Solar chargers for mobile phones always seem like a good idea at first. Using nothing but the sunlight, you can keep your phone charged and ready to go, no matter where you are.

There are two problems with that: the first is that we live in Ireland, not the Mediterranean, so our weak sunlight can barely shine through the perpetual cloud layer that hangs over the country; and two, that solar chargers are a bit slow and require a lot of patiance.

That’s not much use to you if you’re hovering on 1 per cent battery and you’re waiting on a very important call (need to keep up with Snapchat), have to send a vital email (Facebook status update), or turn in some work (update your Twitter feed).

EvolutionWear’s RapidSol (from $39) claims to be the fastest solar charger in the world, neatly solving all those problems, bar the Irish summer, of course. It claims – and we haven’t been able to test it yet – that it’s up to 90 per cent faster.

It detects your device’s optimum charge so there’s no fear of damaging batteries. And a handy LED indicator keeps track of the internal power bank power level. The panel is designed to clip on to the company’s T-shirts and jackets, but could be attached to your backpack or golfbag – whatever works best for you.

evolutionwear.co