What if it only took two hours out in the sun supply your laptop with 10 hours of battery life? That’s what the Ubuntu-driven Sol laptop aims to do, according to the folks over at WeWi Telecommunications Inc.
The Sol, a rugged-looking laptop with built-in foldable solar panels, is designed for use in the military, education and developing countries where electricity is scarce. The Canada-based makers behind the Sol claim that the device can run directly off solar energy or can harness the sun’s rays to charge the laptop’s battery in under two hours. Once fully charged, the battery is expected to last between eight and 10 hours.
Packing mid-range specs, the Sol comes with a 1.86GHz dual-core Intel Atom D2500 processor with 2GB of RAM upgradeable to 4GB, a 320GB SATA HDD from Seagate, GMA3600 graphics, a 13.3-inch LCD screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution, and a 3-megapixel camera. It also features a USB 2.0 port, an audio jack, HDMI, Ethernet and SD card ports like most standard laptops. Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth will come built-in to the Sol, and it will be available in 3G and 4G LTE configurations as well. The Sol will run for $350 but you can also snag a waterproof edition for $400, and its slated to launch in Ghana, Africa first.
The Sol is far from being the first solar-powered laptop, but previous products such as the Samsung NC215S netbook from 2011 don’t claim 10 hours of battery life on a single solar charge. The Samsung laptop only features smaller solar panels on its lid, while the Sol comes with full-sized panels that unfold from its rear to catch rays.
