Xtorm Portable Solar Panel 21W

This product does not or hardly works for charging your iPhone (iPhone 12/8/7 and iPad). For us only suitable for charging the power bank.

Nice product with very limited user manual, it is only useful as soon as you find out that you can only charge power banks with it and your iPhone from that power bank.

A little more attention to product description and user manual prevents a lot of annoyance at the campsite.

Nice addition to charge your smartphone, smartwatch, power bank etc in the sun

Last year I bought a foldable solar panel from Xtorm. This year's version has a USB-C and a USB-A connector, while last year's version has two type A connectors.

There are 2 USB connections of each max 2.4 amps at 5 volts. So 12 watts, for one device. Both connections at the same time can provide a maximum of 17 watts. A conversion efficiency of up to 80 percent.

Twenty percent loss, but that's acceptable. You'll never get the peak power on a portable panel and you only need 3000mAh to charge your phone.

In practice, on a bright blue, airplane-poor Ascension Day, the panel feeds my iPhone with 1.7 amps. The panel lies flat on the table and is not optimally oriented. However, there is unfortunately an issue that severely limits its practicality. If a cloud moves in front of the sun for a moment, the power supplied will inevitably collapse. That won't recover once the cloud is gone. Panel and device must negotiate the power to be supplied over the USB connection. Once that negotiation has been conducted, it stays there and you remain stuck at 0.4 amps. The only solution is to disconnect the USB plug and plug it in again.