RAVPower 26800mAh Solar Charger

Description

RAVPower 24W Solar Charger

The RAVPower 24W Solar Charger RP-PC005 is made from five folding solar panels or sections. Four of them have stitched-on premium quality SUNPOWER® solar charging cells. The bottom section has a very useful carry pouch that also contains the USB charging ports. The unit has a very rugged construction which is extremely welcomed. It’s made from thick waterproof canvas material with four riveted eyelets to attach the included carabiners.

The stitching is nice and tidy and the Velcro is very strong. The general build quality is as good as it gets for this kind of product. The one thing that you need to be careful with is the bottom pouch. The Velcro used for closing doesn’t quite cover the entire width so if you happen to put small items in there you might risk them falling off. Something to be mindful of as they could have used a zipper and avoid this being an issue altogether.

Saying this, it is not a massive issue at all if you are stationary. If you were to go trekking or hiking with it attached to a backpack, I would probably advise not to store anything small in the pouch, for precaution, and that includes any phone or power adaptors. Again, nothing major in itself, just being smart.

The RAVPower 24W Solar Charger provides three independent iSmart USB ports. Each port has the capacity to output a maximum of 2.4A. The iSmart technology is designed to automatically detect the optimal current to ensure the fastest charge possible. With a max output of 4.8A, the RAVPower solar charger has the potential to charge a tablet and two Smartphones at the same time and this is really helpful when being outdoors as nowadays almost everyone has an additional device or two apart from the phone.

As with most portable solar panels, there is no internal battery to store any charge so a very good idea is to use a power bank as a power storage facility. Obviously, the most efficient method is to connect your mobile devices directly, but using an external power bank means that if you have a spare port, you can take full advantage of the power generated. This will allow you to continue charging devices during the evening.

There is absolutely no difference between the current from a wall adaptor or this unit. We used and charged several devices and tablets through our test period and we found the unit to behave consistently and as expected. All using the power of the sun thanks to the RAVPower 24W Solar Charger.

Conclusion

We were extremely impressed by how well the RP-PC005 performed. It literally blew our expectations. Other than the occasional need to reposition the panels as the sun moved through the day, the RAVPower 24W solar charger provided a consistent stream of power. The unit will meet most people’s needs and even act as a recharger for power banks.

Other than the storage pocket, and that is a small issue, we really cannot fault this product. It is extremely rugged and it performs exceptionally well. I’d highly recommend it to campers or hikers that plan to be off the grid for an extended period of time. For short hiking trips though, we would probably recommend a high capacity power bank because there will simply not be enough time for you to run it flat. Anything over 3 days (depending on how many devices you plan to use), especially in good weather, the RAVPower RP-PC005 is a perfect and sustainable charging solution for mobile devices.