No one wants to be stuck with a dead battery for cellphone on their phone. While a dead phone can be used as a paper weight or maybe a hard flying object, it is not of any use as a phone. A new or spare cell phone battery can be one way to keep your phone powered up and ready to go.
So what kind of battery should you purchase? A number of considerations should go into the type of cell phone batteries that will best suit your needs as well as some strong cautions regarding some batteries currently on the market.
What types of cell phone batteries are there?
- Slim Cell Phone Batteries - Slim batteries are thinner than the standard battery supplied with the phone but provide less talk and standby time. Some phones require a new battery door for use with the slim battery.
- Standard Cell Phone Batteries - Standard batteries are generally included with the phone when purchased. These batteries provide a good balance between size and talk/standby time.
- Extended Cell Phone Batteries - Extended batteries provide the greatest amount of talk and standby time but are thicker than the standard battery. These batteries may require an extended battery door.
- NiCD - Nickel Cadmium batteries were common during the 80's and 90's. These cell phone batteries are heavy and have a memory effect. These batteries require a full discharge (often referred to as conditioning) before being charged or they will lose capacity.
- NiMH - Nickel Metal Hydride cell phone batteries replaced NiCD batteries in the late 90's and are still used in a small number of phones. NiMH batteries do not have the memory effect and are smaller and lighter than NiCD batteries.
- Li-Ion - Lithium Ion cell phone batteries are the most common battery on the market today. These cell phone batteries are small and light and not affected by charging memory. As a result they can be charged without being fully dish-charged or conditioned. At times, new li-ion batteries will require multiple charging cycles to activate all cells and provide the advertised talk and standby time.
- Li-Poly - Lithium Poly batteries are the latest technology. These cell phone batteries provide the most talk and standby time using the smallest and lightest battery cells. While these batteries are available for a limited number of cell phones, they have not yet gained popularity among most cell phone manufacturers. These batteries are not subject to a memory affect and so can be charged without the need for conditioning.
What do terms like talk and standby time mean or mAH?
- mAH - This term refers to the capacity of the cells within the battery. The higher the mAH the more talk and standby time the battery will provide.
- Talk Time - This is the amount of phone call time the new cell phone battery should provide. This time may be affected by the signal strength and type. If a phone is in analog mode, the talk time is greatly reduced. Talk time is generally rated in hours.
- Standby Time - Standby time is the amount of powered on time the cellphone replacement batteries will provide. Standby time is reduced by using the phone whether talking, surfing the web, playing games, checking messages, texting, calendaring or other activities. Most current phones have standby times rated in days.
