Review - 5.5v Solar Powered Folding Charger Panel

In this modern age, how many of us have gone hiking, camping, fishing, etc only to find our phone, flashlight, or GPS battery dies. Not many years ago, we'd just made sure that we had an extra set of batteries, but now so many products come installed rechargeable and often non changeable batteries. So what options do you have if out on a 3 day hike with no phone. Well you can hope that you don't run into any problems, or want to take any pictures or you can buy a travel solar charger. I decided to buy a solar charger from China on Ebay and got it for $15( I just couldn't see myself paying $200 for a name brand charger from a name brand store). Though I don't trust the rechargeable batteries from China, I have no problem with their other electronics... sometimes you get a lemon but that's the chance you take when your 'Cheap'.. like me.

Now this charger advertised several things, but like many items on Ebay, buyer beware of the small print or items that look surprisingly like a name brand. Lets go down the list;

1) 5.5v 5W 1000ma current - which is what you get roughly when plugged into a USB port. This item did provide that current, and did fully charge up my iPod touch. BUT the condition had to be full sunlight. Shade, indoors, partially covered cells... were all no go.
PASSED - So at the end of the day, it worked as intended. As far as I'm concerned every other feature is just frosting

2)  Water proof panels - well without actually opening this thing up there's just no way to see if the panels are water proof, I can say they are made of a hard plastic/plexi material not unlike glass. There is a thin skin over the cells, much like a screen protector film that you get on a new phone, yet this film is not removable.
UNKNOWN - Which means it can survive a few water drops on it without penetrating to the cells.

3) Water Proof Cloth - Like the cells its impossible to check if its water proof. The cloth is a tightly woven nylon and likely has a plastic backing, much like a backpack. So lets presume the cloth is waterproof, but the seams won't be.
UNKNOWN - Even the best packs leak at the seams in a downpour. But then lets ask our selves, why would we use a solar power charger in the rain? We wouldn't, so the question of waterproof is really MUTE. Its small enough that I plan on keeping mine in a freezer bag sealed and in my pack. If I need to use it after a rain passes, pull it out and lay it on the freezer bag so the bottom of the charger isn't exposed to continuous moisture.

4) USB cable output - Pretty straight forward... has it, works
PASSED - Not a big deal, but something to keep in mind. If you're bringing your phone, iPod, camera, or whatever. Remember to bring its USB charging cable too. Otherwise this charger will be useless.

5) Durability - The cells are what I worry about, when you hold this charger all folded up, you just feel like you're going snap it in half by accident. So I dropped it, yes on purpose. First with it folded up from about 10 feet high, it landed on hard ground, no cells were damaged.
PASSED - I like this item and don't want to buy another, so I'm not going to do the drop test with it opened up.... instead I did a crush test. One of the selling points was that it has grommets to attach to the back of your pack so it can charge while your hiking. So I opened it, attached to the back of my pack and put on my pack. Then I backed into a tree, then sat down and fell backwards on to it. No damage with the exception of some marks on the film that covers the solar cells, so as far as I'm concerned its durable enough

I suppose the gist is that it works as advertised, reasonably durable and is at the very least water resistant. Definitely worth the $15 I spent, and suits my needs for charging small electronics in the field. Something else to keep in mind, this might collect more light if the screen protector type wasn't covering the solar cells. Right now it works fine for my needs, however as the 'film' gets more ragged, I'm likely to use a razor and carefully cut around the edges and remove that film to expose the solar cells better. If it comes to that, I'll update this post.