Photos and Features
If you haven’t seen one of these portable power stations, they all have a similar look, no matter their capacity and size and even from different brands for the most part. That’s not to say that the Solix C2000 Gen 2 doesn’t have its own styling, but as far as layout goes they share similarities. Depending on the size they will have handles on the sides and some have wheels. The Solix C2000 Gen 2 has large handles on the top of the sides. There are a few things going on the sides, but most of the features and connectivity can be found on the front. This one comes in at 18.1 inches wide 9.8 inches deep and 10.1 inches tall. That isn’t small by any means, but if you are comparing it to even the smallest of gas generators it’s more compact. That said, with it being packed full of batteries, it is dense and weighs 41.6 pounds.
Starting on the front of the C2000 Gen 2, the design is split up into two main areas with the top section having a glossy black finish and the bottom having a textured black plastic. All around that the C2000 Gen 2 has a dark grey finish, also with a slight texture and down at the bottom they have added a few accents including two bolts and nubs that give it a little more rugged look. The bottom half of the C2000 Gen 2 has one button on the top right that has a small pinhole status LED inside to show when the power is turned on. This section has five NEMA 5-20R plugs which are the 20-amp version of a traditional American household plug. The T shape on the left prong lets us know these are the 5-20R not the more standard 5-15R. Next to those the larger plug is a TT-30R 30 amp connection. This is a nice variety of connections and having that 30 amp plug can make for an easy connection to a lot of RVs and with the help of an electrician could make for an easy single cord connection to your house as a backup. With that second comment, keep in mind that this is a 115-125 volt connection, not 240 and also that to do that you will need a proper shutoff so you don’t feed power back into the grid and risk line workers' lives. The C2000 Gen 2 can output up to 2400 watts to all of the 20 amp plugs together and the same to the 30 amp plug with a peak power of 4000 watts. To put that into perspective, my household uses significantly more power than most and as I sit here our whole house is pulling 2304 watts. 450 of that is our server rack and 600 watts of that is my PC and monitors right now. The C2000 Gen 2 could handle providing power to everything running in our house right now, especially if I turned some things off to conserve power. Of course that doesn’t calculate in total battery capacity. The C2000 Gen 2 has a capacity of 40000mAh at the cells 51.2 volts which translates to 2,048Wh. Their power examples have a fridge running for 15 hours with the ice maker turned off, a sump pump running for 5.7 hours, a 10-watt Wi-Fi router running for 105 hours, a 60-watt laptop running for 26.6 hours, and a TV pulling 100 watts running for 16.6 hours, each of those running individually not together.
The top section of the front houses a few more of the C2000 Gen 2’s output options including the 10 amp 12 volt car charger output on the left side. It comes with a cover to keep people from sticking their fingers in the hole when it isn’t being used as well. Then in the center along the bottom there are four USB plugs. With how much has moved to USB for power, these can be especially useful. There are three Type-C plugs and one Type-A on the right. The two on the left however are the main high-power Type-C connections with both outputting 140 watts individually. The third Type-C is lower power with just 15 watts. The Type-A can output 12 watts but the Type-A and the 15-watt Type-C can only do 20 watts total when both are plugged in. That is fine for powering small devices or charging things like earbuds or a watch or with a phone you will get a little slower charging but not too bad. My now older Samsung S21 Ultra only charges at 25 watts for example at its fastest speed. The fast Type-C plugs however can handle devices like laptops. The top section on the front of the C2000 Gen 2 has the Anker Solix branding on the right with a main power button next to that. That power button will light up both in the center and with a ring around it to let you know it is turned on. The car power plug on the far left has its own power button as well with a small center status LED. Then in the center above the USB connections is a display hidden behind the translucent plastic cover. The display can show the current battery capacity, charging speed, and how much is being outputted which is all important information.
On the right side of the C2000 Gen 2 the black and dark grey finish continues here. The rugged bumps that we saw on the front are along the bottom on the side as well. The side has one cover that sits over the expansion battery port. Up at the top they have a finned design for ventilation up under the carrying handle. The left side has a similar design with the same black and dark grey finish, finned design, and carrying handle. The only thing different on this end is the connections. This end has two different plugs and these are the connections you are more likely to use. You have an AC input with a C13 connection, that is the same connection you would see on a PC. Then on the right there is an XT-60i plug, the orange connection. The AC plug has a max of 15 amps or 1800 watts with it supporting 12 amps if it is continuous power. The XT-60i is the connection for solar panels and it can handle 17 amps at 60 volts for a total of 800 watts of input power. Next to that is a breaker to protect the C2000 Gen 2.
The slightly textured grey finish wraps around and covers the entire back of the C2000 Gen 2, in fact for the most part there isn’t much going on here. They did slip in a small Designed by Anker Innovations text and there is a sticker on the back. The sticker has a QR code for the user guide and it does warn that you should recharge it every 3 months if you aren’t using it. Flipping the C2000 Gen 2 so we can see the bottom the bottom has large rubber feet on each of the four corners and there are two strips of plastic on the center to give the batteries inside more support. In the center there is a large information sticker. This has the QR code for scanning it into the Anker app. There is a long list of warnings repeated in different languages and then the sticker has the certification logos and other needed information.
In addition to the C2000 Gen 2 Anker also sent over a solar panel to run with it. They sent over their 400-watt Solar Panel (SOLI PS400) which folds up and is portable. One big downside however was that it is a lot larger than our photo area could fit. Folded up it was 39 inches wide, 26.6 inches tall and 2 inches thick. Unfolded it is 100 inches wide, 39 inches tall, and 1.2 inches thick. The panel has a maximum output of 400 watts as I already mentioned. It outputs 48 volts or with an open circuit 57.6 volts at 8.33 amps. It has a nice fabric finish on the back with the Anker branding on it and a plastic hang-up top. Inside all of the solar panels are protected when it is folded up. The handle has magnets in it to snap and hold together and on the back there are two flip-out legs to hold it at an angle. Those are held in place with a snap. The handle also has the two output cables sticking out of it. What surprised me the most was its weight, it comes in at 35.6 pounds. You can move it around but because of its size and weight it isn’t easy.
In the included accessory box we did get a user guide along with a few cables. The panel uses MC4 connections for both cables. Anything that supports those, the solar panel will work with but we are going to try it with the C2000 Gen 2. For that they include an adapter cable which turns the MC4 connections into an XT60i.
