Tuesday 2 December 2014

20000mAh Solar Power Charger

Now, this was a order which i wanted to do earlier on in the year but this will be more useful to buy it just in case any events which this could of been used for happen sooner than later. Long story of this purchase is that my dad was needing a new phone and i wanted a solar sharger which would be useful for Glass if i needed power, now the only downside of a normal charger/backup battery is that i would need to charge it if it dies out on  me, but i saw these on my good bargain import shop, Chinavasion for just under £22 (£21.17).

Now ordering this was ok but not when DHL now refuse to accept this type of item but DHL said it was ok when i contacted them, either way, UPS to the rescue and it arrived in just over 2 weeks (UPS was shipped out last Tuesday). Sadly when both items arrived, there was a customs charger of £21.01, which is fair but annoying. That was on top of the £16 delivery for the 2 items. But its arrived and now ready for a test.
The Solar Charger and the phone i had to buy for my dad



After a morning of RollerCoaster Tycoon, bbw porn, chatting and having lunch while watching twitch. I decided to review it in the cold but sunny afternoon, with this in mind, i got it done. You can watch that below:




The Unboxing.

So the packaging had a simplistic colour scheme of white and blue, no EAN barcode, but did have a QC sticker which is a small nice sense of safe feelings maybe. But there was details of what the product does, but enjoy those details below. 

The front of the box, showing the power bank

The back of the power bank, with the details of what it does, how long to charge it the first time and a thank you

The sides of the box, with the connectors the cable inside supports, but to be honest, you can use the cables that came with your phone, iPhone etc. PSP you might need to use this if you don't have a usb cable

The bottom of the box, with the legal details and trademarks perhaps

The top of the box, with the product name.
Now there were some odd spelling mistakes on the box, but that will happen with chinese products not branded, but they made an effort, which is a good side to the box. Now the back of the box had nothing to mention about using the item except for just make sure its charged for over 8 hours via solar, which did frustrate me when recording the first take of the unboxing. But eventually after working it out, it worked by holding down a button.

The packaging was just a plastic mould that fitted the 3.5mm cable and the solar bank itself, which since there was no instructions, makes it slightly disappointing. But the cables were nicely bagged, since i had to retake the unboxing, they don't look good in the pics below, the cable didn't really matter to me although i did try it and it was not a firm fit on the 3.5mm end.

The plastic mould and the two things

The mini bag for the adapters and cables

The power Bank with the 4 lights on

The top of the power bank with the torch turned on and the connectors

The back top of the bank, which mentions the connectors shown

This is the legal and technical details of the power bank. it includes its outputs, model numbers, made in china, the trademarks

The usage


The torch wasn't bright outside but it wasn't sunset so i can't expect it to be, but heck, it was bright in a dark room, which is a life saving bonus. Once i learnt the technique of holding the little blue button down, i got it to charge both the iphone and my main phone at the same time, which is cool and although the charge is slightly slower, it can be useful to charge at night after putting the solar bank in light during the day, maybe on top of a tent for the day when you are out and then charge it at night. Since it went up but 2% in 10 minutes, which for me is the same time for me to lose that much if i'm on wifi or 3g or watching content.
The power bank in the dark

The torch
Also the power bank could fit in my pocket in the jeans i wear for a night out :D, also they can power the fans from poundland which is amazing too, these 2 features i didn't expect to happen and they did, so that i think is a bonus, the only downside is that it is thicker than my phone but it needs to be for the power.

The Verdict


After using it to charge my phone and also seeing how it functions, i've thought about the good and bad of this and there is some good and bad to it...

omracer's Rating: 7/10


The Good Points

  • Its solar powered, but can support charging from a usb charger. 
  • 2 usb ports 
  • A Torch, 
  • Its smaller than i though
  • It charges with real and artificial light
  • A spare multi cable just in case

The Bad points:

  • The item itself is cheap, but it is expensive to have delivery and customs fee involved. 
  • It might feel heavy if you do want to take this with you
  • Slow charging (300mA) via solar
  • No clear instructions of how to use it (like pressing the button twice turns torch on/off, holding button turns charging on etc)

I feel this will be a useful thing next year, maybe my social events have died except one for this year but sometimes its better to prepare for the future. Also i'm $500 away from getting Bronze status with chinavasion, and i've been thinking about setting up an online store to sell their stuff but actually ship it from the UK and say that you can get them from the UK and then royal mail can be blamed if they don't deliver instead of dealing with dropshipping problems,

For now, its being put to the test to charge my phone overnight. See you in the new year for another review or two, possibly
omracer