EcoFlow Power Hat review: A sun hat with solar panels

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating

Pros

Lightweight

Foldable

Quite robust

Cons

Low efficiency

Our Verdict
The Power Hat is a good idea, but the state of solar panel efficiency is such that this hat at least requires ideal weather conditions and an ideal orientation to convert enough solar energy into electricity to charge your iPhone or other device in a short amount of time.

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Wearing a hat when you’re spending time in the sun is ideal to protect your skin and help keep you cool. But why not go a step further and make the hat capable of charging an iPhone? That’s the premise with the EcoFlow Power Hat. It’s a sun hat with edges lined with solar panels. If the conditions are right, it can create solar energy that can be used to charge a mobile device, such as an iPhone.

The Power Hat immediately catches the eye. Unlike conventional outdoor clothing in green, brown, or pastel colors, the hat is black to match the black solar panels. The pitch-black color and the creases on the brim had led to the somewhat unforeseen consequences: When trying them on in the office, my co-workers teased me about Hogwarts–I have to admit, the comparison is not too far-fetched. My fellow travellers on the route associated the look with 19th-century fashion. In any case, the hat looks quite unusual.

The plastic edges are creased along the photovoltaic elements so that the hat can be folded quite comfortably–a clear advantage over classic summer hats, most of which do not survive the first journey in a bag without visual loss. The edges are made of robust plastic, with the panels on the upper side and a fabric lining at the bottom, presumably to prevent excessive perspiration.

The hat weighs just 370 grams, and I didn’t have any discomfort during a five-hour hike with the hat either on my head or hanging my neck with the provided hat strap. Only in strong gusts of wind do the robust plastic brims react to a breeze–the wind almost tore the hat off my head twice if it hadn’t been secured with the strap.

Two USB ports for charging cables
The plug box on the underside of the brim

In size Medium-Large (Large-Extra Large is also available), the brim is 14 centimeters wide, so the hat measures around 47 centimeters in diameter, more than enough to reliably protect your face from the sun’s rays, even on a sunny day in the mountains.

The Power Hat has two USB-A and USB-C ports on the underside of the brim.

Can the Power Hat charge an iPhone?




Solar radiation in Oberstdorf on April 6, 2025Halyna Kubiv

I wore the solar hat on a hike in the Allgäu on April 6, 2025, and according to Oberstdorf.de, the solar radiation on that day reached 1,000 watts per square meter around midday. It was very sunny with hardly any clouds in the sky.

EcoFlow states a maximum current of 2.4 amperes for the Power Hat. When connected to an iPhone 16 and using the USB-C charging cable (which supports Power Delivery) that is included with the phone, and when wearing the hat and connected to the iPhone, the Solar Hat supplied so little voltage that the iPhone recognized a power source and displayed the charging icon for a short time. However, the iPhone was not charged; the percentage display on the battery did not increase. I measured a current of 0.15 to 0.87 amperes, and the value never exceeded one ampere. The brim of the hat has a fairly steep angle when wearing it, but regardless of its position, only a quarter of the brim received direct sunlight. The rest is either in the shade or at such an unfavorable angle that the respective photovoltaic tile does not receive any energy.




Here’s an example of how solar radiation is distributed across the photovoltaic elements. Only the front two get a reasonable amount of energy; the rest are either in the shade or at an unfavorable angle.Halyna Kubiv

It was only when I took off the hat and spread it out on the ground that I saw a higher amperage ranging from 1 ampere to 1.38 amperes. In this spread-out state, the hat was connected to the iPhone for around 20 minutes, during which the smartphone was charged by six percentage points, from 43 per cent to 49 per cent. Under such ideal conditions, the iPhone could be charged from zero to 100 percent in over 5 hours.

Should you buy the EcoFlow Power Hat?

The idea behind the Power Hat is appealing: while you are out, you benefit from solar energy and use it to charge your own devices. However, practice shows that this hat at least requires ideal weather conditions and an ideal orientation in order to convert enough solar energy into electricity. As a sun hat, however, the solar hat from EcoFlow is almost perfect, it is lightweight and the brim is wide enough to protect the face from the sun at most angles. If it were half the price, this would be a clear recommendation to buy, but the combination of a conventional sun hat and a power bank is more affordable.