I had a GP Power Bank (might be known under a different name outside Europe, I dunno) charger a couple years back, but it was kind of crap really, it was physically a quite large and heavy lump of plastic to have sticking out of a wall socket, so large in fact it interfered with any adjacent power plug, and it would jiggle due to the heavy ring transformer integrated into its base whenever inserted into a receptacle.
It also developed a poor contact glitch, forcing me to twiddle the batteries back and forth before charging would kick in, and GP batteries, while quite powerful, had a huge self-discharge rate too, causing 'em go flat virtually in a month of lying on a shelf without constant trickle-charging.
So I got rid of that old thing.
Now... Enter Apple.
I know some people just hate their stuff, it's over-expensive, the design is pompously arrogant in their eyes (or maybe it's Steve Jobs that's pompously arrogant)...this, or that... Anyway: this is just a battery charger. No reason to get anyone's panties in a bind over that is there! (No sexist or other form of disrespect intended by that remark...just a commonly-used English language idiom.)
It comes in one of those small, minimalist white Apple cardboard boxes, inside there's total of six 1900mAh NiMH batteries (alledgedly re-badged Sanyo Eneloops with ultra-low - for NiMH anyway - self-discharge rate), a tiny manual in roughly 12 languages telling you a lot more than you really need to know, the charger itself wrapped in that plastic foil wrap which is useless because it fills no practical function (it protects the item from attracting finger prints, but since the underpaid Chinese worker who put it in the box was wearing gloves there won't be any, and you can't use the damn thing without removing the foil, so then there WILL be fingerprints), but Apple loves the stuff because it makes their products look and feel more luxurious.
There's also a two-prong power plug adapter like that included with a Macbook charger, so in theory you could attach an Apple Powerbook extension cord to it - which would be a bit nuts because the cord weigs like 4x as much as the charger - to maybe bring the charger with you to bed, or into the shower or something*...? No, the official reason is so you can attach some kind of travel multi-plug thing, which would be convenient because the charger is universal; 100-240V, 50/60Hz capable.
This thing really is tiny. It's actually slimmer than two AAs standing side-to side, and only a little deeper than two AA-widths deep and a tad over one AA high, and glossy-white of course. Charging status is indicated by a single dual-color LED on top; amber for charging and green for full charge. If it flashes at you it means it's about to explode and kill you...or was that the Aperture Labs battery charger?
Due to its small size it only accepts two batteries at a time (you can also charge just 1 if so inclined), so it's mostly suited for stuff like wireless mice and keyboards and the like which is what it was designed for and what I intend to use it for, as opposed to maintaining the small army of batteries needed for say, head/tail lights for an entire family's worth of bicycles. One full charge takes about 5 hours according to the manual. Honestly I haven't timed the process so I dunno how accurate that is.
The inside of the battery slots is made of a matte, light-grey plastic that seamlessly joins with the white outer casing; there's not a single screw to be found here. I suspect the whole thing's welded together with ultrasound or somesuch during production if it isn't a solid lump of two-stage injection-molded plastic, so if it breaks it'll stay broken forever. No way to even try to fix it I suspect.
What I find really cool - and a nice little touch from Apple designers - is the fairly strong magnet located at the top of the battery slots, guiding you to insert the batteries correctly. The grey plastic insert is keyed at the positive terminal so that it's impossible to charge the battery inserted incorrectly; the battery won't form an electric circuit (and thus EXPLODE!) if inserted upside-down.
To do it correctly, you put in the batteries positive terminal first so the positive cap at the top fits into the keyed hole (which is where the magnet comes in), and then you push in the battery so that the spring-loaded hemispherical metal negative terminal connector clamps on to the battery and holds it fast. This is possibly helpful for vision-impaired people who can't read the silk-screened graphic showing the correct battery polarity? I dunno, maybe I overinterpret. In any case it's very slick and shows attention to detail above and beyond any other simple battery charger.
I also can't help but noticing that during charging the only thing that gets warm are the batteries. The charger itself is apparantly extremely efficient and doesn't heat up at all from what I can tell, at least by merely using my hand. Apple also boasts the vampiric loss from trickle-charging is very low, and I'm inclined to believe that. Hence, it should be kind to your power bill, and thus also be environmentally friendly, and make Greenpeace and the polar bears happy. Whatever.
Conclusion:
I paid SKR 299 for this thing - about US$45 at today's almost historically crap dollar exchange rate so it's not an accurate comparison, but it's not expensive by any means; about half of a standard-price PS3 game. What I got for my money is a pretty, physically tiny, very efficient charger, six batteries as mentioned of very high quality (most likely well higher than standard GP fare), and the interchangeable power plug attachment which adds flexibility. I'm sure I could have gotten away a bit cheaper with another GP charger, but I don't think it would have looked nearly as nice or been anywhere as well designed, or put together. I'm quite satisfied with my purchase I must say.
*=
TL: DR? I don't care! I love to type!
It also developed a poor contact glitch, forcing me to twiddle the batteries back and forth before charging would kick in, and GP batteries, while quite powerful, had a huge self-discharge rate too, causing 'em go flat virtually in a month of lying on a shelf without constant trickle-charging.
So I got rid of that old thing.
Now... Enter Apple.
I know some people just hate their stuff, it's over-expensive, the design is pompously arrogant in their eyes (or maybe it's Steve Jobs that's pompously arrogant)...this, or that... Anyway: this is just a battery charger. No reason to get anyone's panties in a bind over that is there! (No sexist or other form of disrespect intended by that remark...just a commonly-used English language idiom.)
It comes in one of those small, minimalist white Apple cardboard boxes, inside there's total of six 1900mAh NiMH batteries (alledgedly re-badged Sanyo Eneloops with ultra-low - for NiMH anyway - self-discharge rate), a tiny manual in roughly 12 languages telling you a lot more than you really need to know, the charger itself wrapped in that plastic foil wrap which is useless because it fills no practical function (it protects the item from attracting finger prints, but since the underpaid Chinese worker who put it in the box was wearing gloves there won't be any, and you can't use the damn thing without removing the foil, so then there WILL be fingerprints), but Apple loves the stuff because it makes their products look and feel more luxurious.
There's also a two-prong power plug adapter like that included with a Macbook charger, so in theory you could attach an Apple Powerbook extension cord to it - which would be a bit nuts because the cord weigs like 4x as much as the charger - to maybe bring the charger with you to bed, or into the shower or something*...? No, the official reason is so you can attach some kind of travel multi-plug thing, which would be convenient because the charger is universal; 100-240V, 50/60Hz capable.
This thing really is tiny. It's actually slimmer than two AAs standing side-to side, and only a little deeper than two AA-widths deep and a tad over one AA high, and glossy-white of course. Charging status is indicated by a single dual-color LED on top; amber for charging and green for full charge. If it flashes at you it means it's about to explode and kill you...or was that the Aperture Labs battery charger?
Due to its small size it only accepts two batteries at a time (you can also charge just 1 if so inclined), so it's mostly suited for stuff like wireless mice and keyboards and the like which is what it was designed for and what I intend to use it for, as opposed to maintaining the small army of batteries needed for say, head/tail lights for an entire family's worth of bicycles. One full charge takes about 5 hours according to the manual. Honestly I haven't timed the process so I dunno how accurate that is.
The inside of the battery slots is made of a matte, light-grey plastic that seamlessly joins with the white outer casing; there's not a single screw to be found here. I suspect the whole thing's welded together with ultrasound or somesuch during production if it isn't a solid lump of two-stage injection-molded plastic, so if it breaks it'll stay broken forever. No way to even try to fix it I suspect.
What I find really cool - and a nice little touch from Apple designers - is the fairly strong magnet located at the top of the battery slots, guiding you to insert the batteries correctly. The grey plastic insert is keyed at the positive terminal so that it's impossible to charge the battery inserted incorrectly; the battery won't form an electric circuit (and thus EXPLODE!) if inserted upside-down.
To do it correctly, you put in the batteries positive terminal first so the positive cap at the top fits into the keyed hole (which is where the magnet comes in), and then you push in the battery so that the spring-loaded hemispherical metal negative terminal connector clamps on to the battery and holds it fast. This is possibly helpful for vision-impaired people who can't read the silk-screened graphic showing the correct battery polarity? I dunno, maybe I overinterpret. In any case it's very slick and shows attention to detail above and beyond any other simple battery charger.
I also can't help but noticing that during charging the only thing that gets warm are the batteries. The charger itself is apparantly extremely efficient and doesn't heat up at all from what I can tell, at least by merely using my hand. Apple also boasts the vampiric loss from trickle-charging is very low, and I'm inclined to believe that. Hence, it should be kind to your power bill, and thus also be environmentally friendly, and make Greenpeace and the polar bears happy. Whatever.
Conclusion:
I paid SKR 299 for this thing - about US$45 at today's almost historically crap dollar exchange rate so it's not an accurate comparison, but it's not expensive by any means; about half of a standard-price PS3 game. What I got for my money is a pretty, physically tiny, very efficient charger, six batteries as mentioned of very high quality (most likely well higher than standard GP fare), and the interchangeable power plug attachment which adds flexibility. I'm sure I could have gotten away a bit cheaper with another GP charger, but I don't think it would have looked nearly as nice or been anywhere as well designed, or put together. I'm quite satisfied with my purchase I must say.
*=
Please don't bring your charger with you into the shower...if for no other reason than because Steve Jobs would get mad at you for pointlessly destroying one of his perfectly good battery chargers!
TL: DR? I don't care! I love to type!
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