I have to admit that when I first received an email from the folks at Solio, I was…skeptical.  I mean, here they are offering up a solar powered battery charger for your mobile devices.  I read about things like this in Isaac Asimov books.  So, I passed on the review (as did the rest of the JAMM team).  But those Solio folks sure are persistent.  They emailed again and again, and before I knew it, the Solio Classic Universal Hybrid Charger (Solio) was sitting on my dining room table, just waiting for the opportunity to show me what it could do.

The package includes everything you need to get started right away.  In addition to the Solio, there is a proprietary cable which allows you to connect the battery to your mobile devices, an assortment of "tips" for the cable, an AC adaptor with multiple heads for international use, and a suction cup with which you can affix the Solio to the inside of a window.

The Solio Classic is really quite a simple looking device.  It is essentially three "arms" on a pivot point.  Each arm bears a solar panel.  They fold neatly together for storage and travel, but unfold quickly to maximize their exposure to the sun.

I found the turtle like shape to be a bit fat for my taste.  I had trouble getting it to squeeze easily in my gear bag.  I would have preferred a longer, skinnier shape.  I also found that after it had been folded and unfolded more than a few times, the hinge became a bit loose, meaning the arms had a tendency to slide a bit when closed.  It would have been nice if there was a latch or clip to hold them in place.

On the back of the device is an indicator light which blinks or lights up red or green.  Using a Morse Code like pattern, these flashing lights tell you the status of the battery.  Frankly, I found this to be beyond confusing.  If I did not have the instructions with me, then I rarely had a clue whether the battery was accepting a charge from or not.  Sometimes, even with the instructions, I could not interpret the message the lights were trying to send.  I felt like I was looking at the giant spaceships in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  I knew the lights means something…but what?   This battery would really have benefited from a small status screen which could quickly and easily give you any necessary information.

There are two ways to charge the Solio battery.  Obviously, the preferred method is through the solar panels.  To stand the Solio in place to charge, unfold the arms and insert a pencil through the hole in the pivot point. This will position the solar panels to face upward toward the sun.  Additionally, there is a suction cup included, which you can use to hang the Solio from a window (the Solio is advertised as accepting an indirect solar charge, however, I do not recommend it).  I did not have much success with this suction cup, and it kept crashing the Solio to the ground.

If you will not have access to sunlight, or do not want to wait the 8-10 hours required for a full charge, there is also an AC adaptor which allows you to charge the battery from any standard wall socket.  It should only take six hours to fully charge the battery from the wall socket.  I did like the fact that the package included international adaptors, so the Solio can follow you anywhere in the world.

Now that you have the unit fully charged, the only thing left is hooking it up to your device.  To do so, there is a proprietary plug included. One end will connect to the Solio charger.  The other end is open, in order to accept on of a variety of tips.  Several of the more common phone and device tips are included.  Additional tips are also available from the Solio website.  Be careful, though, as there are not a wide variety of tips available, and I suspect that many phones and devices (never mind iPods and mp3 players) will be left out in the cold with this one.  This would have been a much more universal solution if, rather than creating their own tip technology, Solio should have simply included a USB adaptor, which would have allowed you to use the charging cable which comes with every mobile device, phone, mp3 player, and more, with this charger.  As it is, I found the included tips could have been severely limiting, not even allowing me to charge our Treo with this one.  The "Universal" label on this one, therefore, seems to be a bit misleading and could cause confusion among people expecting this to work with any device.

Finally, we arrive at the question of everyone’s mind.  How does this little piece of science fiction work in the real world?  Well, the first problem I had was that I am looking at a solar powered charger in the middle of winter.  Sunrise is around 7:15, and dusk can come as early as 4:00 pm.  During the day, we have a lot of cloud cover, rain, and snow.  In other words, there just has not been enough sunlight in the D.C. area.  Since the instructions advertise that it can collect solar power indirectly through cloud cover (although even Solio admits this is less efficient), I tried that first, with no success.  I left it sitting outside for part of the day and placed it in the window for part of a day.  Neither method was the least bit successful in collecting solar power or charging the internal battery.  

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, every time the sun poked out while I was home, I ran out to the deck to set out the Solio.  Solar power, here we come.  I tried charging the Solio four or five times.  Each time, I followed to instructions of pointing it directly (or as close as possible) toward the sun and rotating it periodically in order to keep it facing the sun.  

I would love to be able to tell you that I successfully harnessed the power of the sun.  Unfortunately, after multiple charging sessions, ranging in length from four hours to ten hours, I still had nothing to show for it.  After each session, I eagerly plugged my Sprint Mogul into the Solio, expecting great things, and finding only enough power to taunt me with a slowly blinking (and fading) green light.  If Icarus’ downfall was flying too close to the sun, Solio’s was not flying close enough.  Sure, the Solio works well enough when it is charged via USB or AC power, but external batteries like that are practically a dime a dozen.  The real draw of the Solio lies in its biggest failure, charging your devices without requiring the use of electricity.  Well, Daedalus, I guess it is back to the drawing board.

Vital Stats:

Name: Solio Classic Universal Hybrid Charger

Where to Buy: Solio

Price: $99.95

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