Nitecore NEW i4 Charger Review

Nitecore NEW i4 Review.

The Nitecore NEW i4 Charger is an improved upgrade to the previous i4, packed full of new 

intelligent features and improved appearance.

Packaging at a glance:

Keeping with Nitecore’s Black and Yellow attractive packaging, the box is also printed full of valuable and important

Information, preventing the need to refer to the owners manual for those features and specs you seek.

From what I gather, there is a spate of Nitecore knock-offs out there, so always ensure you are buying an authentic Nitecore charger.

One very useful way of checking is by scanning the counterfeit QR code, which is visible on all boxes as seen in the image below, as well as

 a 16 digit validation code which you have to scratch off the top coating to reveal the code.

Always check and rather be safe than sorry in missing that 12 month service warranty.

Unboxing

Straight out the box, you get the NEW i4 charger, a two pin figure of eight power cable, your warranty

card and the owners manual.

With the NEW i4 being able to power off 12V, like in your car, I would have liked a 12V cable included,

but then again, this would have pushed up the price, but worth it than having to go out and buy one.

If you own a Nitecore R25 or R40 flashlight, you can just use one of those.

Now, before you get all excited and rush off to charge your batteries, I strongly recommend that you thoroughly read through

the owners manual, especially the notice of registering your product for warranty purposes, extract below.

IMPORTANT NOTICE CONCERNING WARRANTY SERVICE 
Thank you for purchasing! Before using this charger, please find your verification code on the package box, 
and go to http://charger.nitecore.com/validation (or scan the QR code beside the verification code to visit on your 
mobile phone). Type in your verification code and personal information as required, and submit the page. 
After verification, Nitecore will send you a warranty service email. 
This email and your registration email address are essential to your possible warranty application. 
Before you complete the warranty service registration, you cannot enjoy our warranty service for your purchase.

The charger itself is very well moulded and assembled, with no visible overlaps on joins or small protruding burrs.

It's also made from plastic which is flame resistant and fire retardant.

It features copper positive contacts and guide rails, and if you look closely, you'll notice that on either end of the contact points

it has two nipples to ensure that larger batteries have a solid contact point.

It also has non slip rubber feet which are raised slightly which allows for sufficient cooling air flow once placed on a flat surface.

On the bottom section, you will also see a yellow sticker with all the compatible batteries recommended by Nitecore,

as seen in the image below.

Specifications and Compatibility list.

New features on the NEW i4

The NEW i4 can now charge 100% faster than it's predecessor, the i4, charging at 1500mA as apposed to 750mA,

but this is only in one slot at a time and for large capacity batteries like18650 and 26650 only.

Now with ACD (Active Current Distribution) technology, the NEW i4 is capable of detecting when a battery is fully charged and diverting the output power to the next slot.

So let's say you have 18650 batteries in slot A and B, with battery A half full and B completely depleted. Both these slots

will be charging at 750mA, but when battery A is fully charged, it will automatically start charging battery B at 1500mA.

It now supports 3.7V and 4.35V batteries, so with it being able to charge 1.2V, 3.7V, 4.2 and 4.35V batteries, there's no need to purchase extra chargers to accommodate batteries with different voltages.

Using the 'V' button, you can select different voltages for different slots.

Another neat feature is IMR Battery Recovery, which is a revival function to revive over-discharged IMR batteries.

If you do have an IMR battery that has been over-discharged and insert it into one of the slots, this will be indicated 

by the four flashing LED's directly above that slot.

To activate recovery, hold down the 'C' and 'V' buttons simultaneously until the bottom LED starts flashing, which indicates

that the revival process has started.

This feature may be cool, but if your IMR is way way over-discharged, it might not be revived successfully.

It's clever enough to automatically select a charge current based on the capacity of the batteries.

So if one battery is more depleted than another, it will automatically charge the one at a higher current than the other.

Features carried over on the NEW i4

Most features found on the i4 have been carried over into the NEW i4, such as Reverse Polarity Protection which you 

will be notified by the four LED's blinking once you insert the battery into the corresponding slot.

It has Overcharging Timeout Protection, so if you go out and accidentally leave your batteries on charge, it will stop charging after

20 hours to protect the charger and the batteries from possible explosion due to unknown damaged batteries.

It has automatic temperature control and protection, constantly monitoring the chargers internal temperature to ensure 

no over-heating and at the same time extending the life of the charger.

Summary.

All in all, I think the NEW i4 charger is well worth it. I'm not a battery guru, so I didn't go into in-depth

charging details of the batteries I charged.

I stripped a HP laptop battery pack and found eight cells inside, which I found two to be dead.

I found this out as the four LED's blinked when I inserted them into the charger to charge.

The charger itself did get a bit hot on the bottom right hand side, but the batteries themselves and the contact rails were slightly warm after five hours of charging. Other than that, it's a real solid charger.

For purchases, visit www.nitecoresa.co.za, or call Louis on 0834106005 or Celesti on 0828258442.