WakaWaka Power - Solar Charger, Black (Older Model)

Latest update, I have lost my original little Mr. Wakawaka as he was known, and so have purchased a black replacement from Amazon. I loved my original, having slowly gotten used to charging it each day and then using it to recharge my Kindle routinely, or to charge another electronic all the while relying on it as an emergency flashlight if necessary.My latest routine has been to use it as a lamp in the evening when reading in bed. The light is plenty bright to be my only light source, so much so that I find I usually have to turn it down a setting or two for comfort and that is fantastically useful.Honestly, the more time I spend with this device the more I find it as particularly useful.Heyas! I just got my Waka waka power from the kickstarter project this evening and I'm finding it is awesome!The color options match it really nicely, and look even better than in the images. It's folding hinge makes it easy to set-up in a windowsill to charge as well as to set nearby to read with. Charging it went smoothly, just opened it so it can face the sun, and perched it on a windowsill until the sun started going down and found it was almost fully charged.As for practicality, it's already shown to be a great light that fits alright in the hand (as a flashlight) and is now charging my iPod Touch. The lanyard slot makes it easy to attach to my backpack so I can let it charge & keep it near while out and about.And my future plans, take it with me while camping. I foresee bringing it, my Kindle, and my iPod touch so I can really just get away for days at a time. :)

The solar charging capability of this unit is nothing less than remarkable, but a few shortcomings and some potential misleadings in marketing force me to rate it down.Pros:-It is durable. I've taken mine on a 4 day backpacking trip where it got rained on and tossed around, and it's still good. I also left it in the driveway and it got soaked with the sprinklers...both sides....and it still works as good as new (the company recommends the back side not get wet).-It fully charges in the sun in about a day and a half (sea level, arid hot climate, 46 degrees 16 minutes N latitude). For how small the solar surface is, this is incredible. I've discharged and recharged mine a couple dozen times now.-It looks and feels nice.-It holds its charge. I last charged mine a week ago and it's still full.-The packaging was elegant and the directions were pretty clear (some might be confused at first about the solar charging rate LED, expecting multiple dots rather than different blink patterns, but the blink method (one blink for slow charge, a double blink for normal charging, and a triple blink for fast charging) they use is the way to go. You catch on quick.-It appears to be about an ounce lighter than the company claims here.Cons:First, it really bothers me when companies make claims that don't meet real world performance. I'm sure they aren't technically lying and a device could probably theoretically do what they claim, e.g. maybe they put the wakapower out in the sun at the best time of day, with a battery level most accepting to charge, for one hour, and see how much it charges. Then, they use that number to determine how many hours the unit would theoretically take to charge. I'm not saying that's what these companies do, but I've tried enough of these products to know their claimed numbers never match what really happens. The practice is annoying.-wakwaka claims the power to be capable of being fully charged in the sun in 8 hours. It takes mine a day and a half to fully charge in the sun. I could actually see getting this thing fully charged in a single day, from sunrise to sunset, if I babysat it more (optimizing the angles). Even though it doesn't match the claim, this is still impressive! I doubt there is anything better per surface area.-a fully charged wakwaka power (2200 mAh) charges my galaxy s3 (2100 mAh) from 1-69%. I've seen better and worse efficiency in energy transfer from portable batteries (loss is unavoidable).-it takes me 8 hours to charge the power from a 1amp samsung micro usb wall charger! 8, not 4 as the company claims on he box. For such a small battery, this is pitiful. I haven't tried a 2amp input (the company does not make clear the input allowance, but I'd be suprised if the max allowance was above one amp).Recommended improvements:-offer the ability to add a second solar panel to the unit.-offer a 5000mAh version-put your ingenuity towards improving energy transfer efficiency between the unit and a device. Patent it, and make money from growing and sure to explode portable battery industry.-fix the wall charging speed! Faster = better.Bottom Line:The wakawaka power is a sexy, useful, little gadget that you should definately buy. Owning it means that i'm conservatively able to use about 25% of my phone's battery everyday, indefinately, without ever having to plug into the grid. Pretty sweet!

On the plus side this is a well made product. However at full charge it was only able to add 30% to my Galaxy Note 2 battery (I tested it several times.) In addition it takes a long time to solar charge. Therefore I did not think it was worth the cost.

The WakaWaka has become a phrase I use when camping now. Its small design and easy-to-use functionality makes it great as a lamp inside my tent, as a backup charging solution for phones.The solar charging is good, but you can't rely on it every day to recharge fully...in fact my use has shown that most of the time it'll take about 2 full days of sunlight to get it close to full charge (though they are upfront about that in their product description). It lasts INCREDIBLY LONG with even only one bar of battery left when being used as a lantern/light. For this reason alone, it's a new staple.I also use this as a backup charging source when working away from an outlet. It charges my HTC One really fast (about 1 full charge on a full Waka battery)...and charges an iPhone 5s about 1.5x on a full Waka battery.I would definitely recommend this, plus their donation mission makes this a great backup battery solution for your phone, and awesome flashlight to have in your bag when camping/exploring.Quick Tip - to make a quick camping lantern, turn the Waka on its highest flashlight setting and shine through the top or bottom of a jug of water (preferably with a frosted exterior). Lights up an entire picnic table!