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Spain, Madrid
1 Level
492 Review
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Review on ๐Ÿ“ป Stay Prepared with the Eton Rugged Multipowered Portable Emergency Weather Radio & Flashlight: Green (NSP101WXGR) by Jessica Rodriguez

Revainrating 4 out of 5

A worthy upgrade from the original Scorpion

This radio is advertised as having an 800mah internal battery but when mine arrived I opened it up and found a 400mah lithium polymer battery inside. I'm not sure what chemistry a proper 800mAh should have (lithium polymer or nickel cadmium) but I've ordered a second one and will see what comes with it and then update this review. UPDATE: The second radio also had a 400mAh Great Power lithium polymer battery inside. I have asked Eton customer service for an explanation. UPDATE #2: An Eton customer rep I worked with reviewed the engineers for me and reported that the internal battery is actually two 400mah cells rolled together to form an 800mah battery to build. Looking again at the battery in mine, I saw that there were actually two cells inside the shrink wrap. As the original Scorpion owner, I upgraded to the Scorpion 2 when the original 350mah NiCd battery died. can hold charge. Earlier Eton handheld radios were made with the same batteries used in older cordless phones and suffered from the same problems - left in the charger most of the time, the batteries simply died after a year or two; without a charger, and the batteries will slowly drain and drain when you finally need them. twice the capacity of the 350 mAh used in the original. The solar panel looks better and more efficient I think, but the larger battery takes more time in the sun to fully charge. The flashlight is noticeably brighter and appears to use an LED chip, whereas the original had three LED bulbs. This new light has a square hotspot in the center of the beam that some like and some don't. I have compared this to the original's soft halo in the attached photos. The biggest improvement is the inclusion of a micro-USB charging port, allowing you to conveniently charge your radio without direct sunlight or a lot of manual cranking. The original could be charged using a separate power adapter and dedicated plug - micro-USB is common and virtually everyone already has at least one of these cables. The included 800mAh battery is also a lithium polymer battery, which is a great upgrade over the previous version. old nickel cadmium batteries that Eaton used in the past. Li-Po hold a charge better, last longer and don't suffer from memory effect over time. Cons: Compared to the original Scorpion, the speaker for the radio is much quieter. At medium volume (set to 15) the Scorpion 2 is about twice as quiet as the Scorpion 1. At full volume (set to 30) they seem to be approaching the same level, but the Scorpion 2 is still significantly quieter. . They've also removed the AUX input, allowing the original to be used as an external speaker for other music players or phones. While the two versions share the same outer shell, the Scorpion 2's build quality feels sloppier. I believe the original sold for $60-$80, so it looks like Eton cut some corners to keep the Scorpion 2's price down. Durability is probably on par with the original as it looks like the same material and weighs about the same. The carabiner loop and bottle opener remain the same, while the controls and LCD screen on top are largely the same. Overall, the micro-USB charging port definitely gives the Scorpion some much-needed versatility, but beyond that there have been no improvements. at the expense of something else. After all, this radio was on sale and cost almost as much as changing the battery in my old Scorpion, so it works that way. In an ideal world, I could just add a micro USB port to my old Scorpion and put a big battery in it.

Pros
  • Excellent overall performance
Cons
  • Doubtful