Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000

[testman78]

Introduction

Batteries, batteries and more batteries, yes I've owned and reviewed a lot of them and not all are created equal and some are more useful that others. Solar or being green is big so it makes sense we go that way with our mobile devices as well.Many companies have come out with portable solar USB chargers like the one I have today from Sandberg which has a 16000mAh battery inside which is a fairly large capacity. You can charge this right from your computer over USB or from the sun and both work well. Read on to learn more...



Specifications.




Packaging & Contents

The Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 mAh is packed inside a small clear plastic box that allows you to take a close look at the unit prior to purchasing it.Inside you'll find a plastic tray holding the battery and accessories in place during shipping and protecting it all.



At the rear of the box we see a description of the product printed in many languages right above the contents and specifications lists.



The contents of the box includes a manual,a Snap hook and a micro usb cable(30cm).




A Closer Look

The Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 comes in a brick style form with a soft touch body.The Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 is made up of a soft-touch plastic.



The molding provides a high degree of protection against impact and also features a built-in carabineer clip for comfortable belt or backpack carry.



Enclosed within the units black rubberised casing is a rechargeable 16000 mAh battery pack.The battery doesn't automatically charge when you plug in your mobile device, you must press the power button to turn on charging. Your device will wake up when the batter is fully charged and the battery has no other alert for a full charge. It does turn itself to sleep once the mobile device is fully charged.



Dominating the front of the unit is a solar charging panel.



The Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 has 4 LED power indicator lights near the power button.



The LED lights up blue and shows the remaining charge left in 25% increments.



On the bottom side end you'll find the one standard USB port for charging your stuff and then the microUSB port for charging the battery itself.



On the right side you'll find the second USB port.



They have included rubber covers for the ports to keep the weather/water out.The IP67 rated water-resistance and dust-proof rating allows you to take this battery pack for your outdoor adventures.



The charger also features a bright LED flashlight.A great thing to have in case of an emergency.




Performance

Before you can use the Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000, you should charge it to its maximum capacity. This usually takes around 6 hours(by AC adapter 2.0 A). You can tell that the battery pack is fully charged by pressing the power button, which activates the power level indicator. If all lights on the indicator are blue, you know that the battery has reached its maximum charge and you can start using the charger.Charging of other devices via the power bank is done through either of the two USB ports. The port on the left provides 1.0A output, and the port on the bottom provides 2.4A. All you need to do is connect your smartphone or tablet with the power bank and press and hold the power button for 3-5 seconds until the LED light comes on. When you want to stop the charging, you can either press down the power button again until the LED light turns off, or simply unplug the USB cable and wait for the power bank to automatically shut down after 90 seconds.The integrated solar charger works automatically whenever the power bank is exposed to sunlight. It also works indoors, but you have to keep in mind that indoor lighting gives only 1/10th of the power of direct sunlight. Under ideal conditions, you can expect around 10% charge in approximately 2 hours – more than enough for emergency purposes.I wanted to see how many recharges I could get from a fully charged Sandberg 16000mAh battery to my LG G3 with a 2610 mAh battery each time discharged to just to where it dropped to 9% before plugging in the power bank and recharging the phone back to 100% (A 90% charge of the 2610 battery or ~2350mAh of juice added for each recharge.) According to the math 16000/2350 I should get between 6 to 7 charges of this type before needing to replug the unit back into a USB charger, without using any supplemental solar energy. I found it easily recharged the phone fully a full 6 recharges (from 10%) with a little juice still left over to power the LED lights for 30 min or so once the battery level was too low to charge the phone any longer.



As part of my testing, I would leave the power bank out directly in the sun each day from around 9 AM -5 PM each day during late March.I found that the solar charging WILL make a slight improvement in the overall charge of the battery pack compared to being left in the dark, but realize the solar cells are really only designed for emergency use only, or maybe as a trickle charge to keep the unit fully charged when not in daily use - but NOT as a primary means of charging the unit. To give an example of my test results, I discharged the power pack from a full charge down to just the point the 4th blue led light began to blink out, meaning the unit still had about a 75% charge. I left it out in direct mid-day sun for 3 hours, after which the 4th blue led was solidly on again due to the solar charging. I then plugged it into my phone (2610mAh total capacity) and let it charge up until that 4th light on the battery pack again just started to go out. This enabled me to get a reasonable measure of how much of a charge 3 hours of full direct sun (in March) to the unit was able to recharge my phone. I got about a 20% increase of charge to the phone from leaving the unit directly in the unclouded midday sun during this 3 hour period of time. That's about 522 mAh of juice added during those 3 hours, which equated to about 20% of my phone battery's capacity. According to the label on the back of the Sandberg 16000mAh unit, the max charge under optimum daylight conditions is 280mAh, so my results were only a little less than what the mfr claims as a maximum.So even under the best of conditions, you should not try to rely exclusively on the sun, even under optimum conditions to be able to charge the unit at a rate even close to the rate of consumption of your phone if you are giving it even light to moderate use. The solar cells can best be thought of as prolonging the lifetime of an initial full charge from a powered source, or in the case of a true emergency, where both the power bank and your phone are totally tapped out, that it might give your phone somewhere between 10-30% of a full charge after sitting a full day under bright sunny conditions, depending on your latitude, time of year and your phone's specific battery specs. While that won't enable you to talk to your girlfriend at home for 3 hours every night if you're hiking the Appalachian Trail from one end to another and listen to tunes during the day while hiking, it will sure enable you to call 911 and give them your location if you slip off a rock face and bust a few bones, incapacitating you (assuming you have cell service at the location of your accident) or have some other emergency. If you think of this device more as an emergency resource for a long trip away from the grid, or as a great resource to keep you powered up for a long weekend camping trip away from other power sources, you will have a very powerful tool in your backpack that will be money well spent! Since I live in hurricane alley, I consider mine more as a resource in case of long-term power outages. Hope this helps.Even after I had discharged my Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 to the point where it would no longer input any additional charge to the phone battery, the LED lights would still burn brightly for at least 30 min or so before completely dying.I haven't yet had the chance to really test out the IP67 rating of the unit (not sure I really want to if you know what I mean,) but light rain and a 5 ft. drop onto carpet had no effect on it.


Final Thoughts

I like to test products thoroughly before reviewing them and some need more testing than others and I’ve had this particular product for more than one month and it’s been through many charge/discharge cycles and it still works fine. I charged it both from the computer and from solar by placing it in my window and every time it charged fine and back to full capacity.This power bank is incredible! It is very heavy, very rugged and very durable. The unit weighs nearly a pound without exaggeration.I do like the dual charging ports as this allows me to charge my phone and tablet at the same time, or share my portable charging capabilities with a friend. I will say that I do find myself sharing the extra port more often than I find myself charging my phone and tablet together.The USB cable that comes with the device is the perfect size if you need to charge your phone and place the power bank in your pocket.No more looking for something in the tent when you can’t see and your flashlight is nowhere to be found. The small green light stays on all the time so you can find it even in the dark of your backpack at night inside you tent.Overall, this is a very well designed unit that performs great as a power bank and packs an impressive 16,000mAh capacity. Just remember that solar charging is slow, so don’t rely on solar alone to fully recharge this unit. However, for the outdoors-man who likes to keep their gadgets charged, it’s an ideal solution.



Coming in at $88.99,I consider this a really great unit.The Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 from Sandberg can easily be recommended to anyone looking for a dependable device that won’t fail even in extremely demanding conditions.