CES 2012: PowerSkin Shows Off Solar Powered Charger, 15-Year Phone Battery, Gaming Skin

BY Juli Clover 

In an era where we’re constantly connected to our smartphones and tablets, power-on-the-go gadgets have become an indispensable part of our electronic arsenal. Of course, there’s an issue with many of the portable charging options on the market, the chargers themselves have to be charged, which means yet another device and cable to worry about.
PowerSkin has solved that problem, with a new solar charger that the company revealed at CES.
The SolarCharge ($69.99) features 1,000 mAh of power, extending talk time on smartphones up to 350 minutes. A small solar panel on the back of the unit absorbs light and converts it to power, and supposedly, it produces 50 percent more solar power than its competitors.
When you’re not outdoors or it’s cloudy, you can recharge it using USB. You’ll be glad to have a solar powered charger if you’re ever in an emergency situation.

For those who often venture out into the wilderness or maintain underground supply-filled bunkers for the inevitable zombie apocalypse, you may be interested in PowerSkin’s SpareOne ($49.99), which is a great emergency backup for your iPhone.
The SpareOne is a simple phone that runs on a single AA battery with 10 hours of talk time and a charge that can last for up to 15 years. It’s even got an emergency flashlight and promises to transmit its location via cell ID, so this backup phone might just save your life one day. Both the SolarCharge and the SpareOne should arrive sometime in February.

PowerSkin was also showing off its battery-boosting gaming skin ($99.99 – available now), which provides twice as much power for those intense iOS gaming sessions. It’s lightweight so it won’t add extra pressure to your wrists, and it recharges whenever your phone does.
What do you think of PowerSkin’s CES offerings? Will you be getting a SpareOne phone or a SolarCharge? I think the gaming skin is great, though a bit pricey.