I’ll be damned. A solar charger with a 1500mAh capacity battery and 5-volt output from a relatively well known manufacturer priced at $30. That actually seems reasonable.
The solBAT II from Scosche features a standard USB output port for charging most of your portable devices and it even comes with a little suction mount case for use in the car. So what’s the catch for $30?
Well according to the user manual, it’ll take 4-5 days to charge up the internal battery using the solar panel. Thankfully, the kit also includes a USB charge cable that’ll juice up the battery in around five hours. That kind of defeats the purpose of a solar charger, though.
Whatever the case, you’ll probably want to leave this thing stuck to your windshield or anywhere it’ll get a lot of direct sunlight. And the 1500mAh battery is good for an entire charge and then some for most standard phone batteries. So in an emergency, you’d be good to go if your phone dies.
solBAT II – Solar Powered Backup Battery and Charger [Scosche]
The gadget looks good and the price seems reasonnable, I just wonder if this is really usefull in critical situation. I guess you need very direct sunlight
love this! check out this video review of the solbatII: http://www.myntgreen.com/home/2010/1/28/video-review-of-the-scosche-solbat-ii.html
Skip to 3:05 for the actual review, the first 3 minutes is somewhat annoying corny-ness.
This product is great, I just hope it can power the iPhone overnight.