Nitecore Releasing New 3rd Party Batteries, Losing Clever Wireless Gauge

Nitecore, a company well known for its batteries and flashlights, in 2019 released its NFZ100 series of batteries that were comparable in capacity and quality to Sony’s first party batteries, but also used a clever, low-power Bluetooth mechanism to communicate storage capacity to a smartphone. Interestingly, the company is now releasing a new version of its camera batteries – including ones for Sony as well as Fuji and other camera systems – without the battery-checking communications bits.

The wirelessly-communicating batteries cost $45 each. The new batteries will have almost – but not quite – the same amount of juice. They can charge up to about 30 milliamp hours less than the earlier models, and pricing has not yet been set.

For the past year the wireless batteries have been out of stock in most places, including Nitecore’s own store.

Camnostic tested six of the wireless batteries and found them to be at least as capacious as the Sony OEM batteries, and that the wireless feature worked very reliably.