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Never be without iPod power again with this portable solar charger
Solar power went through something of a phase a few years ago but has now largely fallen out of fashion when it comes to gadgets.
It makes sense, however, when it comes to charging up portable gadgets that are often used outdoors, such as digital music players, digital cameras and mobile phones.
The Solio Universal Solar Charger can charge most portable devices such as smartphones, handheld computers, and music players.
It charges its own internal battery using the sun’s energy, then can be used to charge other devices. Our review unit came with an iPod cable, but other cables are available depending on what devices you need to charge.
It takes a few hours to charge itself and then charges the device at much the same rate as a normal mains charger.
Our only qualm is that because of the £50 initial outlay, it will take a long time to pay for itself - although, it's an environmentalist's dream for modern-day living.
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Roberts
Wanderer
Muscle, rather than solar-powered, this wind-up radio will please fans of the
outdoors.
Price: £35
Good points
• Environmental means of drawing power
• Portable
Bad points
• Have to buy separate cables for different devices
• Will take a while to recoup initial outlay
Verdict
The Solio is a great idea, although it will take a long time to pay for
itself
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Solio device adapters
The original Solio is a nice idea as a central hub for charging all your portable electronic devices, but unfortunately is let down by poor quality adapters. Mine came with a direct iPod connector which worked well, but the Palm adapter I had to buy next had to be replaced once before it would work. Worse was to come when I wanted to charge my Siemens A65 phone. The supplied adapters didn't include any later Siemens phones as it was out of date. I bought the multipack adapter kit which supposedly allows you to charge a wide range of phones, including the newer Siemens. It didn't work. I complained and a very nice woman at Better Energy (UK support company) sent a new kit. It didn't work either. I tried a few of the adapter tips for other brand phones and those didn't work. She sent me yet another kit. I still couldn't charge my Siemens. She then sent me individual Siemens tips. Those didn't work. In all I received four multipacks and three individual Siemens tips. Eventually I found one that worked but now I had about 30 phone charger tips. I was so fed up that I bought a new Sony Ericsson K800. Naturally I had no useable tip out of the bucket load that Better Energy had sent me. I thought this time, instead of buying individual tips for each phone I'd get the USB adapter so I could charge any device using the manufacturer's own USB cable. Wrong! The USB adapter wouldn't charge my K800. I complained and they sent another one. That didn't work either. I complained again, but this time my emails are being ignored. I'm so fed up that I want my money back but no one will talk to me. The Solio is a good idea but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone because of the device compatibility issues. Yesterday I bought a non-solar , mains rechargeable lithium mobile device charger for £9.99 from Maplin which comes with phone tips and USB plugs and sockets and it works like a dream on all my devices and is genuinely pocket sized. I'm much happier with that!
Posted by Tomcat, 18 Jul 2008