Closer Examination

The BLUETTI PowerOak AC200P is a hefty thing, which you need to be aware of. Yes, It is portable, and the two reinforced handles help tremendously. Those handles were the only reason I was able to lift it out of the box and onto my photography setup, and even there did it take up most of the available space. It comes in at ~40 cm square and 30 cm high, and weighs nearly 28 kg. Suddenly, the use of wheels and a handle on the larger AC5100 makes more sense, as it is likely impossible to lift for an average person. Once you get past this, you will realize that the AC200P is really at the point where such larger power stations make sense, with smaller capacity units simply too expensive and heavy compared to more portable battery banks even. The AC200P is marketed for camping and other outdoor activities, including perhaps a movie night in a garden with lights and a portable projector, and of course for a power outage at work. It is also a very rugged and fancy UPS for your PC, where the 2000 W rating is right in line for a high-performance PC too.

There is actually no BLUETTI branding here, with PowerOak on the front at the bottom instead. There is a combination of a glossy and matte finish on the exterior, which itself is a good mixture of polycarbonate and ABS plastic for strength, flame-retardation, and keeping the weight to a minimum. I think it looks quite nice with the different colors and textures, and the weight balance is very good, which again helps move it around. On top, between the handles, is a wireless charging pad with two large charging zones capable of providing up to 15 W each for phones and the like. The front is really where you have all the wired outputs, but an anti-vandal switch in a stainless steel finish at the top-left corner acts as the power button. Next to it is a DC 120 W locking connector output, as well as a touchscreen LCD display we will go over later in this review.


The bottom row starts with another aviation connector style 300 W DC output next to two 36 W DC connectors with the more common cylindrical plug. We then have the USB ports, beginning with a single Type-C USB PD (power delivery) port rated at 60 W and quick charging support. To its right are four USB Type-A ports that can output a relatively massive 3 A over the 5 VDC rail you would be hard-pressed to utilize fully, but I am glad they are there nonetheless. The real use case for the power station comes with the AC inverter inside that provides AC output. The US/110 V version has six pure-sine wave outlets, and the 240 V versions, such as this UK sample, gets all of two outlets owing to the physically larger size and far higher power output by default. There is clearly space to fit four, but BLUETTI perhaps didn't think this AC200P was the best case for it. All the outputs have a silicone seal for added dust and spill resistance, but are not air or water-tight, so work with this outdoors accordingly.


On either side and under the handles are two fans that initialize at start-up before turning off thanks to the smart fan controller inside. Similar to a PSU in your PC, the fans start spinning at loads of ~800 W or higher and max out past 1500 W of load, at which point the AC200P is audible but not annoyingly so. The fan noise is easily drowned out by most outdoor sounds, and if you are going to use this indoors, it will sound similar to your GPU inside a case while gaming. On the left side at the bottom is also where you will find the charging inputs, both of which can be used simultaneously to charge the power station quicker. They come marked to explicitly remove ambiguity on what to use where, with the left ports for the solar panels and the right port for the AC adapter in this configuration.


The back is sparse on content except for a label containing more technical details, certification information, and a critical piece of information that reveals that the parent company behind BLUETTI is actually Shenzhen PowerOak NewEner Co., Ltd based in China. So BLUETTI is the real brand and PowerOak the actual company! It's a clear case of attempting to use a small base of operations in the US to come off as an American company, but ultimately does not matter given warehouses and support globally. Funnily enough, the product page for the AC200 on the PowerOak website actually has BLUETTI on the front, where the BLUETTI-branded sample states PowerOak. The label is also where you find the charging limits for both ports—300 W over solar, 250 W over the car charger even assuming you have more than a 12 V plug, and 500 W over AC.