Anker 24W PowerPort Solar Charger Review
Solar chargers get sold on a fantasy: unfold a panel, leave it in the sun, and your phone tops itself up for free all trip. The reality on a UK campsite — under a lot more cloud than the marketing photos suggest — is more modest, but still genuinely useful if you know what to expect. We've spent time with Anker's 24W PowerPort Solar, a foldable three-port panel aimed at exactly this kind of trip, and this is what it's actually like to rely on.
What it is
The Anker 24W PowerPort Solar is a foldable solar panel built from CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) thin-film cells, which is what lets it fold down like a sheet of fabric rather than being a rigid slab. It has three USB-A output ports and Anker's PowerIQ charging tech, which detects what's plugged in and adjusts the output to charge it as quickly as that device allows. There's no built-in battery — it's a pass-through charger, not a power bank — so it charges your phone, GPS unit or power bank directly while the sun is on it, and stops the moment it isn't.
It folds down to roughly the size of a large paperback and has loops on the back so it can be lashed to the outside of a rucksack to charge while you walk, which is where it earns its keep on longer trips rather than sitting static at a campsite.
Real-world charging: the honest bit
The 24W rating is a best-case number, measured in direct, unobstructed sunlight with the panel angled correctly toward the sun. In practice, in the UK, that combination doesn't happen nearly as often as we'd like. Under thin cloud, expect output to drop noticeably — often to a fraction of the rated wattage — and under thick grey cloud (a fairly normal British afternoon) it can slow to a trickle that will keep a phone from draining rather than meaningfully charging it from empty. Angle matters more than most people expect too: a panel lying flat on a picnic table in the morning or evening sun is capturing a fraction of what it would if propped up to face the sun directly.
The practical upshot: this is a genuinely useful trickle-charge or top-up device on a multi-day trip with reasonable weather, particularly paired with a power bank that the panel charges during the day so you can draw from stored power at night. It is not a fast, reliable way to charge a phone from flat in an hour, and anyone expecting that from a solar panel this size — regardless of brand — will be disappointed. Treat the wattage rating as a ceiling you'll rarely fully reach in British conditions, not a guarantee.
Pros
- Folds flat and packs small — genuinely rucksack-friendly, unlike rigid panel designs
- Three ports with PowerIQ mean you can charge more than one small device without fiddling with priority
- Lightweight enough to lash to a pack and charge while walking, which is where solar panels this size are most useful
- No battery to fail or degrade over time — it's a simple, low-maintenance piece of kit
Cons
- Real-world UK output is well below the rated 24W most of the time — cloud cover is the default, not the exception
- No internal battery, so cloudy spells or overnight mean zero charging until the sun (or at least brighter cloud) returns
- Needs to be positioned and angled carefully to get anywhere near its rated output — casual "just leave it out" use underperforms
- Best paired with a separate power bank for it to be genuinely useful, which is an extra item to carry and an extra cost
Who it's for
It suits multi-day backpacking, cycle touring or trips where mains power genuinely isn't available and you want a lightweight way to keep a phone alive for navigation and emergencies, ideally combined with a power bank as the actual device you charge from overnight. It's a poor fit for anyone expecting fast charging, anyone camping somewhere with an EHU (electric hook-up) or car charging available, or anyone planning a UK trip in typically overcast conditions and hoping the panel alone will keep pace with daily phone use.
Our verdict
Judged against realistic expectations rather than the marketing photo of a sun-baked mountainside, the Anker 24W PowerPort Solar does what a folding CIGS panel of this size can do: a genuine, if modest and weather-dependent, trickle charge that's worth having as a backup on longer trips. Buy it to extend a power bank's life on a multi-day walk, not to replace mains charging, and it's a sensible, well-made piece of kit for the job it's actually suited to.