Let me start off by stating that I despise Goal Zero. Their solar panels and battery banks are overpriced for what you get. They prey on the electrical ignorance of the general population.
I live off the grid and have recently begun exploring methods of using distributed power rather than central battery banks fed by PV panels. With prices of high energy density batteries falling into a reasonable range, many things you would not expect are now being battery powered. I am doing some real life testing on this topic...maybe for another book in my Tiny House Engineers Notebook series.
My need was for a small desk lamp to use next to my ham radio/laptop and in other places around my house. With a few extra points on my Cabelas club card, and their generous return policy, I took a shot on this model. The thing that turned me on about this light is the ability to manage how much power/light you are using. It has a knob that adjusts the lamp brightness from very dim to very bright (very similar to an oil lamp). Depending on which direction you turn the knob, you either light up both sides or just one. This feature allows you to get between 2.5 and 48 hours of runtime from a single charge.
The internal battery is 4.4 amp hours (wish it were more) which will charge a cell phone or other doodads thru the USB jack on the front of the unit. Charging the unit is actually very nice...the charge cord is wrapped around the device and snaps into a little recess. Not having to carry around a separate charge cord is a great feature. Plugging the lamp into a USB plug for 5 hours brings it up to full charge. Some little blue lights on the front provide a nice state of charge indicator.
The killer feature about this lantern is its built in hand crank. Cranking for 60 seconds at a moderate pace produced just over 9 minutes of run time with one side set at low. The crank seems sturdy enough. With the return policy available to me, I abused it quite a bit and it seems like something that will hold up to a few camping trips at least. In earlier versions the hand crank was a concern, they seem to have fixed whatever issues they had.
Other features include a red strobe on top, hook on top to hang the thing. The legs fold in and out for easy packing. Its not super small or lightweight for serious campers but it does fold down into something manageable. Overall the construction seems real sturdy for a Chinese made piece of junk. For $79 its something I can recommend to others. Goal Zero often blows out refurb units...anything less than $79 would be a real bargain IMO.
Amazon link here
