Why didn’t anyone think of this before?

Combine a Bluetooth GPS receiver that most of the time sits on top of a dashboard anyway, with an integrated solar panel and, voila, you have the longest battery life possible.

Have a look at this first, in-depth review of this beauty from f-tech Corporation, based on the Trimble FirstGPS chipset.

We put it through test drives and also checked it out in a pressurized Cessna Centurion to see how it behaved in real life.

We have reviewed numerous GPS receivers here at DigitalReviews.net and our sister site PocketPCReviews.net.

They include Bluetooth, mouse and card models from Emtac, Acore, RoyalTEK and Rikaline.

I must say the combination of solar with an already very decent battery life of its own was very appealing to me.

I often fly long distances in our charter aircraft, navigating with an iPAQ 4700 cradled on the yoke.

A Bluetooth GPS receiver (often the Emtac) sits in a corner of the dash and runs out of puff after about 4 hours.

Fortunately, it can share the same charger as the iPAQ so it’s not a big drama at all.

However, with other applications it may not be so easy to recharge and a long endurance is absolutely desirable.

I had often wondered why certain products just don’t have a small solar panel on top to keep the battery topped up, particularly with these devices often sitting in bright sunshine most of the time. I’ve even connected a solar panel that we reviewed earlier on some of these devices but that looks messy and finding the right connector is always a problem.

f-tech Corporation, one of Taiwan’s foremost GPS manufacturers, certainly spotted an obvious combination here, had the expertise in-house to make it happen and now supplies that technology to the rest of the world.

In fact, the box in which the unit came, is a very generic one, leaving room for others to brand this device as their own.

When I queried John Yang, who’s handling the marketing side of things for f-tech, on this he said that f-tech can indeed do the printing of logos or brands at their factory and even supply the units in different colours.

For me, black is beautiful.

The Solar 7 is one of the largest GPS receivers we have reviewed.

That’s not because it has a large capacity battery but the solar panel needs to have a certain surface area to be effective.

The standard-size 3.7V Lithium-Ion battery has an endurance of about 20 hours and the solar charge will boost that to 30 hours.

There are only 2 LEDs because the Red/Green LED combines the power and satellite acquisition functions.

The other LED is for Bluetooth indications.

The supplied charger came with US prongs and can easily be adapted for use in most countries.

Slightly less desirable is that the lead terminates in a mini-USB plug, making it not as interchangeable with other chargers that have a round plug.

A vehicle charge cable would have catered for all the possible recharging options but with the long battery life it’s not a big point.

Completing our tour of the outside we find 2 covers that hide the mini-USB charging port and the MMCX external antenna port.

An initial charge of 4 hours will get the battery primed and ready for action.

Press the round, grey button on the top for 2 secs and acquisition begins.

Pairing is not necessary but if you must, 0000 is the pass key.

The unit comes up as an FTECH-SPP on your Bluetooth Connection Wizard (No, I don’t think that SPP stands for Solar Panel Product…)

After the cold start the built-in flash memory saves the satellite information and refreshes the almanac every 10 minutes.

This shortens the Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF).

compared with the Emtac GPS

Cents & Sensitivity

The f-tech website makes a big deal about energy re-use, green environment protection and even call up the spectre of the Kyoto treaty to justify the Solar 7’s existence.

No need to do that, fellas.

The combination with the solar panel is compelling enough but it is battery longevity, not cents saved that makes this receiver a good deal.

These devices cost peanuts to run even if you didn’t have the solar cells.

Of greater importance is the higher sensitivity of the Trimble FirstGPS innards.

Just like the new chipset from SiRF, the FirstGPS engine will get great accuracy even under difficult conditions.

What it means in practice is that our urban canyons will be less of an impenetrable jungle with good reception possible throughout most cityscapes.

The indoor sensitivity while tracking only 8 satellites is not superb.

Tracking twelve sats is the minimum in my books.

As mentioned before, it does help that the First GPS engine has the lowest power consumption from any GPS receiver.

Another smart power management idea: the Solar 7 will automatically shutdown when no Bluetooth is detected after a certain period.

We tested out the Solar 7 on extensive road trips with no surprises when faced with multiple lane interchanges, roundabouts and other confusing roadworks.

Slipsliding around on the dashboard should not be a problem with the anti-slip backing.

We took it also up for some flights in our P210 Cessna Centurion to see how it performs in the air.

Specification tells us that it is certified up to 18.000 meters (60.000 feet) and 1854 kilometres per hour. Pity I could not test that out…

Again, I did not expect any surprises here and the battery endurance was way longer than my fuel (and bladder!) endurance.

We did test out the battery “solar” recharging at night, putting the device under a 60W lamp to trickle charge the battery.

It works, so in a pinch, it will recharge from just about any light source. Moonlight excepted, I suppose…

No product is perfect but sometimes it also comes down to personal preferences.

For instance: the LEDs are rather bright. That’s OK during the day but when you’re driving at night the flashing lights are quite a distraction.

LEDs shouldn’t blink when they’ve acquired satellites and established a Bluetooth connection!

Why draw attention to the unit by blinking if everything is OK?

(By the way, I’m currently also checking out the 6033 Bluetooth GPS from Rikaline who have understood this principle).

The manual (and web site) can do with an Editor’s pen to sort out the sometimes incomprehensible “Chenglish”…

It’s always worthwhile if you market to a primarily English-speaking world to have a native English writer go over the material.

If wouldn’t mind if the Solar 7 were a lot flatter or smaller but that will come in time.

Perhaps there’s even room just below the solar panel to have a small OLED colour display for the Lat/Long coordinates!

That would make for a cool device!

My slogan in life is: Happiness is No Wires.

Bluetooth is great for that.

Integrated solar panels even more so.

Let’s get rid of those charging cables when we can!

The Solar 7 delivers on both fronts with a sensitivity that’s state of the art.

Priced at around USD150 to USD170 I predict a bright future for f-tech Corporation’s latest offspring.