Recommend a solar powered external battery pack for the Nexus?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I want to travel a lot this year and it's critical that my phone always has power. At the rate I'm using it I go through 3 standard Nexus batteries in a single day. I'd like to be able to carry an additional external battery pack with a replaceable battery that also has a solar charger so I can just strap it to the outside of my backpack while walking around or riding around on the motorcycle.

 

[Chrono]

Why not just buy one of those massive external battery packs you can use to charge up the nexus? Just charge it at night... then use it during the day. I think with a 9000mah pack you should be good for a whole day.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Why not just buy one of those massive external battery packs you can use to charge up the nexus? Just charge it at night... then use it during the day. I think with a 9000mah pack you should be good for a whole day.

I'd still prefer solar. Even for a whole day, what about multi day backpacking excursions where there is zero recharging ability for at least a few days? My camera batteries can last weeks as well as my flashlight. The cell is the only thing severely lagging behind all the other devices.

 

[pm]

The problem with solar is going to be that either it's going to be reasonably sized, cheapish, and charge super slowly or it's going to be big, bulky and pretty expensive. The typical consumer-oriented cell phone chargers that I see are going to charge at something like 25-50mA - which is going to take a long long time to charge a phone (meaning "days"). Look for at least a 5W panel, ideally monosilicon for efficiency, which should be somewhere in the vicinity 8"x8" (20cm x 20cm) sizewise. If it's one of these amorphous silicon 4"x2" panels that I see on Amazon, you are going to be disappointed, I think because they will take ~40 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge the phone (based on my back-of-the-envelope guessing).

Something like this would work great:
http://www.amazon.com/Durable-Reliab.../dp/B003ZFQUWO

And yeah, you'll say "wait! $140, are you crazy?" but I'm saying that if you really want a portable solar panel recharger you want the more expensive monocrystalline cells (because they are more efficient ) and you want a large panel (which is expensive). The little cheap $40 ones aren't going to make you happy from a solar charging perspective... which is why they all pack a big lithium battery.. to make up for the fact that you can't charge it from the sun much at all. But then, if you just want a big backup battery, then skip the typical just-for-looks panels on those and get a battery without the panel.

Searching some more. This one also looks good - and it's a lot cheaper and smaller.
http://www.amazon.com/700mA-Solar-Charger-iphone-desire/dp/B008NUGD9G
But the specs look about right. 700mA peak, monocrystalline, 12.5cm^2. It seems about right. But no reviews, which always makes me a little less trusting.

 

[bearxor]

I think you're best off with a AA battery charger.

Apprently, two lithium ion AA's will charge a iPhone 4S from 0 to 100 in about two hours. Lithium Ion AA's are also light, which means they won't weigh you down.

Something like this... Except, you know... Available...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...BQK2AKNDN5BHGP

 

[SunnyD]

3 batteries a day? shens just like the rest of your trip.

Standard battery easily goes for a full day on a gnex under normal usage, and a single extended battery will easily get you a full day of "heavy" usage.

 

[Ksyder]

3 batteries a day? shens just like the rest of your trip.

Standard battery easily goes for a full day on a gnex under normal usage, and a single extended battery will easily get you a full day of "heavy" usage.

I'm not a heavy user of my phone while at work, but use it heavily in the evening.... gsm nexus... but I have to agree that the battery easily lasts a whole day...

which is surprising because when I was using sgs2 I was constantly having low battery problems. Not sure why but the nexus has excellent battery life for me.

 

[s44]

The problem with solar is going to be that either it's going to be reasonably sized, cheapish, and charge super slowly or it's going to be big, bulky and pretty expensive. The typical consumer-oriented cell phone chargers that I see are going to charge at something like 25-50mA - which is going to take a long long time to charge a phone (meaning "days"). Look for at least a 5W panel, ideally monosilicon for efficiency, which should be somewhere in the vicinity 8"x8" (20cm x 20cm) sizewise. If it's one of these amorphous silicon 4"x2" panels that I see on Amazon, you are going to be disappointed, I think because they will take ~40 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge the phone (based on my back-of-the-envelope guessing).

Something like this would work great:
http://www.amazon.com/Durable-Reliab.../dp/B003ZFQUWO

And yeah, you'll say "wait! $140, are you crazy?" but I'm saying that if you really want a portable solar panel recharger you want the more expensive monocrystalline cells (because they are more efficient ) and you want a large panel (which is expensive).

So tempted to get one of these after seeing what's going on across the river. Yikes.

Problem is... they're $170 now.

 

[Kanalua]

http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Zero-1901...1876231&sr=1-1

 

[zaydq]

OP lost his phone in China already, I guess he figured out an option.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I'd like to ask WTF the OP does on his phone? I check Facebook, I message on Whatsapp a lot. Heck, my friends and I have 80MB worth of whatsapp data. That's how much we talk on it. It's a large group chat with 8 of us. My screen is on for a lot of the day. I can come out of work with my phone working ALL the time, even if half my day is spent in a silo where I get 0-1 bars and data drops out sporadically.

 

[SunnyD]

I'd like to ask WTF the OP does on his phone? I check Facebook, I message on Whatsapp a lot. Heck, my friends and I have 80MB worth of whatsapp data. That's how much we talk on it. It's a large group chat with 8 of us. My screen is on for a lot of the day. I can come out of work with my phone working ALL the time, even if half my day is spent in a silo where I get 0-1 bars and data drops out sporadically.

The op trolls a lot on his phone.

Granted, a GNex does go through battery pretty fast, but unless he's running torrents 24x7 (yes it's possible) on it, there's no reason the battery won't last through a full day between charges with moderate use.

 

[God Mode]

Make your own with a 5v regulator and some diodes.

 

[pm]

http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Zero-1901...1876231&sr=1-1

Yeah, that looks good too. Monocrystalline, 7x10", 7W. Seems like it would work well.

Alternatively, an inverter and a car battery would keep you going for weeks (maybe even months... ~100Ah@12V is a whole lot of charging even with inverter inefficiency factored in), and a car battery and inverter work even at night and even when it's cloudy, can be used with other appliances and would cost you half as much. Lead acid batteries are not much for portability, but I have a spare deep cycle marine battery that I keep fully charged "just in case".