INTRODUCTION

   Where i live green energy may not be as popular as for example it is in California but still some people are trying to reduce emissions (and electrical bills) by using both the sun and the air to cover their power needs. Due to the very high cost of such solutions however this is mostly done on a large scale by corporations who place windmills, wind-turbines and solar arrays (photovoltaic) in various places and sell that power to the main distributor which in turn sells it to us regular consumers. Fortunately not everything needs to be done on a large scale so many manufacturers have released mini wind-turbines and solar panels which thanks to their size can be installed everywhere even ontop of your own house. Today’s review although relevant it's about something much smaller in scale even compared to that since we'll be testing the AP175 Mobile Solar Panel (SolarBooster) by Xtorm.

   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.

   As clearly stated by its name the AP175 Mobile Solar Panel is basically 4 medium-sized solar panels linked together that have a total power output of 24W and can be used to charge your mobile devices via two 2.1A USB ports. Now we have seen numerous portable batteries (powerbanks) in the past some of which featured one or two solar panels of various sizes but the AP175 is in a league of its own since these 4 panels are not only of very high build quality (Xtorm says they are on par with those used in regular full-sized photovoltaic solutions). Unfortunately the AP175 doesn't feature an internal rechargeable battery which means you can only use it to charge devices only when the sun is out but especially in the summer that shouldn't be a problem. Still let's move forward with our review and see just how good the AP175 really is and whether or not it deserves to have a permanent place in your backpack.