Review:

Could power a vehicle and it's driver for approximately one quarter mile.

The Oxyride is the first major development in battery technology since Panasonic first introduced the alkaline battery in 1965. That's 41 years ago!

I had the pleasure of talking to Brian Kimberlin, vice president of marketing at Panasonic Battery Corp about these little powerhouses. That was a conversation well worth the time. Mr. Kimberlin explained how Panasonic felt that the alkaline battery market has remained more or less stagnant the past 40 years. With the advent of digital cameras and portable MP3 players, a more powerful battery was needed to extend to the run time of these portable devices. How the alkaline technology has been tweaked to it's limits. That was understandable. We've all experienced the quick death of alkaline batteries when using a digital camera.

Panasonic then created the nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH) formulation which would be called Oxyride. The Oxyride was released in July 2005. So does the Oxyride out last an alkaline battery?

I was able to put some Oxyrides to a side by side comparison with Duracell Ultra alkaline batteries. The devices that would be tested were a portable Motorola text pager, RadioShack Pro-95 scanner, Sony Cybershot digital camera, and a mini Mag lite flashlight.

The Motorola test. Using alkaline batteries, the pager would run 30 days and four hours. Using Oxyrides, that run time extended another eight days and three hours. Oxyride is touted as having a higher voltage, and constant voltage rate than alkalines. This is proof in advertising. The pager was the perfect item to prove this. I regularly checked the "vital functions" of the pager. With the alkaline battery, the battery life meter on the pager would drop from 100% to 92% by day two. Each day loosing more power. Has that power decreased, the rate of loss also increased. The Oxyride however held a constant 100% until day 24. On day 25, it dropped to 98% with gradual loss until it's death on what was close to being day 39 of the Oxyride.

The Pro 95 scanner test. Once again, pleasing results! With the alkaline batteries, the scanner would run for 28 hours. With the Oxyride, the on time was extended to 38 hours and a few extra minutes. With the recent windy weather and power outages in my area, this is very important for me. I need that extra power time.

One thing I need to point out about the constant voltage. The Oxyrides did give a complete 100%. What I mean by that is once done, they were done. Not like an alkaline, or even a heavy duty battery where even though it seems to be dried up, if you wait long enough and reinstall, you can get an extra minute or two before it quickly dies again.

Taking pictures with the Sony Cybershot DSC-W7. This was simple. I stopped counting after the camera had taken 80 more stills with the Oxyride than it did with the alkaline batteries. The Oxyride batteries are still in the camera.

The mini mag lite test. If I had paid attention to the fine print on the side of the Oxyride before doing this test, I would have read "Not recommended for use in flashlights (Except LED) or products with bulbs." I was very impressed with the extra candle power given to the krypton bulb by the Oxyride. But I was disappointed that just after four hours, the bulb would burn out.

I have no complaint about this. Once again, with the recent weather and power outages, I will gladly waste light bulbs in that flashlight for the benefit of the extra candle power generated by the Oxyride. No I can't give you a true number for how much the increase in light power is. But if you do the same test, you will see pleasing results.

Summary: The Oxyrides are truth in advertising. No hype, No gimmick, these little guys serve as promised. At this time Panasonic is only going to make the Oxyride available in AA and AAA. That is not to say that we may never see it in a C or D size. I hope we do. The Oxyride is a battery that gets a perfect five paws!

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