CES 2015: Helios solar panels can apparently charge a phone after 90 minutes in sunlight

There are times when you can’t stay by a plug socket all day to charge your gadgets. External battery packs are an option in those cases, but there are occasions where they’re no use. What do you do when they arise? Solpro wants you to turn to its Helios solar panels.

Solpro claims that Helios is the “industry’s fastest portable solar charging device”, and it’s this fact that’ll help bring solar charging into the mainstream. How fast is fast? Apparently the panels can generate enough power to charge up a device after just 90 minutes in the sun. It’s also capable of charging up two devices at once, and is compatible with most tablets and smartphones.

The only issue is that Solpro hasn’t actually revealed any figures to back up its claims. Lots of different phones have different battery capacities, so they’re going to different amounts of power to fully charge them. 90 minutes may end up being enough time to fully charge the 1,560 mAh battery in an iPhone 5S, but there’s no way the 3,100 mAh battery in the Xperia Z3 will be fully charged after the same amount of time. Plus, what level of sunlight are they referring to? 90 minutes in a Las Vegas summer is totally different to 90 minutes of a British summer.

But Helios can still be charged from the mains and can function as an external battery pack — albeit one that’s a bit larger than we’re used to. Again, Solpro didn’t specify how much power it can store.

We’ll have to wait and see how the Helios performs once it’s been released, but if it really is capable of charging that quickly then it’s all the better for us. It’s never going to save you money on your electricity bill, but I can certainly see this as being incredibly useful for hikers, campers, and festival goers alike.

No details on availability just yet, but we’ll let you know when they arrive.

This week we’re bringing you all the latest news, videos and gossip from CES 2015 in Las Vegas. Check out the CES 2015 page to keep up to date and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see hands-on news with our editor Holly Brockwell from the show floor.