Ideal compact emergency charger when away from power points, but it takes two or three days to charge up in winter light in the UK, so best to charge from PC before departure and regard solar as top-up or emergency second charge en route. Gel case is a must for protection. Won't charge all 5v nominal batteries however, eg those in some Creative mp3 players. To be fair, nor does a three-pin USB charger plug, even though a PCs USB port did work. So test before heading out into the wilderness! Mine sits on the car dashboard, trickling away in daylight, ready for use when I head into the hills.

I was just looking through the solar items and realised the FreeLoader Pico had only 3 stars!!! I have 2 Pico's (one for my phone and one for my work phone, but they also charge my emergency phone/GPS). I hate to say it, but I disagree with anything under 5 Stars. They are awesome!!! I've used mine for business, walking around a city, from NY to London, and I've used them camping all over the world. The only criticism I have is that they need the gel holder to be portable. Once you have that, you clip it onto your bag, then just get on with life. Half a days hiking will charge it enough to get the phone up to about 75% battery. I have both a Blackberry and an iPhone, and they are both getting 75%+ charges from my Picos. Highly recommended!

Would have scored higher if this could charge a laptop or an iPad but alass no luck, good device for those who are outside alot, it even charges with the poor sun we get in the UK. Fairly robust, but get the silicone case just incase since it does protect the device fairly well and the case would allow you to attach a strap to it so you can tie it onto a backpack or something. Pros: -Light -charges most mp3 players which use usb as power source, tried some old sony and panasonic ones all charged with no problem. -ipod touch gen 1-4 all charge able -iphone also the same situation -only needs low amount of sunlight to charge Cons: -pricey for what you are getting, especially if you get the case as well as it is really a needed item. (also it is cheaper on the freeloader website) -if you are using this in the UK it will take days to charge up fully if not weeks if you just leave it in the car, since all new cars now have a UV filter it means it is charge VERY slowly. (charge the device up via USB first then put it in the car) . Good device and since this is one of the low end freeloader devices it is not perfect for the UK environment but it would do for those who do not need to charge their device very 30 minutes or so.

I bought this product after 5 hours usb charging only one bar of charge showed. Left in sunlight checked every 12 hours only one bar after six days (72 hours of daylight. Do not bother. Usless.