A local company called Kiwi Choice hooked me up with their first product, called the U-Powered Solar Charger, which I played with over the weekend and is available today for sale. It stores a 2000 mAh battery, allows for USB charging, includes every freakin’ adapter you could need, including iPhone, miniUSB, microUSB, and a variety of proprietary jacks, has rear-mounted magnets if you’re having trouble finding a good charging angle, and even has a handy LED flashlight.
It looked suspiciously like the Solio when opened up into three leaves, but I let that slide. Solar charging is certainly not fast – I’ve had the U-Powered out in direct light for around 8-10 hours, and it’s maybe half full, indicated by the center LED. For the times you’d want a solar charger, like when you’re out hiking, it would be handier to have some kind of clip or loophole to use instead of magnets. In the demo video, they show folks slapping it on the side of their car door to charge while driving, but I would be worried of it peeling off from wind resistance alone. Besides, the things comes with a car charger anyway. The hardware itself I found a little loose, but overall does the job. As a spare battery, and emergency backup when you’re far from a proper power supply, I could see the U-Powered being helpful. The wide variety of adapters are a major bonus.
If you’re interested, you can pick up the U-Powered solar charger for $44.99.
