+1 on this Vapcell S4 Plus charger (I’d think that Vapcell will be glad to send you one for testing since they’ve been sending you their batteries to test…), which looks like it has some promising specs:
- 4x 3A charging (similar to Miboxer C4-12 or SkyRC MC3000)
- discharge test at 1A (2 slots) or 0.5A (4 slots?)
=> this seems interesting since very few chargers can discharge at 1A
(SkyRC MC3000 of course can discharge 4x 1A or 1x 2A), but other chargers that discharge at 1A may be discontinued (eg. Miboxer C2-4000); and the Opus BT-C3100 can also discharge at 1A but have a problem of heating up and “pausing” the discharging, which results in incorrect/too high capacity readout.
- internal resistance (would like to know how precise it is); we understand that most chargers might not be too accurate in DC IR test, but a ‘relatively consistent’ IR reading result would be good enough for most people.
In my opinion, the role of apple is to create half-wit products for half-wit people who seemingly at will pay (too much) for them. A great piece of their very high profit margins get invested in preserving their abusive ways (intellectual property protection, devices often problematic to repair by 3rd parties, etc.), giving their products the exact amount of extra quality for half-wit people to continue thinking they are the best. In my opinion they're very far from this goal, though, and as Lightbringer likes to say what they really deserve is to be dragged into an alley and beaten with sticks. Yes, I am biased. My money has no place in their pockets. Good luck to them.
While I don’t see myself has a half-wit, I have bought many apple computers, I agree with most of the rest of your quote when it comes to apple today. I am a tight wad. When it came to buying macs they certainly did cost more but for my customers and myself were demonstrably significantly cheaper and more productive as deployed. Heck I’m writing this on a 7 year old laptop that still functions perfectly and preforms better than many brand new PC laptops. The first mac business systems I created competed only with mini (main-frame) System / 36 computers as the PCs of the day couldn’t come close to what I was able to do with a mac. People back then also said that they were over-priced toys for people who didn’t know better. That simply was not empirically true.
That said, Apple has completely removed computer from their name and have become the very representation of the evil big brother they set out to destroy. Shameful, immoral, and destructive company they have become.
I would like to see the MiBoxer C4 V3 reviewed as I think there have been significant changes since the review you did.
I would also like to see some discussion of “smart” chargers vs selecting a charging current. (This may exist and I just haven’t found the thread.) I am noticing a fair difference between cells in charging time and much less “charge leakage” since I have been using that charger in “smart” mode. Some of the cells charge at what I thought was a good current and others take far more or far less current. Total charge will frequently require less mAh than what I was used to as I believe the “smart” charge matches the charging profile for a particular cell and therefore reduces waste heat while charging. Shouldn’t this be a good thing? Does it really matter? Am I just seeing things wrong?
Are you planning to review the BQ-CC63 from Panasonic (link below)? I’m interested in this charger because I want to switch from primaries to rechargeables at a school.