00:00So hello my friends, I hope you're all doing well.
00:04I've only just gotten back a couple of weeks ago from my trip to the Falklands, so I hope
00:08you're enjoying seeing those videos.
00:10I'll put a link to them up here as well, just in case you're not aware of them.
00:15For those of you visiting my channel for the first time, my name's George, I'm a wildlife
00:20photographer and camera operator, and that's pretty much what I do on this channel, I make
00:25videos about filming and photographing wildlife.
00:30Whilst I was away, I was sent this charger for a review, and as a wildlife photographer
00:40and cameraman, I use a lot of trail cams and do some camera trapping as well, in which
00:47I use a lot of rechargeable double A's, triple A's.
00:49So, a device like this could be actually quite useful in terms of testing the batteries
00:56that I have, seeing if they're still holding capacity, also charging them.
01:03This particular one from X-Star, they've actually sent me batteries before, rechargeables which
01:08have proven to be really, really good.
01:11And they sent me this charger now.
01:13I should make a disclaimer here that I do get to keep this charger, but they're paying
01:19me no money for this review.
01:21And they don't get to see the video or comment on it before I upload it.
01:25So my opinions are my own, and I will give them to you as honestly as I can.
01:32This charger, it can test the battery capacity.
01:39It auto-detects between the different types of battery, between nickel, metal, hydride, lithium-ion,
01:45that sort of thing.
01:46It can discharge the batteries completely and then recharge them.
01:51You can change the speed at which you charge them as well.
01:58It can support multiple batteries, different types of battery rather, at the same time.
02:04It has two slots for charging, so you can put a lithium-ion in one slot and a nickel-metal
02:11hydride in the other.
02:12It will detect the difference and charge them quite happily at the same time.
02:17And like I said, you can select the charging speed as well.
02:21And it even does an internal resistance test.
02:23So, let me get this out of the box and plugged in.
02:28We'll put a couple of batteries in and talk through some of the facilities that this offers.
02:35Okay, so I've plugged in the charger.
02:38As you can see, it's the X-Star VX2 Pro.
02:42It plugs in with a USB slot here, which you can either put to the wall, to a regular plug,
02:51or to a power bank.
02:53So, it means that you can actually use this in the field to charge and test your batteries
02:59as well if you want to.
03:00There's also a little bag that it comes in.
03:06So, yeah, I've got two different types of batteries to have a look at on this charger.
03:12One is a normal AA.
03:14This is a 2800 mAh nickel-metal hydride battery.
03:19And this one is an 18650 lithium-ion battery.
03:25So, we'll plug those in and see if it recognizes the difference.
03:28This is one I use for my torch.
03:31And this is the standard one that I use on my trail cams.
03:35So, let's plug that into the first slot.
03:41At the moment, it's on charge mode.
03:43You can see the voltage here.
03:46It's recognized that it's nickel-metal hydride.
03:50And it's charging it appropriately.
03:53You have a resistance reading here.
03:58And that's in slot number one.
04:01Let's plug this one into slot number two now.
04:05So, it instantly switches to slot number two.
04:08And it's recognized that this is a lithium-ion 3.6 volt battery.
04:13It's also automatically dropped the charging speed to one amp.
04:19So, it will change the...
04:21The charging speed will change to what's appropriate automatically
04:26for when you have different batteries in.
04:29Again, you can see the resistance reading here.
04:35So, let's go through the different modes.
04:40At the moment, it's on charge mode.
04:42So, as you can see, it's just charging both batteries up.
04:46You do this individually as well for each of the slots.
04:49So, at the moment, it's on slot two, charging.
04:52So, if I long press the mode button, that will go to discharge.
05:01So, now it will just drain the battery completely.
05:04If I long press again, it goes to refresh, which I think drains it and then recharges it.
05:10So, it's renewing the battery. It's refreshing it.
05:14The next mode is grading, which I think tests the capacity of the battery.
05:20So, it will charge it fully and then drain it to test the capacity and the health.
05:29And lastly, storage.
05:33So, it will charge the battery to an appropriate level for long-term storage if you don't intend on using
05:39it for a while.
05:40It will charge it to the proper level at which to store it at.
05:46So, that's basically it.
05:48Quite a handy little device for checking your batteries if you use a lot of AA's or AAA's or these
05:55chaps here.
05:57Rechargeable batteries so you can keep on top of the health of your batteries.
06:04Okay, that brings me to the end of this video.
06:08I hope you've enjoyed.
06:08I will put links to this charger in the description below.
06:14And I'll also put a link to Xstar's website so you can actually read more about it and all the
06:22specifications it offers.
06:24Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you again soon. Bye for now.
