The Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station is a portable battery that can keep off-grid campers happy for a weekend — and works great as a UPS for your Mac Studio too.
We get asked to review three main categories of products. Two of them make sense for an Apple-related publication: Thunderbolt docks and SSDs.
The third is giant batteries in portable power stations.
If you think about it, though, it makes sense. We’re in the annual spring terrible weather cycle, as evidenced by my own over the last few days that brought green skies, hail, and tornadoes to where I’m living.
For folks with power hungry devices, the portable power station product category offers a lot where a traditional fuel generator falls down. They’re smaller, much quieter, and can be locally cleaner to run compared to one that guzzles gas.
It makes them really useful for situations where carting around a generator wouldn’t be a good idea, such as in a car to go camping off-grid, or on a boat.
Or after a severe thunderstorm knocks out your power and you’d rather the contents of your fridge not turn on you.
The Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station aims to offer just this sort of solution. A portable power supply that can handle most of your electrical needs, without many of the disadvantages of a traditional generator.
And, it’s easily expandable.
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station review: Specifications
The FlashSpeed 1000 is a pretty basic power station.
- Weight: 37.4 pounds
- Dimensions: 15.5 x 11 x 10.6 inches
- Capacity: 828Wh
- Peak Output: 2000W
- Cycle Life: years
- AC Input: 700W
- Outlets: AC outlets (1000W x3), USB-A (12W x3, 18W x1), USB-C (100W x 2), DC ports (120W x2 plus Car Charger)
As provided for our review, we have one FlashSpeed 1000, and one add-on VTOMAN FlashSpeed 1500 Extra Battery, that adds 2735 watt-hours to the 828 in the core unit.
The combo is a beefy stack. Good for in-home, not as good for portability.
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station review: Inside the box
When you get the Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station, it includes the unit itself, an AC charging cable, and both USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables.
There are various bundles you can also get, such as a battery that increases the total capacity from 828Wh to 2,376Wh. There are also 110W and 200W solar panels available, which lets you recharge the battery while in a remote location without other power sources.
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station review: Quality and Features
At 15.5 inches wide and 11 inches tall, as well as 10.6 inches thick, it’s roughly the same size as others in the product category. However, at 37.4 pounds, it’s also a little bit lighter.
This does make it a bit easier to manage versus some others that are heavier. It’s still not quite what you would allow a small child to try and carry around, but it’s easier for an adult to do so.
The top side includes a pair of handles molded into the casing of the power station, which are nice and chunky enough to carry around.
The top also takes advantage of unused space to have a storage space, under a large flap. This is ideally used for any spare cables you would use with the power station, and is a neat way to keep things tidy and out of the way.
The main activity for the FlashSpeed 1000 is around the front, where all of the ports and the display are located.
It boasts a total of 12 ports, across four different types. This includes a trio of AC outlets, running at 110V and up to 1,000W.
There are three DC outlet ports, including two 12C 10A DC5521 connections, and one more as a car charger.
The other connections are more tech-focused, including four USB-A ports. They are split into three 5V/2.4A ports and one 18W quick charge port.
The pair of USB-C outlets can each output up to 100W. It would have been nice to get more USB-C ports, but for lower-powered devices, the USB-A ones will work just as fine.
And, you can always plug in AC to USB-C adapters if you need.
In the middle of the ports is the display, which can be used to show how much charge is remaining in the power station, how much remains externally, what’s connected, and how much power is being consumed at that moment.
Lastly, to the rear is a wide LED light, which can be useful to keep a tent illuminated at night. It also has an SOS mode for emergencies.
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station review: Charging options
The main unit, excluding batteries to expand the capacity holds up to 828Wh of power. This isn’t a massive amount compared to some, but it’s certainly enough for emergencies or more conservative power uses.
As for getting power back in, there are a few options. You can connect it up to a power supply, which can recharge at 700W at peak.
You can also use the car input connection, which can recharge at up to 200 watts. Lastly, there’s solar, which can charge at up to 300W.
Vtoman claims that it can recharge to 100% within 70 minutes, using a power outlet. We got about that from empty, with the main unit charging in 74 minutes from completely dead.
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station review: Usage
As a portable power supply, it can provide power at quite a few wattages, depending on how you connect it up. Obviously, what you connect to it will vary how long it will last for.
As an example, Vtoman says it can recharge a typical iPhone 74 times, a drone 14 times, and a notebook ten times before being exhausted.
We didn’t test the iPhone charging bit, that’s just ridiculous. We did with a MacBook Pro, though, and we got 11 full charges for a 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro with just the core unit. Close enough.
When used to run appliances, it can power a 35Wh fan for 21 hours, a 250Wh portable freezer for three hours, and a 300W grill and smoker for 2.5 hours.
When we pulled the power to a 275W household fridge/freezer combination, it ran for just under three hours. Doing the same with the external battery, we saw a bit over 10 hours of run-time.
As a bonus, the external battery drains first in this use-case. That’s a nice touch, and not always the case.
It does have the capability of being used as an uninterruptible power supply, with a switchover time under 20ms. As we generally do, we tested this with a Mac Studio, an eight-bay RAID array, and 4K display. The combination ran for about six hours before it died, with no interruption in power or drive disconnect when the power was pulled.
Its safety features include over-charge, over-current, over-discharge, short circuit, over-voltage, reverse-polarity, spark, and high-temperature protection.
As for battery lifespan, the manufacturer claims the cycle lifetime until it reaches 80% remaining capacity is over 3,100 cycles. We haven’t had it long enough to test this, of course.
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station review: A power all-rounder
When it comes to power options, there’s a lot of choice on the market. But there’s also a fair amount of similar offerings from manufacturers too.
What Vtoman here in the FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station is something that’s not a standout product in a saturating marketplace. That said, it’s still a decent option for many average users.
There’s pretty effective price-to-performance level at play here, so you’re getting a pretty decent bang for your power-focused buck here.
Then again, you’re not necessarily going to be looking for a standout in this product category most of the time. Many will just want a big battery they can easily cart around, for the right price, and can offer enough power when needed.
That’s something the Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 certainly provides. The add-on battery obviously adds power, but detracts from portability.
If you’re looking at 2000 watt-hours in one portable box, look elsewhere. The combo as presented here is nice for home use, and would be great on a job site needing tool charging or AC power too.
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station Pros
- Chunky handles, scuplted for easy transport
- Connectivity and recharging connection options
Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station Cons
- Not a massive capacity on its own, but easily expandable
- Spendy on Amazon, but as of May 2025, unknown tariffs on delivery from the site
Rating: 4 out of 5
The Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 is inexpensive on its own, which is nice. Extendable batteries with two times the capacity of the core unit add to the unit’s functionality.
The stack isn’t particularly attractive, with cables everywhere, but you won’t care if you need the juice.
Where to buy the Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station
The Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station is available from Vtoman directly, starting from $499 retail for the unit alone. More batteries and solar panels are also available, with the reviewed combo of the FlashSpeed 1000 and a battery retailing for $1798.
However, we’ve seen it on sale through the manufacturer constantly over our review period with the combo selling for $950 at present. The company warns of tariffs on the homepage, though.
It’s also sold on Amazon, priced at $649. As a bonus, no tariffs will be owed by the orderer if purchased through Amazon.
