Review - CyberPower CPS150BU Power Inverter

The CyberPower CPS150BU Power Inverter - Real Life Review

Last week (January 2012) we were preparing to take a 7 hour road trip to see relatives. Having just completed our About Power Inverters article we thought this would be a good opportunity to give one of these devices a real life test drive.

Power Requirements - Since there were only 2 of us on this trip our power requirements were fairly light. We both had laptops and Android phones... and I was planning to get some work done during the ride. My laptop is a Dell latitude with a 65 watt AC adapter. The phones both have minimal power requirements and are fine with standard USB outlet. Since only one of us, of course, would be using a laptop at any given time it added up to some pretty lightweight requirements.

Power Inverter Selection - We picked up the Cyberpower CPS 150 because the price was good, we wanted something very portable, the wattage was at the top of its class (150w), and CyberPower gets pretty good reviews. We could have saved a little money and gotten by with a 100w power inverter but for a few extra bucks we wanted to be ready for future needs.

How did it work out? - Here are some bullet points:

• We were a little concerned about the access to the cigarette lighter outlet since it is right next to the ashtray (also known as our mobile phone holder) but with the swivel head, the CyberPower inverter plugged in fine.
• Power inverters have various methods of dissipating heat and the Cyberpower CPS 150 (as with most power inverters in this class) uses a fan that emits a constant whine. We knew this ahead of time and we were pleasantly surprised that we were able to get used to it fairly quickly and tune it out.
• I powered my laptop and Samsung Epic (using its mobile hotspot) for about 5 hours straight with absolutely no issues. Though I was prepared to be disappointed and have fluctuations or some other kind of failure, the power inverter worked perfectly and allowed me to stay online and fully charged.
• As a side note, I used the sprint unlimited data plan and was able to stay connected to my IP sensitive server with SSH the whole time. I expected that traveling between towers would be an issue for me and I would have to work around that but there was no need. I love my Samsung Epic.

Our finial evaluation is a thumbs up and we recommend this device for light weight-portable use. If we had another person we would definitely have moved up to the next level power inverter to include another 3 prong outlet or two and higher wattage capabilities.

We've added the CyberPower CPS150BU to our catalog and you can purchase it at the link below.

Buy The Cyberpower CPS 150

Power Inverter Product Listing

About Power Inverters article

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