PowerBee Explorer Pro solar phone charger pack for nearly all UK mobile phones, iPhone 2G 3G 3s 4, Ipods, PSP's, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Tom Tom, mp3 players, and nearly all handhelds in the UK

I do a lot of cycling, regularly cycling one day, camping out and then cycling back the next, so the ability to charge electronic devices such as my Garmin and my mobile is essential. I did a few experiments before doing a review so that I would be able to report accurately on my experience...

The Charge Pack:
I completely drained my phone (Motorola Atrix) and then plugged the fully charged pack into it. I had a 90% full battery in 2 hours and a completely drained pack. Now bearing in mind that I have a 1900mAh battery in my phone, that is good. I can use the phone on medium use over a weekend and it will still have about 15% charge left on a Sunday night, it takes a bit of draining and equally a fair bit to charge from scratch, so I was very impressed with that.

Large Solar Panel:
I have used this in a few different ways, firstly to trickle charge the Charge Pack. I clipped it securely to my rear panniers and connected it to the Charge Pack, (which was inside the pannier), and set off as normal. The clips and the strap kept it very secure and the Charge Pack was full when I arrived at my destination 8 hours later. I didn't check on it periodically, so I don't know how it actually took, but it did what I wanted it to do, which was charge as I rode.

The other way I use it is by attaching the Solar Panel to my handlebar bag, then connecting it to my Garmin bike computer. Again, I rode for 7-8 hours and it kept the Garmin topped up. That is massively important to me as I am riding to Italy in September and will be camping at nights with little access to plug sockets for charging.

Overall:
Well pleased. It is far lighter than putting a dynamo on my bike, it can be used when I am stationary and it won't hamper my progress by applying friction to the wheel as I travel... I love it!

I baught the Powerpod Explorer Pro because it will charge the Sony PSP, and so it does very well indeed.

The product was a gift for my 9 year old nephew who took to it immediately, the instructions were hardly necessary as all the bundled adapters plug in effortlessly in an intuitive manner.

The main charger unit takes about a day to charge it's self or just over 3 hours when the power panel is plugged in with bright sunlight. It's now permanently clipped to the rucksack & taken to school daily so that there's always charge availiable to top up the essential PSP. The power panel is fairly robust and is definately able to take a few knocks.

The main charger & power panel come with handy pockets to contain all the adapters so they don't get lost, very handy especially for kids who seem to loose everything.

Of course you can always use the USB lead which comes with your portable device & plug that directly into the charger rather than use the supplied adapters. I could'nt find any devices in my house which were not supported, but I tried my phone's USB lead anyway & it worked just fine too.

I love the way you can use the charger unit independently from the power pannel if you like which means you can be charging one device while powing another directly from sunlight.

I also tried charging my Blackberry & Samsung H1 with no problems at all.

The PowerBee Powerpod was so good I was loathed to give it away, I may just have to buy another one!

I would thoroughly recommend this product.

Great product. Bought the Powerbee Power Panel & Executive powerpack directly from the Powerbee website (was a bit strange that it was cheaper to buy the products individually rather than as a set.) Tried out the product on a cycle camping trip after charging it through USB, managed to keep my power hungry mobile phone with GPS switched on going for several days and the Powerpack was still half full!

Realised after I'd finished that test that there was a problem and the powerpanel wasn't working. Phoned up the company and got right through to Andy who was very helpful, sent the powerpanel back and within a few days a new one arrived in the post. Testing it hanging up the powerpanel in a window through frosted glass in unfavourable conditions it still charges the powerpack effectively.

Off on a 2 week cycling / camping trip soon which I'm hoping to navigate using GPS the whole way (reason for buying this kit) I will comment on this review to provide an update on how that goes.

All in all. Great product, great company. Firmly recommended.

I've also bought the wind up radio / torch from this company which also has served me well.

Update - Sorry nobody finds me useful. Product worked pretty well on my cycle trip, weather was pretty bad, but still managed to get a bit of charge from the sun (I'd estimate could charge my phone about once every two days using only the (larger) solar panel in northern European wet summertime) Since I was using the GPS almost constantly my phone required charging about every 4 hours so I mostly relied on plugging the powerpack in at campsites or wherever the opportunity to be near a plug socket came about. The full powerpack would charge my phone fully about twice.

My phone ended up breaking about 2/3 of the way through the trip. However the Powerpanel and powerpack have been pretty reliable. Left them out during a downpour and didn't seem to be any problem.

One gripe I would make is that the usb plug on the powerpanel is a bit delicate, for this reason I've downgraded my review to four stars. Since my trip I broke it by shoving it into a rucksack pocket with a cable attached. Could have sent it back again, but decided to just solder it back on myself, which worked fine, I also made sure it wouldn't happen again by using electrical tape to secure the usb plug to the solar panel (you can't see this since the solar panel is inside a fabric and plastic case.)

Overall I would still recommend this product, the Executive power-pack itself is very tough and works great just by itself. The powerpanel is great too, although delicate usb socket means you'll either had to be careful with it or adapt it like I did to make it a bit tougher.