Eton - Scorpion II Rugged Multipowered Portable Emergency Weather Radio & Fla...

The metal clip seems fairly sturdy, and the antenna on my model does indeed pivot. I know that's an issue that was apparent for some people, however I got the pivot to clear the expansion sheath by turning the base counter clockwise with light pull as if to further extend the antenna. Remember to turn and pull on the main tolescoping pit of the antenna (the bit that the rest of the antenna collapses into).Otherwise, the unit is well rounded. I did my research, and this radio is the most highly regarded unit of its type. Great reception, holds a greats charge, solar panel starts charging in poor conditions (cloudy days still prompts charging indicator), and the one LED flashlight is suprisingly bright (as in the beam has no problem at all hitting my shed that is roughly 30ft from the back door with a full wall charge). Oh and excellent reception, fanaminal if you take into consideration the size of the unit.I cannot vouch for its durability yet simply because I'm not about to tourcher my brand new toy, but reviews on the internet say if it gets waterlogged, simply let it dry in the sun for a couple days or bake it like you would your phone then it seems to boot back up without much problem beyound the screen becoming slightly faulty. Drop tourcher reviews seem promising aswell. Some people have reported that this radio has fallen out of there second story apartment window onto concrete and the only damage to report was to the protective rubber and plastic on the outside.All around an exelent product! The only thing that I'd like to see change about it is a higher mAmp/hr battery, and better waterproofing beyound splash proof rating. However, the battery seems plenty for the unit and its uses, but I'd buy it again even for anlittle more if it ment a totally water proof model up to, say, 3 fathoms.Stop looking for a backpacking radio, buy this one. You won't be disappointed. 👍

Just had this delivered to me this afternoon and I'm really digging this thing. First off, its heavier then I thought it would be and that is a good thing. It has a nice solid feel to it and I think even if this thing got banged around abit it would fare ok.The idea that you end up with one item that has more then one use also appeals to me and I like the fact that it can be recharged in multiple ways.For instance there is the solar panel which because I just got this I have not tested that but the built in hand crank for an end of the world scenario which all we dooooomsday preppers know is coming will come in handy for generating power. Whether to use the flashlight or radio, this looks like it would work well and my intention behind buying it is to place it in my go-bag!As for the eh..hmm alleged ability to charge a cell phone it does in fact do that! How do I know? I tested it out on a smart phone I have that I let the battery run down and low and behold it works! How exactly?This is the funny part. Per manufacturers instructions all you have to do is crank this bad boy constantly for 4 minutes and your reward is "1" minute of talk time!Need to have a 1/2 hour long chat on your android device with your bug-out partner? Possibly the mistress you plan to meet at the helicopter before bugging out to your off-grid location? All you'd have to do to get that half hour would be to crank this thing constantly for 120 minutes (2 hours) and your golden!Now I don't mind cranking for 4 minutes to inform the ex for "1" minute that I'm bugging out and she's not coming but no way am I cranking for 120 minutes to end up with "30" minutes of why are you leaving me behind?? What did I ever do to you??

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 instead. I'm not sure what chemistry the correct 800mah is supposed to be (li-po or ni-cad), but I have ordered a second one and will see what that comes with, then update this review.UPDATE: The second radio also had a Great Power brand 400mah li-po inside. I have contacted Eton customer service for an explanation.UPDATE #2: The Eton customer representative I worked with actually checked with the engineers for me, and came back that the internal battery is actually two 400mah cells wrapped together to form a single 800mah battery. After taking another look at the battery in mine, I could see there were indeed two cells inside the shrink wrap.As an owner of the original Scorpion, I decided to get the Scorpion 2 as an upgrade when the original's 350mah Ni-Cad battery stopped being able to hold a charge. Past Eton hand crank radios were manufactured with the same batteries used in old cordless phones and had the same problems - left on the charger most of the time, the batteries just die after a year or two; left off the charger and the batteries slowly drain and are dead when you finally need them.Compared to the original, the Scorpion 2 winds up being more of a 'sidegrade' rather than an upgrade.The pros: The 800mah internal battery is more than twice as much capacity as the 350mah that was used in the original. The solar panel looks to be improved and, I assume, more efficient, but a bigger battery requires more time in the sun for a full charge. The flashlight is brighter by a significant margin and appears to use a LED chip, where the original had a trio of LED bulbs. This new light has a square-shaped hotspot in the middle of the beam which some people may like and others will not. I've compared this to the soft halo of the original in the included pictures. The biggest improvement is the inclusion of a micro-USB charging port, allowing the radio to conveniently be charged without direct sunlight or lots of hand cranking. The original could be charged using a separate AC adapter and a specific plug - the micro-USB is common and virtually everyone already has at least one of these cables.The included 800mah battery is also lithium-polymer - this is a great upgrade from the old nickel-cadmium batteries Eton has used in the past. Li-pos hold a charge better, longer, and don't suffer from memory effect over time.The cons: Compared to the original Scorpion, the speaker for the radio is considerably quieter. At mid-volume (set at 15 on the controls) the Scorpion 2 is about half as loud as the Scorpion 1. At full volume (set to 30) they seem to get closer to the same level but the Scorpion 2 is still noticably softer. Additionally, they've removed the AUX input which allowed the original to be used as an exernal speaker for other music players or phones. Although the two versions have an identical outer shell, the construction quality seems sloppier on the Scorpion 2. I believe the original was sold for $60-$80 so it appears that Eton has cut some corners to bring down the price on the Scorpion 2.Durability is probably on par with the original, since it feels like the same material and roughly the same weight. The carabiner loop and bottle opener have remained unchanged and the controls and LCD screen on top are pretty much the same as well.Overall, the micro-USB charging port definitely brings some much needed versatility to the Scorpion, but beyond that any improvements have come at the cost of something else. In the end, this radio was on sale and was basically the same price as replacing the battery on my old Scorpion, so in that respect it does the job. In an ideal world I'd simply be able to add a micro-USB port to my old Scorpion and put the bigger battery inside.