View Poll Results: Which one of the chargers would you choose? | |||
No solar panels | 3 | 75.00% | |
Solar panels | 1 | 25.00% | |
Voters: 4. You may not vote on this poll |
Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
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I am considering getting a battery charger for my iPhone 4 for my summer outdoors vacation and I have come up with two options:
1. a 5600 mAh USB battery - DKK 499,- 2. a 2200 mAh USB battery with solar panels that can recahrge the battery in 10 hours - DKK 799,- Of course the one with the solar panels engenders the most gadget lust, but I'm not quite sure solar panels are really worth it considering that it's difficult to keep the thing exposed to sunlight while you are on the go. So I'd like to hear if any of you guys have any experience or insights regarding such products or maybe just poll the poll. Oh, and it's intended as a luxury item, not a survival item. |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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If you can actually get sun then I would go for solar. If setting it up to charge isn't going to be realistic then go without solar. I'm for using solar panels if you can though.
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
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After some closer study, I've found some flaws with both devices:
Option 1 does not have an automatic off switch which apparently means that it will keep trying to push power into whatever device it is charging even after said device is fully charged. I'm not an expert on the matter, but since people take note of the lack of this feature, I suppose it means that the precious power is probably being converted to heat and wasted at that point. Option 2 only puts out 5 V which means it can't charge an iPad. I don't currently own an iPad, but I would not rule out getting one at some later point. Also, an iPad 3 has a battery capacity of 11600 mAh which means that not even option 1 would be able to fully recharge one. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
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I would be wary of reviews of gadgets like this. Most people don't understand electricity (why wouldn't 5 V charge an iPad?) and the web is full of fake reviews — whether by people "reviewing" something they've never seen for their content-creation employer, or people manufacturer employees reviewing their own company's products.
I can say from experience this eneloop battery works exactly as advertised, and continues to work three years after I bought it. Eneloop also makes a version that runs off two AA cells, such as eneloop cells, which might be worth looking at. Somewhere on their website is a PDF with a list of all compatible USB-powered devices, but I haven't time to find it right now... |
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Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
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Ah, my bad. They wrote watts. And I understand from Apple's support site that the iPad requires Extra power in order to charge.
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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Yeah, it is expected that you use their 10W charger for iPads but I charge mine over night with my iPhone charger. I also have the screen off during this charge time. If you want to be able to use the iPad and charge you have to get a "high" watt one.
You do pay extra for "iPad compatibility" with some vendors. Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
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Sorry for my brief reply yesterday.
Here is the current eneloop KBC-L2B mobile booster that would be most useful with an iPad. Since Sanyo is probably the world leader in battery technology, and can be trusted to make high-quality electronics too, I would be confident this would work well. One convenience is the ability to charge the device itself with either mains power (it comes with an AC power adaptor) or via a USB port on your computer or other device. Charging the battery by USB port does take a very long time (about 14 hours for my booster), since the charging power is limited to about 2.5 watts on a standard USB port. Still, this is useful for charging in a car (many GPS devices charge via USB nowadays, so their cigarrete-lighter power adaptors provide a USB port), or for charging the device overnight from your laptop in a hotel room. A friend of mine recently bought a small solar charger, and was very disappointed with it. He thought it might be able to charge his Samsung Android device (can't remember the model, but it has a fairly large screen) while walking around with the solar panel on top of his backpack. In fact, it provides so little power as to be useless in that role. It only charges at a useful speed in direct sunlight, and even then is very slow. Sunlight is about 10 times brighter than light on a bright but cloudy day, so any small solar charger will be useless in anything less than direct sunlight. If you really need power over a long period of time, such as a two-week expedition into the wilds, then solar chargers start to make sense. For a few hours away from the mains, batteries make more sense. Still, you say it's not a survival item, and a solar charger might be fun. And Brunton is a high-quality brand (my friend's solar charger is a much cheaper device. I can find out the brand, if you want, so you can avoid it). |
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Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
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Thanks for the recommendations, Dorian. I've just ordered the KBC-L2B.
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
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Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
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So, now I've had the opportunity to test it out. I managed to completely recharge my iPhone 4 three times with it which is not too far from what I was expecting from a theoretical calculation:
Enelop capacity = 5000 mAh new battery), iPhone capacity = 1450 mAh (almost two years old battery) 5000/1450=3.45 Obviously something was lost to inefficiencies and I'm not exactly sure if it takes less or more power to charge an old battery. Anyways, three full charges from the Enelop kept my iPhone going for four more days under normal use conditions which is fine for my purposes. Charging time was just shy of two hours for my iPhone. On the practical side the Enelop offers more flexibility that any of the other batteries I've been looking at. It's got two USB ports to charge from and the ability to charge itself while charging other devices. The drawbacks are the lack of automatic off switch, which does seem like a rare premium feature only present on expensive alternatives. The status indicator light is also somewhat complicated and you really need to read the manual to understand it. All in all I'd say it's a good buy, especially since it's half price of that solar charger thing. |
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