EO Mini Pro 3 vs NexBlue Point 2: size or specification?

Two chargers, twenty pounds, entirely different pitches

The EO Mini Pro 3 costs £550 and sells itself on one thing: it's the smallest proper charger on the UK market. The NexBlue Point 2 costs £530 and sells itself on specification — V2G-ready, OCPP 2.0.1, a lifetime 4G eSIM, five-year warranty. Twenty pounds between them, and almost no overlap in who they're for.

• EO Mini Pro 3 — the charger you buy when the wall dictates the choice.
• NexBlue Point 2 — the charger you buy when the spec sheet does.

When the EO's £20 premium makes sense

It makes sense for two specific buyers, and only two.

The first is anyone whose install location is awkward. At 215 × 140 × 100 mm — A5-sized — the EO Mini Pro 3 fits where the NexBlue Point 2's 235 × 230 × 107 mm will not. Narrow pillar between the door and the drainpipe, recessed porch, inside a small garage alongside shelving: the EO goes on, the NexBlue doesn't. This isn't a marketing claim, it's a tape-measure fact.

The second is British Gas customers. The Hive Power+ version of the EO credits back 25% of your charging costs on the EV Power+ tariff — a structural discount the NexBlue can't match regardless of what it does on paper. Over a typical year, that cashback dwarfs the £20 price gap many times over.

For anyone else, the EO's pitch gets thin. Its 7.2kW output is marginally slower than the 7.4kW standard. Its three-year warranty is average. Its solar diversion works but isn't as clever as a Zappi GLO. You're paying for size and the Hive link, and if neither applies, the NexBlue is doing more for less.

What the NexBlue Point 2 gets you for £530

A lot, frankly, and that's the interesting part of this pairing.

V2G and ISO 15118 are baked into the hardware — not a future upgrade, not a firmware promise. When bi-directional home tariffs become more common, the NexBlue Point 2 won't need replacing. OCPP 2.0.1 is the newest version of the open charging standard, which matters if you care about not being locked into one app. The 4G eSIM is free for life, which means your charger keeps scheduling even when the home Wi-Fi falls over.

EcoPilot handles tariff automation for Octopus Intelligent Go, Octopus Agile and others — useful if you're on a half-hourly tariff where the Mini Pro 3's simpler presets can't keep up. The included CT clamp covers both dynamic load balancing and solar surplus, so there's no hidden accessory cost.

The caveat is brand maturity. NexBlue hasn't been in UK homes long enough for reliability data to settle. The five-year warranty is reassuring, but if you want a charger with years of installed-base feedback behind it, the Ohme Home Pro at £535 or the Tesla Wall Connector at £478 are the safer bets. Both do tariff automation well; neither has V2G hardware.

The solar question, briefly

Neither of these is the right buy for a solar-first household. The EO's CT-clamp diversion is basic. The NexBlue's solar surplus works but requires the Zen accessory for the full feature set and isn't as sophisticated as a Zappi GLO's Eco+ mode. Solar buyers will get more out of the Zappi GLO vs EO Mini Pro 3 comparison than either of these chargers.

Which to buy

Buy the EO Mini Pro 3 if:

• Your install location won't accept anything bigger than A5
• You're a British Gas customer and want the Hive Power+ 25% cashback
• You value a settled UK brand over newer hardware

Buy the NexBlue Point 2 if:

• You want V2G-ready hardware without paying Indra Smart PRO money for it
• You're on Octopus Agile or Intelligent Go and want proper tariff automation
• A five-year warranty and lifetime 4G matter more than brand track record

On a blank wall with no Hive account and no size constraint, the NexBlue is the better £530. It's the more modern charger, the longer-warrantied charger, and — by £20 — the cheaper charger. The EO wins in the specific circumstances it was designed for, which is a smaller group of buyers than its marketing suggests. Measure your wall first; if the NexBlue fits, that's where the money goes.