As an avid vanlifer, I have to carefully curate everything I carry in order to eke out every square inch of storage I can to support life off the grid for weeks at a time. That’s why I jumped at the chance to review DJI’s latest power station.

The DJI Power 1000 Mini is almost half the size of the original DJI Power 1000 released two years ago with the same 1kWh battery capacity. And from my calculations, it’s also the smallest 1kWh power station from the major brands that money can currently buy.

DJI’s little power station also has a few tricks up its sleeve, including a built-in retractable USB-C cable, a light that can be controlled remotely, an integrated MPPT controller that turns it into a solar generator, and the option to fast-charge off my van’s alternator when wired up to the starter battery. Hoozah!

I found myself using the little DJI power station far more than expected in my two months of testing, despite traveling with a giant 8kWh battery system. The Power 1000 Mini is so small that I don’t hesitate to grab it whenever I need to power a projector for an outdoor movie night, keep my Starlink Mini internet running in a field, or power an air compressor to inflate my tires after leaving a sandy beach.

The €579 / £449 Power 1000 Mini’s diminutive size does come with a few tradeoffs — dongles, ugh! — but I think DJI has struck an excellent balance between portability, versatility, and power.

Right now, it’s unclear if it’ll get approved for sale in the US because “the application for authorization is still pending,” according to DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong.

DJI Power 1000 Mini power station

Score: 8

Pros	Cons
The smallest 1kWh power station available Can fast-charge off car alternator Built-in solar MPPT controller Built-in retractable USB cable	Relatively weak AC output USB-C maxes out at 100W Dongles Unclear if it’ll get approved for US

Where to Buy:

• $607 at DJI (UK)

Most people still think of DJI as a drone company, but the Chinese tech giant has branched out into several product categories, where it’s introduced real innovation. For example, the incredibly small and powerful Avinox e-bike drive system it developed has radically transformed what mountain bikers expect in terms of performance.

Similarly, the DJI Power 1000 Mini resets expectations about how large a 1kWh power station should be. Just look at how it stacks up to the competition.

Despite shrinking the footprint, DJI couldn’t do much with the weight, but most of that can be attributed to the industry settling on long-lasting LFP batteries.

Some of DJI’s space savings are the result of using a less powerful inverter. On paper, DJI says the Power 1000 Mini can produce a continuous 800W of AC output (with a 1000W peak). That’s enough to power appliances like a small microwave or Instant Pot, but not a hair dryer set to max or power tools at a job site. For comparison, EcoFlow’s 1kWh Delta 2 and Anker’s Solix C1000 both offer 1800W of continuous output.

In my testing, the Power 1000 Mini could power my 800W water boiler and, surprisingly, even my Nespresso coffee machine, which can briefly pull as much as 1200W. But it can’t power them simultaneously unless the power station is plugged into an AC wall jack. Then its bypass mode kicks in to deliver as much as 2200W of output to my 240V European model, which drops to 1440W for 120V US models.

Whenever I exceeded its maximums, the Power 1000 Mini shut down gracefully with an “overload” message on the display, and a more detailed error report in the DJI Home app. It cleared with a simple on/off toggle of the power station.

DJI’s power station also saves space by relying upon an SDC (Smart DC) connector to add I/O to the unit. By plugging in a variety of dongles, the SDC port can transform into a 12V barrel jack output or an MC4 connector for up to 400W of solar panel input.

Uniquely, DJI also sells an SDC Power Car Battery Charging Cable that you can snake up to your car’s starter battery to charge the Power 1000 Mini at up to 400W while driving. That’s over three times faster than charging off your car’s 12V cigarette lighter socket, meaning you can take the Power 1000 Mini from empty to full in just over two hours of driving. I did not have an opportunity to test this.

Naturally, this DJI battery also offers several proprietary SDC adapters that will charge DJI’s drones faster than any other power station on the market. If you’re already big into DJI gear then getting one of their power stations is pretty much a no-brainer.

One of the best features of the Power 1000 Mini is the integrated 100W USB-C cable that retracts with a tug and magnetically folds into place. I like that it’s long enough to reach a table top when the power station is on the ground. I dislike that it, and the unit’s integrated USB-C jack, don’t support 140W like DJI’s original Power 1000. Fortunately, both USB-C jacks are bidirectional, so they can also be used to charge the mini DJI battery.

Power stations have had lights integrated since forever, and can be very useful at the end of an all-day shoot when you’re trying to pack up. I like that I can remotely trigger it from the app while I’m still in bed. That way I can illuminate the van just enough for a little late-night spelunking while my wife is asleep.

I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting a 1kWh battery to be so useful while traveling around southern Europe over the last several weeks. I’ve used many similarly specced power stations before, but their size never made it a grab-and-go device, causing me to carry a few smaller, but very capable, power banks instead. DJI’s Power 1000 Mini changes the equation for me, and anyone else that values portability and adaptability over raw power.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company’s space-internet service Leo (formerly known as Project Kuiper) will “launch in mid-2026.” I’m going to assume that means proper commercial availability since the company already announced the start of an “enterprise preview” at the end of 2025, when the service was supposed to originally launch.

Unlike SpaceX’s Starlink service, Amazon doesn’t (yet) have its own fleet of rockets to regularly send Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit. That’s meant hitching rides with a variety of launch partners, including SpaceX, until Jeff Bezos’ own reusable New Glenn rocket is fully operational. 

Amazon has FCC approval for 3,236 Leo satellites, but has only launched 241 so far, well below its commitment to have half (1,618) of its constellation deployed by July 2026. As such, Amazon has had to beg FCC Chair Brendan Carr for an extension. For comparison, SpaceX’s active Starlink constellation currently totals over 10,000 satellites.

Whenever the Leo service does finally go live, Jassy says it will be faster than existing services and cost less, with the added benefit of integrating seamlessly with AWS so that businesses and governments can “move data back and forth for storage, analytics, and AI.”

Late as it is, there are many individuals, enterprises, and nations just waiting on an Elon Musk alternative that can be installed quickly and economically to fill gaps in global data coverage, even if it does mean casting their lot with another problematic billionaire.

The Soundcore Nebula P1 from Anker isn’t the most portable Google TV projector I’ve ever reviewed, nor is it the brightest. It doesn’t even have a built-in battery. Instead it’s a decent video device that focuses on sound.

The Nebula P1’s standout feature is a pair of speakers that detach to create true left- and right-channel separation. It sounds much better than typical all-in-ones like the supremely portable TCL PlayCube, Xgimi MoGo, or Anker’s popular Capsule projectors.

I’ve been testing the $799 (currently on sale for $639) Nebula P1 as I travel around the European countryside in my van. It’s not my favorite portable projector, but I’ve grown quite fond of the P1 – just like cameras, sometimes the best projector is the one you have with you.

Anker Nebula P1 projector

Score: 7

Pros	Cons
Detachable speakers produce great sound for a portable Doubles as a decent Bluetooth speaker Tilting stand for easier placement Google TV built-in with official Netflix support	No built-in battery Poor screen detection and obstacle avoidance Tilt mechanism adds lots of bulk

Where to Buy:

• $799 $719 at Soundcore (with code WS24D2431US)
• $799 $719 at Amazon
• $799 $719 at Best Buy

Anker’s been on a tear with innovative portable projectors that focus on superior sound, first with the $3,000 Nebula X1 and then with the absurdly massive X1 Pro. The Nebula P1 trims all that excess down from 72 pounds to 5.3 pounds to create a truly portable (and much less expensive and less capable) projector suited to vanlife or impromptu movie nights anywhere there’s a wall, sheet, or screen… and a power outlet or big USB-C battery.

In dark rooms, the P1 produces an enjoyable 1080p image which is still the standard for portable projectors in this class. Its LED light source, rated at a 650 ANSI Lumens, isn’t enough to defeat rooms filled with too much ambient light, but it still looks good inside my van during the day when tightly focused onto a nearby surface. But it’s the sound that makes the P1 really shine.

The detachable 10W speakers combine to produce a wide and pleasant soundscape. I’ve grown quite fond of the little speaker pair in my few weeks of testing. As a bonus, they magnetically attach to my van on either side of my projection screen for a clean outdoor movie setup. Putting the speakers up by the display really does help create a more immersive experience. Usually, you’re seated right next to the speakers integrated into portable projectors, which means the audio sounds like it’s coming from the side or your knees instead of where the action is taking place.

Overall the sound is decent, and about what you’d expect from speakers the size of soda cans. I also like that I can shut off the projector’s LED lamp and use the P1 as a Bluetooth speaker. The volume is loud enough to easily fill an RV or living room.

Madeleine Peyroux’s rendition of La Vie En Rose sounded fantastic, with individual string plucks of the violin coming out the left speaker, a strumming guitar from the right, and her dulcet vocals wrapped in a squeezebox oozing out the center. Bass-heavy tracks like Kendrick Lamar’s Not like Us sounded thin, however. Unlike Anker’s much larger Nebula X1 and X1 Pro projectors, there’s no subwoofer built into the base of the Nebula P1.

As a projector, the Nebula P1 is very quiet, measuring just 26dB from one meter away — barely noticeable above the din of my snoring dog. But I did all the testing on cool days so the fans never had a reason to really spin up. The speakers feature an IP54 resistance to dust and rain splashing onto them from all directions, while the projector’s more limited IP33 rating should protect it from light rain.

Anker says the P1’s speakers will last 20 hours before needing a recharge, which seems accurate based upon my testing so far. They snap together with magnets then mechanically dock to the top of the projector where they’ll charge when the Nebula P1 is plugged into a wall jack or a battery capable of 100W over USB-C. The speakers can also be charged directly over USB-C while in use, which is convenient when they flash a low-battery warning mid film. 

The Nebula P1 boots into Google TV in about 50 seconds from a cold start, or about 5 seconds from sleep, where it consumes a near-constant 6W. The projector ate through 51Wh of battery capacity in one hour of Netflix streaming at maximum brightness. That means a typical 99Wh power bank won’t last long enough to view a two-and-a-half hour film like Pulp Fiction without taking a charging break. 

Anker says that the Nebula P1 features Intelligent Environment Adaptation (IEA) 4.0, which means automatic focus, keystone correction, obstacle avoidance, and screen fitting. In my testing, however, it did a horrible job at detecting obstacles and my projector screen, though my screen lacks black borders which likely complicates matters. If I wanted to “automate” detection I had to resort to Anker’s clunky “VisionFit” tech. You launch the Nebula Connect app and take a photo of the surface where you’d like to project the image, and the P1 will use that input to avoid obstacles and find the screen. It’s dumb and cumbersome and I hate it. 

Fortunately, the autofocus and intelligent keystone correction worked fine, with manual overrides so you can brute force the image into place when needed. Having the projector on a swivel also gives you more placement options without having to resort to a stack of books. You can also save settings into presets if you repeatedly use the projector from the same location. 

In general, I don’t like portable projectors that lack a built-in battery because you have to plug a snaggy cable into a wall jack or carry an extra battery around. That’s very much the case with the Nebula P1.

While I enjoyed my time with it, I’d choose TCL’s $799.99 (on sale for $649.99) PlayCube when true portability is the priority. The PlayCube costs the same, is a little brighter, also tilts, and runs the same Google TV OS, but manages to fit a three-hour battery into a much smaller projector. It just can’t compete with the Nebula P1 on sound.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge