I need more juice, maybe?
February 19, 2013 10:08 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking into getting an extended battery for my smartphone. The only OEM extended battery for my phone isn't dramatically larger than the stock battery. Are non-OEM batteries safe/reliable?

I have spent a few months with my Verizon Galaxy Nexus, and I really like it. I am still trying to get more battery life out of it though - I used Juice Defender for a while, but I wasn't thrilled with it, so now I've just gone without and deal with things like wifi and 3g/4g switching (and keeping my brightness level really low) manually. At the end of a typical day, I'm down to about 30% battery life left, which isn't by any means terrible, but I started wondering if I would benefit even more from getting an extended battery. A quick Googling found only one OEM extended battery - a 2100 mAh battery to replace the 1600 in my phone currently - but several much larger, third-party built batteries.

Are these third-party batteries safe and/or reliable? I don't really care about the lack of NFC, since I never use it and always have it turned off, and I'm not that concerned about the bulge in the phone from an extended battery - I'm more worried that putting an off-brand battery in my phone will somehow mess up the phone. Am I being paranoid? Are there non-OEM brands that are reliable?
posted by pdb to Technology (12 answers total)
 
I've used third-party batteries, both slim and extended, with my HC EVO 4G with no problems, even going so far as to use a SBC kernel with them. (There was some worry initially that SBC might cause batteries to overheat and explode, or dramatically reduce their lifespan, or whatever.)

I will say that you have to take the capacity ratings with a grain of salt. Your phone may not expect to have a bigger battery and might not be willing to charge it to its full capacity. In my case I only saw marginally longtime runtime with the extended battery—like, maybe an extra hour, certainly not nearly double as I would have expected from the mAH. The additional bulk did not appeal so I eventually switched back to the slim battery. So I'd say make sure that the big battery will actually do something for you before investing in one.
posted by kindall at 10:16 AM on February 19, 2013


I got the Galaxy Nexus OEM extended battery, and then bought the external battery charger (which comes with another battery). This means I have the extended battery and two regular batteries, and can charge two at once. The batteries are small so I find this is a great solution.
posted by grouse at 10:19 AM on February 19, 2013


I considered an extended life battery but I have actually been enjoying the benefit of simply having a 2nd battery of the same exact type. I like that I can have the battery on the charger instead of the phone, which I can have on me, then swap as needed. The reboot is actually therapeutic.
posted by thorny at 10:53 AM on February 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


I bought a third-party battery for my HTC Wildfire, and it's great. It's thicker than the standard battery, so you also get a new back for the phone. Whilst this makes the phone a bit chunkier, I also find the thickness makes it easier to hold and so I'm a happy camper.
posted by essexjan at 11:41 AM on February 19, 2013


I bought a 3800mAh 3rd party battery for my Nexus S and it's been seriously awesome, no more battery anxiety, if I want to play an intensive game for 2 hours on the ferry I can do so and still have juice left for the rest of the day.

Under normal circumstances I get 2-3 days on a charge now.
posted by Cosine at 12:43 PM on February 19, 2013


The downside to the larger non-OEM Galaxy Nexus batteries is that they require a new backplate with an enormous bulge. I've got the OEM 2100 mAh battery for that reason. It gives a noticeable capacity boost, but it's nothing that will blow your mind. How close to a full days use are you getting?
posted by dobi at 1:57 PM on February 19, 2013


Response by poster: dobi -

If I'm careful about my use, I can get about 10 hours out of a charge - but that excludes using navigation, or anything that's even remotely battery-intensive. So while I don't have an urgent need for a longer run time, it would be nice to be able to navigate to a meeting at noon and somewhere else after work and not worry about a battery that's 8% charged by the time I get home. I'm mostly trying to increase my safety buffer, if that makes sense - the 2100 might be sufficient, sounds like.
posted by pdb at 2:06 PM on February 19, 2013


I bought a PowerSkin case for my Galaxy SIII that I absolutely adore - the rubberized grip makes the phone easier to hold, and has saved me on several "3-4 foot face down on hard floor/concrete" drops.

Charging is a passthru affair, so it charges your primary battery simultaneous to the backup - when your primary gets low, you just push the little button on the back and it starts recharging the primary. I find that if I get the primary down to a 5-10% charge, I get back up to 50-60% from the backup.

http://www.power-skin.com/battery-cases/
posted by stenseng at 11:10 AM on February 20, 2013


There doesn't appear to be a PowerSkin for the Galaxy Nexus.
posted by grouse at 4:03 PM on February 20, 2013


I don't know the Nexus series well, is this not a Nexus?

http://www.power-skin.com/battery-cases/samsung/nexus-s-battery-case.php
posted by stenseng at 7:05 PM on February 20, 2013


The Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S are different phones.
posted by grouse at 9:06 PM on February 20, 2013


I use an external battery that can fully recharge my phone twice. It's good for my peace of mind and worth the extra bulk.
posted by Salamandrous at 5:50 AM on February 22, 2013


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