FreeLoader Portable Solar Charger

Buy from Firebox for £24.95 or Amazon for $69.95

* Charge its internal battery from the sun (as is obvious from the name)
* Charge its internal battery from a computer via a USB connection
* Charge your portable devices immediately either by solar power or USB if you hook them in when it's charging.

First, there's a kind of slow charge time if you're using the solar option. It took about eight and a half hours for me to charge my FreeLoader Portable Solar Charger immediately after I received it on a mostly sunny day in Los Angeles. Still, that's no problem, because if you want a faster charge time you can just plug it into a USB port (three hours, roughly) or charge the device directly by hooking it in while FreeLoader charges.

The only claim I don't believe from their marketing rhetoric is that it will charge "any hand held device." There are two plugins on the device itself, and a further 22 adapter tips that come with it. That is a lot, no mistake, but I'm not sure it's enough to justify the "any hand held device" label.

Still, these are pretty much the only flaws with this neat charging gadget. If you have a lot of portable devices that need charging on a regular basis, its many adapters are great. If you spend a lot of time outdoors away from power sockets, it's great for that too.

Definitely worth checking out!

Buy from Firebox for £24.95 or Amazon for $69.95