Battery life is one of the biggest issues plaguing smartphones and the latest technology. Many solutions exist, but none of them are convenient. You can buy bigger phones, have battery packs, but inevitably, you do have to end up running towards a power socket, be it through the mains or a USB port on your computer or a charger.
There is another way, and while the technology has existed for decades, it is finally coming around to a point where you can make decent use of it. Solar cells have existed for a long time, but have not yet been implemented in a useful way to charge mobile phones. Recently though, we have seen a few solutions pop up in the market.
We look at the one on offer by 1byOne. It comes with the following features:
- High Conversion Efficiency: The 24 watts High efficiency solar energy panel generates a power conversion rate up to 22%-23.5%; providing enough power to charger 2 devices at the same time.
- Fast Charging Technology: With build-in smart IC chip each port intelligently identifies your device and tries to maximize its charging speed (up to 2.4A max per port or 3.3A max overall).
- Highly Portable: This charger has a light weight (1.26lb) and foldable thin design (10.2*6.3in folded and 31.5*10.2in opened) along with its cloth rings on each corner, which allows easy attachment to backpacks, trees, or tents. Its portability makes it a good choice of your outdoor life.
- Charge Protection: With a precise IC protector, this charger can protect your device from over charging, over loading and short circuit to make your charge safe and convenient.
- Smart Control: The built-in smart chip has unique automatic start function controlled by software. For instance, on cloudy days the solar energy stops working and when the weather gets better it would automatically resume its work controlled by software.
The device is pretty solid. The packaging is pretty neat, and you can easily fold it up when you are done. Inside, you will also notice a little ‘box’ that contains a couple of USB ports and an LED that indicates what status this is in.
The usage is pretty simple. Wait for the sun to pop out, open it up, and plug your device in. Fairly simple and easy on a beach kind of day. Of course, in the UK, it is a bit more difficult.
For the British consumer, or for people who live in locations that do not get too much sun, combining this with a battery pack would be great. You can use this to charge up a battery pack, and then the battery pack can store and deliver power to whatever device you wish to charge.
In full sunlight, which we have luckily had a few days of, you can easily charge most smartphones. Speed and current vary as per the sun, but that is expected. Once again, the battery pack buffer could work well.
Overall though, it is a pretty decent device and definitely handy while travelling, camping, or just going on long journeys.
More information on the product can be found on the 1byOne website and can be bought via Amazon.