Design
The first thing you notice about the Richard Solo 1800 is that it's big: it's as long as the iPhone 3G if you include the 30-pin connection, it's marginally slimmer across but of an identical thickness. Other iPhone battery chargers we've seen lately, like 3GJuice, may have been as wide and deep, but only half the length of the Solo.
Richard Solo 1800
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
For the extra length you don't get more battery — the 1800 in the title represents 1800mAh capacity — but you do get a torch and laser pointer components built-in. Better than the 3GJuice, the Richard Solo features three LEDs for indicating states of charge and charging activity. There's still no indication of the battery's own charge though, and considering these types of Lithium-ion batteries should be charged before being totally emptied, a meter of some sort is necessary and is something we'd love to see on future models.
This unit comes with a great kit of charging accessories giving you the option to recharge the battery on your PC via USB, by a conventional wall charger, or in the car with a cigarette lighter attachment. Flexibility is key to these types of devices and the three charging accessories offer this flexibility.
Performance
We charged the Richard Solo using USB and noticed that it took a very long time. The manual states a five-hour recharge time, but we had the unit connected to our PC for about seven hours in total before it reported a full charge. With a fully charged unit we've been able to recharge the iPhone three times from approx 10-20 per cent remaining battery, and the iPod Touch up to four times.
Connecting the battery to the iPhone is as easy as connecting the iPhone's own USB charging cable, and so it should be. Similar to the 3GJuice, the Richard Solo 1800 clicks into the charging port securely, but remains loose enough to flex and wiggle. Unlike its competitor, the 1800 features a plastic support brace to hold the battery in line with the iPhone. Owners of iPod Touch music players should note that the plastic brace doesn't support the Touch's thinner body so extra care will need to be taken.
The support brace is excellent, but we still don't recommend you move the iPhone during the 90 minutes it takes to recharge the battery. It's possible to continue regular functionality during charging, but with the size and weight of the unit we suggest you should leave it alone as much as possible to save yourself from any iPhone disasters.
Overall
We'd love to see an iPhone charger that integrates with the iPhone better so that you can safely continue using the phone while the battery does its work. We haven't seen this yet, and though it's the biggest, the Richard Solo 1800 is the best of the bunch we've seen so far.