My experiences with the Juicebar have been hit and miss. With my iPod and iHome portable speakers it works like a charm, charging up the batteries fairly quickly. Things are different with my phone though: Even when fully charged the Juicebar can only fill up about 20% of my Motorola Cliq's battery before it empties.
I'm willing to chalk up the poor performance on the phone charge to my finicky phone, but there is another, more disappointing aspect to the Juicebar: Once I empty its batteries the solar charging feature is useless. I had my fully emptied Juicebar sitting in direct sunlight for 8+ hours and it didn't charge at all. Once I connected it to a computer via USB and got a little bit of charge in it the solar charging feature started working again, but this is an unfortunate flaw. When I purchased the charger I did so thinking it would be a good thing to have in case of emergencies, extended power outages, camping trips, etc. but knowing that the battery won't recharge from the solar panels once it completely empties limits its effectiveness in this regard.
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UPDATE: As two commenters have pointed out, had I read the instruction book I would have noticed that there is a small reset button on the unit that will re-activate the Juicebar if it fully runs out of battery life. I have bumped up my review by a star, but will say in the defense of non-instruction readers like me that the button is not labeled and is a pinhole reset button like one you might find on a DVD-drive that requires inserting a paperclip or something else similarly small & narrow to press it. So no, it is no longer 'useless' once it runs out, but it is a bit frustrating for the asking price if need to reset it after every third or fourth charge (as has been the case in my experiences). Thanks to J. Miller and L. Flanigan for pointing out my mistake! Juicebar Pocket Solar Charger Power Electronics
I admit, I was a tiny bit skeptical when I first ordered the juice bar. But after receiving it, I am truly amazed! It charges so easily in the sun or plugged into the computer, I wonder who could possibly live without it! If you have ever had your cell phone die because of a low battery, then I highly recommend buying one of these! With all the little adapters that come with it, there's one that will pretty much fit almost everything that can be charged! I have used it with my PSP, my son keeps taking it from my desk to his room to charge his cell phone, and it's really a tiny little solar-powered life saver! Wow!
I have only charged this via the USB and it charges in about 3 hours. I take it in my mobile office and have used it many times. It is great at the end of the day when the phone is about out of battery. This battery booster works perfectly and doesn't take up a lot of room in my travel bag. My Blackberry takes a charge quickly from this device when stopping for a charge is not an option. I would not want to wait all day for it to charge up via solar but in the event of a hurricane, I figure it will be a good way to keep my cell phone going when the power goes out. It keeps my iPaq running on long flights too. Maybe some of the people who have had trouble using only the solar option to charge should try plugging it into their USB port. I think the solar is a nice emergency option but I am more interested in this as a battery. I am purchasing this for my brothers as a Christmas gift. I love it!
This is OK as a spare battery, I guess, but the solar charging part is complete baloney. I let it sit in the sunlight for a long time and there is no evidence of any charging. Seems like others have found the same thing...note that there are no instructions that come with this thing whatsoever, so if I am doing something wrong, there would be no way to know!
It is the same mah as my phone so only good for one charge. The bonus I guess is you can leave it in the sun all day and recharge your phone that night.
I have not had a chance to test how long it takes to charge fully in the sunlight so I can't give it 5 stars. It is small and lightweight so good to take backpacking in the mountains.
Quality is very good.
I picked up this unit to take camping with me to have my iPhone charged all the time. I visit racing events and listen to live radio/timing scoring via the phone. First I plugged it in it worked fine, charged up the phone over night without an issue. The next night I tried the same thing, but woke up with an almost dead phone telling me some BS message that the adapter is not compatible with iPhone. ... meanwhile the place I bought it from specifically says it does work with iPhone.
I'm pretty disappointed as this seemed to be the best product out there at the moment, but I'll have to return it because it's functionality is very much hit or miss.
I bought this item on Amazon and have only had it a few weeks. First off, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! It is a pain to carry around and keep up with and most of the time when I'm at work, on the road, or at home, I have access to a plug in charger anyway, so I am not sure why I bought this item. It supposively uses the sun to charge itself and then you plug your phone in for its charge. I stuck the juice bar in my car under the sun for several hours and it would only charge my phone for about 20 minutes then stopped. I then plugged up this item to my computer with the cord it comes with to charge it and it still doesnt hold a charge long enough to raise my cell phone battery percentage more then 5%. It is a piece of crap and I have already thrown it away!! This is a good idea but a bad technology that has a long way to go to be 100% efficient!!! - Iphone - Portable - Battery - Portable Charger'
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