I got a free pair of Uniross Hybrio (Hybrid) AA 1900mah rechargeable batteries with Uniross X-Press 300 charger, which I bought from Photofair 2009.
Since January they have been laying in my camera bag as backup battery, because Uniross Hybrio is advertised as a ready to use hybrid battery, which can hold its charge for a year and I was counting on it to come to my rescue one day.
While going for the Humayun Tomb photography trip, I decided to carry that pair with me and see if this claim actually holds true and whether or not I can rely on it to be the backup battery.
After reaching Humayun’s Tomb and cranking out couple of long exposure
shots, my first pair 2500mah Uniross batteries were dead, as I had been using them since my visit to Air Force Museum last week. Now it was time for Uniross Hybrio’s to prove their metal and be the backup battery for my kit.
However, Uniross Hybrio’s failed miserably! They couldn’t even power up my camera and if it wasn’t for the second pair of 2500mah Uniross batteries I was carrying, I would have had to return empty handed!
In Hybrio’s defense, this particular pair was imported to India in March 2008 and was probably manufactured before that and it could have been the reason behind its dead performance.
However, considering the fact that it costs more than 2500mah Uniross batteries and is supposed to last half as much (500 charge vs. 1000 for Uniross 2500mah), it is very poor value for money, especially if the above performance is anything to go by!
However since I have had good luck with Uniross batteries and this pair of Uniross Hybrio’s were free, I am ready to give it a second chance and have charged them and would likely test them again a few months down the line and see if they can live up to their promise.
Till then, I will be carrying a sealed pair of Duracell non rechargeable batteries with me on my trips as backup like I have so far.
Edit: had to rely on Uniross Hybrios today (13th May 2009) and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed. They managed to hold their charge for the 50 days in the warm weather of Delhi. Will exhaust them soon and would recharge them and put them away, this time hopefully I wouldn’t have to turn to them for the next 3 months, after which I would test them out again.
Edit 2: They just kept on failing miserably and I eventually decided to stop using them.
13 Comments
Thank u Yogesh.Actually today I searched franatically about Hybrio 1900mAh from Uniross homepage-but found no information!I bought one pair from Kolkata Meto goli day before yesterday and the manufacturing dt is Jan,2009.So better I will give them charge first.But as charger your”x-press 300″ model is appropriate? However I read your blog on Ladak tour.It is quita fascinating. Best of lucks.
Debashis if you don’t mind waiting for 7-10hours for the charger to charge the battery, then X-Press 300 is a good option. Else you will probably need to get some thing a little faster, which is rated at 700mah or more.
I personally bought a pair of Hybrio 1900 mAH last week, after charging the batteries for around 8 hours, but when i started using the batteries I was completely disappointed with the performance of the batteries. I was able to only take few snaps when my cam started indicating low battery. Its too disappointing…
Abishek you might want to wait till the batteries completely die. Few cameras start indicating low battery soon (at times with particular batteries) even when there is enough charge left and they are able to take several hundred shots.
Yogesh, Thanks for replying to the above issue.
But the problem is once when it starts indicating low battery after 5-10 snaps the batteries die up. I usually carry two pairs of the batteries. The case is not the same with the other pairs of batteries.
In that case it is likely defective, in case you have a bill, you might want to take it back to the seller or to the importer and get a replacement battery.
It looks like lot many people suffer from HYBRIO battery problem. Uniross Hybrio are indeed looks to be useless as they are free with most of the digital camera’s. may be its becoz “china make”.
Hi All
there are some of the tips while using rechargeable batteries.
Firstly, for a 1900mAH batteries, the standard charging time is atleat 13-14 hours. So obviously, you will not get any worth by charging them for only 7-8hours. Also, it is must that you must charge your reuseable batteries atleast once a month or else they get exhausted and remian of no use. As far as this new breed of extended life batteries is concerned, it is recommended that even these batteries should be charged after regular interval. If not 30 days, then may be 50 days in order to get the maximum life of them. Finally, you should never leave the batteries in the camera or in the charger when not in use.
Keshant Huria
Also, it is not that Hybrio is just coming free with most of the cameras that are china made. Just for the info of all, most of the cameras & the reuseable batteries that are sold in India are Made in China. Its just that most of the camera companies give a set of rechargeable batteries with the camers and hence they are giving something better. Also, Uniross as a company will also try to promote its new product in the market, so it does this by giving a better deal to the camera companies when they buy a newer product.
Keshant, charging time depends entirely on the charger being used. While the slower ones can take even 24 hours or more, faster one can do it in 15 minutes! Of course ultra fast charging is bad for the batteries, so should be avoided.
Any ways, the update is, I have switched to Sony Cycle Energy batteries. Since my earlier bought Uniross batteries have already become un-chargable and it seems that their quality has taken a nose dive substantially, since my almost 3 year old Uniross 2300mAh works well, while the new ones which I bought, less than a year ago, don’t!
Uniross Hybrio is still giving me problem with back, in comparison, Sony Cycle Energy are working flawlessly, retaining their charge, even after 2-3 months of being in my cam!
I will suggest everyone to try Sanyo Eneloop batteries. I am quite satisfied with the performance of Eneloop.
HI,
Mr.Yogesh..
I want you to recommend me as to which NiMh Battery is the best.
There is sanyo eneloop , Uniross and Sony.
I bought a fujifilm s2950 recently , very good camera but they provided me with 4 panasonic one time use alkaline batteries and along with the package they provide me 2 NiMh Envie Batteries , I haven’t used it yet. But do you think Envie batteries are good?
Or which NiMh battery is the Best as for its storage capacity and how many cycles every time we charge it, some people say some Nimh batteries can be charged more than 1000 times.
Recommend me the right NiMh and i will sure buy it…
Thanks In Advance.
NiMh Hybrid is very costly right???? do u recommend me to buy that??? hope its in my budget
and what about Camelion NiMh batteries ??? what about that?