Product Review eBay 6-cell and 12-cell batteries.

G'day.

I'm aware of the 12 cell review, but I'll post my own experiences from these two batteries.

Both were purchased from batteries4laptop_pc on December 28th, 2010. They arrived on Jan 6th, 2011, and were well and safely packed. Both batteries came with approximately 80% charge.

The first conditioning of the 12-cell battery gave a run time of about 9-hours (Running Windows 7, Balanced, no-wifi connected, playing music using WMP) and the recharge time took approximately 8 hours. This gave a total charge capacity of 108425mWh.

The second discharge gave me just shy of 13 hours use, (general browsing, music playing, wired internet) However, at this stage, the battery suddenly reported a loss of 3% capacity, to carry 104762mWh. I am currently in contact with the seller on this specific battery. I will certainly let you know how well their warranty system is.

The battery dimensions lift the back of the laptop up by approximately one inch, and approximately double the weight of the laptop. I have photographs of both batteries, and a standard 3-cell battery for size and comparison.







The six-cell battery is the one that's kept in the laptop for normal use. It weighs approximately one pound, has a capacity of 48840mWh, carrying 49650mWh and makes the laptop approximately one inch longer, but doesn't change the body angle by anything noticeable. I get approximately 4.5 hours out of the charge, using wireless internet, general browsing. It takes approximately 3 hours to charge the battery.

The 12-cell battery certainly can be recommended if you can justify the heft for very long run and charge times, on the proviso that your cell doesn't go faulty. On Power-saver mode, I can see 13 hours out of the charge, watching video streamed off the hard drive, and using earphones.

The six-cell can certainly be recommended for replacing a tired 3-cell, or if you need the extra run time. The laptop slips into the wetsuit sack without too much difficulty.

 

Which of the many varieties of AOD is that? :?:

 

The acid test is six or eight months down the road. My experience with eBay aftermarket replacement batteries (Panasonic) has been bad. The specs on the label were better than the OEM Dell, and for a month or two, seemed great. But unlike the OEM batteries which lasted a couple of years at strength, the cheapies deteriorated to a small fraction of their initial load well short of their anniversaries. It's buyer beware in this.

(My rarely used 2.5 year old 3-cell for the netbook is still good for an hour and a half, so haven't replaced it even though I'd expected to get a 6-cell by now. When the time comes, I'll spend the extra dime for OEM.)