Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What can I say about the Zanflare C4 Smart Charger / Analyzer? I had mediocre hopes for the C4, assuming it wouldn't live up to its featured hype. But I am happy to say that it has thus far exceeded my expectations. I have lots of NiMh and LiIon batteries. LOTS, over 300. I also have 5 different smart chargers, and a slew of others. So my perspective comes from a comparison of things I already possess and use. My favorite Smart Charger / Analyzer up to this point was the Opus BT-C3400. So most of my perspective is related to that one. The ease of use and setting individual slot configurations is even nicer than the C3400. Additionally, like the C3400 you can set / reset the configuration of each individual slot "on-the-fly" with immediate response. The only feature the C4 doesn't have where the C3400 does is an automated REFRESH mode. Instead, you either manually use the Fast Test (discharge / charge [measure mAh on charge cycle]) or Normal Test (charge / discharge / charge [measure mAh on discharge cycle]) and simply do it manually 3 times to get the same process the Opus performs with its Discharge Refresh program. Sometimes it might be a hassle, other times it is nice to check the value between each cycle to see what kind of results you get at each point. What I've found is that when I need to refresh some old batteries, or ones that have not been used in awhile, where they seem to have lost some of their capacity, I can use the C3400 refresh and then "set it and forget it" until it is done. On the other hand, when I purchase new batteries, I find that if I use the C4 Fast Test manually, I might not need to do a full 3 cycle test to break them in. If the capacity is within 10% of the battery's rating, I then do the Normal test which provides the capacity from the "discharge" perspective (more accurate in my opinion), record my info and move on to the next set of batteries. The C4's display uses a white on blue background so is slightly less appealing than the C3400's LCD display, but is by no means difficult to read. In fact the C4 has a "virtual" battery that is always visible for each slot giving a nice and easy visual status without having to try and "read" something and without having to cycle through the "modes". Though you can cycle the modes just like the C3400 to indicate Voltage, mA charge rate, mAh capacity rate, Internal Resistance, etc. But that visual battery indicating a visual status is also always there, so you know "visually" about how close it is to being done with the discharge or charge state. Effect: I can look at it from across the room and just "know". The C4 appears to have good ventilation much like the C3400. It is a couple inches longer than the C3400, but it really doesn't require much more desk space as in either case you would want to have a bit of ventilation room anyway. I've used the unit on the major battery types (AAA, AA, 14500, 18650, 26650) and used the various current settings (even up to 1A * 4 slots) and the unit itself doesn't over heat or get any warmer than any other charger I own. So the "physical" characteristics are pretty similar. The exception is probably in the slots themselves. Rather than have a multi-tiered slot design like the C3400 has, they chose to simply make the slot "half circle" diameter the size needed for its largest battery support. This tends to make the smaller (AA, AAA) batteries "rock and roll" a bit when trying to place them. It takes more effort in other words. Not a lot more, but enough to certainly realize that it does. The C3400's two tiered system favors AA batteries for the smaller tier as they fit *almost* snug in that bottom tier. The wider batteries fit into the 2nd (upper) tier pretty nicely. So the C4 is not quite as nice as the C3400 in that respect. Additionally, the metal sliders are a little "bendy" (read as weak) so you may have to occasionally bend them to a straight vertical position for proper contact with the negative pole on the battery. Not a major problem, but something they should look at fixing in the future. So that I don't write a novel, I'll simply summarize here with possibly adding comments in the future as they become necessary: The Zanflare C4, much like the Opus BT-C3400, appears to be a solid Smart Charger / Analyzer and performs well. Could there be improvements? Maybe. But nothing major here is needed. I'm thoroughly pleased so far with the Zanflare C4, and the fact it is less expensive than my C3400 is simply icing on the cake.