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Hands-On With Caviar's $4,400 'Tesla' Solar-Charging iPhone X

The irony is that if you won't find a power outlet to need such a thing, you may be in a place where you won't get reception as well.
 
30 hours to charge by solar at 3 to 4 hours of usable sun per day means ~7.5 days to fully charge. That makes the bundled iPhone slow charger seem fast by comparison.
 
dmylrea said:
It's not even good looking. It's the opposite of what one expects a Tesla to be.
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Right. People want Tesla Solar Roofs because they look like ordinary roofs - that they contain solar cells is hidden from view.

Inspired by Tesla would mean this should be indistinguishable from any other iPhone X from the outside, except it would happen to get a charge when it was exposed to the sun.

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Contrary to what other people are saying about 30 hours to charge being unacceptable, that sounds pretty okay to me. Charging it is rather effortless - you just lay it face down wherever exposed to the light. You can’t use it while it charging, and it won’t charge when it’s in your pocket, but it’ll be charging at pretty much any other moment of the day.
 
It needs a laser. A frickin’ laser.
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ArtOfWarfare said:
Right. People want Tesla Solar Roofs because they look like ordinary roofs - that they contain solar cells is hidden from view.

Inspired by Tesla would mean this should be indistinguishable from any other iPhone X from the outside, except it would happen to get a charge when it was exposed to the sun.

===

Contrary to what other people are saying about 30 hours to charge being unacceptable, that sounds pretty okay to me. Charging it is rather effortless - you just lay it face down wherever exposed to the light. You can’t use it while it charging, and it won’t charge when it’s in your pocket, but it’ll be charging at pretty much any other moment of the day.
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You realise that is more than a day to charge. In fact if you had to rely on sunlight it’s pretty much three days. Three days in which you can’t use it or it will take even longer to charge. This is an example of how solar is not always a suitable use case. Just carry a Powerbank for a quick charge.
 
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HiVolt said:
Hahaha, ridiculous. I can just image the ridiculously low durability... I will be surprised if they sell a single unit. Even the rich "gotta have it" folks are probably gonna look at it and go WTF?
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The people that buy things like this aren't rich, they just think they are.
 
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One of THE MOST entertaining reviews ever. I laughed out loud multiple times. Didn't expect that at all.

Time it will take Apple to sue for infringement of their MagSafe patent... 5...4...3...2...1
 
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Greenmeenie said:
Who would actually pay for this??
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Doubt many people would. But consider that there are at least a million super rich folk in the world who would never even notice an expensive of this size. It would be meaningless to them. So I suppose it is possible they will sell a few.

What I like is that the 30 hour charge time gives you a sense of the limits of solar panels sized only the size of a phone to provide the necessary juice to charge an iPhone. Of course if you simply buy a bigger set of portable solar panels (say something about the size of an iPad) you can get that charging time down significantly.

Anyway, interesting proof of concept.
 
Great way to roast a heat sensitive battery with solar radiation. There’s a reason high powered Qi wireless chargers have a fan. LiIon Batteries Above 100°f for sustained periods is not good for long term health.
 
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