“There are only two certainties in life – death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin
While this certainly holds true today, in our modern technological era there is another certainty – charging your tech.
No matter how many extra battery packs you carry around, how many volts you undervolt by, how many apps you Greenify, you’ll eventually run out of juice and need to replenish your device’s battery using a charger. What this usually means is that you’ll need to stop and find an electrical outlet (alternatively, you can carry one of these behemoths around if you’re a masochist).
But what if you’re out and about where neither of these options are feasible? Say, you’re out camping or hiking and you would rather not have to rely on a finite external battery pack? In that case, you can turn to the power of solar by using CHOETECH’s dual-port, foldable solar charger panel.
I tested the device out for a few days this past week, although I should note that even though I live in a pretty hot and sunny place (Houston, Texas) we haven’t yet hit the full brunt of summer yet so I didn’t see the full capabilities of this charger. Nevertheless, I was able to collect some pretty consistent data to show that this charger is indeed the real deal. First up, here are the specs as listed from CHOETECH:
| Solar Panels : | Highly-efficient solar cell 6V/19W |
| USB Max Output Current : | 3400mA |
| Output Interface : | USB female socket with auto detect technology |
| Solar Energy Conversion Efficiency : | 24% |
| Material : | PET laminated solar panel, Fabric |
| Folded Size : | 26 x 17 x 2.5cm |
| Expanded Size : | 54.8 x 17 x 0.5cm |
| Weight : | 425g |
The solar charger is light-weight and pretty compact when folded, making it a great travel companion. I had no issues carrying it around in my backpack, and I don’t think a device that weighs under a pound is going to cause much of an issue for a hiker or camper. But what’s mostly important is the charger’s ability to actually charge your devices. So how does that stack up? Let’s dive into the data.
Disclaimer: CHOETECH sent me this product for the purpose of this review. I was free to test this product using my own methods, and I believe my method of data collection here was fairly objective.
Testing Parameters
Please note that with any solar charging technologies, your mileage will vary. The charging capability of this device depends on the amount of direct sunlight your panels are exposed to, as expected.
To test the charging abilities on the solar charger, I used a custom Tasker script to retrieve the estimated amperage, voltage, and battery temperature as reported by Android every 10 minutes and measured how long it took for the device to charge from 20-80% to get a somewhat accurate read on how fast this thing can charge your device. I wanted to pull as much information as I could about the battery to test whether or not your device is truly safe to be charging out in the sun underneath the pockets of this device.
Of course, since these values are pulled from Android’s estimates and not from actual electrical measuring hardware such as voltmeter, they won’t be 100% accurate but our general testing purposes it works out just fine. My testing device was a Nextbit Robin (2680mAh battery capacity).
Charging Results
Here are some of my results from some sunny, clear days that I could pull consistent data from:
| Time | Amperage | Voltage | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:10PM (Begin – 20% BATT) | 0 mA | 3770 mV | 35.7 C |
| 12:20PM | 1172 mA | 3924 mV | 42.2 C |
| 12:30PM | 1161 mA | 3952 mV | 43.7 C |
| 12:40PM | 1144 mA | 3988 mV | 44.5 C |
| 12:50PM | 1142 mA | 4027 mV | 44.5 C |
| 1:00PM | 1141 mA | 4073 mV | 44.5 C |
| 1:10PM | 1088 mA | 4135 mV | 44.5 C |
| 1:20PM (End – 80% BATT) | 1080 mA | 4199 mV | 44.7 C |
| Time | Amperage | Voltage | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:50AM (Begin – 20% BATT) | 1067 mA | 3861 mV | 27.5 C |
| 12:00PM | 1227 mA | 3942 mV | 40.2 C |
| 12:10PM | 1112 mA | 3969 mV | 42.7 C |
| 12:20PM | 1222 mA | 4015 mV | 43.7 C |
| 12:30PM | 1219 mA | 4059 mV | 43.2 C |
| 12:40PM | 1204 mA | 4120 mV | 44.2 C |
| 12:50PM | 1087 mA | 4176 mV | 44.2 C |
| 1:00PM (End – 80% BATT) | 980 mA | 4224 mV | 44.0 C |
As you can tell from the data, the device is able to charge your products fairly quickly at a safe limit for your battery. For the Nextbit Robin, it was able to charge 60% of the battery capacity in 70 minutes, which means it would take approximately 117 minutes to fully charge the device.
Considering the fact that this does not use any quick charge technology and the fact that it relies on solar power, this is pretty impressive in my opinion. You’ll be getting a pretty good top-up of your battery while hiking or camping, but as always this completely depends on how much sunlight your device is exposed to. My testing was done with the charger staying stationary on the ground, without anything obstructing the panels which will likely not be true for the full duration of a real-world use of this device. Nonetheless, these results give you a good idea of what you can expect from the charging capabilities of this device.
Giveaway
Now that you’re interested, how would you like to win a chance to receive one of these solar charging panels for free? CHOETECH is offering to giveaway one of these devices to a lucky winner of our choice. Anyone from anywhere (okay, maybe not North Korea) is eligible to enter so long as you have a valid address that CHOETECH can ship to from Amazon. How do you enter?
Leave a comment below stating how you would be using this product.
We’ll pick one random comment as a winner and will announce the winner in another article as well as over our social media pages.
What happens if you don’t win? Don’t fret, you can still get your hands on this product at a discount if you enter ‘VUYSUNAX’ at checkout on the product’s Amazon page.
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