but still, very valid concerns. That being said, a.) must be my young hands or things being built better but the only thing I've dropped to inoperable in last 10 years tech or otherwise has been pint glasses and b.) you can really mitigate that risk with the phone to the toughness/waterproof level of most GPS units with a waterproof impact resistant case (of which there's a ton) and a lanyard.Yeah, I know I'm going to dunk it..
So then it falls to the solar performance. I have the first Solio that won the CES show product of the year a few years ago and it's solid and has been wet a few times. Clouds and trees w that one, big problem. This particular new charger though doesn't need 8 consecutive hours of sun nor does it need to be connected to the device while it's charging.
It can get juice 30 mins or an hour at a time and you can pre-charge it at the house. I'd just be banking on the fact that in the time it takes the phone to discharge 3 times it can get at least 4 hours of sun between fishing, lunching, etc. If the back of my neck is any indicator in most years that's no problem. I should probably just wear the damn charger there.Not a lot of 8 hr days to just let the phone sit and charge.
Seems like the biggest risk is whether or not the sun shines, how good the maps are, and if it performs as advertised. I'd also be concerned about operating temp as most batteries performance degrades as they cool. This one just won Men's Journal product of the year but IMHO that doesn't necessarily mean that it's worth a squat. REI and Amazon reviews both put it at 4/5 stars which is pretty consistent w my last one. I can't plan w/o paper topos anyways so I'd have 'em.
What else?