Have you ever been out and about, maybe on a walk or on holiday somewhere, and your phone’s battery runs out? If I’m up a mountain then I tend to be conscious of how much my phone is using to power the GPS – you never know when you might need to rely on it. Worry now more, the Freeloader is here. The Freeloader Classic is a small portable solar-chargeable battery in to which you plug your phones (or other small devices). As we are going camping later this year, I decided to invest now whilst there are plenty for sale. Now… there are many, many different makes and models of solar chargers, so I should start by explaining my choice. Freeloader is an established brand, with a UK support base, and a whole variety of accessories available. If I decide I need to recharge AA batteries using the Freeloader, there’s an attachment for that, and so on. So, you pay a slight premium and maybe take a hit on the power capacity for buying in on the brand but I’m hoping the gamble will pay off.
When you take the device out of its box, the first thing you need to do is remove the plastic film from the solar panels. Now, there are several puzzling things to contend with, the foremost being “where are the solar panels?”. Well, the charger consists of three main components: the hub (or battery and electronics bit) which is the part with an LCD screen and the USB ports; two solar panels. The two solar panels are clipped together so you only see their silver backs initially. Remove them from the hub together by pulling – this is a bit daunting the first time you do it, but you won’t snap them if you don’t bend them! The whole device is covered in protective film (which I left on to avoid scratches), but the important film to remove is the one covering the actual solar cells themselves. The film is tricky to remove as its edges are tucked underneath the plastic casing making you wonder if there’s a covering at all – there is, so scratch at the edges until it can be removed. I found it useful to stick my nail between the panel and the casing to create enough space to pull the film off without tearing it.
The next thing you need to do is charge it up. The first time you charge it, the manual recommends you use the USB input. I used a standard USB->miniUSB cable, although you can use the supplied cable with one of the provided adapters. It took about 3 hours to fully charge it this way, and once my phone had depleted its battery I used the Freeloader to recharge it back to full in around 2 hours. Of course, that’s all very well, but the main advantage of the Freeloader is that it can recharge itself! Luckily, here in South Wales we are experiencing a somewhat warm and sunny few weeks and I took full advantage of that. I left it outside for a total of 12 hours, split over 2 days because I didn’t trust the weather fully, in direct sunlight, in order to fully charge the battery via its solar panels. I reckon it can do it in a day if I had bothered to get up early enough to catch the first of the daylight. Once again, it successfully recharged my power hungry HTC 7 Mozart, with enough left over for a 20 minute burst in to my Wife’s iPhone 3GS.
The Freeloader Classic comes with a single cable, which can take a number of adapters suitable for recharging a number of different small devices. Note, recharging and NOT powering. The Freeloader is unable to provide power to a device straight from the solar panels because the demand from a device is different to that supplied by a solar panel. By charging a battery via solar, then charging a device from the battery, the power is effectively regulated as required. If the selection of supplied adapters (mini USB, micro USB, two types of Nokia, PSP, Nintendo DS, etc.) is not sufficient, then you can buy more, or, as I did with the iPhone, just plug your standard USB charge/sync cable for that device in to the Freeloader’s USB port. In this way you can support nearly any small device including iPads and other tablets and eBook readers.
The LCD display is the biggest advantage that the Freeloader Classic has over its previous model (just known as the Freeloader). It displays a battery meter with four bars to indicate how full it is. Two * symbols indicate whether power is being received from one of the attached solar panels, and a little lightning symbol tells you if it is being charged from a USB power source. It does bug me to see the LCD screen operating whilst charging because a little part of me thinks it may charge quicker if this wasn’t being lit. I reckon for true power frugalness, the LCD display should be replaced with an e-ink display which would retain its content even when no power is being applied, so the unit could permanently display its power level without requiring any power to do so.
My other criticisms of the product concerns the charge time – 12 hours is a long time to leave something outside and the Freeloader Classic isn’t waterproof. Charging behind a window can increase the charge time by a factor of days which really defeats the point. Back to the waterproof issue, assuming there was some easy way to attach the Freeloader to your person or backpack whilst out walking, you’d have to hope it doesn’t rain. Both of these issues are resolved by using an attachment called the Supercharger – which will be the subject of another review soon.
Overall, my experience with the Freeloader Classic is mostly positive. It does work exactly as it is supposed to, and as long as you are aware of its limitations, it will be an invaluable addition to the kit list of the outdoors type. I’ve only tested it out with charging up smartphones, so can’t really comment on how well it charges tablets or consoles – to be honest, you shouldn’t be playing on your PSP whilst climbing a mountain anyway.
Now, it comfortably sits two adults and two children – I can’t comment on whether it is suitable for fat people though and I’d suggest not! It can be assembled / unfolded within a minute easily, and all you need to do is make sure that the locking bolts are in place before you sit on it. It is made mostly of plastic, with an aluminium frame for strength, but don’t put anything too hot on the surface or you will melt it…. not suitable as a cooking table! The other major issue is the lack of levelling – you’ll have to make sure it’s on a flat surface, or bring along some wooden blocks to keep it level – but for just over £20 you can’t be too fussy.
The whole table folds in to a small suitcase-sized carry case – the case itself being the table-top with the chairs folding up inside it making it very convenient for fitting in your boot on a camping trip. I wouldn’t recommend it for a hiking trip though as it’s far too heavy for that despite the photos of ramblers on the box. We haven’t actually tested it in earnest yet, so I’ll post an update once we get back from the trip.
