BigBlue 14W Solar Panels with USB(5V/2.4A), IPX4 Waterproof, Folding Portable Solar Phone Charger Compatible with iPhone, Tablet, Samsung LG etc

I've had this item for just over a week now, so wanted to leave an honest review of my experiences, as I was unsure before buying and hope this review will help others to decide.First off, the positives - it really does work. It probably helps that we've had a sunny spell the past week, but in that time, I've used it to charge phones, tablets, power banks and a switch.On a sunny day I've left it out to charge a 16000mah power bank from 0 and it got it upto 50%.The most I've ever seen it put out is 3.1a, but this was in direct sunlight on a really sunny day. Most other times, it's somewhere between 1-2a. That's been enough to slowly charge a phone or power bank. If it's cloudy, usually under 1a. In those cases, it's struggled to charge a phone, but that's probably to be expected.The way I plan to use this is for camping. Charge the power banks during the day, use those to charge the phones at night, then recharge the power banks the next day. So far this seems to be working.Overall I'd say this is definitely worth it. You just have to be a bit realistic and realise it's not going to charge your phone in 10 minutes or in cloudy conditions. If you plan how you're going to use it and have some way of storing the charge it generates to use later, it works really well.

I've had this a month now and have tested it in all sorts of weather. I have to say, although I was worried it wouldn't be too great with the British weather, it has surprised me... a lot! I've provided two examples below of my experiences where the charger was on the dash of my car (on sunny days I folded the output screen under the panels with the windows ajar). I also only charged one item at a time.Very cloudy/rainy day with no direct sunlight:When it first arrived in March, the weather was miserable but I was still able to get a reading of 0.2 to 0.4 amps. So I plugged in an iPhone and it began to charge! However, rather than leave my phone in the car, I plugged in my small power bank and left the panels on the dash of my car. I thought that the windscreen would filter out some of the required rays but I had the same reading in and out of the car. Anyway, I came back to the car that evening after it rained all day and the sun was low in the sky as its still late winter/early spring. The bank was half charged and is 4000mAh, so for pretty much the worst type of weather (no direct sun at all the whole day) for solar and the sun only being low in the sky anyway, I think it did well. I was able to fully charge this bank after two and a half days of this same weather. My 8000mAh power bank never reached full charge and obviously took a longer - 4 days but the 4th was spent stuck at 75 to 100%.Sunny days:Wow. This thing is great in the sun! the maximum output I've achieved is 2.2 amps, and that was on a bright sunny day at the beginning of April. It charged my 4000mAh bank in 3 hours and I've left my 8000mAh bank in the car which was charged completely by the time I'd finished work - I'd left it from 10am where the reading was 1.6, checked it at lunch time and the reading was 1.9 to 2.1 and then in the evening at 5pm when I finished work, the reading dropped to 0.2 with the sun being very low and the angle of my car not being great either. However, the bank was also showing as fully charged.I've also found that the last 15% or so takes way longer to complete, I'm no expert but it just seems like its harder for the solar charger to push in that final bit of charge! On sunny days it will manage but on other days I settle on 90% and switch to another empty bank. It's also worth bearing in mind that I choose to charge power banks still rather than plugging directly into my iPhone because if it takes say a day to charge it and it's still switched on, then you're going to need a sunny day to get it close to 100% because not only are you trying to charge up a 1821mAh battery, but you'll be using half of the supplied power to power the devices wifi/cellular/screen/background processes etc. An iPhone and some other devices also require a minimum amount of amps, so when its cloudy for a while and it's 0.4 on the solar charger, your phone/device might reject this and cut it off. A power bank generally doesn't so this power(although a small amount) is still soaked up.The only thing that does annoy me about this solar charger is that the USB ports are difficult to access from within the pocket - it's not a big deal, maybe something BigBlue can improve on in the next model.Very happy with my purchase.

I like the overall design and the build quality is good but the USB-A port is too exposed to potential scratches and damage, so extra handling care is required.The stitched on clip pouch beside the USB-A port is sewn on well, sturdy and practical, many small things can be placed inside, like a power bank, charging cables and a mobile phone etc.I have 2 Anker power banks, the 10000 and 20100, each fit inside the clip pouch fine but I found the 20100 feels more secure as you have to stretch the elasticated strap over the top of it to securely fasten.As for charging, I was very pleased by the performance of the solar charger, BigBlue claims it is 14W but my own opinion is that the device is more closer to or actually 12W, as 5V x 2.4amp = 12W (5 x 2.4). This calculation I've demonstrated may not be entirely accurate as I wasn't able to fully test the amps and watts input/output of the solar charger first.This being said however, the solar charger performed better than I expected, on a clear sunny day I was able to charge my Anker 10000 from 25% to 50%, that's 2500mah to 5000mah in 1 hour 20 minutes.Even on a fully overcast day with no sun and either white or light grey clouds the solar charger still worked, albeit the amps and watts would have been heavily reduced by probably half or more; this is still impressive considering you're not only restricted to just using the device on a clear sunny or partly sunny day, and can charge your small electronic devices in more variable weather conditions.I put the solar charger through it's paces and tested it's IPX4 waterproof rating, didn't really want to get the device wet but felt I needed to test BigBlue's claim properly and thoroughly to see if they were right.Using my Anker 10000 power bank and during a 20 minute light to medium continuous shower, the solar charger stopped working because the clouds became very dark grey, the rain peltered the device, soaked each one of the 4 solar panels and the water partly seeped into all the front of the solar charger's blue stitched fabric, but not the back.After the rain had stopped and the the clouds turned from dark to light grey the solar charger sprang into life again and the blue light on my Anker 10000 power bank began flashing. (Please refer to my photos for an accurate visual reference)You get a 65cm USB-A to USB-C cable and 2 carabiner clips on the box which are nice extras, both serve a practical use and the quality of them is decent.I purchased the solar charger when Amazon had a sale on, so got the device for £40 which I believe is a more realistic and fair price than it's RRP of nearly £60.To maximise quick charging capabilities of your electronics, use at least 2.4 amp cables as this is the maximum USB output of the device. On a cloudless day you can get a relatively steady 2300 - 2400mAh, as long as you keep the solar charger directly facing the sun and at the right vertical angle.Would I recommend this solar charger... absolutely, as long as you look after the USB-A port and handle the device with care it should give you years of solid quick charging pleasure.

Brilliant item, this was sitting on the kitchen worktop on a dull day and charged fully in a short period of time