Review: Nekteck 21W Portable Solar Charging Kit

I’ll be quick and to the point: Buy it.

I’ve dabbled with small solar kits for over a decade. Charging battery packs and cell phones are good tasks for these small portable solar panels. The Nekteck 21W Solar Charger is packed with features including two USB ports, a Micro-USB cable, metal eyelets for hanging, and a zipper pouch built-in for storage of other cables and accessories. Build quality appears top-rate which means it’s durable and rugged. Oh – it’s waterproof as well.

Above: The Nekteck folds down to 6.3x 11.1x 1.06 inches.

Above: Opened up, the three Monocrystalline panels collect energy from the sun. The two metal eyelets allow the charger to be hung or connected be positioned for full view of the suns rays.

Below: A 6700mAh portable power bank was used to test the NekTeck.

Below: The NekTeck 21W Portable Solar Charger was connected to the power bank and left on top of a vehicle all day.

The power bank was completely drained at the start of the day. I checked it at 4:00pm and it was fully charged. I’m not sure how long it took to charge it but the bottom line is it was able to charge it in one session.

How Might This Be Used?

These types of solar panels are designed to charge batteries – and battery packs. Charging phones and GPS devices can be done while backpacking, camping, and other outdoor activities that take you away from the grid. Any battery-powered device that is utilized off-grid can have its batteries charged via a solar panel such as this assuming the daily usage does not outrun the charging capacity. One example of this would be an off-grid portable homemade ham repeater. Another would be to charge power banks which would then be used to charge other devices.