Solio S224-C41U Magnesium Edition Hybrid Charger

The industrial design is great. The unit is seems very solid and simple to use. I plugged my new Solio into the wall to charge for the first time. After I used it on my iPhone, I've had it in the sun for about 4 days...still sitting at 25% charge. This is not very practical for much of anything. Bummer - great idea.

I live in an apartment in Australia which gets a lot of sun in the afternoon (and living in Sydney means that we have mostly sunny days thanks to the extended drought that we've been in). When the sun is shining on the Solio, it charges quite well through the window - but if the sun is indirect or if it's even slightly cloudy it wont charge. It takes about 3-4 days of this type of charging to fill up.

This product was purchased as a back up energy generator for back-country hiking.It is small,handy and light enough for that purpose.
It is nice that the GPS without batteries can be operated while attached to the Solio daytime and only use the GPS's AA battery at night time.Or have the GPS's AA battery installed and connected to the Solio and have it charged on a bright day while hiking and have it on for navigation.The solar source of energy is not like connecting to a wall outlet so don't expect the charging process being efficient and quick.
It would be nice if Solio would add one more "fold" when closed, to cover the last and exposed solar panel for protection.It is yet to be seen, after closing and storing in the back-pack among other things how soon the last exposed solar panel will be damaged and what detriment will it cause to the overall functioning.It is not an accident that in all Solio's advertisements the closed unit is not shown from the "other" side.I advise, to select and use for protection a better "padded" case, than the flimsy cheese-cloth bag supplied with the unit.