Sometimes the obvious isn’t so obvious. You may have read my article about renewing old cordless phones or supercharging new ones with better batteries from Lenmar. What a difference that has made.
As Mrs. Gadget and one of the Gadget Kids recently expressed concern over the battery life in their mobile phones, I thought again about getting new batteries instead of new mobile phones. After all, there is no rule that says we consumers must buy new phones periodically.
In our case, both users’ Sony Ericsson Z750 phones are still serviceable and their users like this flip model, so I looked into just getting new batteries. Another lesson learned! These phones take a Sony BT33 battery.
Online searching revealed a wide range of pricing on seemingly the same battery. Well, you know I would not pay a high price for one of these! However, what I found was a bit of sleight of hand. Some sites advertised a Sony OEM battery that appeared to be the same, for as little as $10 to $15. After carefully checking and ordering a few samples, one thing became clear. These retailers are liars!
What I found was that companies purchase batteries of unstated origin and slap on a poor imitation of the original Sony label. I would not risk dealing with inferior Lithium Ion batteries that go in my loved ones’ phones, so back went the cheap imitators.
Then, as should have occurred to me originally, I checked to see what my friends from Lenmar had to offer. Their replacement battery, model CLEZ800 is a direct replacement carrying a full two-year warranty. The company online price is $20, which I knew I could better with careful shopping. In addition, others carry a 90-day or one year warranty. Armed with that model number in hand, I went online shopping and found what I wanted best priced (for me) from Amazon, for $11.99 each. I needed a pair, for a total delivered price of under $30. Click, done, happy.
The lesson I learned (and you can, too) is that I’m better off and ultimately money ahead with Lenmar’s reliability and warranty than gambling on other suppliers of what appear to be original replacement batteries for mobile phones. Avoid the junk and go with Lenmar.
Now, both of these phones have a new lease on life without spending more on new phones just to get better battery life. Another “Duh!” moment for Mr. Gadget. Thanks, again, Lenmar!
