AUKEY Solar Charger (Grey)

Overall this power bank performs as advertised. Realize the solar panel is for emergencies and is not a realistic way to routinely recharge this power bank. The good news is it isn't really adding much to the price or weight so I think it's worth it. The light is a nice touch, but don't expect it to be useful for anything other than very close work.I did some testing on the efficiency using my Drok USB power meter. Using the 2A port to charge a combination of a Galaxy S7 Edge and iPad Air 2, the total output was 7,977 mAh. This was at about 4.9V on average, making the total power 39.1 Wh (7.9*7.977). Keep in mind this is rated at 12 Ah @ 3.7V which is 44.4 Wh (12*3.7). Actual power out divided by rated is 39.1/44.1= about 88% efficiency. This is pretty good for real world conditions and compares well with other quality power banks such as Anker. Efficiency would probably be well into the nineties if the 1A port were used. Weight is good at 9.75 oz vs. an Anker power bank I have with the same capacity that is a few years older and weighs 10.5 oz. The solar panel was covered during this test.To test the solar charging, I fully depleted the power bank and placed it in full Florida sun from about 10am-2pm in July. This is about as good as it gets for sun in my area. Afterwards I measured 428 mAh out when charging my S7 Edge from the 2A port before the power bank was empty. Using the earlier efficiency measurements, this translates to about (0.428*4.9)/.89 = 2.4 Wh of power stored. Divide that by 4 hours to get about .6 watts of effective power from the panel including conversion losses. At that rate, you would need 44.4/.6 = 73 hours of full sun to fully recharge the power bank. As bad as that sounds, this 4 hours of sun put about 9% charge into my phone which would be more than sufficient for 30+ minutes of usage in an emergency. I can live with this. The biggest concern was the temperature during charging in full sun. My IR thermometer read 140 degrees F on the panel side and 120 on the back. This is not good for the batteries and I wouldn't recommend charging at these temperatures unless absolutely necessary. You probably want to put it on something non-flammable just in case. I still don't know why everything portable solar is black rather than white. High temps negatively affect panel efficiency so you may see better charging numbers if you're at a higher elevation.The only major complaint I have is the input charging is painfully slow at 1A. I can't say exactly how long it took to fully recharge from a standard 2A charger, but it is well over 9 hours. A 2A input is badly needed and would cut this in half.My primary use for this power bank will be backpacking on shorter multi-day trips to recharge a phone, headlamp, and Inreach Satellite communicator. It is much lighter than carrying a separate panel and still provides some piece of mind that I could produce some power from the sun in an emergency even if the battery were fully depleted. The small size will also make it easy to attach to the top of my pack to pick up a little charge throughout the day. I paid full price for this item through Amazon.

I already had a 10000mAh charger from another manufacturer, but I wanted to try this one as it appeared lighter, had a solar panel, and had a higher capacity at 12000mAh.So far I am very happy with this charger. The solar charger isn't useful for charging the battery in full, but I have successfully used it on a hiking trip to recharge about 20% of the battery capacity. It helps to make sure it stays in very bright sunlight of course. Additionally, this thing is very light which is another great feature where hiking is concerned.

The good - the solar panel will charge the battery. The bad - after charging it from the wall, it only charged my phone about 2.5 times. I have an iPhone 6s. The worse - the USB port has a short in it. Bought it in July, I've used it on one camping trip, and now we're in September and it is essentially a brick.I might consider buying it again, but the quality of that USB port concerns me.*********Edit (9/19/2016): The seller has contacted me through here. I had also asked how to put through a warranty claim, and those instructions came through in less than 24 hours. Before I could put through a request, I received a response to the review. They are replacing the unit with another one.Adding a star for responsive customer service. Once I get the new unit and have a chance to use it a time or two, I'll look at the review again. I REALLY want this to work well.*******Edit (11/14/2016): I have a new one and have used it multiple times. This one seems to hold a better charge than the last one - getting about 3.5 charges to my iPhone rather than just 2.5 with the old one. It has survived a rugged 3-day hiking trip in Arkansas, as well as two Scout camping trips - no problems with shorts. All-in-all I'm pleased. Raising the rating one star to a total of four.

Worked great for a few weeks but then one USB charging port failed, followed quickly by the other. I disassembled the product and found the usb ports were only soldiered to the circuit board and had both come loose. There was no reinforcement here so it's not surprising the device failed. Would work ok for gentle desktop use, but not at all tough enough for outdoor adventure use like a solar charger should be.

Hands down, this is probably one of the most useful things that I purchased on Amazon. I bought several battery packs in the past but this is by far the most functional and practical. If you haven't heard of Sun Power they specialize in solar technology and their panels are actually used at Levi's Stadium (Santa Clara, CA) which means that this battery pack is very efficient at harnessing energy from the sun.Aside from being a trusted brand in consumer electronics, this battery is made with soft, but durable material which also features two USB outputs and even a flashlight which I found to be quite useful. Although the size and form factor may be a bit larger than what I expected, it is the perfect gift for anyone who constantly needs to be plugged in. Overall I would give this product a 4.5/5 and would recommend this to anyone as their next portable battery.PROS:- Solar Panels by Sun Power- Trusted Brand- Durable MaterialsCONS:- Size & Form Factor

I like this, although I didn't find out until after I bought it that you are only supposed to rely on the solar charging to top off the charge in the battery. It's not meant to be charged 100% from scratch by the solar panel. Still a good thing to have around. I just leave it in the window until I need it.

I bought this item, I really like it, but it turned out that my piece was defective. Aukey contacted me immediately and refunded me what I payed for the item. They told me that they were going to review the issue to try and correct it. Their customer service was amazing. I'll give them another try.

Love it. Holds enough power to charge several devices a few times (e.g. took it on holiday and it charged my boyfriends iPhone and my iPhone twice each and my iPad once and my kindle. The solar panel does work but you'd need to leave it outside for days if not months to fully charge the power bank. That being said, I took it with my on holiday in the desert and had it in the sun and it did charge a fair amount.One thing. Beware about taking this in your hand luggage. It is allowed. And I had no issues leaving the UK. But coming back from Thailand, the Thai airport security people were a bit puzzled as to what it was and thought it looked dodgy! They spoke no English. I had to mime out my phone running out of battery and then use the device to charge my phone before they were convinced that it wasn't anything dodgy!

my best buy of 2016. got about 5 charges of my iphone (from almost flat) out of it. not sure the solar charge works that well- but i was always under the impression that it was a trickle charge anyway

works well it seems! Haven't had much sun to test it with yet but did seem to charge in a few brighter moments

It was perfect up until the point it just died - about 6 months after purchase. Had good power and battery life, plus had a good capacity.

I shall be returning this item as despite leaving it in full sun for 2 whole days the power bank would only charge up to half power, insufficient for my Huawei P10. no use relying on it when you're out of reach of electricity back up. It charged phone for the 1st day camping as I had left with it fully powered from home.