Only in Japan: Sony outs a hand-cranked USB charger

Picture yourself on a deserted island. You’ve got your badass smartphone with a huge screen, but the battery is dying and there’s no electricity. What do you do? Well, if we were you, we’d be looking for a shelter and food, but if you’re a true geek, you’d still want to check whether there might be signal somewhere (in case the island turns out to be not so deserted as you thought). That’s where the Sony CP-A2LAS hand-cranked USB charger comes into play.

Don’t get fooled into thinking this will replace your traditional charger though - it’s an emergency solution and you’d need to turn the handle for three minutes just to get a minute of talk time, and for a minute of browsing you’d need to nearly double that effort with a five minute turn of the handle.

Good news is that you can also use a standard outlet to have it charged up to full capacity which is 4,000mAh battery in advance. That’s approximately two charges of a modern smartphone.

The Sony CP-A2LAKS USB charger is hitting Japan only on June 20th for a price of around $100 (8,000 Yen).

source: Xperia blog

7 Comments

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posted on 21 May 2012, 04:41 4

1. josephnero (Posts: 590; Member since: 16 Nov 2011)

good for earthquake affected areas

posted on 21 May 2012, 05:28 3

2. CharlieAtInfinity (Posts: 253; Member since: 10 Apr 2012)

again Japan only stuff :( oh come on release it worldwide!!!!!

posted on 21 May 2012, 06:25

3. ibap (Posts: 780; Member since: 09 Sep 2009)

This is not nearly the first device of this type. I've got one at home I've had for years - it can be charged, it can be hand cranked, it has a small flashlight (think hotel fire emergency) and it came with a bunch of charging tips (I've used none of them), or you can plug in your USB cable.

And it was not nearly this price either.

posted on 21 May 2012, 08:22 1

7. Firedrops (Posts: 249; Member since: 06 Sep 2011)

Indeed, this is pretty common technology. It's just that it's hard to find any major brands that promise good build quality and efficiency. Most companies sacrifice them for cheaper products. But then again, what justifies a $100 price tag on this?

posted on 21 May 2012, 06:59 1

4. kshell1 (Posts: 1143; Member since: 05 Oct 2011)

sounds like a good idea to be handcranked but without that 4000mah it would take a god awful amount of time to charge

posted on 21 May 2012, 07:10 1

5. RamyRamz69 (Posts: 390; Member since: 12 Dec 2011)

Only available in Japan?

We have had the thing in the middle east for almost two months...I can even go to the local Sony store here and buy you guys one if you don't believe me.