USB-A and -C connections.

There's loads to like with the simple design. The front LCD screen is easy to understand, displaying input or outpower power depending on what's connected. You can see how your mobile devices level their charge if you’re willing to sit and watch the numbers change for long enough. But we were bound to complain about something and that something is the noise. And the capacity. A little bit.

Using the Switched 307Wh battery is easy enough. Putting up with its noise, even when drawing a puny 9W, is another matter. It's not obnoxiously loud but we do question why it has to make any noise at all at lower power draws. We’ve seen other devices where the fan kicks in if you run it a little hot but this R6,000 battery pack should do a little better than it does. Improved passive cooling would have gone a long way here.

And then there's the capacity, but this is more of a Stuff problem. We tend to run high-end electronics. That stuff loves to chew power. As such, we were able to crush this thing's battery in about 45 minutes on a couple of occasions, using a single device. Now, normal people don't do that but this thing is rated up to 300W draw. You can use it like that. We got close. But you can only expect 30 to 40 minutes of power at a time if that's the route you’re heading. If you’re civilised and stay under 100W, you can expect to get through most bouts of load shedding.

The Switched 300W/307Wh Portable Power Station is a great little device, about the size (and weight) of a bread box filled with bricks. It's far more useful than our example, however. You’ll keep some lights on, your internet running, your laptop charged, and perhaps your fitness tracker and a couple of phones topped up at the same time. There's plenty of capacity to be had unless you start using it at close to its rated 300W draw. In that case, your uptime will be measured in minutes rather than hours. Be sensible about it and you’ll get through load shedding in comfort. Take Switched at its word, however, and you’ll spend a long time sitting in the dark.