Goal Zero

Nomad 28 Plus Solar Panel

So you drained all the battery from your smartphone and headlamp while hosting an rave around the campfire last night. Not to worry—with the Goal Zero Nomad 28 Plus Solar Panel, you can have your devices charged up and ready to go again when it's time for round two tonight. In addition to juicing smaller devices like phones, headlamps, and GPS units, the Nomad 28 Plus also works well for more power-hungry items such as tablets and Goal Zero's Yeti and Sherpa batteries. An upgrade over the original Nomad series, this Plus edition is lighter and smarter than previous incarnations.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade, the new Auto Restart feature knows the difference between a device that's reached a fully charged state and one that disconnects due to cloud cover or a shadow. When it's been disconnected due to environmental causes, the Nomad 14 Plus will automatically reconnect the charging device, so you don't get back to basecamp only to find that your phone stopped charging hours ago because a rogue cloud moved in. Another smart feature is the easy-to-read LED indicator, which lets you know the strength of solar conditions and provides immediate feedback on charging speed.

When the sun's not overhead, the detachable kickstand lets you prop it up so you angle the panel to where the sun's strongest. It's also built tough and waterproof so you don't have to baby it in the backcountry, and its compact, lightweight design means you can take it on extended backpacking trips or other excursions where space is limited. The Nomad 28 Plus is also chainable with other solar panels when you really want to crank up the power and charge devices in record time.