Nekteck 21W Solar Charger(5V/3A Max) with 2 USB Port, IPX4 Waterproof Portable and Foldable Hiking Camping Gear SunPower USB Solar Panel Compatible with iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, and More

I purchased this skeptical that it would perform well or provide good functionality for the price. I was pleasantly surprised that the packaging and form is perfect for backpacking, and the panel charges adequately. On a partially overcast Colorado day, it would not charge my iphone X directly since it did not generate enough voltage for charging. However, it did charge -- at reduced capacity -- my Anker battery pack (16000 mAh) at 4.95 volts and 2000 mAh output (approx 10 W-hours output). On a sunny Colorado day, it charges both devices at 5 volts and 3800 mAh, or 19w-h ... closer to rated capacity of 21 W, and pretty close to theoretical maximum. For the 1 pound weight, I think this is a great option for backpacking long distances where you do not have access to external power to charge the battery pack. Like me, you can charge your battery pack on lower output days and then use the battery pack to charge the phone or other devices requiring more consistent output. If you use this directly on your pack, it will disconnect from charging periodically in shade or wrong sun angle and your phone will keep beeping to let you know. You avoid this problem by charging a battery pack that is then used to charge a phone. From a dead battery back, this panel with full sunlight (pointing panel to sun throughout the day) charged the 16000 mAh Anker portable battery in a little over 8 hours. Since I don't plan on staying in a campsite for 8 hours, I suspect I can get at least half that capacity tied to a pack which hiking. I found that orientation (tilted toward sun versus pointing straight in air) did not significantly affect output by more than 20%. Since I don't use more than 5,000 mAh per day between my iphoneX and Garmin Explorer GPS unit, this solar panel should sustain my power needs unless I am in a shaded forest or inclement weather. The functionality of the velcro with the folding panels makes for a good size to hang from a pack, and also to fold up and put in the pack when not in use. The compartment on one end containing 2 USB connectors is the right size to hold a 16000 mAh Anker battery pack (and keep it shaded from sun while charging). The two provided small carabiners and grommets on the end facilitate hanging it for charging. I added 550 cord to the carabiners to make it more useful for hanging from limbs or other objects beside my pack straps. I have seen it repeal water from the panels; however, would recommend that you protect the compartment with the USB connectors from getting wet. Seems they would not respond well to this. If you kept this last compartment dry, I am fairly certain the panels themselves could get a little wet without damage.

Why we purchased: We are frequent at the race track, spending long days where a plug for a phone charger is not accessible and the car is on the race track and unable to charge our electronics. We needed a solution that was not only wireless, but something that didn't need to be charged itself, as some portable charges require. What we love: We have purchased a solar charger before (much smaller than this one), and this product charges much faster than our old one. Since we usually go as a group, it helps that there are two ports for charging. We were surprised at how fast it charges, especially with our previous experience with solar chargers. It's not the smallest solar panel, but it's very light and easy to bring around. It's also attractive with its slim aesthetic, not being obvious that it's a solar panel. Our friends, when they first see it, ask us what it is, immediately interested in what this sleek piece of equipment could be. We've actually gotten another one for our friend who was excited to receive it and use it. This is perfect for when you're sitting in the car, when you don't want to leave it on: you can place it on the dashboard or on top of the roof (if you have a sun roof); this is what we do when we sit in the car between track sessions... While the car cools. What we don't love: there aren't any aspects that we don't care for. It's not the least expensive solar charger out there, but you're definitely getting your money's worth-- and more, when you think about how you don't have to leave your car on in order to charge your electronics. It has two USB ports so it's not simply for a single type of phone, or phones at all. One can find multiple uses for it! Overall: we would recommend this to anyone. No, it may not be the least expensive solar panel out there, but those who buy this and another solar charger can see why this one is not as inexpensive. It pays for itself, essentially. You won't be disappointed. We have used ours over and over, looking for opportunities to utilize it and it hasn't failed us.

The Nekteck works exactly the way it should. I live off grid. No electricity. My generator recently quit and I needed an alternative way to charge my phone. My only way to stay in touch with the world around me. I live in the desert with my rescue dogs. This product performs as promised, but I have no electrical source. I have several battery banks. The day after this product arrived, I plugged in a battery bank, there are two USB ports on this item. I plugged the battery bank in at 7:30 am. I brought it inside at 4:30 pm. I moved it several times over the course of the day to keep it in direct sunlight. After bringing it inside, the battery bank was only half charged. Unfortunately, you need more than 21w to charge your device. Time changed recently so the sun is not as bright as it was this summer. It may work like a dream then, but it isn't of practical use for me right now. If you were going camping for a bright sunny weekend, this would help you charge an item. The directions advise you to use a battery bank and not use the charger directly with your device. For me, it wasn't very useful because I didn't have a secondary way to charge. I have since purchased another generator. On the days I used this product the days were partly cloudy. Which sucked, because if there is a cloud over the sun- no charge. I live in the desert in a valley of mountains. The wind blows in excess of 20 miles an hour frequently. It blew this device several times and, as a result, no charge. It's desert, so, sand blows constantly. If sand gets on your solar panels, no charge. If you live in a city and have access to calm, sunny weather, this device will work great for you! Device arrived on time, in good condition, as described. UPDATE: I have since given the product another use. Because I live very isolated and have a limited power supply I have a couple of battery banks to keep charged and it's challenging. Repeated recharge can and will drain your vehicle battery. Particularly, when you don't leave your property too often. I have purchased a large generator, but running the generator to charge two battery banks seems wasteful. I put my smaller battery bank out, facing the sun, using the Nekteck, at 7: ish am. After about 10 am I move the charger over to my fence, still facing the sun. I don't move it again before sundown. About 4 pm the smaller battery bank is completely charged. The next day, I put the larger bank out and repeated the process from the previous day. At 4:30 pm it was half charged. One battery bank is a double charge battery bank, the other, a triple plus some. I chalk up the larger size of the bank for the lack of full charge. The product is a great product. I do recommend anyone who wants a quality and convenient product for topping off a phone or device while camping or hiking this product is a nice product. I went outside and sat in the sun with my phone plugged into the Nekteck. It charged relatively quickly, but after it went from 13% to 54% I opted to get out of the sun! The pocket which holds the 2 USB ports makes it convenient to plug in my two banks and zip up the pocket and leave them charge.

I had a smaller panel with a built in battery bank, but that left me disappointed. The efficiency of those panels left much to be desired. It pretty much took forever to charge up just a single dot. End of time to charge up all 4 of them pretty much. I'm a patient man, but all week to get a dot? Not that patient! So I went looking. I decided this should work for me. I first tried to charge my cell phone from the panel. Nothing happened. Much to my surprise. Worse, it actually sucked power from it. I still don't understand why that happened. Then I tried hooking it up to that battery bank I had. The one that took forever to charge in the Sun. Well, it charged that without complaint. But there are a few things you should know. First, if there's any serious deviation in light output, it will stop charging that device. To fix that, just unhook it and hook it back up. That SHOULD get it charging once more. Also, bright sun is best. Don't expect to be able to lamp charge anything. Even with Sun Power panels on it. But once you understand these basics, it works really well. Inside of a day I had all 4 dots loaded up. In just a day. Keep in mind, with it's built in panels, a dot took a week! So incredibly impressive. But keep in mind also, you do need to look at it now and then. If you get a big cloud that lasts for a while, it may not keep charging. Why? I don't know. Maybe someone knows. But once you understand the basics, this panel really works great. I would recommend you hook it up to a battery bank myself, based on what happened when I tried to direct charge my cell phone. But other then that, it works great. The ONLY thing I could say to improve the device is it does need carabiner holes cut where it charges. That way you can carry it around and not be a bit paranoid your stuff fell out of the little pouch where it charges from. Other then that, it's fantastic once you understand it's needs.

One big thing I noticed was how efficient this solar charger is, even under cloud cover. First thing I wanted to do after taking it out of the box was to see how little sun it would need to charge a device. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could charge up my phone (or separate battery charger for AA batteries) under complete cloud cover. It's not nearly as fast of course, but it eliminates the need for a sunny day when a charge is needed. For my cloudy day test, I simply laid the solar panels facing straight up. I plugged in my phone, which has a battery 2100Mah in size, and checked it after 2 hours. It had gained a charge of 20%. So in 8 hours, I could charge up my phone from the 20% up to 100% level without sunshine. I also tested it under the sun. Again, aimed straight up, my phone went from 29% to 89% in 1 hour and 40 minutes. However, this was a day with thin, high clouds that came and went, and also upper level wildfire smoke that filtered the sun somewhat. But still pretty impressive performance! Finally, in a short test on a day when the sun was out enough for a short test where I could aim the panels directly at the sun, I managed to get a 15% charge increase in 18 minutes. That's as long as I could get of unfiltered sunshine that day before a cloud came along. Solar panels have clearly come a long way. It used to be that solar panels required direct sunlight to work. But now that they're efficient enough to produce power even under overcast conditions, their usefulness and reliability for power has increased their utility.

I've been interested for a long time about using solar to charge our many small devices. I'm a biochemist, working in environmental and aquatic sciences, and we have a good collection of meters and readouts and little spectrophotometers that all charge by USB, as well as all of my personal devices (phones, tablet, Kindle, etc...). I liked the reviews I read about this particular solar panel, and I also liked that it did NOT have an integral battery of its own - I am hesitant to leave a sealed battery out in direct sunlight for several hours at a time. After receiving this solar charger, I attached the (included) USB cable to my Kindle and set the panel out on the front porch, angled to catch the afternoon sun. (I placed the solar panel on top a small cooler, with the Kindle inside). Wow. Just ... wow ... It took less than 2 hours to bring my 3rd generation Kindle from less than 10% to fully charged. The following day, I charged my noise cancelling headphones to 100% (90 minutes), my Bluetooth earbuds docking base (also 90 minutes), my wife's small portable power bank (10000 mAh) from 25%-100%. Today at work, I used the morning sun at the lab to charge my old TomTom GPS watch - which is consistently a pain to charge, sometimes requiring an entire weekend on it's charging cradle - in less than an hour! I am beyond pleased! I have also used it to top-off the charge on our turbidity meter, and the ion-selective probe meter that we use daily in the lab. The only device (so far) that has not got on well with the solar charger is my iPad, which would "beep!" and notify me that it was charging, then the screen would go to sleep, then repeat, over and over, with about a 10-second frequency. Not sure why; the sun was very strong and direct, with no intermittent cloud. Maybe the voltage wasn't quite enough to be convincing to the iPad's charging requirements (the panel is "rated" at 5V output, but probably achieves a working voltage of 4.2-4.5V).

Nekteck 20W Solar Charger with 2-Port USB Charger Build with High efficiency Solar Panel Cell for iPhone 6s / 6 / Plus, SE, iPad, Galaxy S6/S7/ Edge/ Plus, Nexus 5X/6P, any USB devices, and more I wouldn't spend much time talking about the aesthetics, as it's well addressed in other reviews. It's sizable, and feels very well made. I like the mesh pocket design on the shade-side as things get quite hot under the direct sun and that design avoids your devices' lithium battery from exploding. I bought this charger to charge my power banks, and one of them has 8 3400mah panasonic 18650 batteries in it that's almost 28,000mah! I left the charger in my small side yard plug into the power bank, and it took it a couple of days to charge it up! I didn't follow closely on exactly how many hours of sunshine it has received (my estimate is 6h/day because building shades) or the totally Wh or Ah but it's pretty quick in my opinion. Just to make it more measurable, I hooked it up with a USB power meter (see pictures) under a moderately shiny day (not very shiny at all), and it's pumping 2.3A at almost 4V. It's already over its spec amps! I didn't connect the 2nd port to test its real full capacity which I will do later on. Besides, it's still a big mystery how it distributes the power supply to its two ports, and I will do a little research and share with folks here later on. Overall it's a decent product that gets things done. I like it.

In my testing of this, it does charge, but the instructions leave a few important things out. 1) You MUST put it in direct sunlight. Shade won't cut it. The green led may come on in shade, but that doesn't mean it will charge/power anything. This can limit your charging window. 2) It does NOT include any sort of blocking diode. A blocking diode (most charge controllers include this, but NOT their Smart IC Technology) prevents the solar panel from draining your battery if the panel isn't producing enough voltage. If you plug in a device while it is in the shade, even though the green led is on, it can actually DRAIN your device. In testing with my phone, it did just that. But when placed in full sun, even through a window, it then charged my phone. (Corollary: It will work behind an untinted window.) This is the main reason I didn't rate it higher. If you don't watch it, it can be liability rather than an asset. 3) There is no stand included. That would have been nice, but not a requirement. 4) The USB connector does not come out of the pouch. It would be nice to not have it in a black cloth while sitting in full sun (see points 1 and 2). It also connects on the side the sun is shinning on. Reversing the pouch would make it more functional IMHO. That and make the cloth non-black. 5) My wife's Ipad can charge directly from this, but only if the panels are (A) in direct sunlight, and (B) it is the only thing plugged into the usb ports. Plug even an empty cable into the other port, and it won't charge. 6) Be sure to get a good quality cable. Some cheaper cables limit the power they can deliver. Look for a cable rated for at least 2.4A and hope the seller isn't fudging numbers. As you don't want your device sitting in the sun, get a long usb cable too (I would recommend a minimum of 3 feet). The one it comes with, while functional, is too short. Good news - I tested 3 power-banks I have, and at least on the micro USB port, the power-banks do seem to have blocking diode built-in. So you can use the Nekteck to charge power-banks with little worry. In the real world, always would charge the power-banks first anyway. But be sure to test *your* power-banks before you really need them to confirm they won't be drained by this panel. Not all power-banks may have blocking diodes. Secondly, there are some power-banks that have built-in panels. Consider these built-in panels an emergency device, not a replacement or substitute for the Nekteck. First, Li-ion batteries, and most electronics, do not like high temperatures. But to use the power-bank panels, you have to leave them in the sun, which will warm them up. See the problem? Secondly, the Nekteck is rated for 21W (I believe the max is more like 18W). My 4 panel power-bank panels are rated at 4.5W. Assuming you don't care about frying your power-bank, and assuming the Nekteck only puts out 15W while the power-bank's panels actually give 4.5W (unlikely), the Nekteck will still charge 3x faster.

I've been using this for a few months now, placing it on the balcony and connecting various power banks to it and they all charge a lot quicker than I expect, my two 10k banks charge in a few hours, the 20k takes most the day. With this method I get enough to charge my mobile phone (and other devices) and enough leftover that even with a few gloomy rainy days (ie, I don't want to put electronics out in case they get wet) I still have enough stored up to keep the phone topped up and never have to use the wallwart again, talking on sunshine!

Buen producto lo recomiendo, llego en tiempo y forma, excelente para campismo, carga celular en unas horas con buen sol

It's suck doesn't charge anything

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Overall not happy with product. I measured the current using a USB current/voltage meter on a sunny day and was not convinced that the specifications stated were correct as voltage was just under 5v ( around 4.8 - 4.9v) and current was not at the rated amount . Additionally item arrived with minor crack in a panel. Sent it back. It is possible that the minor crack could've reduced the output as stated. above.