The Yogen is a hand powered charger that works by pulling a cord. Power is generated with every pull and this power should be enough to charge a portable device. The Yogen can be used with phones, iPods, cameras, PDAs, MP3s, Digital Readers, Bluetooth headsets and portable gaming systems, it comes with different attachments for each thing. It doesn't really look like anything special but let's be honest, what phone charger does? It is a good size and takes up no more room in my bag than a normal phone charger which is good for me.  It’s fairly self explanatory but the instructions that come with it are also very straightforward.

I didn’t actually have the right attachment for my phone (a Samsung), or my iPod (an iPod Touch) which was my first stumbling block.
I also couldn’t work out from the packaging if I had the wrong type of Yogen and there was a different one out there for me but the Yogen site shows 2 options to buy so it seems I may have had the wrong one. I couldn’t also find any alternative attachments to buy but was given one to get going.

All that you need to do is plug the right charger into the Yogen, attach whatever it is you’re charging and pull the cord. A little light shows power is being produced and you’re all set. The longer you continuously pull the cord, the more power you get. It’s very simple. The only possibly fiddly (or easily loseable at least) parts were the attachments to the main box, as it charges many different things it's obviously important to be able to change the attachments but I can imagine them coming apart in my bag and disappearing.

Now, I'm a pretty big fan of my phone, I text a ridiculous amount, use in to check my emails and have been known to talk on it for so long the battery runs out. I'm also a big fan of expeditions, festivals and what some might call absurd challenges. As a general rule charging a phone at any of these events is fairly difficult and that's just for people who aren't permanently attached to them in the first place. With that in mind, a charger that doesn't need to be plugged in sounded like the perfect solution, I'm more than happy to pull a cord to get it charging if it means avoiding the 3 hour queue at Glastonbury.

I fully charged my phone up and then carried on using it as normal but avoided charging at the wall for as long as possible. I’m pleased to say it worked! My phone was crying out to be charged so I used the Yogen and it charged it enough to send some texts and wake me up in the morning as my alarm. I’m now regularly pulling the Yogen out of my bag when I’ve realised my battery is about to go flat to keep me going till I get to a charger and I can see it being very helpful on my next trip!

Priced at £30.97 and available from www.mobilefun.co.uk