Why are engines rated at wide open throttle when most will spend the majority of their lives under 2000rpm?
It's also common for the 'advertised' capacity to be a discharge all the way down to 2.5v, which isn't realistic either but as long as the ratings are comparative, does it really matter?
It does not really matter up to the last degree, it’s just because for specification’s sake in industry standardization, it is required by the gov’t from manufacturers. It’s a good the thing to have responsible gov’ts to require that, or else we have 5000mah 18650s!
Of course it matters! What is the real range of A current output you could expect from these ICR cells? 
Plus the sheet above says its rated for LESS than what we use it for, not more. Yes, things are generally rated for higher output than typically used, but this is the reverse circumstance. 0.2C it is rated for is 20% the mAh = .56A current, typical usage is 1-3A, if its ICR I’d hope its above 6A possible usage…
The discharge current used for the capacity testing isn't meant to tell you anything about the cell's intended usage. I don't think any official published info will tell you the kind of stuff you're expecting to find there, you'll have to dig into HKJ's testing to find that kind of stuff.
Right, and I didnt see any maximum or recommended current in HKJs tests unless I missed it (dont think he ever does that). I thought that the discharge ratings that are listed for a battery are for a maximum “safe” usage, and therefore it was pretty strange to see 0.2C discharge rate in several charts for that battery, all the other sheets for ratings on batteries I’ve seen are rated in full C multiples. Maybe those charts I found are only in reference to the intended usage in that circumstance, I guess? When you look at the name of the cells, you want to think they are ICR cells capable of 28A as in their names (10C), so 0.2C discharge really was puzzling to me.
28A is just a model number, 28 means 2800mAh but the A doesn't mean anything, like 15Q/20R/20Q. Besides, the Samsung INRs are the badasses when it comes to high current, not the ICRs.
It looks like discharge @ up to 5A should be ok from reading HKJ’s test. Comfy?
Yes it seems so, and it obviously does very well in several lights with 1-3A rates already tested, I’m not questioning whether it can. I was saying several spec sheets of this battery found online are listing a 0.2A discharge rate, and that its odd. When you look at other batteries the spec listed for discharge rate is assumedly the maximum safe rate, while for this battery it is not. So are spec sheets for amp discharge then not maximum discharge rates to be trusted? Why would you even list a discharge rate if its not a maximum (or minimum)?
All I can think of is device-specific (if there were another model of it, then model number 18650-28A would not be used?), but then if its device-specific, what is the point of listing it as a spec sheet? Its like releasing a spec sheet on King Kong 26650s based on performance with a driver that limits 1.6A discharge rate on a light: “I have an Ultrafire SUPERPOWER-567 26650 flashlight, it runs with 26650 batteries. I’m going to post a spec sheet of the King Kong battery that it runs on. Specs: 3.0 Voltage, 1.6 A discharge rate maximum King Kong battery.” Knowing very well King Kong 26650s can give a healthy 10A discharge rate easily, it can be charged to 4.2V, etc. The sheet comes from a Samsung site too, to add confusion.
Maybe they meant 2C instead of .2C…that would make more sense.
EDIT…
I messed up. Something isn’t right with my hobby charger.
Continue on….
Yeah thats the logical guess, seems a major boo-boo by the maker though, and makes me question spec sheets.
Ouch. Now see thats why I wanted some kind of confirmation on the guess…
Can you test other cells too? HKJ’s tests seem to indicate better performance at 5A
Remember these are laptop pulls that are probably from before 2010. Even though they are new.
Also, I think HJK tests down to 2.75. And his equipment is much better than my $50 hobby charger.
It fared much better at 3A.
Hmmmm…you get 94mAh, HKJ gets 2580mAh… 
…nothing personal, but I’m going with HKJ for now. 
Mine are part of the laptop pulls from this thread!
the cells are new unused from 2010
Yes, I read. We were talking about max discharge rate. Looks like you got some bad batteries there, sorry. I got 6 of these from this thread and they’ve been really good.
I'm missing something here - what does the discharge rate used in the capacity test have to do with the max discharge current? They're completely unrelated.
They work great for the price. I doubt any of us would run a laptop pull at 5A anyway.
But you had asked about a 5A discharge rate so I ran one for you.
2200mah at 3amp is plenty for 2.50 each.
Seems these older cells can’t take the big discharge. I have 12 since I bought two packs if you want me to test more.
Indeed Comfy has the answer from the Samsung specs (for NEW cells of course)…
Max. Discharge Current 5600mA (ambient temperature 25℃) - which is 2C
Naw, you aren’t missing anything Comfy, you happened on the probably correct chart first. I did a quick search the first time and came up with 3 charts all showing 0.2C down there for discharge current, I made the mistake of stopping once I found it was listed this way on two Samsung company sites (plus I was working and had to move on to a different task). One of the links is in my first confusion post on this. I later searched again and found a similar chart like you did, but it wasn’t an official Samsung site. Whats the link for yours?