Braudel 0.7W 5v Waterproof Portable Solar Charger – Solar Panel Backup Power Bank

Screen Shot 2015-04-24 at 3.46.27 PMI have several of these small solar panel chargers/batteries. They are cool products, but before deciding to get one you should really understand their limitations.

The internal battery provides you with a total of 8000 mAh of backup charge. This is, on average, good enough to charge your smartphone three times. It can also be used to charge a tablet or a similar sized device. Keep in mind that there is some inefficiency associated with the charging process, so that the amount of power that you get will be about 80%-90% of the nominal battery capacity. I have been able to fully charge my iPhone 6 plus and Galaxy S3 with plenty of charge to spare. I’ve also been able to charge my first iPad.

The amount of charge that you can get from the solar panel is *VERY* miniscule. The solar charging current is about 200 mA, which means that it will take you 40 hours of really strong sunshine to fully charge this battery. In other words, you won’t be able to fully charge your phone after a day of walking around with this battery attached to your backpack. If you are lucky you may get about 10%-20% of the phone’s charge. The solar charger is meant to be primarily used as an emergency source – it could charge your phone enough for a single phone call. If you are looking for a more efficient small portable solar chargers, there are several pretty decent ones available. I would recommend an 8 W one made by Stin that I have been using recently with great success.

One great thing about this backup battery is that it’s pretty rugged. I have left one of these outside FOR MONTHS and it still worked as well as when I first got it. And it got fully charged. 🙂 It weathered all sorts of very inclement weather, including high winds, and several snowstorms and thunderstorms. In other words, this little thing is tough!

This is overall a pretty decent product, but don’t expect it to provide you with a lots of backup charge from solar power alone.

**** Product provided for review purposes. ****

 

Bojan Tunguz

Bojan Tunguz was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he and his family fled during the civil war for the neighboring Croatia. Over the past two decades he has studied, lived and worked in the United States. He is a theoretical physicist with degrees from Stanford and University of Illinois. Tunguz has taught physics at several prominent liberal arts colleges and has been writing about physics, science and technology for more than a decade. He also has a wide spectrum of interests, and reads and writes about current events, society, culture, religion and politics. Over the years he has reviewed many of the books that he has read, and posted his reviews on various online outlets. In 2011 he had become a top 10 reviewer on Amazon.com, where he continues to be very active. Aside from reading and writing, Tunguz enjoys traveling, digital photography, hiking, and fitness. He resides with his wife in Indiana. You can follow my review updates on the following pages as well: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tunguzreview Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tunguzreviews Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104312842297641697463/posts

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