Like an overstuffed Swiss Army knife, the Eton Raptor is positively bursting with survival-minded tech, making it an essential gadget for trips into the backwoods, or even just a camp out in the backyard.
Just get a load of all the save-your-ass features that come built in: a compass, an altimeter, a barometer and thermometer, a chronograph with an alarm clock, a speaker fed by either a multiband radio (AM, FM, shortwave, NOAA weather alert) or an audio line input, and an LED flashlight. There’s even a bottle opener for crackin’ your brewskis. Finally — and this is key — it’s all powered by a 1800-mAh lithium ion battery that recharges using the built-in monocrystal solar panel, and you can transfer that charge to a phone or any other gadget that accepts a USB cable.
With the sheer multitude of functions packed into this 11-ounce, 8-inch-long hunk of plastic and rubber, you would think it was one of those gizmos hawked on late night TV infomercials. “It slices, it dices! It does everything — and more!”
Getting all these functions to work takes a little bit more brain power than mastering a SaladShooter or a Flowbee, however. There are nine buttons on the face, and these buttons are used to access every task. And unfortunately, there’s little about the Raptor’s button array that’s particularly intuitive. The 12-page user manual isn’t much of a help.
The power button is only for turning on the radio. The instructions don’t tell you that, and it took me about 20 minutes of trial and error to figure that out. It doesn’t help that the rest of the buttons are terribly named. “Volume –” and “Volume +” are no-brainers, but what’s the difference between “M” and “MEM”? There’s a complicated button-pressing pattern involved when you want to access certain functions, and you have to press everything in the right order or else you end up somewhere else, at which point you’re forced to start again.
However, once mastered, the Raptor is a truly useful and versatile tool. Throw it in your bag and leave all the other stuff — the compass, the radio, the flashlight — at home. And really, the most attractive function here is that you can charge your phone using the solar panels when you’re off on walkabout, and that’s sort of a set-it-forget-it situation.
The Raptor can be fully charged under solar power, but it can take up to 18 hours to fully juice it up. With the included USB cable plugged into a computer or AC adapter, it charges in just four hours.
While you get a lot of functionality for the $150 price tag, there is one key wilderness survival feature it’s missing: GPS. It would be nice, especially for when you’re stuck in the bush after losing your smartphone in the river — though I shudder to think how many buttons I’d have to press to get it working.
WIRED Versatile device comes loaded with life-saving functions for hiking, biking and outdoor frolicking. Charges your phone using the power of the sun. Lightweight, splash resistant. Solar panels mean it can go the distance without conking out.
TIRED Somewhat high learning curve to master all the functions. They should fire the whiz kid who designed the interface. Full solar recharge can take up to 18 hours — is there even that much sun in a day?
Photo courtesy Eton
