OPPO will stop providing free chargers with their smartphones, starting next year! Here is what you need to know…
OPPO To Stop Providing Free Chargers Next Year!
OPPO is giving up one of its key advantages over its competitors next year – its high-performance charger, which is included with every smartphone.
While announcing their new Reno8 smartphone, OPPO Vice President for Overseas Sales and Services, Billy Zhang, revealed that it would stop providing in-box chargers starting next year. Instead, OPPO will provide them as optional purchases in stores.
OPPO won’t immediately stop providing in-box chargers, but will phase them out in stages. So expect them to retain the in-box chargers for the higher-end models at least for some time, as a way to differentiate from cheaper models.
But the message is clear – eventually, all OPPO smartphones will stop coming with in-box chargers.
If you are an OPPO fan, make sure you keep your VOOC / SuperVOCC charger. Your next OPPO smartphone may not come with one.
OPPO To Lose Advantage By Not Including Free Chargers
While many brands have followed Apple in not including chargers in the box of new smartphones, OPPO made the smart move by continuing the provide them.
One of the key advantages OPPO has over the other brands is its VOOC series of fast charging technologies, like 125 watt SuperVOOC wired charging and 65 watt AirVOOC wireless charging.
These are proprietary technologies that only work with the provided in-box chargers, so OPPO really needed to provide them in every box.
You can still charge OPPO smartphones with USB chargers from other brands, because they still support standard USB charging technologies. They will just charge slowly. Without the in-box charger, OPPO smartphones will lose their key advantage over their Android rivals.
Sure, OPPO will make sure you can buy their special VOOC charger in store, and will probably include one as a pre-order or early bird sweetener. But this decision will turn OPPO into yet another Android brand.
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In my review of the EBL lithium-ion AA batteries and 8-bay charger, I will share with you why this is the future of AA batteries!
EBL 8-Bay Lithium-Ion Charger + AA Batteries Review!
The future of AA batteries is here, and it comes in the form of EBL lithium-ion AA batteries, and the 8-bay Li-Ion battery charger!
Most of us have long relied on rechargeable AA batteries using NiCad (Nickel-Cadmium) and NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride) technologies which were developed in the 1980s.
They are set to be replaced by AA batteries built on lithium-ion technology – the same kind of battery used in your smartphone and laptops.
So I was most excited when EBL said that they would send me their latest lithium-ion AA batteries and 8-bay Li-Ion battery charger to try out.
EBL 8-Bay Lithium-Ion Charger + AA Batteries : What’s In The Box?
EBL sent me their most popular AA battery bundle, which consists of an 8-bay Li-Ion battery charger, and eight of their lithium-ion AA batteries. They also offer them for sale as separate items.
The package arrived in a simple black plastic bag – there is no special bundle packaging. EBL would do well to add bubble wrapping to prevent damage to the box, and pilfering from the package.
There are the items that you will receive if you purchase the EBL 8-bay Li-Ion battery charger and 8-battery bundle :
1 x EBL 8-bay Lithium-Ion Battery Charger
1 set of EBL Lithium-Ion Battery Charger + Lithium Ion Battery manuals
1 x USB Type A to micro-USB Type B power cable
8 x EBL Lithium-Ion AA batteries
2 x AA battery storage cases
EBL 8-Bay Lithium-Ion Charger Review!
The EBL 8-Bay lithium-ion charger has a pretty simple design. It has 8 battery bays, supporting up to eight AA or AAA lithium-ion batteries, or a mix of them.
However, please note that this charger only supports lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. Please do not use it to recharge your NiCd / NiMH rechargeable batteries!
Every bay has a separate circuit, allowing for optimal charging according to each battery’s condition. It is also smart enough to prevent over-charging, over-voltage, over-current and overheating while charging.
That said, EBL recommends that you take out the batteries once they are fully-charged, and do not leave them in the charger. Trickle-charging lithium-ion batteries is not good for their lifespan.
I would also recommend that you disconnect the charger after use, because it will use up to 0.3 watts of power even when it’s not charging any battery. That “vampire power loss” may seem little, but it is still a waste of power.
Power input comes through the very common Type A to micro-USB cable. In 2022, I would have very much preferred a bidirectional USB Type C connector. But this is a minor inconvenience – you won’t generally remove the cable unless you are travelling.
The 8-bay charger has a 10 watt power input, delivering up to 1.25 watts per bay when fully-loaded with eight batteries, and up to 1.5 watt per bay with fewer batteries.
However, EBL does not provide a 10 watt USB power adaptor to actually power this 8-bay lithium-ion battery charger. So you will need to purchase a separate USB power adaptor, or use the one that came with your smartphone.
Just make sure the USB power adaptor can deliver 10 watts or more. Otherwise, charging will be much slower.
Specifications
EBL 8-Bay Lithium-Ion Charger
Model
EBL M7012
Type
USB Charger
Battery Size
AA / AAA
Battery Type
Only 1.5V Lithium-Ion
Input Voltage
DC 5V @ 2A
Input Power
10 W
No-Load Input Power
0.3 W max.
Output Voltage
DC 1.5 V @ 1 A
Output Current
AA : 1000 mA max.
AAA : 500 mA max.
Dimensions
126.4 mm wide
75.4 mm high
25.2 mm thick
Weight
94.9 grams
EBL 8-Bay Lithium-Ion AA Batteries Review!
The EBL lithium-ion AA batteries work like any other rechargeable AA batteries. Just plug them into any device that requires AA batteries, and they just work.
These lithium-ion batteries have a capacity of 3,000 mWh, which is equivalent to 2,000 mAh. So they are equivalent in capacity to many NiMH batteries, but about 18% lower than top-shelf Eneloop Pro batteries.
EBL claims that they have a low self-discharge like Eneloop batteries, and will retain up to 80% of its capacity 3 years after it’s fully-charged. But they do not come pre-charged, because so you will need to charge them for 6-8 hours before using them.
The biggest advantage of the EBL lithium-ion AA battery though is its ability to deliver 1.5 volts of constant current. This beats NiCad and NiMH batteries which are limited to just 1.2-1.4 volts.
Even though these batteries have similar capacities to NiCad/NiMH batteries, their higher voltage means they deliver 7% to 25% more power.
That extra power is useful when it comes to certain devices, like Nerf guns or electric toothbrushes for example. You will get higher performance with these 1.5 volt lithium-ion batteries than you would with NiCad / NiMH batteries.
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Just after Apple introduced their 15W MagSafe wireless charger, Xiaomi unveils the 80W Mi Wireless Charger!
Take a look at how fast a modified Mi 10 Pro recharged wirelessly using this new 80W wireless charger!
Xiaomi Disses 15W MagSafe With 80W Mi Wireless Charger!
Apple may have wowed their fans with the new 15W MagSafe wireless charger, but Xiaomi just showed us the future of wireless charging.
Introducing the new 80W Mi Wireless Charging Technology by Xiaomi!
As this video showed, the 80W Mi Wireless Charging Technology recharges the 4,000 mAh battery of a modified Mi 10 Pro astoundingly quickly :
0% to 10% : 1 minute
0% to 50% : 8 minutes
0% to 100% : 19 minutes
In comparison, last year’s 30W Mi Wireless Charging Technology took much longer to recharge a similar battery :
0% to 50% : 25 minutes
0% to 100% : 69 minutes
80W Mi Wireless Charging : May It Come Soon!
Xiaomi has not announced when they will actually introduce 80W Mi Wireless Charging in a production smartphone, or offer the charger for sale.
However, based on the fact that they recently introduced the Mi 10 Ultra with 50W wireless charging capability, we could see 80W wireless charging introduced as early as next year!
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