Foldable Solar Power Bank product reviews

One of the biggest issues these days is keeping your phone or tablet charged on long trips. It's easy enough to grab a powerbank at almost any service station these days, and even charge them via the mains or car cigarette-lighter port... but what to do if you are out tramping, or doing a multi-day hike in rural conditions - what then? Solar is, of course, the obvious answer, and despite the weather-induced limitations of this technology, having a solar-capable power-bank is always going to be more useful to you than having none at all.

I was impressed at the unit's style and sleekness - to store 8,000 mAh worth of power in a unit that's the size of a good high-end phone and about as thick as a pack of cards is quite good. Wrapped in a ruggedised case with a faux-leather finish, even the garish orange plastic was mostly hidden away. The unit itself has one solar panel built-in, with the remaining three panels folded up into the cover flap. The mains-charger port and two USB output ports are tucked away under a moisture-resistant flap at the top of the unit, and the built-in 9-LED torch is located on the back of the main unit, where the camera would be on your phone.

The biggest hassle I had with this unit as figuring out what the button on the back, marked with the now-universal symbol for "power button", actually did. What I found after much trial and error was:
- Short-press and look at the side of the unit to see how fully charged the unit is. Five blue pin-point LEDs means 100% charged, with each light blinking out as the power drops by ~20% each step.
- Long-press fires up the torch in steady-light mode. At this point, either a long-press to turn it off, or short-press to switch it to SOS flash mode, and another will cycle it through to Strobe Mode, where it hammers away at your eyeballs at about 8-10Hz. A final short-press will turn the light fully off.

I found the functionality of the light to add something unique to this powerbank, and having the solar panels allowed me to charge it up without needing to draw from the mains grid. However... after running the powerbank down to utterly-flat and hanging the unit in the window that gets the most sun throughout the day, I saw how heavily the clouds will affect recharge. The specs state 25 hours to fully recharge the unit... taking into account the reduced number of hours in Winter, and how much the cloud-cover reduces the amount of energy this can soak up, it was sobering to see the unit at only half-charge after 3 days. Even recharging from the mains took a further 9 hours to top it off. This baby holds a LOT of juice!

The unit also has a built-in loop on one corner, through which is clipped a small carabiner-style clip. Illustrations show this used to hang the unit on the back of your backpack, with the solar panels hanging below it soaking up the sun. I tested this myself by hanging this unit on my big multi-day hiking backpack, stuffing it with random clothes etc to add weight, and walking around with it on for an hour. I was honestly expecting it to get annoying very quickly, with it swinging around, hitting my arm as I walked, and generally throwing me off my stride. How wrong I was... I hardly knew it was there! This is a big selling point for me, as I plan to get back into the hikes when Winter has moved off to the northern side of the equator. As you can see from the linked photo - it even fits well on smaller day-pack style backpacks for kids.

My current phone has a 3,000mAh battery and it took this unit a good couple of hours to fully recharge it... but that said, I was able to power up the phone and start using it less than 10 minutes after I plugged this unit in - it will deliver more power to your phone than it is using, meaning you have easy use of your devices very quickly, even from dead-flat, and the power bar will continue to climb.

So, what are the downsides, apart from the whole lack of instructions on how to use the torch? Really, nothing major. The only other "what the..." I found was that the two USB sockets put out different amperages - one will output 5volts @ 1amp, while the other goes hard-out with 5volts @ 2.1amp... but there is no indication on the unit itself which output does which. A slight annoyance, but nothing that a moment of trial-and-error won't solve really.

If you are expecting an instant recharge so you can finish your facebork meme-war with your bestie, forget it. Think of this like a cardboard box... it's a BIG box, and as such, it will take time to fill it up. This is not one of those dinky little $10 jobbies you buy from the local chain-store, that empties out in seconds and takes minutes to refill with a paltry 500mAh - less than a quarter-fill for most smartphones these days. This baby, and it's bigger cousins up to 10,000mAh, are designed to hold a lot of power until you need it. Keep that in mind! I recently saw a 2200mAh unit on sale for $25 and it had no solar panels, highlighting the superior value and functionality of this unit.

Overall, well worth investing in, and currently at very good prices from GearBest. Shipping took only a couple of days to get to us from China, but that was by priority shipping. Regular surface mail could take around a week or so. Still, for under nz$50 delivered, this is a valuable piece of kit for anyone wanting to have power on the go, when they could be away from a 3-point plug for days on end. Perfect for hikers, campers, van-lifers and even nature photographers.