Best place to get third party batteries?

Amp34 · 24 Dec 2011 at 01:56

I want to get a new battery for my old Dell XPS M1330 laptop but can't find any official batteries around for it. What are the best places to get a decent third party battery? Obviously google comes up with loads of places but I'm wary about getting a rubbish battery... What are Maxtouuch like for example?

Thanks.

Justintime · 24 Dec 2011 at 02:49

Have had great luck with foreign based Ebay sellers, Japan mostly, mainly for overspec batteries. For example i got an 8800mah battery for my A110-233 a 2yrs ago and it still has about 8200mah capacity and lasts about 6 hours on light use (upgraded cpu to core 2 T7200, RAM to 3gb and 128Gb SSD). My Dell 1545 with upgraded to 4gb memory, 256gb SSD and T9800 cpu got the 8800 treatment a yr ago and still has about 8400mah capacity, and that laptop gets used hard.

MumboJumbo · 24 Dec 2011 at 11:26

I've always been of the assumption that over-specced batteries are either lies or very poorly made. At least that is what i've read about mobile batterys. Could be different for laptops.

Amp34 · 24 Dec 2011 at 13:04

Justintime said:
Have had great luck with foreign based Ebay sellers, Japan mostly, mainly for overspec batteries. For example i got an 8800mah battery for my A110-233 a 2yrs ago and it still has about 8200mah capacity and lasts about 6 hours on light use (upgraded cpu to core 2 T7200, RAM to 3gb and 128Gb SSD). My Dell 1545 with upgraded to 4gb memory, 256gb SSD and T9800 cpu got the 8800 treatment a yr ago and still has about 8400mah capacity, and that laptop gets used hard.

Do you know the sellers name by chance?

8igdave said:
I've always been of the assumption that over-specced batteries are either lies or very poorly made. At least that is what i've read about mobile batterys. Could be different for laptops.

Well I assume it will depend on the quality of the battery, some will be rubbish and some good. There is no reason a third party battery can't be as good/better than an OEM, just depends on quality.

MumboJumbo · 24 Dec 2011 at 13:30

It's more the fact that they claim to be fitting a greater mah into the same dimensions a lot of the time, which is often not actually possible and usually would require a physically bigger battery. For example, the desire hd has a lot of battery's claiming larger mah than the stock battery but none of them are as good as the stock battery.

d_brennen · 24 Dec 2011 at 13:36

They are often bigger physically though. I've had great luck with a seller called Sparkly House or similar on the bay with Dell XPS/Inspiron batteries as well as my old Lenovo netbook. Got a battery for that which I had for over two years and used daily. Still good for 5 hours before I sold it

MumboJumbo · 24 Dec 2011 at 16:32

Oh of course, if they are bigger then go for it as they probably are better. But if they are the same dimensions avoid it in my opinion. That's why I say that phone ones usually are lies because you can't just pack a bigger battery into a phone.

Justintime · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:28

8igdave said:
It's more the fact that they claim to be fitting a greater mah into the same dimensions a lot of the time, which is often not actually possible and usually would require a physically bigger battery. For example, the desire hd has a lot of battery's claiming larger mah than the stock battery but none of them are as good as the stock battery.

All of the batteries are oversized mate. The 1545 one is especially nifty as it raised the rear of the laptop, putting the keyboard at an angle and aids cooling of the cpu as theres greater clearance. Plus, theres software that can measure capacity of the battery, plus the fact it lasts a few hours more than the stock one is an indicator

Amp, the names you're after are bt-flash and kingkun01

MumboJumbo · 24 Dec 2011 at 19:17

Sounds like a good buy in that case. Like I say, I only have experience with mobile batteries which are clearly a different matter.

Amp34 · 25 Dec 2011 at 10:23

Justintime said:
All of the batteries are oversized mate. The 1545 one is especially nifty as it raised the rear of the laptop, putting the keyboard at an angle and aids cooling of the cpu as theres greater clearance. Plus, theres software that can measure capacity of the battery, plus the fact it lasts a few hours more than the stock one is an indicator

Amp, the names you're after are bt-flash and kingkun01

Thanks dude, I'll have a look at their stores.