It makes a great flashlight. with the stock 3.5v button cell battery pack it charges quickly for lighting when needed. The phone charger part though needs much work. The 3.5v is not enough to charge a standard charger style phone without constant cranking (takes at least 6v for USB style). Also the output amps are low enough that it can only slow charge so with a newer smartphone you would need to shut the phone off or you only maintain the current charge.
I did however find a fix for this that mine will have done to it before travellng. By changing the 3 stack button cell pack (3.5v) with 4 AAA NiMH connected in serial (6v) i was able to give enough of a charge without cranking and also was able to charge the batteries with the crank, it took a lot longer to build, though not as long as charging the phone with the 3.5v and crank.
Overall on a scale of 1-5 (5 being top) i would give this a 2.25. It works but not as well as expected and needs mods to be a viable emergency and or travel charger for cell phones unless you have plenty of time to crank and only need to make 1 or 2 short calls
Still want to try the new project they have specifically for cell phone and usb charged items that comes with a charge meter however as it looks like it was more thought out in design.
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