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.

This is a very good product.. IF you know how to use it.. by using it, i dont mean "plug it into your iphone and expect 0% to 100% in couple hours".. you MUST buy a usb power meter tester! this is the only way you will test your charging rate! and make sure charge rate increases after a cloud passes.. yea you can plug it in to your iphone and it will show charging, but when the cloud passes, you must look into your usb power meter if the charging rate increases again, if it does not, this product is useless for you but you cant blame it.. i use a EasyAcc 26,000 mah battery pack with it, the Solar Charger has 2 outputs that you can connect to a EasyAcc battery pack into its both inputs.. so; with this battery pack; if a cloud passes, obviously the charge rate decreases to about .15amps depending on weather conditions.. charge rate should automatically increase after a cloud passes and the sun shine is out.. my iPhone 6s doesn't do that, when the sun is out i get .95amps, thats very good, as soon as a cloud passes, i get .15ish amps, then it stays like that for the rest of the day till i manually unplug and plug the iPhone 6s in it.. the EasyAcc automatically allows charge rate to increase after a cloud passes.. I thought i had figured it out.. its fun to see the charge rate as you are charging your "anything" using the sun.. but it is not comfortable to plug the USB Power Meter Tester into the back of the panels, hold it at the same time and watch the charge rate.. I bought USB extension cables to plug them into the Solar Charger and than plug the USB Power Meter.. BIG MISTAKE!!! the cables only allow .46amps MAX, they slow down the charge current.. make sure your cables are good, mine aren't.. but when i plug the USB Power Meter directly into the Solar Charger, i get .96amps into my iPhone 6s (10am sunlight in New York).. test it out before you use it.. all cables, phones, battery packs are different.. research, research and again, the EasyAcc 26,000mah power bank works amazing with this unit, and so as the RavPower 26,800 mah I got.. its only down hill is that its got only 1 input to charge the device, not 2 inputs like the EasyAcc.. I also have a Mophie 12,000 mah battery pack, this one will charge as the sun is looking at it, but once the clouds block the sun, the charge current drops, and will stay like that very low till the night.. RavPower and EasyAcc automatically increase charge current as the sun begins to shine.. Just because you see a charging icon on your iphone does not mean you are charging it at a good rate.. same for battery packs.. test your stuff and this Solar Device is for you! Kinda sucks that no one warns about this issue, i learned the hard way.. I could of not known this product and gave a 1 star review? many negative reviews are by the people who don't know how to use this product and did not test it.. giving this a 1 star when its a good product that id give 10 stars if i could!

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.

-The panel is SUPER conveniently made. Expecting it'll last a long time. Feels high quality. Works beautifully. (The little mesh around the ports is extremely strategic and we'll thought out. Only wish it was some how water proof! That could be neat- but on only need wrap it in a bag to make it that way. I bought this as my first "solar system" starter. I bought with a 20,000 mAh battery and the between the two of them, I haven't charged my phone with anything else for weeks! I charge the battery pack during the day (through the window at my office and on cloudy days I'm able to get about 20% of the battery or more charged up which is enough to fully charge my phone or my wife's iPhone twice.) So it's worked awesome. I usually only use one port but one sunny day I had it laying in full sun and it charged my phone and my wife's in like an hour! And I topped off the battery pack too! -As a remark from being new to solar- I've been surprised by how much the angle of the sun on the panel matters. BUT I've also been happily surprised by how little light this bad boy can generate electricity from! I wouldn't go any smaller of a panel but for my usage of my phone and for how cloudy my days have been- I also don't need any more panel. (Id feel comfortable to not have a battery attached and simply use this to charge my phone but with the battery I can charge it all day and then quickly use it to charge my phone at night.

First evaluation is very positive, Still pretty cloudy and cold up here, but got out in jeep the other day and got some sunshine between the clouds, so hooked this thing up and it quick charged, and even had Spotify playing over blue tooth speaker at the same time. Planning to use this to charge my 10,000 mil amp battery pack, but can and will plug phones straight into the Solar charger, as well as speakers, etc. Seems well built, nothing to put together, just plug in and charge. First real trip is this April, and can still have snow in high country, but will have a better chance to really test output and dual charging over the course of week. Will update this after that trip, but looks good, worked well on first try, with real bright sun expecting great things. Gave a 4, Just don't think I have used it enough to rate any higher, but this is going to be a great asset in the back country. Update, If your a back country traveler, Summer is now over, I was camping most of it, and this thing is amazing. Weeks out at a time and could keep tablet, Battery pack, two phones, and JBL Flip 2 , all charged up camping. With Anchor 20,000 some battery pack, could go all night. And forgot the E reader. Own a boat, Camping, Etc. This gets job done.

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.