I disagree. UF cells have consistently failed to meet expectations, while TF ones have consistently proven pretty good. Keyword is "consistently"; many threads and tests from various months/years have reported this.
Personally, I re-celled a pocket computer's battery with two UF 18650s, and they started losing capacity after maybe the tenth cycle. Did the same with TFs, still going strong after a few months.
I've seen complaints regarding all 3 cell brands. I do agree that the TF cells are currently in the lead as better performers as compared with the alternative budget options, but I'm scared to make a recommendation for a cell that could be "bait-n-switched" so easily. (with or without a label change) (more on this in a moment)....
This is claimed often, but do you have actual evidence to say this?
Nope, this is my gut, but I'm not pulling it out of thin air for fun either. I've been following the trends of flashlight and battery development for quite some time, and paid enough attention to the market of budget chinese flashlights and cells to see between the lines. I can point to a romensen today that is the same as a superfire yesterday that was sold as an ultrafire a few years ago. They are the same flashlight designs being re-badged with a new flare or just a new name every year or so. Slap a new emitter on it, change the finish color, make a minor change to strike bezel design, bada bing. It's possible that TrustFire is a totally separate operation, but it's hard to swallow for me.
Even if true, same factory != same quality. As you probably know, a factory can build similar models of different quality for different distributors.
This is absolutely true, and even helps prove a point
the same company that makes ultrafire/superfire flashlights is not making ultrafire/superfire cells there. In the case of a line of li-ion cells that are being marketed to, what is in the grand scheme of things, a "niche" market, it is not cost effective to have your own plant making the cells. It's a specialized process. There are many products in the world, that only actually come from a few factories on the planet... Take for example, LCD panels. Nearly every LCD panel currently found in a production television or monitor, is made in one of just a very small hand-full of factories around the world. I seem to recall it being said that it was down to just 2 or 3 factories worldwide that make these things. For li-ion cells, it's not quite this extreme, but not far off. We know that in the world of batteries, there are a few suppliers of bare cells, and a LOT of names getting slapped on them.
Lets take your example of the fact that from a single supplier, they might have different "quality" options... So they (some reseller) might decide to do a sort of experiment, and buy 3 different quality levels of cells and sell each under a different brand name to keep track of the results and see which quality level generates the best profit margins after factoring in customer relation issues and returns and stuff like that. Am I too black helicopter here? This is just one of many possibilities in the end. When they do decide which quality level is the most profitable, they'll obviously sell it under the name that was used with the highest quality cells originally so that it carries it's good name... So... the question is.. when will the switch be made? Will it ever? Will TF continue to be reasonable forever? Hard to say.
Could you link to the relevant threads?
This is not a provocation - I'm actually interested in reading the threads.
No provocation detected, your points are 100% spot on valid
I'll try to get back to you with some links on this...
As I'm sure you are aware, trying to figure out what to search for that generates useful results can take some time...
Eric
