REASONS TO BUY
Large capacity battery is efficient and can charge multiple devices simultaneously
Affordable
Portable
REASONS TO AVOID
Hard to fully charge battery using solar panel
LED indicator lights didn't function properly
Hiluckey S025 Review
Combines the classic fold-out panel design with a large-capacity battery pack
Credit: Hiluckey
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Our Verdict
This compact model combines a traditional fold-out style panel with a battery pack; together, they make a neat little package that charges devices quickly and effectively. The Hiluckey Portable Power Bank contains a 25,000mAh battery pack and a 5W panel. Now, it takes a long time to get the fairly large capacity battery pack full using only solar power, but once it is full, it delivers a consistent charge to multiple devices at once. The only drawback to the panel is on the LED indicator lights; we noticed that three out of the five lights were very faint, making it hard to tell when the battery was full.
Our Analysis and Test Results
This panel performs well when the battery pack has some reserve battery in its power bank. It struggled a bit in terms of weight and durability.
Performance Comparison
Here, the Hiluckey takes in full autumn rays as we tried to charge up its large battery pack using only the 5W panels. This proved to be time consuming and was not super effective.
Credit: Jane Jackson
Charge Interruption Recovery
Here we see again that panels with built-in battery packs tend to do better in this metric than those without. The Hiluckey is no exception, with its 25,000mAh battery back and small capacity panels. The battery pack/panel combination maintains a charge on cloudy days if the battery pack already has some juice in it; however, it takes a very long time to get the Hiluckey battery pack full using only solar power. If it has a little bit of charge, it can keep delivering power to another device through periods of intermittent shading.
The bulky size of the Hiluckey has a large, integrated battery pack. This made the panel a top performer in charge interruption recovery.
Credit: Jane Jackson
Charging Speed
Since the LED lights had a difficult time functioning, we couldn't tell how fast the integrated battery pack charged in full sun. We could, however, measure the speed that the battery charged our cell phone (Pixel 3). The phone was able to charge 26% over a half hour when plugged into the battery pack in full sun. With no sun, the battery pack charged our phone 4% over the course of thirty minutes. It greatly helps the efficiency of this panel to be in full sun.
Only two of the five indicator lights worked for us during our three-month test period.
Credit: Jane Jackson
Multiple Device Charging Speed
If the panel is placed in full sun, it does a pretty impressive job of charging multiple devices at once. When placed in full sun, this panel charged two battery packs 3% each over the course of 30 minutes. Most of its power comes from reserves in the power bank.
Fully charged up in the mid-day sun, the Hiluckey impressed us with its ability to charge multiple devices at once.
Credit: Jane Jackson
Durability
A leather case covers the fold-out panels, providing a significant amount of protection. The battery pack is a fairly substantial chunk of plastic that seems fairly durable from a construction standpoint. The downside to this panel was the fact that the LED indicator lights are hard to read. This is more of a design flaw than a durability issue, but regardless, made it hard to tell when the battery was full.
The leather covers on the solar cells add to the overall durable construction of this device (minus the LED issue).
Credit: Jane Jackson
Weight and Portability
Here, the Hiluckey was a bit difficult to rate. On the one hand, it's small and compact, fitting easily into a daypack for hiking or traveling. On the other hand, its large battery pack weighs 18.7 ounces, which makes it difficult to carry on a long day out, as it adds significant weight to a backpacking kit.
Its size makes it portable, but its weight can be a bit of an issue in the backcountry. We found it useful for road trips and air travel, where weight was less of an issue.
Credit: Jane Jackson
Value
The Hiluckey comes at a very reasonable price, especially when you consider that you are buying a fairly large capacity battery pack as well as a 5W solar panel. Other integrated panels cost more and work just as well as the Hiluckey, making it a product of fairly good value. The fact that the LED lights didn't work on our test model is a bit of a red flag in terms of the longevity of this product.
Conclusion
The Hiluckey excels in charging speed, charge interruption recovery, and multiple device charging speed. Its fairly high scores in these metrics though are very much a result of the battery pack being fully charged. Without reserve battery power in the pack, the panel would have scored much lower in all of these metric ratings and should be taken into consideration.
—Jane Jackson
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