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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2016
Great little weather radio and all-around emergency kit.
Overview: good features, great price.
Pros: price, size, li-ion battery, hand-cranking
Cons:
1) No battery indicator, other than a red/green charging/charged light. Some readout (even 4 lights: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) would be helpful.
2) Phone charger is a little slow and won't fully charge a big phone, but plenty to partially charge it - that's all I really need this for anyway.
The features of this are:
- LED light
- Li-ion battery
- hand-crank
- solar charging
- AAA battery (3) slots
- AM/FM/Weather band radio
- antenna
- phone charging
- SOS alarm
- waterproof
I'll run through the features one-by-one:
- LED light
1W LED is bright enough to read by. It has a focusing lens which is so-so, but the light is good as it is. Plus the shape of the brick means it can point forward or up.
Under the solar charger is also a 4 LED light (shown popped up in the picture), so you could read.
- Li-ion battery
Newer battery technology means it won't develop a memory, and isn't too unsafe. It has a Micro-USB plug to charge through (or the hand-crank or solar, of course). The included manual says fully charged in 4 hours; that's a little less than what it took when I received it (probably had some charge to start with).
- hand-crank
They claim 1 minute of hand-crank can power the light for 25 minutes, and I'm inclined to believe it - a 1W LED won't draw much power at all. Plus you can (theoretically) charge the battery to then charge a phone.
- solar charging
Probably more to keep the battery level up, rather than letting the battery run low and then recharging it. But a good option.
- AAA battery (3) slots
Good to have the option of just throwing a few batteries in, in case the battery runs down and you don't want to wait for the hand-cranking.
- AM/FM/Weather band radio
Dials are a bit "touchy", but I was able to get most of the stations near me without even pulling the antenna out - probably a necessity if you are camping, though. My big draw is the weather radio, but during a big emergency (e.g. hurricane), many of the stations are going to give frequent updates anyway.
- antenna
Fits inside the brick nicely, with just a small nub on the outside to be able to pull it out. The hinge is a little flimsy, but I don't think I'll be using the antenna outside of the brick too much.
- phone charging
I found an app that measures the incoming wattage, and I was seeing mostly around 280 mA with a peak of about 350mA. My wall charger only reads 850-900 mA, so a decent charge. I don't think it would take my OnePlus One (size of an iPhone 6S) up to 100%, but would be able to take it up most of the way -- more than enough to make some phone calls, or check the radar during a storm.
- SOS alarm
Loud. My big complaint is the slider for this is 3-way: charge phone, nothing, or the SOS alarm. So, sliding from phone-charge to nothing is tricky; too far and the alarm starts going.
- waterproof
I don't want to test this, but the plugs are behind silicone covers, so it seems like it would be safe enough. I don't think I'd dive with it, but it probably would protect it from a bit of accidental rain exposure.
I'd definitely give this a 5-star if they added some kind of way to know HOW MUCH the battery is charged. As it is, it could be 99% or 5%; I think the red light comes on when the battery is low, but there is no note about how much even that is indicating.
Overview: good features, great price.
Pros: price, size, li-ion battery, hand-cranking
Cons:
1) No battery indicator, other than a red/green charging/charged light. Some readout (even 4 lights: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) would be helpful.
2) Phone charger is a little slow and won't fully charge a big phone, but plenty to partially charge it - that's all I really need this for anyway.
The features of this are:
- LED light
- Li-ion battery
- hand-crank
- solar charging
- AAA battery (3) slots
- AM/FM/Weather band radio
- antenna
- phone charging
- SOS alarm
- waterproof
I'll run through the features one-by-one:
- LED light
1W LED is bright enough to read by. It has a focusing lens which is so-so, but the light is good as it is. Plus the shape of the brick means it can point forward or up.
Under the solar charger is also a 4 LED light (shown popped up in the picture), so you could read.
- Li-ion battery
Newer battery technology means it won't develop a memory, and isn't too unsafe. It has a Micro-USB plug to charge through (or the hand-crank or solar, of course). The included manual says fully charged in 4 hours; that's a little less than what it took when I received it (probably had some charge to start with).
- hand-crank
They claim 1 minute of hand-crank can power the light for 25 minutes, and I'm inclined to believe it - a 1W LED won't draw much power at all. Plus you can (theoretically) charge the battery to then charge a phone.
- solar charging
Probably more to keep the battery level up, rather than letting the battery run low and then recharging it. But a good option.
- AAA battery (3) slots
Good to have the option of just throwing a few batteries in, in case the battery runs down and you don't want to wait for the hand-cranking.
- AM/FM/Weather band radio
Dials are a bit "touchy", but I was able to get most of the stations near me without even pulling the antenna out - probably a necessity if you are camping, though. My big draw is the weather radio, but during a big emergency (e.g. hurricane), many of the stations are going to give frequent updates anyway.
- antenna
Fits inside the brick nicely, with just a small nub on the outside to be able to pull it out. The hinge is a little flimsy, but I don't think I'll be using the antenna outside of the brick too much.
- phone charging
I found an app that measures the incoming wattage, and I was seeing mostly around 280 mA with a peak of about 350mA. My wall charger only reads 850-900 mA, so a decent charge. I don't think it would take my OnePlus One (size of an iPhone 6S) up to 100%, but would be able to take it up most of the way -- more than enough to make some phone calls, or check the radar during a storm.
- SOS alarm
Loud. My big complaint is the slider for this is 3-way: charge phone, nothing, or the SOS alarm. So, sliding from phone-charge to nothing is tricky; too far and the alarm starts going.
- waterproof
I don't want to test this, but the plugs are behind silicone covers, so it seems like it would be safe enough. I don't think I'd dive with it, but it probably would protect it from a bit of accidental rain exposure.
I'd definitely give this a 5-star if they added some kind of way to know HOW MUCH the battery is charged. As it is, it could be 99% or 5%; I think the red light comes on when the battery is low, but there is no note about how much even that is indicating.
