Originally Posted by
miwoodar
The idea that more expensive products are inherently better is absurd. A lot of times you're not paying for better engineering but for better marketing and a higher brand image.
This is very true, but you are pretty much guaranteed that the dirt cheapest products are generics with the most marginal of protection mechanisms.
If you buy a more expensive product with a battery pack that has a product-specific smart charger, you at least know someone made an effort to make the product safer to charge and more reliable over the long term.