I bought two sets of AA and one AAA of these Sony Cycle Energy batteries from a large NY-based and internet camera store during an 8 USD/AA 4-pack deal was posted on slickdeals a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to relay my experience. (Though I do buy most everything else at Amazon!)
All of the batteries were made in China as per prior posts. They all came out of the package with decent voltage (1.3v? I don't recall exactly) but at maybe 50% of the rated charge of 2000 mAH. I personally don't much care since I was going to charge before using anyway. I had encountered a significant variation with 4 of the 8 AA batteries -- 3 from one pack and one from the other pack.
I use the La Crosse BC-700. I did a simple charge of all of the batteries first. That did not bring the charge up near the rated level. On the first 4, I did a single full discharge-charge cycle and they went up as high as almost 2400mAH! Great! The other 4 did not fare as well. A discharge-charge cycle still did not get them up to 2000 mAH, though mostly in the ballpark. I then did a full "refresh" (repeating discharge/charge cycles until no improvement) and 2 made it to 2030 mAH, while the other 2 only 1970mAH.
SUMMARY:
With discharges and refreshes, all of the brand new Sony's were able to get within an acceptable tolerance +/- of the rated charge and some went far beyond the rating. My main point being that not all of these Sony's are created equal. I'm still using a set of Eneloops for my SLR flash, but these are just fine for wireless mice, WiiMotes, toys, and the like.
Get more detail about Sony Cycle Energy AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries (4-Pack).
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