Ok, I admit it. I bring my iPhone where I shouldn’t. Well, that’s what people tell me anyway. “You’re in the wilderness, leave your phone at home,” they say. Well, the wilderness is my home. Therefore, the wilderness is also where I do business — read: send emails, Facebook, twitter, make calls, etc. — so the iPhone is my primary ‘computer.’
This means that I rely on the sun to recharge the phone’s batteries. This is because I may spend a week on a big wall, followed by a week camping, repeat. I’ve taken solar panels up big walls before, even spent six days on El Cap with music playing out of the iPhone/iPod the whole time we were awake. The problem with previous smartphone chargers I’ve used in the past is they had small solar panels and didn’t always seamlessly work. Example, one solar charger we brought on a big climb worked on my partner’s iPhone but not mine (funny, that).
Energizer has a variety of chargers/solar chargers for smartphones available on the market today.
1. Energizer Energi To Go AP1500 ($79.95, 87 grams). This iPhone sleeve (read: case) for 3G/3GS iPones looks like a carbon fiber slim case. But it’s not. This unit doubles the battery life of your phone by supplying additional power. It has a “sleek, piano gloss finish with no-slip grips.” I hope a 4G compatible case is available soon, as I plan to upgrade my cracked/abused phone.
2. Energizer Energi To Go SP2000 ($99.99, 7.7 oz, 3.8 X 2.1 inches). This device provides 2000 mAh at 5 V (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampere-hour). This unit is compatible with smartphones, GPS, MP3 players, digital cameras and more. The SP2000 is made up of 3 folding panels which makes it compact for travel, but also able to take in a lot of sun. I’ll be testing this unit over the next week while camping/climbing in western Colorado. I’ll update the blog with my test findings after this next trip.
3. Energizer Energi To Go SP1000 (49.95, 5.4 oz, 2.9 X .63 inches). This is the little brother of the SP2000. It takes in half the light/power of the SP2000, is much smaller and lighter and therefore more portable. Let’s face it, it takes awhile to power electronics off the sun’s rays so I prefer solar chargers with big panels. However, the SP1000 is sleek.
