Thursday, January 11, 2018

Goal Zero Nomad 7 Plus Review




In most metrics, except for weight and portability, the Goal Zero Nomad 7 did not stand out. Though the panel did not perform outstandingly regarding output power and efficiency, it does have an excellent design and is a significant improvement from the previous model.


Charge Interruption Recovery


Much like other panels in this capacity range (i.e., the Renogy 5W and the Outad 7W), the Nomad 7 Plus struggled to recover a charge after an interruption in solar energy. In fact, the 7 Plus would not even re-connect to our iPhone after being shaded for a few seconds. This is a huge issue with such a lightweight and portable panel, as charging a phone or another small device is its main use. Panels with more overall output power, such as the Anker PowerPort 21, Anker Powerport Lite, Instapark Mercury 10, X-Dragon 20, and Nomad earned 8 out of 10s for this metric.




Charging Speed


In our side-by-side comparisons, the Nomad 7 Plus was one of the least efficient chargers for an iPhone 6 in direct sun. We gave each panel 30 minutes to charge an iPhone and measured the increase in battery with each panel. The Nomad 7 Plusonly managed to charge the phone 18%. This was less than the previous model, the Nomad 7 which managed to charge a phone 33% in the same time. For charging the external battery, the Nomad 7 Plus performed worse than its predecessor again by only charging our external battery 9% in four hours. It's important to remember that other panels with the same wattage, like the Renogy 5W and the Outad 7W, had dismal numbers in this category as well, since their overall output is just not as powerful as a 20W panel.



Multiple Device Charging Speed


This small panel can't charge multiple devices at once and thus is only designed with one USB port. Unlike the previous model, the Nomad 7 Plus comes with just one USB cord and no adaptors at all, making it overall more straightforward and easy to use. If charging multiple devices at once is essential to you, check out a more powerful panel, such as the X-Dragon 20W or the Anker 21W.