APC Back-UPS ES 500

Prashant L Rao

APC Back-UPS ES 500 Description: 500 VA UPS that provides up to 30 minutes backup. Warranty: Two years from date of sale; Comprehensive warranty covering all parts and labour. Price: Rs 2,995 (plus 1.5 percent tax) Vendor: American Power Conversion (India) Contact: Sridhar M.L, Marketing Communications Manager, American Power Conversion (India). E-mail: Sridhar.ml@apc.com

An UPS is an UPS, but the APC Back-UPS ES 500 just might make you reconsider. It’s sleek, compact (though rather heavy) but that’s not what makes this power protection and backup unit unique. What does make the ES 500 a winner is the fact that it has been designed to handle Indian power line conditions. That’s one thing in its favour.

The second, and perhaps more important plus point, is that it is priced at Rs 2,995 (plus 1.5 percent tax). Backup time is good, we got half an hour of backup with a single PC with a 14” monitor. Of course, newer PCs with 15” or 17” monitors will find backup time shorter but that’s still better than what the average 500 VA UPS offers.

The ES 500 offers three power backup sockets and one surge protector socket for your printer. It has a circuit breaker, a definite plus when compared to the fuse that you usually find in this class of product. It’s a whole lot easier to reset the circuit breaker when it trips than to replace a fuse. The UPS supports lightning surge protection for your modem phone line and a network cable. The battery can be replaced when it wears out. It’s almost as easy to access as the battery in your stereo.

Then there’s the software. APC provides a USB cable for connecting the UPS to your PC so that the bundled software Power-Chute Personal Edition can monitor power conditions and let you know the charge level of the UPS battery and better yet, shut down your PC after a user customisable number of minutes have passed when the power fails. If your PC doesn’t support USB, a serial cable is available upon request.

The only beef we had with this model was the fact that it isn’t a tower box. Consequently it takes up a bit too much of space on your desk.

Other than that, this product is highly recommended.