One of the handiest accessories I have come across lately has to be the Electrilite flashlight.

Particularly in emergencies it's great to have a flashlight that does not depend on batteries or on solar charging and which can supply your mobile phone with enough power to make those essential calls.

Is the Electrilite flashlight/charger going to be part and parcel of my overnight kit or did I have too many expectations of this device?

I remember as a kid (going back to the fifties now!) that my grandparents owned a flashlight that they had to squeeze to make it work.  It had a dynamo, made a lot of noise and the power fluctuated with every squeeze!

You would only want to use that in real emergencies as you would get RSI in no time…

The Electrilite flashlight goes back to the same principles of generating power but does it in a much more friendlier way and sooo much more efficient!

It is billed as a multifunction flashlight and charger and when the big power goes out and the batteries in your other devices are depleted you would pay a king's ransom for this beauty.

The outer packaging came a bit mangled in the post - just like the “English” descriptions on it...:)

The Babelfish translation is pathetically humourous.  It's a pity that not many Chinese manufacturers bother to get some professional help in writing the copy on the packaging.

On the other hand this is such a simple device that no instructions are needed.

By rotating the handle, which normally is recessed somewhat, at a fairly hefty clip (2-3 cranks per second) the Electrilite flashlight generates a steady 6.2 Volts.  It takes a little bit of effort to get the right speed so that your cellphone will charge but I have the impression that speed is less critical to just charge the battery for the flashlight. I noticed that the natural resistance in cranking the handle (or as the crooked English on the package would say: " the shaking of the handle") is not very even.

That makes it a little bit difficult to maintain an even pace.

The Electrilite flashlight has five LEDs which you can switch on in any combination.

Slide the centre switch to get the centre LED going or engage the other slide switches as well to get a very bright output.

I could not measure the output in lumens but can only compare it with the other LED flashlights that I have.  It is extremely bright and you would be ill-advised to look straight into the light.  It takes only one minute of cranking to obtain 30 minutes of very bright light after which the light gradually deteriorates over the next 24 hours.  By switching on just one LED you can stretch the endurance to several hours and certainly all through the night as a nightlight.

The description talks about a red LED light in the centre to ensure that at night you don't lose your night vision, yet this particular unit only has white LEDs...

I asked Mike Howell of CMS Multimedia Marketing: “Are there perhaps two units available – one with and one without the red LED?”

There are indeed two different units so make sure you specify which one you want.

I thought it was a very handy idea to have the red LED, particularly for me as I am also a pilot and maintaining your night vision is extremely important.

Obviously, the unit has a small rechargeable battery to power the LEDs.

It might be handy to develop a unit with a larger battery that could power other devices directly, without having to crank the handle with the device connected. A larger crank handle would also make it easier to generate power.

The unit provides between two to eight minutes of talk time for every three minutes of cranking.  That is sufficient for most emergency calls and the beauty is, if the phone dies, don't get cranky, start cranking!

The dynamo in the Electrilite flashlight is very efficient which pleases me no end as a have a radio with solar and crank handle, neither of which do any good…

My unit came complete with a phone charge cable which happened to have a Nokia charge tip on it as well as four other adapters to accommodate the most common cellphones.

Adapters are available for Samsung, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Ericsson, and Audiovox.

As an aside: nothing beats the Nokia charge tip for simplicity! I wish all the phone makers would standardise on the round Nokia plug…

I predict a great future for devices like this, particularly in the corporate market.

Why?  Slap a corporate logo on it and it is something that every employee or business relation will appreciate.

Every household will need a few of these and certainly any person in your family.  For just 25 bucks it can get you out of a pickle real fast and the small size (about 3.5” x 2.25 x 1”) makes it very handy to carry around with your personal belongings or in the glove box of a car.

Review by: Martin Regtien