Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The one feature I was looking for in an emergency device was the ability to charge my smartphone via solar, the hand turbine, or AAA batteries. My impression was that I'd be able to leave the solar panel in the sun and it would charge the optional 3 AAA batteries, which I could use in the evening to charge my phone. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Firstly, the integrated solar panel and the hand turbine will only charge the internal low-capacity battery. No, if you insert your own rechargeable AAA batteries, this will NOT charge them! The internal battery has enough capacity to power a USB device for 30 seconds. For a smartphone like an iPhone or Android phone, that's worse than useless. The power provided by a 30 second charge will last 30-35 seconds. That's not even enough time to let the phone boot up to the point where you can place a call. The manual even explicity warns against having your phone plugged in while you turn the hand crank, citing possible damage to your device! You can fill the internal batteries after about 2 minutes of cranking. So... 2 minutes of cranking for 30 seconds of worthless charging. I'm now looking at cheap solar recharging lithium battery packs from Chinese manufacturers. How sad.