18650 with built in charger

[fordnut85]

Came across this in my local Cabela's store the other day and thought you guys might find it interesting. An 18650 with a micro USB charge port on the side

 

[measuredtwice]

Hadn't seen that before.

 

[Odd-job]

That’s pretty interesting they were able to squeeze a charging port on an 18650 like that where real estate is a premium. Trying to figure out the market for something like this. It’s a pretty large premium for a charging port over a standard Samsung 18650. Maybe this would be useful if I didn’t have a battery charger, my flashlight didn’t have a charging port, and I would need to recharge the battery off of a portable solar panel while stranded on a castaway island? Maybe I need to get out of the house more.

 

[Bacon!]

Yeah, hefty price to pay for a 2600mAh cell. I suppose in certain situations, traveling light might make it worthwhile, but that situation would have to include that it doesn't fast-charge, takes 5 hours.

They also don't include full specs unless I missed it, like whether it could be tossed in a normal charger if you don't want to wait that long, and what the current capacity is.

Granted they must intend it for their flashlights so it wouldn't need to be a high current cell like you'd find in power tool packs, just about any 18650 can manage up to 5A.