Review: Is this the most impressive fridge in the world? It's certainly cool

Gareth Butterfield tests the new EcoFlow Glacier portable fridge freezer

This is the new EcoFlow Glacier, and you're probably going to raise an eyebrow at it when I tell you the price.

It's a portable fridge-freezer with a built-in ice maker, and it's... Well, it's £1,049. And if you add in a battery to make it off-grid, it's £1,249.

I know, I know, you can buy a compact fridge for less than £50, and a small fridge freezer makes ice perfectly well for less than £200. But you haven't had the full story yet.

This is part of EcoFlow's new smart devices range, and there's some other exciting tech to come from that too, but the Glacier is more than just a fridge. Much more, in fact.

With the battery pack installed, this fridge-freezer can stay running for up to 40 hours on a full charge. And that's before you plug in one of EcoFlow's solar panels, or you could hook up an EcoFlow portable power station. Even a small one will do the trick.

Imagine that, you're camping in a sun-drenched field miles from anywhere, and you can rustle up a chilled gin and tonic. For three evenings in a row. Or, if the sun stays out and you've got solar panels, you could sip away as long as you like.

What's more, the ice maker isn't just some basic freezing compartment with a rudimentary plastic tray. Oh, no, this is a serious bit of kit. Your G&T could be chinking away with up to 18 ice cubes within 12 minutes of you pouring water in. Incredible.

It can also hold a huge volume of chilled or frozen goods. With a clever modular storage system, you can open up the whole unit to refrigerate a staggering 60 standard-sized drinks cans, or you can divide the space up to hold some cans, and some frozen goods.

Each chamber you create is independently controlled, so you can have some cans of Coke in one side, and some frozen burgers in the other.

The temperatures can be monitored and regulated through the brilliant EcoFlow app, which will also help you optimise battery life, and you can control the whole unit remotely, or through the digital panel.

I won't bore you with too many figures, but they're all impressive, so bear with me. It features a 120w compressor, and it can it can refrigerate and freeze from 10C to -25C, split between two chambers, with independent temperature control in each one.

In theory, you can go from 30C ambient temperature to 0C in just 15 minutes, which isn't just clever, it's basically game-changing.

There is nothing like this on the market right now. EcoFlow really has opened up a whole new niche, and that alone, as far as I'm concerned, justifies that hefty entry price.

But, having said that, everything about it feels like it's worthy of a £1,000 price tag. The build quality is exquisite, there's no other word for it. It comes with a suitcase-style set of wheels and a handle that can be screwed on if you want to make it more portable. Because, fair's fair, it is rather heavy and bulky.

But I guess that goes with the territory for domestic appliances. And it is certainly portable, with chunky handles to help move its weight around.

I also like the fact it has a 100w USB charging socket, and I really like the digital display, which makes the complex task of balancing battery life and performance remarkably easy.

Yes, it's expensive, but this is something so ahead of the game, it's well worth the investment. Outdoor enthusiasts, festival-goers, tradesmen and outdoorsmen will find it so useful, thanks to its amazing versatility that I don't think the price matters.

EcoFlow's portable power stations always seem to shake the market up and send its competitors back to the drawing board. And now it looks like the portable cooling industry is going to have to go off for a long, hard think too.

It's another solid triumph.