And digital camera batteries too, if the answer is different. I’m going on a trip next month (Italy! I’m so excited!) and want to buy a larger-capacity battery for my laptop and a backup battery for my camera. Is there a big difference between the $$$ Official Replacement Battery and the ones Amazon sells for half the cost? I don’t want something that’s going to be crappy, or blow up as I’m using it, but $140 versus $50 is a hell of a difference.
Are the specifications (watt-hour rating in particular) the same?
The OEM laptop battery doesn’t show that information, from what I can see.
Of the Canon batteries, this one (claiming to be OEM) says it has the same 1000mAh as the original, whereas these are listed as 1200mAh.
But quite frankly no matter what the listing says about specs and genuineness, I’m not sure I believe it… I just want to know if this is going to be like the time I thought I was buying “Genuine Apple Replacement Headphones” for $5 and they were totally junk, or if it’s more a thing like printer ink, where brand doesn’t matter.
I’ve bought several replacement batteries for Canon digital cameras. Most 3rd party batteries were essentially equivalent to the Canon-brand batteries but I also had a few duds in the mix. I generally bought mine from a reliable retailer (like NewEgg) and could return them if needed.
A few stopped holding a charge after multiple uses, that’s been the main problem. Probably 2 out of 10 batteries had some issue.
I live in China, where I can buy $5 cell phone and $14 laptop replacement batteries.
The cheapo replacement batteries seem to hold a charge longer, and I have never had any problems with them.
In the USA ebay might be the place to find cheap batteries.
Of course, anecdotes are not evidence, and your experience may vary.
I’m not sure how popular it still is, but manufacturers of laptops & camcorders etc. used to put a chip in their batteries with the sole purpose of ‘authentication’ by the device (Apple still notoriously does this, even with chargers!) IOW to **make **you buy their $140 battery instead of a $50 generic. My Canon camcorder does this but generics will still work, the device just won’t show the battery’s charge percentage nor will it recharge the generic batteries (you have to use a standalone charger).
Check other user forums online for user posts regarding specific devices & generic batteries for them.
I switch back and forth between the original battery and a Brand X replacement in my Canon, always keeping one charged and ready to replace the other when it is drained. I never noticed any difference in performance between the two batteries.
I also have a Brand X replacement battery in my MacBook Pro, and it works fine, with no difference in functionality, contrary to Hail Ants’s comment above. However, it’s clearly inferior to the original in terms of maintaining its charge.
I had no problems with the generic laptop battery and switch around various brand rechargable camera with no problem
I have a generic laptop battery that I purchased from “usbphoneworld” and I’m not very happy with it. It held the advertised capacity for only the first handful of discharge cycles. Within a few months, it was down to 50% of its rated capacity, though it’s been stable since. Now it has around 40% of its rated capacity, one year later. This is measured by my laptop’s battery monitoring utility which tells me exactly how many watt-hours the damn thing can hold.
Actually this is a good reminder. the seller supposedly has a one year warranty that’s still valid so there’s perhaps a chance that I can get a replacement that isn’t so bad. Time to go harass some poor outsourced phone support minion…
ETA: Hmm, getting an RMA was easy… but I have to pay for shipping, and there’s an $8 replacement fee…
If you go the Amazon route for the laptop battery, I have had a very good experience with this seller, as have many others, based on the reviews.
yes. get the battery offered by the manufacturer of the laptop. the shit sold on Amazon and eBay is junk.
FYI:
Way back in the 90s I used to read nearly every major PC magazine that came out. When the PC market took off a consortium of battery manufacturers (Duracell, Everyready etc.) made a proposal to the major PC makers to develop some kind of laptop battery standards. The PC makers politely said thanks, but no thanks, because they ***deliberately ***changed their laptop battery design from year to year and model to model for no reason other than so that there wouldn’t be any compatibility between them and they could sell as many of their (expensive) proprietary laptop batteries as possible. They still kind of do this, though Chinese generic production is now able to keep up with them.
Most of it, yes. All of it? No.
Picking the first/cheapest one that fits your device on Ebay or Amazon – without more carefully selecting the source – would probably bring bad results. If you’re more discerning, you can get very good replacements without paying the OEM’s semi-extortionate prices.
For a laptop, the only way I’d pay the manufacturer’s price is if the laptop was relatively new and still under warranty, and I needed a spare. Otherwise, for an older laptop, you’d usually almost be better off buying a new laptop, rather than getting a new battery.