Bluetti Handsfree 2

Introduction

Power stations are a great way to take power with you, but they all come with a challenge: how do you carry the big batteries comfortably? If you travel by car or camper van, this challenge may not be as significant, but if you require reliable power on the go, the Bluetti Handsfree 2 could be the solution for you.

Combining a tough backpack with a slide-in power station unit, this clever system lets you take power with you, making it ideal for those trekking or photographers and videographers who need to keep devices charged on the go.

Design and Features

• Excellent, if not bulky, backpack
• 700Wh battery station
• One AC outlet

Starting with the power station, the Bluetti Handsfree 2 has a slightly different design from most of the competition. Rather than squat and wide, the Handsfree 2 is tall and thin, a bit like a folder binder. It’s built like this because it’s designed to fit into the special pouch on the backpack.

You can buy both units separately, although there doesn’t seem like much point in doing so. That said, it’s good to see a carry handle on the battery station, as it makes it easy to lift out and take separately, such as putting in the back of a car on a camping trip when you don’t need the backpack.

As the Bluetti Handsfree 2 is designed to be lugged around in a backpack, there have had to be some compromises on total power and features. Of primary concern is weight. Even where companies have managed to create more compact devices, such as the 1kWh Bluetti Elite V200 V2, weight remains an issue.

Here, the Bluetti Handsfree 2 has a 512Wh battery, which keeps the weight down to 7.5kg. That’s not light, as such, but this kind of weight is acceptable, particularly when the load is shared between both shoulders in a backpack.

Ports are a bit more limited than on some rivals, because of size constraints. There are two 100W USB-C outputs and two 15W USB-A ports. That should cover a single person’s use, from tablet and phone to laptop.

Above these ports is the screen. This shows the current input and output power in Watts, and the battery time remaining as both a percentage and runtime.

There’s a single AC outlet rated at 700W. That’s enough to power most general chargers, such as a drone charger.

Using the app, it’s possible to turn on the Power Lifting mode, which extends the AC power outlets’ power to 1200W. Similar to features from other manufacturers, this mode adjusts voltage and current to support higher-power devices, so it doesn’t increase the actual power output, and this mode won’t work with anything voltage sensitive.

The app’s useful in other ways. For starters, you can use it to check the battery status while the battery station is tucked away in your backpack. That saves getting the backpack off to have a look.

You can also use it to toggle the DC and AC power outlets on and off, which again saves fiddling about with the physical buttons.

Cleverly, once the battery back is inserted into the backpack, you can use the zipped side flaps to access both sides of the battery station, so you can even use it to charge while you’re on the move.

Above the power station is a fold-down flap, which provides additional storage space for your use. Not that you’ll necessarily need it, as the backpack has loads of space in it, and can be used to hold up to 30kg worth of stuff.

A lot of space is good, but the backpack is too big for carry on luggage (not to mention too heavy once the power station is loaded), and you wouldn’t be able to check the battery into the hold for a flight.

At its basic size, there’s a lot of space in the backpack, but Bluetti has also included an expansion zip to make the backback even bigger.

Inside, you get the main compartment, which is fully accessible by unzipping the main zips and folding the material forward. Split into neat compartments, you can easily fit in all of the camera bodies and lenses that you’re likely to need.

A laptop pouch sits above this, so you can protect your computer while you travel, too.

Otherwise, the backpack is extremely well organised with a lot of compartments on the front and sides, including bottle and tripod holders.

I like the front of the backpack, which has plenty of fabric loops for clipping things into. Effectively, whatever you need to carry, kit wise, this backpack has space for it.

If you need to carry some clothes, then there’s a front compartment with mesh pockets that will take these, or just more accessories that you need to travel with.

For security, the main compartment has a code-combination zip lock, but the other compartments can’t be locked down in the same way, so think about where you keep things.

Bluetti has even thought about the waist straps, adding two more little compartments to these. They’re great for anything you need to grab immediately.

One of these pockets holds the rain cover, which fits over the entire backpack to stop your kit from getting wet while you’re out in the elements.

Overall, the Bluetti Handsfree 2 is a potent combination. Sure, it’s big and bulky as an overall package, but when you need space for a power station, and a load of camera and computer kit, there’s not really a way around that. Here, everything is as well designed and tough as it could be, and there are plenty of pouches that make it easy to find whatever you’re looking for at a given moment.

Charging

• Three charging modes
• Solar, mains and car charging

There are three charging speeds available on the Bluetti Handsfree 2 when using mains power, which are labelled as standard, silent and turbo. I measured the actual power output from the mains plug at 150W, 340W and 585W. On the maximum speed, it’s possible to go from flat to fully charged in 1.3-hours, with a 45-minute charge enough to get you to 80% charge.

I measured the amount of power used to charge the battery station from flat using all three power charging modes. On the lower power mode, it took 602Wh to charge the battery, which works out at an efficiency of 85%, which is alright but a bit behind the best competition, such as the EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus.

On the maximum charge power, I used 585Wh to top up the battery, which is efficiency of 87.52%. The best efficiency was seen in the mid-power mode, where 569Wh were consumed, an efficiency of 89.98%, which puts this up there with the best.

As well as mains power, there’s a solar input rated up to 300W. If you’re out in the wilds, a small, fold-up solar panel could be a good shout.

Performance

• Most efficient at mid power output
• Most efficient via DC

This power station is rated for 4000 charge cycles until the battery hits 80%. Assuming linnear degredation that means that the Bluetti Handsfree 2 will hold 1843.25kWh of power over this lifespan. After this the system should keep working, but it will reduce in capacity further.

For a fair comparison, we work out the cost per kWh stored for each power station, for the total stored until the power station hits 80% capacity. With the Bluetti Handsfree 2 it’s only fair to use the purchase price for the battery station, not including the backpack, as that’s an extra. And, should the power station fail, you can keep the backpack and buy a new battery.

At full price of £449, the Bluetti Handsfree 2 costs 24p per kWh, so it’s actually slightly under the current kWh price cap. At its sale price of £399, the price per kWh drops to 22p. That puts the system in good stead with most of the competition, bar the Bluetti 200 V2, which costs around 15p per kWh of electricity stored, because it’s relatively cheap and lasts for 6000 charge cycles.

I then tested the Bluetti Handsfree 2 under a variety of AC loads to see how efficient it was. With a 200W load, the battery delivered 434Wh of power, making it 84.77% efficient.

Under higher loads, efficiency dropped: at 500W I saw 75% efficiency, and under a 1000W load (via Power Lifting), efficiency dropped to 72.66%. Smaller capacity power stations tend to have lower efficiency, as a higher percentage of the battery is used for the inverter and for running the internal systems.

DC output is more efficient, as there’s no inverter. In testing, I found that the power station was 90.53% efficient.

Efficiency is a trade-off of portability: you can’t have more power and higher efficiency in a system that you can carry around on your back.

Should you buy it?

FAQs