INTRODUCTION

   Summer is almost here and so just like every other summer in the past we've all started to look around for gadgets that will make your life easier during your long awaited vacations by the beach. With the sun being the dominant feature of the summer period our eyes and minds are of course turned towards solar powered gadgets and although there aren't that many reputable manufacturers out there that offer such products still we did manage to find a few to test their products. Up until 2 years ago the popularity of portable battery packs was not really that great but with the continuous advancement of tablets and smartphones today pretty much every person i know of owns at least one. Xtorm may not be a name that many of us have heard in the past but they are a well-established manufacturer of power banks inside the EU and today we will be testing their latest offering called the LAVA CHARGER.

   Xtorm is part of the Dutch company A-solar bv and was founded in 2008 with the idea that today more and more mobile devices come to the market, which requires a lot of power. To contribute to the environment we have searched for durable applications to provide a solution to this problem. Meanwhile we are the manufacturer in the field of innovative and practical solar and power solutions for everyday use. We bring a complete range of affordable and user-friendly consumer products on the market that simply charged from solar power and USB. The products with the brand Xtorm have a contemporary character and are of high quality.

   The LAVA CHARGER is basically a portable power bank featuring a 4000mAh lithium-polymer battery that can be recharged either via USB or via the built in solar panels. Unfortunately the one thing that many people may find insufficient right from the get go is the capacity of the lithium polymer battery but the Xtorm people have explained to us that even 4000mAh would take quite a bit to recharge using the power of the sun so a larger capacity battery wasn't needed. Personally the only reason i would accept such a low capacity battery would be size and since thanks to the placement of the solar panels the LAVA CHARGER is quite small i don't have a problem with that. Does however the LAVA CHARGER has what it takes for people to turn to solar charged portable battery packs? Well after 7 days of testing we think we can answer that question.