The sCharger-12 USB Solar Charger from SunTactics isn’t like most solar chargers on the market. It uses “mono-crystalline solar cells, the most efficient solar cell technology of the 21st century” instead of the plastic panels and weak solar cells used in other chargers. It doesn’t charge up a battery, because those will quickly die after being baked in the sun while charging. Instead, you plug up two devices and charge them real-time, and you can actually use your device as it charges. Although it’s optimized for 5V devices, SunTactics says you can charge any USB-chargeable devices, including tablets. Unlike some solar chargers that require a manual reset if they are temporarily blocked from the sun during a charging cycle, the sCharger-12 has “Auto-Retry Technology”, so it will immediately re-start charging within minutes after being temporarily blocked from the sun. It’s lightweight and water-resistant, and it will work for many years because it has no batteries that will eventually fail. The sCharger-12 is $239.95 from SunTactics.
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Great to see something in solar chargers that will actually charge a device, not like them little solar chargers that I’ve seen posted here before that look pretty but would need days to do any real charging.
Yeah, this thing actually looks like a next-generation portable charger. I’ve used the crank and solar powered ones before while camping, and it takes a solid half-day to get a cell phone charged, and that’s definitely not to full. This model looks promising.