For something as mundane as batteries these really are quite an developmen
Packaging is simple - understated white and clean looking with not much to distract. Just battery shape with no hype of claims or lightning flashes or anything else suggesting they are special or different. The inner packaging doubles as a battery carry case. A nice touch which shows some joined up thinking about waste.
But you still have to get the batteries out of an outer blister pack (have to use knives and scissors to get in there of course) as with most modern packaging this is wasteful and crazy. That's where the similarity with conventional batteries ends.
They work straight from the box into your camera, game or whatever, just as you would with a regular non rechargeable. No planning ahead, no charging, no waiting ten hours before they ready to power your gadgets. That's very satisfying from a convenience point of view. No hassle.
Then you notice after a few days (or cumulative hours) of using your equipment, in my case a digital camera, that the batteries are lasting ages with no sign of letting up. This goes way past the time when you're thinking 'I better watch out for the warning light because I'm sure I'll miss a good shot just as the camera shuts down'.
And these batteries seem to just keep going on and on and on and on - as other manufacturers would like us to believe their products do. Then you find the recharging time is a fraction of normal rechargeables.
It's all good and I can't quite believe I've spent time reviewing a battery, it's because I was given four and I quickly can't see the point on relying on the batteries I've been using up till now. I'm going to replace them all with eneloop.
There's no point keeping all the others because they've been irritating me for ages anyway and eneloop will simply end all my frustrations.= with regular rechargeables. They drain way too fast into thin air during storage (way quicker than the blurb suggests they should). I mean the number of times I've had batteries on charge for a day, put them in my camera bag and then a few days later there's no charge left at all, I can't count. The eneloops show no sign of losing charge at all. Even after a couple of weeks they still last for ages and ages in the camera.
For once, a product that really is a leap forward and brings tangible improvements in performance and convenience all round. If the whole world were to go in this direction quickly we might have a chance of saving the human race from destroying the planet.
Shame about all the landfill those old batteries will cause.
Have to try selling them on before everyone else finds out.