Welcome to my review of the Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000. Sandberg is no stranger when it comes to producing mobile Power banks. Just have a quick look at this page and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll also notice they don’t just stick to the traditional plug-in and charge method either. If you look all the way down that page you will see five solar power banks, one of which is the subject of this review. I am talking about the Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000, which in case you didn’t notice from the title has a whopping 16000mAh Li-ion battery built-in.
Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 specifications
The following list is taken directly from the product page here.
Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 design
The first thing to say about the design of Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 is that it is large in comparison to other power banks and combine that with the weight of 330g and you end up with a power bank that doesn’t get on well with pockets. So if you want something you can place in a pocket comfortably, this may not be the one for you, but if like me you’re more interested in the capacity then you’ll have no issues throwing this into your backpack. I should also point out it does come with a snap hook if you want to clip it to your bag or I don’t know dangle it from your ears.
Sandberg certainly hasn’t called this the ‘Outdoor Solar Powerbank’ for no reason at all. This is evident not only by the fact it can be charged using the sun but also by the rugged build quality of it. It has a tough rubber coated plastic shell to it with extra thick corners for extra protection against drops, but that’s not all, it’s also IP67 rated. The 6 means it allows no ingress of dust and has been tested under laboratory conditions with a vacuum applied for up to 8 hours, while the 7 means water cannot access the internal components and this has been tested under defined conditions submerged in up to 1m of water. You’ll notice that there are two rubber flaps on the exterior of the power bank, these cover the ports to ensure the device safely passes the requirements needed to get such a good score from the IP test. So if you drop it in a big pile of sand, you have no need to worry and if it gets rained on again you have no need to worry. It really is an outdoors bit of kit.
There are two flaps on the device. One is located on the left-hand edge and opens up to reveal a single USB output, while the other is on the front edges and opens to reveal another USB output and also a MicroUSB input for charging the power bank indoors. On the top side is the fairly sized solar panels, a set of four lights that are used to give the user an idea of how much battery remains in the power bank and a power button that turns the power bank on and can also be used to activate and change the mode of the built-in torch system. The torch system consists of four star-shaped LED lights on the bottom side of the power bank. The lighting system here is rather impressive and is by far the brightest I have ever come across on a device like this.
Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 performance
The charging time for the Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 depends on how you charge it. It charging it with a 1.0 amp AC adapter it takes about 15 hours in my experience while charging it from a 2.0 amp AC adapter takes about 7 hours for me and lastly charging from the sun takes about 8 hours to directly charge a connected smart phone. Given the large capacity of this battery, this isn’t out of the ordinary at all and is in fact on par with other similar products. If you are planning on using this for camping trips and other outdoor activities it will be a better idea to ensure it’s fully charged the day before you are due to start your trip.
As I pointed out above charging my phone from flat to 100% while using the sun as the power source takes about 8 hours but what about when I’m using the power already stored in the battery of the power bank? Well, that depends on the output port used. There are two output ports on this device, one outputs 1.0 amps and the other output 2.4 amps. Well, unfortunately, my phone only charges at 1.0 amp so I can only really talk for that. I can say the results are good though with my phone charging from flat to 100% in around 3 hours which is pretty decent. I am also able to get about 5 full charges from the power bank before having to recharge it which is fantastic. This really is the power bank to have for those long trips away.
Overall
The Sandberg Outdoor Solar Powerbank 16000 is the perfect portable phone charger for long trips away from traditional power outlets. It’s rugged build and IP67 rating means it will survive whatever the wild may throw at it. The added torch-light function is the best I have ever seen on a power bank, but the real star here is the generous 16000mAh battery capacity, which is enough for five to six full charges depending on your phone’s capacity.
Check it out here
The following link is an Amazon Affiliate link. If you make a purchase through this link, Amazon will give me a small commission from their own pocket. This is used to fund the everyday running of this site
Last update on 2023-11-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
