iPhone's first sketchy battery replacement kit appears

When the time came and your battery died, you were probably thinking you'd have to send your iPhone off to Apple as part of their expensive and complicated battery replacement program -- but now you've got a sketchy DIY option instead. Once again, a mysterious Chinese company has stepped in and "created" a "solution" to your problem with its iPhone battery replacement kit. For just $20, which is cheap enough to elicit genuine concern, you get a 1400mAh, 3.7V iPhone battery, some type of screwdriver-like tool, a strange plastic shiv, and an instruction manual (presumably in English, but you never know). All you have to do is crack open your $600 phone, de-solder your old battery and solder in the new one... and probably some other, more complicated stuff too. At this price, it seems unlikely that this battery won't explode, so buy at your own risk, and definitely try at your own risk.

[Via I4U, thanks Luigi]

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2007 9:30AM]

sure, may i have a possible exploding battery close to my face.

no thank you

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2007 11:19AM]

But it's only been a month or so since the iPhone came out. Are people needing to replace the batteries already? Why all the furor? Is it the price of the phone or the price of the battery replacement that makes this a big deal? All those millions of iPods out there never came with a removable battery and there was never such a big stink about it. I can understand when the batteries start to fail, but this is a bit premature.

Don't heart pacemakers/defibrillators have to be removed to replace the battery? Surely that's expensive and riskier than a cellphone running down. It gives off a signal to let you know in advance, but still people are taking surgical risks to get a replacement. Do they have class action suits for those defibrillators, also.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 1st 2007 4:54AM]

If the iPhone behaves like an average pacemaker and runs for eight years without changing the battery, then I think there will be no class action suits.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 1st 2007 10:40AM]

I thought the iPhone was rechargeable...

If my battery died, i would sent it to Apple to replace the battery.

If I had an iPhone, i would frolick through the cockroach infested streets with joy.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 20th 2007 11:54PM]

Lenovo will not gurantee us that we have cells that are not defective. In fact they have confirmed that our Lenovo battery packs have the same battery cells that are know to be contaminated. I am very upset that Lenovo is not doing a similar recall of the known contaminated cells!
http://www.batteryfast.com/compaq/146630-001.php
http://www.batteryfast.com/compaq/134111-b21.php
http://www.batteryfast.com/compaq/146252-b25.php