Opteka BP-SC6000 Ultra High Capacity (6000mAh) Backup Battery Solar Charger with Faster Charging EcoPanel

I've had this charger for about 5 days and it's been awesome! By leaving it in my car and next to the window in my office I've been able to charge my phone fully every few days (it sits on the dash of my civic nicely on hour long car rides and doesn't slide at all). Note: I live in an apartment surrounded by trees on all sides, so you might be able to get performance than I do. Even with indirect sunlight, the charger can still charge. In that respect, it's quite impressive. Also, the device comes with the plugs that work for my GS3 and my mom's iPhone 4, though I've pretty sure anyone will already have a USB charger for their phone anyway.My only issue with this is that the indicator lights that show how much power is being used are not very logical and the user manual is absolutely awful. I had to e-mail the company that sells this to get clarification, and to their credit they gave a great explanation and did so very quickly (within a half hour). Allow me to save you the hassle: There are a set of 4 LED lights. The first one turns red when it is getting enough sunlight for the device to store energy. All 4 lights turn blue when you plug it in to charge it through USB. The manual gave me the impression that the lights all turn red as it stockpiles a charge. That's not the case (the manual doesn't say what color the LED lights will be in this case). So, I sat there for the first few days wondering why only the first red light would come on. Why wasn't it charging more? Well, only the blue lights indicate how much it is charged. So, to know how much energy the device has, you have to plug it in. That was a bit confusing for me and I wasted a day's worth of charging by not knowing that. I could have gotten much better performance from this so far had I figured that out sooner.Overall, though I love this device. Sure, it saves a bit of money in electricity costs but the convenience in not needing electricity is much better. When I lived in Cincinnati a few years ago, most of the city lost electricity for days. If I had this with me, I could have saved myself (and my family who constantly tried to get in touch with me) a lot of headache.The real benefit to me, however is that since it's barely bigger than my GS3, it's easy to have my phone charging in my pocket or backpack without being tied to an outlet (though to many it will be slightly too thick to keep in your pocket with your phone). I go to a lot of conferences and events where I am e-mailing, tweeting, or taking notes on my phone. This device will let me go crazy with that and not have to worry about my phone dying. I also worry that one day my phone will die just before an emergency happens. That's no longer a concern, either.This charger is easily worth the $40 I paid for it and worthy of a 5 star rating.UPDATE: 6/5/14I've had this for a while and this review needed an update. I still love it, but I should add a few notes. First, this charges very slowly. If I'm using my Samsung GS3 and it's plugged into this charger, my battery will still lose power (but it will do so very slowly). So, you can't plug in your phone when it's at 2% and use it constantly and expect that this charger will help. It still charges and even though it's slow, it's still very useful. But some will find the slow charging annoying. Second, there are better options if you're only looking for a charger that you'll need for a short period of time (like going out for one night). My wife bought a charger that can only be charged from an electrical outlet. That charges faster and feels like it's of much better quality. But, those kinds of chargers won't do you much good if you're out camping for a few days, since it will probably run out after charging your phone a few times.Overall, I still really like this device, though some people should look harder at the non-solar chargers. I kind of hate saying that because I love the idea of solar chargers, but it's true.

I purchased this in case of power loss (blizzards, hurricanes, etc) so I could have communications in an emergency. At heart, this is a good capacity battery which can be charged from the wall, or very slowly from sunlight. When I received the package, I received the charger (which is exactly the size of a 3.5 inch portable USB hard drive), some brief instructions and a sub-par set of cables to connect the charger.The intent of this charger is to start, fully charged, by plugging in the micro USB port to your wall. While the solar panel may eventually charge the device, it will take at least 40 hours in strong, direct sunlight. The purpose of the solar panel is to trickle charge the battery. When the charger is filling the battery from sunlight, one LED turns red. When the charger is in use, 1 to 4 LEDs will turn blue, indicating how much charge is left in the device.For a test, I let my non-smartphone (LG Cosmos Touch) reach critical levels, and plugged it into my fully charged solar charger. After 2 hours or so, the cell phone was fully charged, while the device showed 2 blue LEDs of its 4. So, it likely has enough juice to fully charge a smartphone twice. The best case is leaving the charger in the sunlight while it is charging the phone. This will help keep the battery topped up.The manual says not to leave this in your car, because while the battery can charge from the direct sunlight, say, on your dashboard, the inside of the car may get hot enough to damage the circuitry. This isn't a big deal. Just don't leave the device somewhere you wouldn't want to stay for a few hours.I tested a wide variety of devices and found my eInk reader, GPS and MP3 player would all charge from this. However, my Barnes & Noble Nook HD reader would not, probably because it uses a proprietary connector which has a USB connector on one end. Basically, if the device charges from a standard micro/mini USB port (or Apple port) it will probably charge from this.In conclusion, this is an excellent backup battery with the nice add-on of slow charging of the battery from sunlight. I definitely recommend this for emergency power, and think it would shine if taken on a hiking or camping trip, where it could keep devices topped up while topping itself up from the sun. It would probably also be excellent for keeping GPSs charged while using them on, say, a bike or motorcycle.Definitely worth the purchase price.

As a battery charger/ backup it is great. Charges my phone, and generally goes down one of those power level lights, so thinking it will probably charge it about 3 times! But the solar part is weak at best. Yes, the little red "I am getting solar and charging your battery" light comes on. I have had it in my car on the dash on cooler days, in my window sill, on my window (facing out to direct sun), outside on my table in direct sun, and have never gotten the charge light to go up. I heard it was slow, but thought "well I will leave it in direct sun, not use it every day, but maybe can charge the phone every 2 or 3 days on that. No, 2 lights on battery level, 4-5 days later, in direct sun for 6-8 hours (plus not direct for several hours) and still at 2 lights. So I leave it on my window every day, thinking it might be doing something, but when I am headed away for a time I think I may need to charge my phone, I will fill it up with a wall socket before leaving. Camping in a tent this week, so hoping between a full charge before I leave, getting it out in the sun most of the day, and giving it a few hours in the truck charger if needed, I will be able to keep my cell phone on all week.

I bought this for charging up my iphone and my Tablet whilst on holiday, I had one before of a different make and I just left it on the sunbed as I read the Tablet, unfortunately it partly melted in the sun, so beware. I like this one better as it is smaller than the previous one and slips easily into a pocket, it comes with decent instructions but is so simple it is self explanatory.

I went camping with my University at a music festival we were sound engineering, and knowing my phone doesn't hold the charge for long I bought this.It charged my phone twice and half again in 4 days, but the solar panel takes 28 hours to fully charge in direct sunlight, I've had it stuck on my window shelf for 2 weeks, and it's still saying only 10% charge.Good for a phone battery, not for a solar panel re-charger.

Does and excellent job of charging other battery gadgets such as mobiles phones and even a small video camera. I wouldn't rely too much on the solar charging aspect in Britain but it does work and tops up the battery if left in those odd days of sunshine. The capacity it high too, enough to regular use every day.

Excellent gadget........well worth the money. I charged the unit from the mains and used it for walking as the iphone has a crap battery life. This unit was great. I would recommend this to anyone.

charges very slowly, not sure if it works properly