Solar power most likely represents one of the most important sources of electrical power for the future, as it can provide the much required energy in a very eco-friendly manner (not to mention a lot cheaper, after a larger initial investment). This is the reason why an increasingly higher number of manufacturers come up with various solar-charging solutions, one such a company being Solio, who launched back in the second half of 2007 the Solio Hybrid 1000, a device that can harness the power of the Sun and use it for charging one's favorite portable devices.



The device is an universal charger, capable of powering just about any electronic device. Thus, it's capable of working out of the box with most most mobile phone models, MP3 players and GPS units, especially since it comes packed with a wide range of adapter tips (and even more are available separately).



The Solio Hybrid 1000 can charge one's devices at any given time, day or night, due to the fact that the charger's internal rechargeable battery stores power for up to one year. And since we're on the subject of batteries, it's important to mention the fact that the device from Solio comes packed with a 3.7V 1000mAh Li-Ion unit, and features a rated output of 1.5 to 5 watts (from just around 0.6 watts provided by the solar panel itself). Moreover, the device is called “hybrid” as it can also be charged via an USB connector, directly from the user's computer.



The charger from Solio also provides quite a high level of efficiency, since the H1000 will provide one full charge for a typical mobile phone or give up to 10 hours of MP3 music playback time. Furthermore, just 1 hour of sunshine will provide around 15 minutes talk time or 40 minutes of MP3 music.



The solar charger is also quite portable (at least as far as solar chargers go), measuring around 198 x 68 x 18mm, at a weight of around 500 grams. Moreover, it's not even that expensive, as it retails for around 80 US dollars, a pretty fair price for such an item.