Are these things just a gimmick or are they worth a buy?
Like, the small pocket sized ones? Largely a gimmick, at least compared to a normal power brick, if you have access to mains power. The solar panels work, but the area of the panel is so small you have to leave in it direct sunlight for several hours.
direct sunlight for several hours.
Which is not good for the life of the batteries
Those pocket sized power banks are mostly gimmicks but you can get a 20k or 30k mAh power bank that’ll recharge your phone 7 or 8 times for like 40 bucks from anker
Can't take them on planes, though, right? Only 10,000 mAh allowed I think.
The FAA prohibition is for 100 watt hours or greater size batteries. Generally 10,000mAH for phones should be fine. Different countries have different regulations but I don't know of any that restrict at that size level.
The tsa and faa websites don’t say anything about a restriction on mah so I don’t think so? It just says they have to be with you in carry on and not in checked baggage
Any of the ones that are half decent are too large, expensive, delicate, to be worth your time. It would be cheaper and easier in every case to either buy a battery replacement with a third party or first party repair facility or just buy a big power bank from like anker. Those ones that are decent are not made for city living. They're made for survivalists and wilderness lovers. They may not be able to keep up with the battery drain.
Every one of the mini solar power banks I've tried get too hot in the sun to allow the battery to charge with any decency.
Look those solar panel ones are a gimmick unless you are a camper. You need like a full afternoon of sunlight to get a decent charge going, and it'll take days of direct sunlight with the size of that panel to get a full battery. If you only need to store power, get a different power bank. If you travel often and don't necessarily have access to a whole outlet situation, the solar bank is superior
Well, when the grid breaks down, the solar bank is the only way we could charge our phones, though I think we'd have larger problems then.
Well, when the grid breaks down
If that is a genuine concern to you, you're better off buying separate solar panels (even just the portable kind) if you expect to get any kind of usable energy. Not only is the area of solar panels that they put on those power banks practically useless, they also use the cheapest garbage panels available that are only good enough to power a handheld non-graphing calculator.
If you get one that's about the size of a phone, the solar panel is too small to quickly charge it, it will take several days of full, direct sun to charge it. (And that might not be great for the battery either.) If you get one where the panel is a bit larger and the battery is separate, that might work better, but would not be portable at all to carry with the phone (would be more for camping).
tl/dr: the small ones are rather useless if you use it frequently.
