Levin Dual USB Port 6000mAh Portable Solar Panel Charger for iPhones, Windows and Android Phones - Yellow

First things first: the solar panel...works! But slowly. Took 4-5 days (some sunny, some overcast) to fully charge. Seems reasonable given the size of the solar panel.Also, one of those days there was an enormous downpour...I thought this thing was ruined...non-responsive for at-least an hour. Then it was fine. Yay!Only reason I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is that I'm questioning the capacity. My iPhone 5c has a ~1,500 mAh battery...and this thing says 5000mAh...so I should get at-least 3 full charges out of it. After two full charges (with phone in airplane mode), I'm down to one blinking light. Given that, I'll be surprised if I get another full charge out of it (but I remain open-minded). Will update rating if warranted.Update: charger was basically dead after 2nd charge of iPhone 5c (got it from 1% to 4%). Again, phone was in airplane mode while charging. Seller contacted me after first review with all the song and dance about 25% loss due to various factors being normal. Okay. But here's the thing: I got two full charges. No more; no less. Two times 1,530 is 3,060, which is about 60% of 5,000. So somewhere along the lime 40% of this capacity (not 25%) was "lost". At this point 4 stars seems generous...but I'll leave it there in the hopes that all other aspects of the charger live up to expectations.Oh, one other thing...the lightning adaptor came apart pretty soon after being put into use. It's not broken or anything...just wasn't glued together for some reason.Update: all of a sudden I am getting a message that this charger is not compatible with my iPhone and the charging is very sporadic. It's going back. :-(Another update: contacted pretty quickly by seller who is (unprompted) sending me a new one. The product may be hit or miss, but the customer service is exceptional. Seller really stand behinds the product.Final update: I took this with me on a 9 day backpacking trip. I kept my iPhone 5c in airplane mode the whole trip (just used it for pictures). Every day I used about 10% of the batter life (plus or minus) and every night I used this to charge it right back up again (so that there was "room" in the charger for more solar. I finished the 9 day trip...and this thing was still basically FULL (four lights when on). With regard to my first "update", I'm pretty sure the "not compatible" message was due to the faulty adapter I mentioned in my initial review (it was, in fact, broken). When I used my adapter from Apple, the charger worked just fine. Be aware that you will only get two full iPhone 5 charges out of it (not 3 as the math would suggest); HOWEVER, over the course of several days, I can attest that you will have gained another full charge. I'm upgrading my review to 5 stars. Overall, this is a great product (and the company has demonstrated to me that they are committed to superior customer service).

Let me preface this review by saying I loved this charger. I took it to the top of Mt Rainier last year and on several multi day backpacking trips. Clipped this baby to the top of my pack during the day and charged my phone at night. Brilliant. I was getting ready to purchase a second one for a multi-week bike trip I am planning when... it stopped charging itself. All day long in full sun and it will not even charge to one blue light. If I charge it on a charger, it will charge to 3 lights max. The odd thing is that if my phone is plugged in when it is in the sun, it will charge the phone. I have had this thing for 9 months. I expected a better lifespan out of the name branded product as opposed to the generic ones that are half the cost and look to be EXACTLY the same.Here is the the rub. I emailed Levin's customer service mailbox per another review on here ([email protected]) but recieved absolutely no response from them whatsoever. Extremely dissapointed. If this thing worked, I would be Levin's biggest fan.EB

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:Good - saved my ____ a few times when my car charger started acting up and I was out of town in business meeting all day and HAVE to have my phone available. It was an iPhone 5 that was nearing the end of it's life and wouldn't keep a charge, so I needed to have SOMETHING available at all times. This did the trick!.The Bad - the USB plug next to the flashlight went out within a week of getting it. No big problem as I don't charge 2 items at a time and the other one was still working.The Ugly....or COULD have been ugly - after 5 months, it quit. Took me a few days to get with the company (they had internet issues) but they PROMPTLY sent me another unit.One of THE main reasons I got it in the first place was a couple of reviews mentioned the same issue. People die - gadgets die - it's what happens AFTER the fact that matters. ALL of the reviews said they got quick and courteous service, so to me, that makes it a FIVE STAR Review. I was in Retail Ownership for about 35 years and STRESSED good Customer Service, which enabled me to keep many of the same customers for that whole period. THIS company is doing it right!!