Well crap, syndr0me had to go and give a well thought out answer. Thats just going to ruin it for all the people who want to come on and say "<insert pack> rulZ, the rest are garbage!"
For me though, I've decided to stick with the Kokam made Orion cells for a couple reasons.
1. Safety. I've been using and abusing Orions lipos since they launched. They've held up beautifully with only a case dent here or there to deal with.
2. Customer service. Orions position on their packs from the get go has been. "have a problem, send it back, we'll replace it". Its that simple. Now compare that to some other R/C companies customer service, like say Trinity!
3. Loyalty. Yeah, its probably mis-guided, but Orion took the Lipo leap for surface R/C
BEFORE it was in vogue,
BEFORE it was apparent ROAR would approve it,
BEFORE many in R/C was willing to accept it, and
WHILE nearly every other battery maker attacked Lipo with false info, and played the sit back and 'see what happens' game. And to me, there should be a definite 'risk/reward' in business. Orion took the risk(and got it right), now they get the reward of my $$$.
Also, Orion is started to join in with the higher voltage with packs like their 3600, but they're doing it responsibly with safety and reliability as thier priority. If I had to go with one other company's Lipo, the next choice for me would be the CORE 5000 pack. Just because I know Schumacher wouldn't sell something that was junk.
Besides that, syndr0me gave the CORE 5000 his seal of approval, and he test everything on the market. So if he stuck with that, it has to be good!
