I was really looking forward to testing these two new chargers because they looked different and the LUC V8’s display was gorgeous in the promotional images for it.
They’re both unusably dim in my opinion though: https://imgur.com/a/yK5TLWU
Compare their promotional images to the photos I took. The differences are huge.
My lighting is not that bright (it’s what I use when shooting my mech testing videos) and the display for the Xtar ST2 looks great in the same lighting as used for the Efests. You can barely tell the Efests are on though.
Efest told me they were aware of this issue. The design team asked that the cover over the display be dark to better match the rest of the charger and that the display is already set to full brightness.
Efest just recently posted on their Facebook page saying “Next batch will update the LCD display!” I don’t know what that means but hopefully it’s MUCH brighter.
No word though about the iMate R4’s dim LEDs and the big difference in appearance between the promotional images and the charger’s actual display.
If you have a dimly lit room it might be okay to use either one of these chargers but otherwise the displays are quite difficult to see. This might be something you would want to consider before purchasing the LUC V8 or iMate R4. I don’t know if the iMate R2 has the same problem or not.