With the iPhone being as popular as it is, nobody should be surprised that everyone wants to get in on the act. The smartphone has become something of a modern phenomenon over the past few years and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon.

Shortly after the phone itself was launched, there were chargers, solar iPhone cases, apps and a whole host of other products to part users from their money. I know we have touched on them before, but I wanted to revisit solar iPhone cases once more.

The iPhone is/was notoriously power hungry. It was soon noticed that even moderate use ate the battery like no phone before it. That meant heavy users were finding themselves having to charge daily, or even having to charge during the day. While not ideal, it was seen as the cost of having a smartphone with lots of toys to play with.

Solar iPhone cases came along a little after launch in an effort to address the need for constant power from the phone. It couldn’t handle the demands of a seriously heavy iPhone user, but could keep the battery topped up if left out during the day.

The inability to keep up with the power demands of heavy users was the main limitation of the solar iPhone case. The panel and battery simply aren’t large enough to cope. While the ability to trickle charge during the day is nice, it doesn’t fully address the issue.

The other, and to my mind, more significant limitation is that to charge, the solar iPhone case needs to be left on a desk or windowsill somewhere in daylight. We all know that solar panels need light to charge, but in our normal systems, they can’t be put into a pocket and stolen.

If I worked in a large office and left my iPhone on a desk or windowsill at work, would it still be there in an hour? While many of us are fortunate enough to work with trustworthy people, so many of us aren’t. Leaving a phone lying around is just asking for trouble. Make it an iPhone and it’s doubly problematic.

While the solar iPhone case technology itself is sound, the implementation of it can be more difficult. Like much in the solar industry, engineers work very hard to solve practical problems. The need for power has been addressed. The ability to trickle charge the battery has been addressed. But how to use the technology safely has not.

I have seen these solar iPhone case chargers around before and wondered if they were any good. The gadget and technology market is full of products that say they perform a task, solve a problem or offer something new, but only some of them actually deliver.

As an admitted iPhone user, I know that battery life isn’t the strong point. I don’t run many apps, or use it to play games or anything like that. I use it for surfing, email and keeping in touch. Yet the battery still leeches power like nothing I have ever seen.

To that end, I took the plunge and ordered a couple of solar iPhone case chargers to see if they were any good. As we’re not a commercial blog, I’m not naming names, but one of them is a major player in the solar phone charger market.

When they arrived, I was quite excited to try out my new toys. Potentially I had something to solve the problem of the ever-discharging batteries. Once unpacked, the chargers seems a little flimsy. One was part of a leather case and had a small solar panel on the back of it. The other was harder, almost a plastic case.

Both had small panels that could charge the phone in around 3 hours. One needed direct sunlight, the other didn’t. We know from other aspects of our technology, that thin film panels don’t need direct sunlight to charge, however this is relatively new tech. It’s good to see it being used in a variety of platforms.

Direct sunlight indoors is difficult to pull off. While I work near a window, it’s north facing so I don’t get direct sunlight, I get reflected light. When I was testing them, the charger that needed direct sunlight struggled a bit. It charged, but it took longer than the advertised 3 hours.

The other worked fine. The charger in the leather case that didn’t need direct sunlight was becoming my favorite. However, it didn’t look quite as cool as the hard case.

The capabilities of each charger was about the same. They could charge a 3.7v battery in 3 hours. The output current was tiny, at 450mA at 5v maximum. These tolerances were tiny, and really not what I’m used to dealing with, but considering the tiny scale of the charge, was understandable.

Solar iPhone case chargers work in exactly the same was as our home PV systems only they use the battery more. The panel harvests the light, passes it directly into the battery, which in turn charges the phone battery.
Are they any good? Well for once, promises made by the marketing department were borne out by the manufacturing department. Each charger did charge the phone in 3 hours in direct sunlight. Out of direct sunlight, the one that didn’t need it worked fine. The other one took 5 and a half hours.

Solar iPhone case chargers seem to be able to deliver what they promise. This is good news for phone owners and good news for the solar industry. If anything is going to wake the next generation to solar energy, it’s going to be something like this.

The more gadgets we have, the more we need to keep batteries charged. Smartphones, and the iPhone in particular, are known for their ravenous appetite for power. Even the newer iPhone4 has quite the thirst for juice. It’s a brave owner who strays too far from a power source while using Wi-Fi, GPS or Bluetooth.

To answer that need, several manufacturers have developed solar iPhone cases that seek to provide a steady supply of power, or a recharge when you’re not next to a power outlet.

It comes in the form of a leather iPhone case with a solar panel and small battery built in. The placement of the panel varies, but is usually on the side with the largest surface area. The panel contains photovoltaic cells that captures the sun’s rays and converts it into usable power, which is stored in the battery.

The battery is relatively small, and the voltages tiny, but enough to keep a battery charged, or to charge a dead one. Admittedly, the current crop of solar iPhone cases have mixed results, but the technology is improving all the time.

The battery is generally a thin lithium polymer battery that sits somewhere in the case. Most often they can output somewhere around 1500mAh at 3 to 5 volts, which is enough to power the iPhone.

Power is either transferred directly from the charger to the iPhone, or via the battery later. The current crop of batteries seem quite good. Small, light, and rated to hold charge for up to a year. Although they haven’t been around long enough to test that.

Solar power is the power of the future. It’s clean, it’s always there, and it’s renewable. Devising ways to utilize that power is the challenge of the future, and one that many manufacturers are rising too. It’s more than likely that as we see newer power hungry devices hitting the market, that we see a solar charger to suit.

You don’t have to be the outdoors type to enjoy the benefits of a good solar iPhone charger. They will work in a car windscreen or a windowsill too. Freeing up a power socket when they are in demand is almost as useful as having an iPhone battery that’s always fully charged.

Plus, it’s free. Even when they aren’t charging, leaving a phone charger plugged into the mains costs you money. When you charge the phone, it costs you money. Using a solar iPhone charger is completely free once you have bought the charger itself.

The only downside with these solar phone chargers is that they really need good, direct sunlight to work properly. They can have difficulty charging when it’s cloudy or when the sun isn’t shining directly on it.

This isn’t a problem restricted to solar iPhone chargers, but affects all solar devices. Some have the spare capacity to cope, but these chargers don’t. Tolerances are tight in order to keep them as portable as possible.

If you’re shopping for a new solar iPhone charger, bear this in mind. If you live somewhere without a lot of direct sunlight, make sure the one you buy is able to cope.