AmbienTec's SolarFold and SolarFan charge your gadgets, available without prescription (video)

You might expect a product from a company called AmbienTech to make you a bit drowsy, but we're thinking this pair of solar chargers are actually rather interesting. For one thing, they aren't just concepts: they're available for purchase right now -- or at least they are in Japan. They're called SolarFold and SolarFan, two designs that both deliver four panels of spherical-based solar cells, comprised of 1,900 globes each, making them slightly flexible and rather more durable than your average photovoltaic. They're reasonably efficient, too, delivering 2W over USB and, in 10 minutes, are able to charge an iPhone enough to make a 3 minute call. (We'll leave it as a reader exercise to figure out how many days would be required for a full charge.) Both models are available now for ¥22,050 (about $250), but only the fan comes with a cool little tripod, making the decision of which to buy a little easier.

[Kiron Posted Mar 8th 2010 11:38AM]

I could use these. I charge my phone while I sleep on a bed side table thats always in sunlight during the day.

[One Love Posted Mar 8th 2010 11:45AM]

@Kiron : You sleep on a bed side table? Nice balance. :)

[Kiron Posted Mar 8th 2010 11:47AM]

Damn my grammar!

[who said what Posted Mar 8th 2010 2:07PM]

@Kiron Damn your punctuation! :)

[who said what Posted Mar 8th 2010 2:08PM]

@Kiron Damn your punctuation!

[One Love Posted Mar 8th 2010 11:48AM]

I wonder how this compares to the solio?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5226046&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

[The Gadgetman Posted Mar 8th 2010 11:50AM]

This will be an awesome accessory at the beach!

Especially together with this guy http://www.wergadgets.com/2010/03/07/say-hello-to-the-solar-powered-toy-monkey/ I'm buying this :)

[Timmmmmm Posted Mar 8th 2010 11:52AM]

Is that really right? $250 for 2W? Wow. That's around 10 times more expensive than the competition.

[davidlt Posted Mar 8th 2010 2:53PM]

@Timmmmmm , Solio gives 8W for 99$ I think. So you can bend it, it is smaller but it gives less power too.

[bigonroad Posted Mar 8th 2010 11:55AM]

Ok, so say that an iPhone has a 5 hour talking time battery life. 10 mins to charge for 3 mins is 5% of an hour.

This means we need 100x that to fully charge. That's a 1000 minutes, or 16.6 hours. Which isn't bad, assuming you live somewhere where you get at least 16 hours of strong daylight a day.

Which most of us don't.

[alechava Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:16PM]

How about some calculation for the Solar Powered Monkey ?

[liquidmonkey Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:43PM]

i'd like them better if they came with a LI-ION battery that could charge. that wau u could leave it in the sun charging, all day, every day that there is sun and just plug in your phone or whatever when u come home.

same thing when travelling i suppose.

[beq Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:58PM]

I wish it can provide the standard-spec 5V 500mA (ie. 2.5W) over USB. Maybe each design would need a fifth panel?

[Peteo Posted Mar 8th 2010 1:53PM]

wonder if the JOOS Orange will be better?

JOOS Orange solar charger claims 20x more power than any similar device http://www.slashgear.com/joos-orange-solar-charger-claims-20x-more-power-than-any-similar-device-0576884/

[Armchaircritic Posted Mar 9th 2010 3:53PM]

@Peteo

One is pocket sized and the other is the same size as a netbook.

[pankomputerek Posted Mar 8th 2010 2:00PM]

Damn Japanese first Toyota then PS3 NOW high prices on new stuff!