Rechargeable battery technology has come a long way in the last few years. If you buy the right ones they will perform similar to alkaline batteries but they can be recharged and used over and over again. If you are like most people, you put the batteries in your gadgets like a camera, game controller, or remote control. Standard rechargeable batteries naturally drain quickly over time and usually within two weeks are totally depleted, whether you use them or not. However, pre-charged rechargeable batteries will keep 80% of their charge for a year so you can, for example, put batteries in your remote control and not worry about recharging them every two weeks. Look for packaging that says “pre-charged” or skip it.