Eco-Friendly & Green Living Blog

Tired of your cell phones, PDAs and cameras sucking up electricity? Check out the Solio Universal Chargers.

The portable solar chargers are petite enough to fit in the palm of your hand and unfold into a flower shape (very pretty! OK, not exactly relevant, but, still, pretty!). They’re portable enough that you can carry them while out hiking, at the beach, pretty much anywhere, or just use them at home.

Stick a pencil in the hole in the centre and position facing the sun, wait a day (maybe more if it’s cloudy) and you’re good to go! I live in a south-facing apartment in Toronto, and I put it in the window, behind the glass and didn’t even bother to reposition it to follow the movement of the sun, and in a single sunny day, it was fully charged. It holds the charge for up to one year.

The Classic comes with a charging cable; suction cup for mounting on a window (great for your car); female and mini USBs; and Samsung, Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson adapter tips.

Sadly, I couldn’t use it to power my iPhone 3G (the 3G somehow doesn’t recognize the Solio and after a couple of seconds of charging, shuts down, thinking it’s done), so I passed it on to web producer Lauren McPhillips to try out with her Sony Ericsson cell phone.

She says, “It worked quickly and the charge lasted really long. I loved it!” The Solio does work with the older iPhones, and a new tip should be out within the month to solve the 3G iPhone problem.

And, no, they’re not inexpensive, but they’ll last absolutely forever, and come a power outage, you’ll be laughing as your cell phone will be the only one working for miles around. Now if only they were powerful enough to charge up power-sucking laptops!

Available at: solio.com

Price: $99.95 US

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Tags: camera, cell phone, electronic device, PDA, solar charger, solar-powered, Solio