From Voltaic comes a great concept for any tech geek out there. A backpack powered by solar panels! Why does your backpack need power anyway? Well, long gone are the days where you leave your phone charging in the car or your Ipod at home because you forgot to charge it before your weekend trip. Now, you can take these devices with you and charge them on the spot. With a few different models available, Voltaic has packs that carry just a few books or one laptop or as much as a full load.

I personally carry a pack with me wherever I go with my laptop, change of clothes, two bottles of water, cell phone, PDA, and maybe a few protein bars. The initial pack we got to review, called the Converter, was made more for the casual backpacker or made to attach on the back of your bike and I was very displeased to find little storage space and no extra pockets. Maybe there are people out here who likes these types of packs, but I’m not one of them.

I quickly renewed my happiness with the Voltaic Backpack which has all the room you’d want and more. The straps even have a pouch on them with a power cord that runs to the interior of the pack. This cord can charge your cell phone while the phone is right in front of you, easy to pick up if it rings. The pack comes with a small battery pack and for an extra $75 you can pick up a backup. The solar panels power this battery pack and then different attachments give all of your devices access to the solar power.

I didn’t have much luck actually wearing the pack and maintaining a strong charge, which can be seen by a nifty LED on the top of the pack. But when sitting outside the window sill or resting it on the beach or at a park the pack gets plenty of light to charge the battery. Anything from a cell phone, PDA, Ipod, Iphone, or other small electronic device can be charged and most adapters come included. I was very excited to think my laptop might be able to get a charge from this and there is a design in the making at Voltaic for a pack that can work with laptops, but not even a prototype yet & from our research it looks like it’s more than a few years away before you can charge your laptop with a backpack. I thought that would be the case and I might have to simply trickle charge my laptop, but even my tiny 5″ laptop couldn’t trickle charge with the small voltage supplied by the pack. Oh well, an upgrade to a pack that charges my cell phone is worth noting.

The solar panels are rugged and water resistant. They supply 12V charge and I found it took about 3 hours of sunlight to fully charge my smartphone. My cheaper phone took about two hours to fully charge and when left plugged into the pack all day, both phones lasted indefinitely. It’s a load off to know I can talk all I want and never have to look for a charger. The days of worrying about how many minutes are left on my phone are over & lately I’ve just been worried that I’ll talk too much and drain my battery. With this pack, that problem no longer exists.

I took the pack to the east coast and in the winter months even noticed it was able to draw enough energy from the sun to get the same charge hours on my pack, which impressed me. To top it off, the voltaic backpack is made from recycled materials and has a very forward thinking staff.

Other Solar Powered Products

There are a few other packs similiar to this from other companies such as the Juice Bag made by Reware. Reware even has cool products like a beach tote bag with solar panels. 

Overall we are pleased with the Voltaic, their company & pack & would recommend it as your next purchase of a backpack. Prices start at $199 for a converter back and go to $499 for a larger laptop case to charge laptops & video cameras. 

Check back soon for our review of the Voltaic Generator Laptop Case.