This weekend, Rocky Mountain Readiness field tested the Powerfilm Solar USB & AA battery charger. As advertised, it is very well made, very lightweight, and durable. It's perfect for attaching to a backpack and charging your phone via the AA's on the move or in your campsite for operating your small USB devices.

Folded it measures 3.25 x 5.5 x 1.38 and the four solar panels deployed measure just 15 inches. Weighing in at about 5 oz it's no issue for pack weight.

I'm putting this on my "got to have list". At the end of my last multi-day hike, I inadvertently left the cell phone on the night before the last days leg and when we got to our pick up point the phone had just enough power to get the text message out that we had arrived. We were lucky the message transmitted, but we were uncertain it worked until our ride showed up. If the Powerfilm USB & AA charger were part of our gear, there would have been no issue.

I was very pleased that even though the unit works best with a full charge on the batteries by deploying the solar panels it charged the phone even with a low  just out of the box battery charge providing in short order the power needed to make phone calls; something important in an emergency when time doesn't allow for charging up the batteries.

At just $78.99 it's an affordable readiness enhancer.

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