So I just got a Fujifilm X-S20 in for testing. Because I'll be away from the office much of the time I'm testing it, I wanted a couple of extra batteries. SmallRig sells two plus a charger for about US$50. Excellent.
However reinventing UI for no good reason and botching it seems to be a theme throughout tech these days.
It seems that the SmallRig charger engineer had too much time on their hand, imagination, and no common sense.
- First, the "battery status" is shown as concentric circles instead of a simpler-to-understand bar. Question: is the battery fully charged in the above image? (Answer: no. But there's only four rings!)
- Second, the circles lie (they show the battery as "charged" before it actually is).
- Third, the active battery is noted only by a CH1 or CH2 that flips between the two small circles on the left (which themselves don't change).
- But the biggest flaw of all? The charger alternates between charging the two batteries! "I'll give a little bit of charge here, a little bit of charge there..." Thus, instead of one full battery after charging for awhile, you get two partially charged ones. Right, sure, that's what I wanted.
SmallRig is making the Europeans happy, though: the charger uses a USB-C connector and doesn't come with a cable, just like Europe wants. No waste! Well, except for the charger itself, which I find so unacceptable I'll be looking for a different one.
