Hardware Bistro

Product: Universal Solar Charger
Manufacturer: Brando
Supplied by: Brando
Price: 69USD/RM248
Launch Date: NA

 

We believe most of us have experience before where our mobile phone was running out of battery and caused a mess especially while you were having or waiting an important call. To solve this problem, most of us will get additional charger or car charger but today we will introduce you Universal Solar Charger which can be used to handle such emergency situation.

 

Company Profile

usb.brando.com.hk, member of Brando Workshop, offers a wide range of special, useful and helpful USB products for our customers. We deliver happiness and convenience to everyone.

 

Features

- Portable and convenient power back up for your devices
- High transforming rate when turn light into electric power
- High transforming rate when discharge electric power into electronic equipments
- Professional circuit to protect over charge, over current and high temperature when charge the built-in battery by DC or - sunlight
- Professional circuit to protect over discharge
- Intelligent voltage adjusting, it can output voltage and current on 4 different levels. It will restrict the output current depends on different volt when discharge
- Double short circuit protection
- Tri-coloured LED light to indicate charging or discharging

Solar Panel

- Peak power: 1.54W
- Operating voltage: 5.5V (Max)
- Charging current: 280mA (Max) / 3.8V

Solar Charger

- Battery capacity: 2500mAh / 3.8V
- Output voltage: 4.5V-9V (adjustable)
- Output current: 1A (Max)
- Output power: 4W (Max)
- Dimensions: 137x79x24mm
- Weight: 240g

Specifications

- Input interface: DC interface
- Output interface: USB interface
- Material: Fireproof plastic (ABS)
- 3-coloured indicator (red, orange and green) which shows the status of remaining power, while charging and discharging respectively
- Flash light as a torch: Bright white LED for lighting
- Control switch: ON/OFF/LED
- Output voltage switch: 4.5V / 5V / 6.3V / 9V
- Compatible with Nokia (N70/ N71/ N72/ N73/ N80/ N90/ N95, etc), Samsung (A100/ A200/ D848/ T100, etc), Sony Ericsson

 

Package & Contents

 

Universal Solar Charger comes with a sturdy rectangular box with two small magnetic fasteners for the front panel. The packaging is lacked of information about this Universal Solar Charger which is disdvantage as features and specifications are very important for a user before purchasing it.

 

Inside the packaging box, there are two levels; upper layer for the keeping the Universal Solar Charger while bottom layer are for charger heads, AC adapter and USB cable. Since Universal Solar Charger is an OEM product, there isn't any fancy stuff of this product in order to keep the price competitive; 69USD at Brando.

 

Other accessories that are bundled together with Universal Solar Charger are AC adapter, USB cable, user's manual, and seven charger heads. The user's manual (English & Chinese) contains product overview, technical parameters, product specifications, application scope, operation instructions, Tri-colored light features, product features, notice, package contents and terms of service.

The AC adapter of Universal Solar Charger is a 100V-240V auto switching adapater where it has 0.1A input and 5V DC output voltage with 800mA ouput current. This AC adapter's cable is around 5 feet which is long enough to serve the user well. Universal Solar Charger comes with one year warranty.

 

Universal Solar Charger

 

The outer design of Universal Solar Charger looks like a small booklet with dimension ~ 137 x 79 x 24 mm and weight ~ 240grams. Compare with a mobile phone charger, Universal Solar Charger is a bit bulky but don't forget that this charger has an internal battery (for solar or AC charging) to charge the connected device like mobile phone during emergency period. Universal Solar Charger's casing is made by fireproof plastic (ABS) in black color and a small portion of silver color for indicating the cover opening of the Universal Solar Charger.

 

There are two pieces of solar panel of the Universal Solar charger which are protected with a layer of mylar since solar panel is an expensive device. For the same quality of the solar panel, the larger surface will be more efficient as it can absorb more sunlight with the same amount of time. The sunlight energy is transformed into electricity and store in the internet battery (2500mAh) through control circuit. Another great feature of Universal Solar Charger is the internal battery which can be charged with AC adapter besides the solar charging.

 

Solar can be categorized into two types; active and passive. Both of these solar technologies are quite similar but active solar requires additional help of electrical or mechanical equipments to enhance its result. Universal Solar Charger is using passive solar technology with 1.54W peak power supplied by photocell.

On the right hand side of Universal Solar Charger, there are two LEDs and three buttons; USB, DC-IN and control switch. One of the LED is working as a small torchlight by emitting bright and white light while the other LED is Tri-colored indicator for showing the battery status and charging process. The control switch is used to switch ON/OFF the device as well as the torchlight. If the sunlight intensity is poor/low, then the status LED will light up with red and green light one after the other.

On the front side of Universal Solar Charger, there is a range of voltage output selection from 4.5V to 9V. This is an important adjustment that user needs to take note as different type of mobile phone or gadget device will require different type of voltage input and the best way to indentify it is refer back to the device's charger; most of the mobile phone will have 5V voltage input for charging. If the charging voltage is not correct then it will slow down the charger process (lower voltage) or damage the device (higher voltage).

 

As we mentioned before, Universal Solar Charger can supports many type of mobile phones or gadget devices and here is the magic trick where different types of converter head are included. There are total 7 charger head and it should be sufficient enough to support most of the devices. A USB cable is included which is used to connect the Universal Solar Charger with the device.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

For charging the internal battery of Universal Solar Charger under sunlight, the cover needs to be opened up and let the solar panels face the direct sunlight. After that make sure the control switch is set to switch ON then the charging status will be represented by its Tri-colored indicator; red means being charged (less than 3.8V), orange means half charged (between 3.8V ~ 4.1V) and green means fully charged. The charging process for AC adapter will be same as well.

 

For the process of recharging the mobile phone or other gadget, the first step is set the output voltage correctly (check your existing device's charger if you have no idea about this). Next will be selecting the right connector or charger head and connect the USB cable to the Universal Solar Charger together with the charger head and of course the recharging device. The device recharging process will be same with the charging process of the internal battery and can be monitored with the Tri-colored LED. To activate the internal battery, it is advisable to charge it for more than 12 hours via AC adapter for the first three uses.

Here is the LED that works as torchlight of Universal Solar Charger. The white LED is very bright and it serves us well for looking something that is not too hard to find out in dim environment. We have been using this Universal Solar Charger for past few weeks to recharge our mobile phone and other gadget devices; most of the time in the office. The recharging process on the connected device is a bit slow compare with standard charger as this Universal Solar Charger is mainly to be used for emergency purpose or ideal charger during travelling, camping and other outstation event. Overall, we are quite satify with this Universal Solar Charger with it recharging performance since we didn't encounter any problem with it.

 

Conclusion

Tired of looking for an identical charger to charge your mobile phone or other gadget device urgently? If you are always facing such experience then you may have a look on this Universal Solar Charger. Universal Solar Charger is using solar technology as well as AC adapter to charge up the internal battery so that it can be used to recharge the device especially during emergency situation. Besides that this charger is a universal charger where it has total 7 kinds of charger head which can support most of the mobile phones, gadgets and you may not need to purchase a new set of charger whenever you upgrade or changing your new mobile phone or new gadget devices.

 

Pros:

* Great device to recharge mobile phone & gadget devices
* Solar feature; can be charged/used in anywhere with sunlight
* Portable & convenient
* Adjustable output voltage
* Universal charger head; 7 in total

Cons:

* A little big bulky

 

Thanks to Brando for providing this sample for us to review.

 

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