EO Mini Pro 3 vs Indra Smart LUX: small box or tough slab?

Small box or tough slab

Two compact chargers, two different ideas of what "compact" means. The EO Mini Pro 3 at £550 is the smallest proper charger on the UK market — A5-sized, 215 × 140 × 100 mm, the one that fits where nothing else will. The Indra Smart LUX at £615 is the slimmest, not the smallest — 78 mm against the wall, but 306 mm tall — and wraps itself in the toughest enclosure you can buy for a home.

£65 separates them. The question isn't which is better; it's which shape of compact you need.

• EO Mini Pro 3 — the tiny one. Fits a tight alcove or recessed mount where taller units foul the door frame.
• Indra Smart LUX — the tough one. Shallow enough to sit discreetly, rated IP67 and IK10 for walls that take weather and knocks.

Which "compact" does your wall actually need?

The EO wins on footprint. At 215 mm tall it's shorter than an A5 notebook — useful beside a doorway, under a fuse box, or on a narrow pillar between two garage doors. If you've measured your wall and nothing else fits, the argument stops there.

The Indra is slim, not small. 306 mm tall and 201 mm wide is normal-sized; the 78 mm depth is what's unusual. It sits flat against render or brick without jutting out — a design choice, not a space-saving one. On an open driveway wall where projection matters more than height, the Indra looks tidier. On a tight interior wall, it doesn't.

The £65 question: weatherproofing or cashback?

Out of the box, the Indra's protection story is the most serious here. IP67 means submersible; IK10 means the enclosure shrugs off a football, a wheelbarrow handle, a reversing wing mirror. For an exposed coastal install, or a front wall that takes horizontal rain, there's nothing equivalent in this price bracket — the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro is IP66 and costs £690. The Indra also ships with built-in SPD and PEN fault detection, which typically shaves £150 off install labour. That alone covers most of the £65 gap.

The EO's counter-argument is structural rather than physical. Its British Gas Hive Power+ variant credits back 25% of your charging costs on the EV Power+ tariff — a genuine discount no other charger matches, provided you're already a British Gas customer or willing to become one. If that describes you, the £550 starting price effectively shrinks over the life of the unit. If it doesn't, the cashback is a feature you'll never use.

Tariffs and smarts

Both chargers handle smart scheduling and solar diversion with an included CT clamp. The Indra claims integration with 1,000+ UK tariffs including Agile-style half-hourly scheduling — useful if you're on Octopus Agile, where rates move every thirty minutes and a static charger falls behind. The EO does tariff presets for Octopus Go, EDF GoElectric and others, which is fine for fixed-window tariffs but not the same proposition on variable ones.

If half-hourly tracking matters to you, the Ohme Home Pro at £535 does it more cleanly than either and includes a 4G SIM. The Indra charges roughly £250 extra for 4G; the EO offers an optional 4G module too. Neither is the obvious Agile choice.

Both are 3-year warranty, which is the market average and a touch mean next to the Rolec EVO at 5 years or the Simpson & Partners Home 7 at 10.

The verdict

Buy the EO Mini Pro 3 if:

• Your wall space is tight and you've measured it
• You're a British Gas customer and the Hive Power+ cashback applies
• You need an Ethernet fallback where Wi-Fi is unreliable

Buy the Indra Smart LUX if:

• The unit will live outdoors in weather or a high-traffic area
• Slim profile matters more than short height
• You want British manufacture and broad tariff coverage

On an average sheltered drive, the Indra Smart LUX is the one to put on the wall. The extra £65 buys a demonstrably tougher enclosure, a slightly quicker 7.4kW, and install labour savings that often cover the premium. The EO earns its place only when physical dimensions decide for you, or when Hive Power+ is already on your bill. For solar-heavy households, neither is the right answer — the Zappi GLO comparison is where that conversation belongs.