Sanyo's Solar Boosters Review

These solar panels are the latest edition to Sanyo’s analog range of eco power products. The panels together with a lithium ion battery pack form a system that can be used to charge gadgets via USB. This should work with many portable products including most cell phones, music players and portable game devices and could bring hours more use when gadget batteries die and a plug isn’t at hand. The solar panels charge this lithium ion battery, Sanyo calls it the mobile booster. And that connects in turn to gadgets to charge and power them.

The boost is needed because these solar panels don’t provide enough power directly to run a gadget. A full charge of the booster will take a three days on the single panel and one and a half days on the twin panel model. But after just an hour of charging, there’ll be enough energy to run a cell phone for 20 or 40 minutes of talk time depending on whether you have the single audio panel. The panels come with a hook so you can hang them in the window for maximum efficiency, they will of course charge faster on sunny days than overcast days.

The two will go on sale in Japan on August 10th, the single panel will cost ¥9,000 that’s around $95 and the twin panel model will cost a little bit more of ¥14,000. An overseas launch has yet to be decided. In Tokyo this is Martin Williams, IDG News Service.


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