The Joos Orange is supposed to offer 6 to 20 times more son to power conversion and efficiency when compared to its competitors. The price is right at just $100 (introductory) for the base model, plus some extras that you may or may not want in order to adapt it for your charging and portable power needs.

It's also supposed to be able to charge an iPad! (yay!) - (it does but check out my demonstration above).

I was pretty excited at the time when they first introduced it and announced it last summer and showed some demonstration videos about how rugged it was. I have a few solar panels myself to use for travel, but almost all of them state that they are not to be used for an extended period of time outside.

What is the point in that?

Anyway there are some sample videos shown below about how rugged the Joos Orange solar charger is including underwater tests as well as shooting a 22 caliber rifle straight at the solar cell.

Update on 2011-02-27 08:36 by Mike Mu

Sorry for the delay folks, I've been informed that the latest major batch of solar panels are heading over to the states and I will keep you posted as soon as I get one in my hands for review.

Update on 2011-03-27 20:27 by Mike Mu

As you probably figured out already, they are in fact in stock now at their website. I have ordered one two weeks ago and it arrived last week. I'm putting it through some tests now and will post a first look review within the next week or two.

If you would like me to test anything in particular, let me know and I'll do my best to include it in my tests.

Update on 2011-09-23 16:57 by Mike Mu

I was hoping to post a meaningful review of the SolarJoos panel - at least a first look review but I've been busy traveling and then catching up with some work when I got back.

A number of things also happened.

Update on 2013-08-25 06:27 by Mike Mu

I took the liberty in reviewing a version 1 and a version 2 of the internals. I found some screws loose due to some hairline fractures in the plastic casing - one of the weak points of the solar joose orange.

Besides the fracture, I also found some waterproofing gasket missing on a brand new unit in version 2. So... definitely be careful about trusting the weatherproofing of any of these Solar Joos units out in the wild if your life depends on it.