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EcoFlow Trail 300 Portable Power Station Review | A Campers Best Friend?
Aug 1, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a detailed review of the EcoFlow Trail 300 Portable Power Station - great for keeping everything charged when camping or off grid! | Purchase the Trail 300 @ Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Cloting: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott. Now, I love
0:12
reviewing the big power stations that
0:14
use batteries to power pretty much
0:16
everything. And the more that they can
0:18
power, the better. But the truth of the
0:19
matter is is that those monstrosities
0:21
often weigh 40, 50 lbs plus. So, they're
0:24
just not going to cut it if you want to
0:25
go camping. And frankly, in many
0:27
situations, you don't need that kind of
0:28
power. Today I'm going to be reviewing
0:30
the EcoFlow Trail 300, a 300Wh hour DC
0:35
power source that can power all the
0:38
stuff you'll actually use while camping.
0:40
So, we're going to jump into the tent
0:41
and see if it actually fits the bill.
0:48
Now, last year I reviewed the Anker
0:49
Solex C300, which is a very similar type
0:53
product, and I did like this a lot. I
0:55
actually use it all the time. I find it
0:57
really handy even when not camping for a
0:59
lot of things. Particularly since if
1:01
much as possible, I like to actually
1:03
power my things and charge them through
1:06
these and then use solar to charge
1:08
these. So, it feels like I'm just doing
1:10
a little bit to save on energy. But this
1:13
new EcoFlow model is about 19% lighter
1:17
and a little bit smaller all around. And
1:19
so that can be a significant factor if
1:22
you're really counting every gram or
1:24
ounce when you're going out camping. So
1:26
let's talk a little bit about some of
1:27
the specs and features here. Price tag
1:30
at the moment, I checked as of today on
1:32
the website, it is $159.
1:35
And so by the time we get through all
1:37
this, I think that we'll discover that
1:39
this is really good value for money.
1:41
There's a lot of things going on here, a
1:43
lot of things that you can do with this.
1:44
And obviously, you're getting a
1:46
significant amount of power. you're
1:48
getting uh 288 watt hours of LFP cells
1:53
of storage. And so if you think in terms
1:55
of U mAh, that's 90,000 mAh. So the
1:58
equivalent of about nine of your typical
2:01
10,000 mAh um like power banks that
2:04
you're going to get from Amazon or
2:05
things like that. And so, you know,
2:07
right there you're starting to get a
2:08
sense of the value because of that
2:10
capacity. You know, if you bought nine
2:11
of those, you would definitely be over
2:13
$159.
2:15
there can get up to 300 watts of output.
2:19
This is all DC, however. There is no AC
2:21
adapter. Um, no inverter built into it.
2:24
So, you're not going to be able to plug
2:25
a typical power cord in. This is all
2:27
going to be based around DC. So, DC
2:29
would include USBA, USBC that is
2:32
represented here. And then also your old
2:35
more old-fashioned DC output, which
2:37
looks like the old old cigarette
2:39
lighter. So, you can both charge and
2:41
output via these things, at least as far
2:43
as the USBC and the DC. The battery is
2:47
rated for many, many cycles. I think
2:49
about 4,000 cycles at this point. Uh,
2:51
and that gives you basically 10 years of
2:54
daily full recharge. And so, really,
2:57
this should last you for as long as you
2:59
need it for. What we don't have here is
3:02
any kind of popup camp light on it. And
3:04
that's one feature that the Solex has
3:06
that I do wish that this had
3:08
particularly for a camping type unit.
3:10
You know, having that popup light is uh
3:13
going to be useful in some situations.
3:15
So, that is one thing that is lacking
3:17
here. Now, you can output up to the
3:20
current highest standard of USBC. So,
3:23
that's up to 140 watts per output on
3:26
this. And you can actually double up
3:29
when it comes to the charging side of
3:31
things. And you can actually use two 140
3:33
watt inputs. And so actually charge at a
3:35
rate of 280 watts when you're charging
3:39
uh via the USBC input. Now your your
3:42
challenge there of course is you've got
3:43
to get that 140 watt output from
3:46
somewhere. And so that means having uh
3:48
something that can output power that
3:50
quickly, which isn't necessarily all
3:52
that common at this point. You can get
3:55
AC adapters that can do that. But
3:56
remember, if you're going to get all the
3:57
way up to the 280 watts, you're going to
3:59
have to do two of those. So, that's
4:01
going to be some additional cost. I
4:02
think for most people, they'll probably
4:04
be happy to charge at a slower rate and
4:06
not spend a lot of additional money from
4:08
that. On that note, you can charge up to
4:10
110 watts via solar. We have got the
4:13
XT60 uh input port here. And so, that
4:16
you can use that for solar, which is
4:18
pretty much the common standard these
4:20
days. So, I like that. And then
4:22
likewise, you can also uh charge through
4:24
the DC port, cigarette lighter style, up
4:26
to 110 watts as well. And that can be
4:29
handy if you're driving to your
4:30
destination or driving going out to eat
4:33
or get supplies and you can plug it in
4:35
and charge it up that way if you don't
4:36
have access to solar for example. Now,
4:39
one thing that I don't love about many
4:41
of these outdoor units, you know,
4:44
designed around camping or things like
4:45
that, and that is that they don't have
4:47
native IP ratings. This does have an
4:50
IP30 rating, but really that's more
4:52
about drop. It's going to be tough, has
4:54
a nice hard exterior to it, and so you
4:56
can drop it. Not that I'm recommend
4:58
doing that, but you it can take a little
5:00
bit of abuse and not fall apart on you.
5:02
So, that is great. However, if you're
5:03
going to want to actually get an IP
5:06
water or dust ingress rating, you're
5:09
going to have to instead uh get a an
5:12
additional option accessory that comes
5:14
you can buy for it, which is a
5:16
waterproof case, and that will get you
5:18
that higher IP resistance. It isn't
5:19
there natively. I do wish that that was
5:21
part and parcel of the package, but of
5:23
course the price tag probably would have
5:24
been higher if it had done that. Now, in
5:27
terms of the overall size and dimensions
5:29
here, this obviously has a different
5:31
type of profile relative to the Solex
5:35
model, which is pretty much, you know,
5:37
like a tall cube. This is more of a
5:39
rectangular shape. Kind of looks like a
5:41
computer tower is the closest thing I
5:43
can think of. Just a micro version of
5:45
that. It is 167 millimeters by 115
5:50
millimeters uh and then 166 millimeters
5:53
in height. And so that compares for the
5:55
Solex. It's obviously it's very
5:56
different dimensions, but its biggest
5:58
dimension is 200 mm in terms of its
6:00
height and then 120 by
6:04
124 mm for the overall shape. So you do
6:07
all of the math and this is a smaller
6:10
unit, but you won't necessarily see that
6:12
because it just has a completely
6:14
different kind of profile. Importantly,
6:16
however, here the weight is a little bit
6:18
lower. So, 5.69 lbs or 2.58 kilograms.
6:24
It does have that integrated carry strap
6:26
that you could you can see there, which
6:27
is important. You know, you might want
6:29
to hang it sometimes, but biggest thing
6:31
is just carrying it around. It's a much
6:32
more convenient way to do that. And
6:34
obviously, I mean, if you really were
6:36
having to say backpack into a site, you
6:38
could, it's, you know, light enough. You
6:40
could hang that off of a strap or loop
6:43
on your backpack. may not be
6:44
ergonomically fantastic, but I think it
6:47
would work carrying it in that kind of
6:48
situation. The LCD screen here is not
6:51
big, but it is nice and bright and it
6:54
has a good amount of information on it
6:56
and it'll let you know how much longer
6:58
the battery would last, you know, with
7:00
the current output. It would let you
7:02
know both input and output and then it
7:05
gives you an overall state of charge. A
7:07
little bit more information on there
7:08
depending on what port you have attached
7:10
to it and and are active at the moment.
7:13
The overall layout of the screen
7:14
actually kind of reminds me of Blue Edi.
7:16
Uh just kind of a a smaller version of
7:18
what I see on Blueddi products, but I
7:20
like it. It's nice, bright, it's easy,
7:22
easy to read, and I was able to read it
7:24
even in fairly bright condition. So, all
7:26
of that I appreciate. So, let's talk
7:28
about the ports. Overall, we have five
7:30
total ports here. And so, that includes
7:32
two of the aforementioned USB C ports.
7:35
Those, as mentioned, are rated up to 140
7:38
watts. And by the way, um you do have to
7:41
be careful about your cables. It's not
7:43
just the output source, but it's also a
7:45
cable has to be able to carry that
7:47
capacity. And I have tested that before.
7:49
You're going to want to get kind of
7:50
cables that are rated up to that if you
7:51
want to achieve that maximum output
7:53
because not all cables are created
7:55
equally with the amount of power that
7:56
they can transmit. You've got two USBA
7:59
ports that are rated at 12 watts.
8:01
Standard is always lower on those.
8:03
That's part of a you an older standard,
8:05
but I'm glad to have the USBA ports
8:07
because there's still uh plenty of of
8:08
things that maybe the native cable that
8:10
came with it, whatever end it has, you
8:13
know, at the point it attaches to your
8:15
device. It probably has a USBA
8:17
connection at the other end. So, it's
8:18
it's very handy to have those. And then,
8:20
as mentioned, we have got the covered
8:23
cigarette lighter style DC port and uh
8:26
so I appreciate that. And then also we
8:28
have our solar uh input that is there
8:32
and that is the XT60 style. And again on
8:35
the port side of things there is no AC
8:37
here. This is a DC only unit. So I mean
8:41
there's frankly with these there are
8:43
only a limited amount of things to
8:45
actually test. I mean I have worked um
8:47
basically at charging it and then
8:50
powering other things from it. And so I
8:52
have used it to power things like my
8:55
cameras. I've used it to power things
8:57
like phones and tablets and my laptop.
9:00
I've used it to power things like
9:02
emergency lights. I've used it to uh
9:05
power the uh DJI Osmo Pocket 3 that I'm
9:09
filming on right now. All of these
9:10
things and basically the way that it
9:12
shapes down. If you're curious how much
9:15
that kind of battery life is going to
9:16
last you, if you're going out camping,
9:18
if you're testing or you're charging
9:20
typical cameras, which most of them have
9:22
a pretty similar battery capacity,
9:25
you're looking at about 22 times that
9:27
you could charge a camera. Phones and
9:29
tablets, obviously, that's going to vary
9:31
depending upon the capacity of the
9:33
phone. As far as a phone like mine, it's
9:35
about 15 or 16 times that it can charge.
9:38
Um, and so that's obviously going to be
9:40
useful, particularly if there's a number
9:41
of people that are camping with you and
9:43
everybody wants to charge their phone
9:44
and of course they all want to charge
9:46
their phone. Uh, if you're using
9:47
something like a laptop, it's going to
9:50
be more like seven to eight times bigger
9:52
battery capacity obviously there and so
9:54
it's going to take a little bit more
9:55
power. Um, one of the things you often
9:57
have to do if you are camping is maybe
10:00
run a pump for an air mattress. You're
10:02
going to obviously that has to be
10:03
something that can run off of a DC pump,
10:06
not an AC pump, which a lot of my air
10:08
match does require an AC connection. So,
10:10
it's not useful for me in that anything
10:12
that I currently have. But there is a
10:14
shift towards USBC because it has become
10:16
so ubiquitous. And so, under that
10:18
circumstance, they say that you can you
10:20
can charge about 54 times or, you know,
10:22
power up enough to inflate around 54 air
10:26
mattress. So, that's a lot obviously.
10:28
So, that's that's great there. Uh
10:29
depending on your camp fan or your camp
10:32
light, how big they are and how much
10:33
power they need, they say up to 44
10:36
times. That wouldn't be true of uh the,
10:38
you know, the one that I'm using right
10:40
now, which is from Ogory that I reviewed
10:42
earlier this year. That camp fan
10:43
actually has a really large capacity.
10:45
And so um I could charge it maybe two or
10:48
three times, but frankly, that's all I
10:49
would need from it. The battery and that
10:51
lasts forever because its battery is so
10:53
big. Now, I also did test charging. And
10:56
one of the things I'm always very
10:57
curious about is when it comes to the
10:58
solar charging rate. They claim on the
11:00
EcoFlow unit you can charge up to 110
11:03
watts versus 100 watts for the anchor. I
11:07
was curious to see how that played out
11:08
cuz rarely are you achieving kind of
11:10
that maximum capacity with solar. And so
11:13
what I found is that I put them side by
11:15
side using identical solar panels and
11:18
obviously in the same conditions. And
11:20
what I found that surprised me actually
11:22
is that while I wasn't hitting all the
11:24
way up to 110 watts, what I did find is
11:26
that consistently the EcoFlow was
11:29
sucking in electrons at about 5 to 10
11:31
watts higher than what the Solex unit
11:35
did. And so that is obviously great
11:37
because it just means that you're going
11:38
to charge it faster. I mean, when you're
11:40
talking about say drawing about 80 watts
11:43
off of a solar panel, if you're
11:45
consistently charging 5 to 10 watts
11:47
faster, that just means you're going to
11:48
be able to charge your device up that
11:50
much quicker. And as someone that's done
11:52
a lot of solar charging, solar is
11:54
fickle, particularly here in Canada. And
11:56
so, the faster I can get something
11:57
charged and not worry about it before
12:00
the sun conditions change, fantastic.
12:02
And so, I certainly appreciated that.
12:05
And again, I I am able to replicate
12:08
charging up to 20080 watts. But
12:11
basically, what I have to do is hook
12:13
this up to another power station. That's
12:15
about the only thing that I have that
12:17
can give me the output of 140 watts
12:20
times two to charge that up. And so
12:22
again, it's it's it's a limited value
12:24
application, but you can charge quick
12:26
enough. Even if you're just doing at a
12:28
more typical 140 watts from one adapter,
12:30
you can charge that within a few hours,
12:33
which is certainly very useful. So, how
12:35
about some things that I like? I like
12:37
the fact that it is light and portable.
12:40
It's something like this. The smaller
12:41
the better, and I'm actually eager for
12:45
the technology to continue to evolve to
12:47
where we've got something that's half
12:48
this size with the same kind of output.
12:50
But it is great that we are moving in
12:52
the right direction, trending in the
12:53
right direction, and that this is in
12:55
fact smaller and lighter. I appreciate
12:57
that our USBC ports are delivering the
13:00
highest current standard available. And
13:02
you know, until that technology
13:04
progresses further, being able to get
13:06
all the way up to 140 watts can be
13:08
useful if you have the right cable and
13:10
you have a device that's able to suck
13:11
electrons at that kind of rate. So, that
13:14
is great. I like the uh bright screen
13:16
here. I like the nice clean UI. It's
13:19
easy to see. I like that the power
13:21
button is responsive and works well.
13:23
Sometimes with these things, it's a
13:25
little bit of a mystery whether or not
13:27
the power button is going to work, but
13:29
this seems to be nice and responsive.
13:31
Doesn't feel like I have to hold it down
13:32
forever before something starts to
13:34
happen. And the fact that it is fast
13:36
charging, I appreciate that as well. How
13:39
about some things that I don't like so
13:41
much? Well, I'm going to continue to
13:44
knock all of these that don't have an IP
13:46
rating. I think that if you're
13:47
advertising, marketing something as
13:49
being a camping device where you
13:51
experience weather, I think that they
13:54
should come with some kind of IP rating
13:56
on them. Maybe not if they're sitting in
13:58
a puddle, but at least if it starts to
13:59
rain that you don't have to worry about
14:01
it. One critique I do have is that
14:05
they're taking advantage of the fact
14:06
that USBC has become so ubiquitous and
14:09
so there's no AC adapter for charging
14:11
the unit itself. But beyond that,
14:12
there's not even one USBC cable included
14:15
in the box. And that feels particularly
14:17
kind of cheap to me because particularly
14:19
when you have the capacity to do that
14:22
140 watt uh output or input in terms of
14:26
the charging at least having one cable
14:28
because a lot of people they may not
14:30
have that one cable that's rated at 140
14:32
watts. So including at least one of
14:34
those in the box which by the way Ankor
14:36
did with the Solex C300. I think that
14:38
they should have done. And the other
14:40
thing that we're missing is any kind of
14:42
camp light. And uh things are getting
14:44
wild in here as you can see at the
14:46
moment. I that's one of the other joys
14:48
of camping. I would uh like to have seen
14:51
an integrated camp light of some kind
14:53
because again I just think that for a
14:54
camping oriented device that could be
14:57
really really useful. So my conclusion
15:00
is this. This is another wellexecuted
15:03
unit that I think is going to be very
15:05
handy for a lot of people. And if you're
15:06
someone that's already a fan of the
15:08
EcoFlow brand, which a lot of you are
15:10
because they claim to be the number one
15:12
unit moving um you know portable power
15:15
company in the world, then obviously
15:17
this is going to be appealing to you. I
15:19
appreciate the fact that it is smaller
15:20
and lighter than alternatives. I
15:23
appreciate the fact that you've got lots
15:25
of capacity. You've got good ports that
15:27
have lots of uh potential power output
15:30
from it. And I think that the price, as
15:32
mentioned at the in the intro, I think
15:33
the price is really reasonable for all
15:35
that you're getting here. I would just
15:37
like it a little bit better if they
15:38
throw threw in a cable and maybe a few
15:40
seals here to make it IP rated. I hope
15:43
that this has helped you out today to
15:45
decide whether or not this can become
15:46
your new camping companion. As always,
15:49
thanks for watching. Have a great day
15:51
and let the light in.