You may or may not remember at the beginning of the crypto price crash I was trying to do an Upfundme to raise funds for a solar lamp and solar panel, so that I could become a little more self-sufficient and eco friendly ( Sustainable Goals Upfundme Day 9 ). My income is very sporadic and small, and most of my electric bill is: appliances, lights, and computer. I thought since I can't do much about the appliances since I live in an apartment, I could at least get my computer and light solar powered, right?
But the prices kept dropping, which meant that I had to keep upping my Steem goal if I was going to be able to buy the things, so eventually I just put it on hiatus until prices recovered. Except, they didn't really do that, or Steem hasn't yet, anyway, so I made an Executive Decision.
I decided to just get the lamp and not the panel, since I had enough for that, and also since I had gotten a laptop for my birthday last year, I figured I would probably need a more powerful solar panel to charge it versus what I needed for just my phone and Kindle before.
So ...#upfundme complete! Thank you to everyone who helped me! :D
I actually did this a few weeks ago because I wanted to use it a bit so I could review it.
Pros:
->The light is very bright when you turn it up all the way (there are two settings). The photos don't really do it justice, because you know how cameras make it seem darker.
->There are multiple ways to charge it (solar, hand crank, batteries, plug in to USB or car port).
->It's pretty durable and sturdy. You could definitely go camping with this.
-> When fully charged, the bright light lasts for several hours.
You can read by it for sure - this is my book probably eight feet away from it
Cons:
-> The solar and hand crank - the two off-grid, "green" charging options - are slow to charge.
You might recall me getting a "solar" battery pack that takes OVER A MONTH to fully charge via the solar panel; it's not that bad. But leaving it in the sun for two days only gave me full light for about half as long as it lasts when it charges plugged in for a few hours.
When I tried the hand crank, I had read somewhere that turning it for ten minutes equalled one hour of light. So I put on a twenty minute DTube video and got an upper body workout. Well ...it lit, but not at full strength. The lower setting of light, not the upper setting.
Again, it really is brighter in person, lol
So, if you just want a low light to see your way around, yes, totally functional. But if you wanted a lamp to read/sew/work by for several hours, every night, you're going to need more to charge it up than just the panel or the crank.
I suppose that's to be expected really, since most solar lamps are used to light paths or go camping or as emergency backup and such, not as house lighting per se.
Brightness wise at full charge, you could legitimately light a tiny house with two, maybe three (which is kinda what I was going for, since I usually work by one lamp at night anyway) of these. So it's nice! It just needs a little oomph in the charging department. ;)
Currently, I have it charge in tandem with my über slow battery pack and don't use it every night
If I do eventually get a powerful panel and battery pack that will work for my laptop, I could probably plug it into that, too. But if I'm going to go that route, I want to get a really strong panel, because ultimately I'd like an ebike as well, so I can have some transportation besides my feet and the bus (I don't have the stamina for powering a bike myself anymore; the last time I tried, I thought my chest was going to cave in, and that was a few years ago; the health issues have gotten worse since then). So that's definitely a "someday" kinda purchase - maybe when crypto moons, lol.
But for now, I have a nifty, bright solar lamp! One step at a time, one step at a time. :)
Thank you again to my upfundme voters and contributors, 
Have a great day, everyone! <3