- This episode of Krazy Ken's Tech Talk
is sponsored by Artlist.
So Lit Mobile just sent me this
solar wireless battery pack.
I'm excited.
Let's see what's inside.
I really like the build.
It's got hand grips.
Okay, okay, I'm sorry.
(chuckles)
I cannot fake my enthusiasm
for a product like this.
Let's just start the episode.
(upbeat music)
Hey guys, how are you all doing?
Really, that's just great.
You know, I'm doing
pretty great today too,
because JUDINGTECH.
That's right, not Lit Mobile.
But JUDINGTECH sent me their
solar battery bank thing.
And they're supposedly the
OEM/ODM that Lit Mobile uses
for their products.
I mean, it looks pretty much identical
except there's no Lit Mobile branding.
So it makes sense.
So why am I going this route?
Well, Lit Mobile is still doing nothing.
They took my money and have
not shipped the product.
They haven't even given
me a tracking number.
They took the money from
a bunch of other customers
and they have not shipped
them their products either.
So, foreseeing this possibility.
I pretty much knew it was gonna happen.
I decided to go the alternate route
and go right to JUDINGTECH themselves.
If you have not seen my previous episodes
about this Lit Mobile debacle
I highly recommend you do.
As a quick summary of
what happened last time.
I reached out to JUDINGTECH via Alibaba.
JUDINGTECH offers this
solar charger product
with branding options.
This looks like the route
that Lit Mobile chose
for their product, it looks the same.
Heck, I could even go this route
if I wanted to sell my own computer
clean branded solar charger.
That aside, I ordered one
non branded unit for review.
Unfortunately, it was held
up in the shipping process
for a while, probably due to COVID-19.
But it is here now in my lair.
So since this is the
original non branded unit
that mobile uses, I think it's fair to say
that whatever we test with
this will be very, very similar
to the actual Lit Mobile product itself.
So now the fun part.
Does the product actually work?
And are any of the claims
that Lit Mobile made
actually for real?
Let's take a look.
Here's a quick rundown of the specs.
The power bank features a
20,000 milliamp hour battery
which can charge via USB or via solar.
There's three USB ports
for charging other devices.
Two 10 watt ports and one five watt port.
The bank also has an LED
built in which can shine
at 800, 550 and 250 lumens.
On top of the LED surface
is a Qi charger for wireless charging.
So how well does it work in real life?
Well, I looked around the
layer and just found a couple
of random devices and plugged
them in to stress test it.
And while doing so I just decided
to have this little fire extinguisher.
This little cute fire
extinguisher on standby.
You know, just in case.
I connected a first gen iPad
and an iPhone seven to start.
The iPad's battery was at
55% and the iPhone's battery
was at approximately zero percent.
I mean it wouldn't turn on
so I'm guessing it was dead.
The power bank itself was fully charged.
It took the iPad two and a half hours
to charge from 55% to 100%.
Simultaneously while I was
charging the iPhone seven
and the iPhone seven
went from nothing to 100%
in about two and a half hours as well.
After that the bank was at
approximately 75% battery life.
Unfortunately, we only see 25% increments
for the battery life so I can't
tell what it was at exactly,
but this is as close as we can get.
Next, I busted out my iPhone 11 Pro.
I asked the Twitter
community for suggestions
on how I could quickly drain
the battery for this test.
In the end I recorded video
at 4K with 60 FPS constantly
while screen recording
as well simultaneously
that killed the battery fast.
Once empty, I placed it on the Qi charger.
It took three hours and
50 minutes to reach 97%
but I couldn't get it to go any higher.
Not sure if that's a power bank limitation
or if the iPhone is doing that on purpose.
Honestly the results weren't that bad.
Especially considering
this thing minus shipping
is only 11 bucks, so not too bad right?
When it comes to recharging the device
with the USB port here.
I connected it to my 10 watts power brick
that I got with my iPad.
And the input is only 10 watts.
So that's as far as it'll go.
(beep)
How the... it's got hand grips,
but I can't hold on to
the (beep) the thing,
son of a (beep).
It's slippery.
Is it the lotion on my hands?
I don't know.
(laughs)
Oh my gosh that was stupid.
All right, let's try that one more time.
(beep)
Now when it comes to charging
the device via the USB input,
I tested it with my 10 watt power brick
that I got with my iPad,
and the bank fully charged
in approximately 10 and a half hours.
Now I understand that results may vary,
but I was using the maximum
wattage the power bank can take.
And my charge time was way
over the advertised 60 minutes.
But hello, this is a solar charger.
We're supposed to really charge this thing
with the big fiery ball in the sky.
So we're gonna take a look
at those test results next,
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Alright, ladies and gentlemen,
and everything in between
it is now the moment
you have all been waiting for.
The solar charging test.
I think it's fair to say
that Lit Mobile's claim
of a 60 minute charge via
solar is completely Bull.
I'm not an electrical engineer,
but a solar panel, the size of a Pop-Tart
with today's technology
would never be able
to charge a 20,000 milliamp
hour battery in 60 minutes.
Brad from Birdemic is even
smart enough to tell you that.
- Solar power will be available
and affordable for everyone.
- [Ken] In another Lit Mobile,
ad they changed this spec.
- [Woman] ...wall, in six
to eight hours via solar.
- Maybe they were fixing
an honest mistake.
Who knows?
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt,
although I've been giving them a lot
of benefits of the doubt.
So maybe the six to eight
hour thing is more accurate.
But my hypothesis before
I started any testing
was that it wasn't even
going to get halfway
because I received a lot of
comments from you guys saying
"I put it out in the sun for like a week
"and I only got 25% on
the LED indicator here."
Yeah, well a lot of people said that
so I thought maybe it's gonna
be the same thing for me.
So I drained the battery overnight.
Then I escaped my layer
and laid the power bank out
in the beautiful sunlight.
After four and a half hours of charging,
I only saw the 25% LED on.
Which means we could have theoretically
or approximately between
25% and 49% of a charge.
Now, that's not terrible, I guess,
because you could still
charge your phone probably
once or twice, maybe even three times
with that amount of juice.
So if you're stranded in the desert,
and you really need to
listen to your tunes,
you'll be able to.
But I didn't wanna give up yet.
I wanted to keep testing it.
So I left it out in the
sun for many more hours,
I kept checking it like every 90 minutes
to see if anything changed.
Nothing changed.
The solar light was on the
25% light would turn on
when I press the button on
the side, and nothing else.
So I didn't wanna give up yet.
I wanted to give it one
more 90 minute break,
and just see if it will work.
So I let it go for
another like 90 minutes,
two hours, whatever.
And I came back and it was gone.
Like it was gone!
Somebody took the power bank.
So I'm freaking out
just a little bit here.
I reached out to my friend that
let me borrow his backyard.
I was using that as the testing site.
Turns out that backyard is actually shared
by a couple of neighbors.
So I went to go ring some doorbells.
Luckily, the first doorbell
I rang gave me some answers.
A gentleman came out and he explained
that he was just being the Good Samaritan
and he thought someone dropped it.
So he sent it to the nearest
neighbors house he could find.
And I don't know what
the plan was after that,
but I went to that neighbor's house.
And sure enough, they did have it.
So Crisis averted, we're
able to continue testing.
So I got it back and I
checked the percentage
and nope, still at 25%.
Calling it it will not get above,
I guess, technically 49%.
It could be at 49%.
It's just not telling us but yeah,
it just can't even get
halfway it's straight up.
It's just it sucks at solar charging.
I'm not surprised at all.
I mean, if these were sold
for like $10 to the public,
(laughs)
I would expect it to suck
but they're on Lit Mobile
website for like 100 bucks
with the discount, they're 40 bucks,
and that's still 40 bucks.
And the main feature you
advertise Lit Mobile,
like can't even get halfway there.
So that, that's just a shame.
So if you do end up getting one of these
don't count on the solar
charging getting that far.
It could work for a little bit
if you're in a desperate situation
and you have no other
way to get electricity,
that could work a little bit.
But honestly, you're
gonna have better luck
just charging through the USB port.
I'll reach out to Lit Mobile again,
but if I don't hear back soon,
I'm just going to contest the
charge and get my money back.
Honestly, I knew it wasn't gonna show up.
I knew it wasn't gonna show up
before I even hit the buy button.
I just did it to prove a point.
But really, all that stuff brushed aside,
this whole debacle is just a nice lesson
a nice reminder at how
powerful marketing can be
and how deceitful it can be.
Fancy advertisements, generous discounts,
and five star reviews can make a company
and a product look pretty good,
but really all they're doing
is they're covering up
shady business practices
and potentially crappy products.
Even if the product isn't crappy,
if the business is still shady,
it's not gonna matter,
you're not gonna see your product anyway.
And you're never gonna get an email back.
And Lit Mobile, unfortunately,
that's the route you chose.
I'm still giving you a
chance for redemption.
But you have not replied to me
and you have not replied
to many other customers
and you're just taking their money.
That is not right, you
are a shady business.
But again, as for the
product itself, I mean,
for 10 bucks, whatever, it's okay,
if you ignore the other 50%
of the charging capabilities.
Maybe something else will develop later.
But for now, I think we're good.
And hey, in the end, we
got a low cost power bank
out of this whole conundrum.
So not all is lost, right?
But more importantly,
the Computer Clan channel
grew significantly during this saga.
So to all of the new subscribers
and all of the new viewers
that came by during this time,
thank you so freakin' much.
It means the world to me.
So I just wanna remind everyone
I release new tech videos
every week, usually on Thursday.
So feel free to stick around for those
and check out all the past
stuff I uploaded as well.
There's a lot of good stuff in there.
And I just can't wait to
see you in a future episode.
So I'll see you soon.
Also, if you liked the
video, you know what to do.
And if you have any other
tech buying horror stories
about Lit Mobile or any other company,
feel free to write them
in the comments down below
because I love hearing about those too.
Thanks for sticking with me
catch the crazy and pass it on.
(upbeat music)
