Laptop Battery replacements

[Yw-slayer]

Anyone got any suggestions? I know you are supposed to buy a battery with the latest date of manufacture, but how can one tell? Does anyone have any recommendations for reputable retailers selling safe, new batteries?

Yes, of course I could buy a new X301 battery from Lenovo or a new U30 battery from ASUS, but frankly they're probably really old and would cost far more than what both are worth (whereas an unofficial one would just cost more than each one is worth :D).

[thesameguy]

Unless you're buying OE batteries, I don't think you'll be able to tell all that much about what you bought with any degree of confidence.

[Yw-slayer]

Yeah. Powersmart are in HK and they actually replied to an email of mine, so I might ask them if they can tell me when the battery is manufactured. There are 2 options they have for my X301, namely a normal one and one with cells from Japan.

[thesameguy]

TBH, I don't imagine you'll keep it for all that long.... I'd probably just pick up whatever is cheap-ish and roll with it. I think we're pretty well past the exploding batteries of ten years ago. I've not had a single problem with no-names in terms of life or performance.

[Rare White Ape]

My solution, which I've used a few times before, is just searching for the battery model number on eBay and buying the absolute cheapest one.

A $20 no-name brand battery, shipped free-of-charge from HK, here within a week? No problemo.

The alternative is an OEM one for ten times the price. No thanks. I'll replace it twice for $40 before I go the OEM route.

[Yw-slayer]

Ah. The JP model one has, they honestly said, cells from a Japanese company (Panasonic) but that are made in China. They did say that upon ordering one the factory would make the battery straightaway, so I guess made to order is good.

Anyway, I've decided to save some money and not buy one yet as I only use the X301 around the house and don't need it to have 3 hours of battery life in Ubuntu.