Battery Reviews - Fenix ARE X11 Battery Charging Kit

Hello, everyone. Today I'm going to talk to you about the brand-new charging kit that just came out from Fenix. It's the ARE-X11 18650 Battery Charging Kit. It comes with a brand-new Fenix ARE-X11 charger that has yet to be released by itself. I would assume it would be soon, but however, at the moment, it is only available through this charging kit.

Now, what's unique about this charging kit is that Fenix does have another charging kit that they recently came out with, but that is with the ARE-X1 charger and a 2600-milliamp battery, I believe. This charging kit far exceeds that of the old one, so with this 3500 battery you're going to be looking at a 15, 25% increase of run time and so this is easily going to be the better add-on whenever you go to purchase.

This is the ultimate battery and charger bundle that Fenix has produced. It is all packaged together as one. As of now, you cannot buy the charger separately. You can buy the battery separately so you can have a spare if you want, but it is the brand-new Fenix charger, the ARE-X11, and that is combined with Fenix's best battery, which is the ARB-L18-3500-milliamp 18650 rechargeable battery.

This charger, the ARE-X11, has the ability to charge and discharge, so it can act as a power bank if you need to, with a fully charged battery inside, and then also of course you can actually charge the battery that goes inside. It is an 18650 battery charger, so it doesn't look like it can adjust to a smaller battery such as the ARE-X1+ where it has a little spring-loaded action, where you can push it all the way down for an 18650, or press it a little bit down for a 16340. It looks like this Fenix ARE-X11 is an 18650 only.

Moving right into it, that the ARE-X11 smart charger does have the ability for the charging and discharging, it has the included mini charging cable, the micro-USB, and so that's how you charge the battery inside, and then if you have the appropriate cord you just use your ... Say it's a phone, like an iPhone, just use the standard cord that came with the iPhone, plug the USB into the charger itself, and then plug in the lightning cord into your phone and you should be able to charge it up.

Then, of course, it comes with an ARB-018-3500 rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and it's 3500-milliamps or 3.6 volts. It has multiple protections and it's very reliable. This micro-USB charging option is plug in and get powered up kind of option, and you can use a laptop, power bank, solar panel, whatever kind of power source to actually charge up the battery itself. Then to discharge, use your standard USB port, so it's an external output of five volts and one amp. Goes up to two amps max, but is recommended at one amp. It's fast-charging so you can charge digital devices on the go such as your cell phone, maybe a wireless headset and sports bracelet like an Apple Watch or a FitBit.

Now, one thing that makes this ARE-X11 unique is that, opposed to the ARE-X1, this X11 has an appropriate battery level detection status through four mini little LEDs. With the X1 charger, you have one single LED. Either it's red or it's green. Even if the battery's at 99%, it still shows red and it won't hit green until you're at that full 100% power. Now, with the X11, you are given four different LEDs. You can basically go ahead and guess that each LED stands for 25% power. If you only have two, you're about halfway, then 75, 100, and then all the way down to 25.

The four LED lights will display the battery charging or discharging status, so the indicator will work both ways and then the remaining power every time a battery's inserted, each LED representing approximately 25% of the battery will show. The more lit, the higher the battery level.

Each battery will come randomly charged. They're not always fully charged. Sometimes they're relatively charged, sometimes they're not very charged. They just recommend it to go ahead and fully charge your Fenix batteries once you receive them. The 2600 will give you roughly three hours of a full charge from complete dead with this X11 charger, and with the 3500 you're looking at about four-hour charge time.

With the battery level detection, the first time the battery's inserted the remaining battery power will be displayed so you don't have to wait for it to cycle through or anything, it'll go ahead and immediately display what kind of power you're looking at beforehand.

The micro computer chip controlled with the X11 is also digitally regulated charging to extend the battery life so it's not going to be harmful, it's not going to be damaging or anything like that. It's going to be able to maintain safety through the battery charger and the battery itself. It's going to be excellent in extending your battery life. It has the short circuit protection and overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection, and reverse polarity protection. You definitely don't really need to worry about any kind of harm coming to your battery or charger with this ARE-X11.

This X11 is also very unique just by the way it looks. It's the first of its kind. It's very far more user-friendly than you'd expect. You just simply open the case and put the battery in, and then close the protection cover. That's it. Really not as convoluted as it may look. It does include the charging cable, which actually can rest pretty easily on the back side of the charger. It acts as a little stowaway option and it's very, very compact.

When you're on the go with, let's say you charge up a full battery before a trip, go ahead and just place the battery in the charger, close the protective cover, put the little cable in the back of the charger itself, and you're good to go. It's very small, compact. It's very handy as well. It's no larger than your standard lipstick, both in height and width. It's very, very small, very convenient, very user-friendly.

A few other features is that it's compatible with the 18650 lithium-ion battery. Again, it doesn't appear to be able to charge any other kind of batteries, but the 18650s are chargeable. The lithium-ion battery is the sole type of battery that the X11 can charge. It measures 104 millimeters in length, 25 millimeters in width, and 30 millimeters in height, and it only weighs 41 grams. This is including the protective cover and the mini-USB cable.

Let's see. The charging, the micro-USB charging port, the DC is five volts and one amp from external power source, and then it is 4.2 volts and one amp to charge the battery itself. As for discharging, the standard USB port is going to be the same as the charging. The DC is five volts or one amp, a maximum of two amps. We do recommend the one amp.

It is made of very high-quality PC materials and engineering plastics, and then the operating temperature for this X11 is -20 degrees Celsius up to 50 degrees Celsius. Then the operating humidity can go from 5%, which is zero degrees Celsius, to 90% or 40 degrees Celsius.

This X11 charging kit is very convenient, very compact, and it's basically the perfect add-on whenever you're looking by for a hiking trip, camping trip, or just a simple road trip. I would recommend bringing spare batteries so you can have one in your light and then also one as a power bank to act in this X11 charger. That would be my best bet as to preparing yourself for your trip.

A few other key notes about the battery itself is that it is, it does have short circuit protection. Also, overcharging and over discharging protection. It has many safety certifications as well, so this charging kit is very, very smart, from Fenix, in my opinion. They finally set the 3500 battery with a charger. That's what just about everybody wants, and they've always been looking for a bundle, the appropriate bundle with Fenix's best battery, so I'm glad they finally brought this out.

Then they also brought out with a new UC35 version too that the 3500 batteries included in that flashlight as well. Hopefully, looking to the future, or if anything actually includes a battery, whether it be a bundle or a flashlight or headlamp or whatever, hopefully they start to include the 3500 battery a bit more, but only time will tell.

Until then, thanks for stopping by and hope I was able to inform you on the new Fenix ARE-X11 18650 Battery Charging Kit that just came out from Fenix. That is the newest line from the Fenix flashlights and all their products. Hope you all have a great day.