Netbook News

Kyocera Wireless has issued a recall of cell phone batteries used in one of its smart phones after discovering the batteries can explode, the company said Friday in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

The Kyocera 7135 Smartphone has been sold with PowerBook G4 15 battery manufactured in Hong Kong that “can short-circuit and erupt with force or emit excessive heat, posing a burn hazard to consumers,” Kyocera says in a release.

The phones were sold through Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular, and Alltel, as well as through other retailers and Web sites from September 2003 to December 2003, Kyocera says. The A1175 batteries have “Kyocera” written in red and white on the front of the battery, and contain a product code that ends with “-05,” the San Diego company says.

Customers Warned
Kyocera instructed any users of the 7135 phones bought during that period to immediately stop using the A1045 batteries sold with those cell phones, or any batteries purchased separately from the phones during that time period.

The company plans on contacting those who purchased the battery in order to deliver a free replacement MacBook Pro 15 inch battery, but asked any customers who do not hear from the company by February 6 to call (800) 349-4478 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time Monday through Friday to obtain their replacement battery.

Nokia dealt with several incidents of exploding A1078 batteries last year, but blamed those problems on users who installed counterfeit batteries in their phones.

Over the course of a month, I ordered six batteries for my two notebooks and tested them out (see “How I tested” ). Two came from Laptops for Less, two came from Laptop Battery Express, and one battery each came from Apple Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. With one exception — a dead battery from Lenovo, which the company quickly replaced — each of the new batteries worked perfectly and powered up the notebooks completely.

Without a doubt, aftermarket batteries are a good way to replace a dead battery without spending a lot of money. Despite costing $20 to $70 less, the aftermarket replacements proved to be just as good and reliable as the originals in my tests.

All of the aftermarket Y9943 batteries I looked at fit fine. They just snapped in, and the systems powered right up. And the aftermarket replacements powered the notebooks for about the same amount of time per charge as the reseller replacements did.

Other than some minor cosmetic differences — for instance, the plastic on one R50 replacement was a slightly different shade of black and not as shiny as the original — I couldn’t tell them apart from the manufacturers’ batteries.

“It’s hard to tell them apart,” says BCC Research’s Saxman. “Often, notebook makers buy batteries made by a third-party manufacturer, while aftermarket battery packs frequently come from the same factory that made the originals. It’s confusing, to say the least.”

Frequently, the only things that separate the two types of Inspiron 630m battery are whose name is on the label and how much it costs. In fact, the MacBook Pro battery that Laptop Battery Express sent me was actually an Apple-branded battery with all the markings, including a serial number.

The company’s supplier said it was left over from a production run made for Apple. Whether this violates agreements between the factory and Apple is for their lawyers to fight about. All I know is that I got a battery for $30 less that appeared to be identical and gave me no problems.

Sometimes aftermarket batteries are even better than the originals. Due to added efficiencies that manufacturing plants have developed in the time since the notebook and its first battery pack were made, some replacement cells can be lighter or contain more capacity.

Two of the six batteries I looked at stand out. The MacBook Pro Inspiron 640m battery from Laptops for Less weighs 2.3 oz. less than Apple’s battery but delivers about the same capacity; it ran for only five minutes less than the reseller replacement. Then there’s the R50 replacement battery sold by Laptop Battery Express, which has a higher capacity but weighs 0.2 oz. less; it ran for an extra 10 minutes.