Copy Phone Battery

[Daffy D]

So the wife needed a new battery for her Samsung phone.

We went to the Samsung shop at Robinsons who said if we wanted a genuine battery it would have to be ordered and would take about a month.

They suggested to try one of the many phone shop booths in the building for a copy battery.

At the booth they had various grades of copy so we chose a "Grade A" for 690Bt. A genuine battery would have been about 900Bt.

All pretty normal but what surprises me is that Samsung don't have genuine batteries in stock. No wonder people buy copies when you can't get an original even if you want to.

The other surprise is the quality of the packaging of the copy. Not only does it look like an original it has the holographic sticker and a Samsung seal on the package to ensure it has not been tampered with.

The copy battery was so well packaged it could have easily been sold as genuine. I would defy anyone to distinguish the genuine battery from the copy.

[DogNo1]

Which one is the copy?

[Daffy D]

[kkerry]

There are trade fairs in China where you can order the fake batteries and packaging to order e.g. what grade of fake battery you require. They even sell rolls of hologram stickers... the stickers that are supposed to indicate the battery is genuine....

[peterjackson]

The one main difference between the copies and the genuine batteries is the serial numbers. The copies from the same manufacturing source for the same Model Number all have the same Serial Number. Just pick two off the rack and the copies will have identical Serial Numbers.

[Pib]

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The wife and I bought our Samsung S4's a couple years ago here in Bangkok at a DTAC Center....both bought at the same time...we watched them break the seals on the S4 packing boxes, un-package the battery that came in each S4 box and install it. Now it's been about two years and the battery life is still acceptable on both but they don't hold a charge like they use two....both have went through many discharge-charge cycles and like said are two years old...but both batteries I would have to rate equal in the charge they currently maintain....but I figure it's about time to change them.

Just yesterday I looked at both batteries and the one in my S4 is like the one you say is genuine (i.e., Cell made in Malaysia, Assembled in Vietnam) but the one in the wife's S4 only says Made in China with nothing about where it's assembled. Could her battery be a fake? Sure, anything is possible, but I don't think it is because it's held up as good as mine plus we saw the phone/battery being removed from the sealed S4 packaging box at the DTAC Center. And her battery has not been replaced since that purchase date.

There are indeed a lot of fake and/or low quality batteries being sold but a person needs to look at more than just where the battery was made/assembled & it's packaging, especially since manufacturers routinely shift manufacturing of components from this country to that country based on best deal/lowest cost. It can be durn hard for the layman to determine if many products are fake, especially batteries...many times it takes an expert to put the product under the microscope so to speak.

Now I will probably buy the replacement batteries off Ebay since they will be a lot cheaper than in Thailand (whether real or fake)....I'll just do my best in looking at the hundreds of vendors selling Samsung S4 batteries and hopefully pick one that truly is selling an OEM product to the best of his knowledge. Wish me luck...so far I been pretty lucking with lithium and NICD batteries I've ordered off Ebay like laptop, smartphone, cordless phone, solar light, etc., rechargeable batteries.

[Turkleton]

I hardly doubt, that you will find a genuine battery on Ebay...

A few weeks ago, a German IT magazine has bought more than 10 different "Samsung" batteries from AMAZON and they all were copies.

Some were sold/delivered directly by Amazon, some by "Amazon Marketplace vendors"

If you want quality, buy at an official shop.

I personally wouldn't take the risk, that a crappy manufactured battery, could destroy my expensive smartphone.

[Pib]

Now when you buy a battery supposedly made by Samsung and it's not a Samsung then yes that's a fake/non-genuine. If we could only buy brand name batteries say like Samsung, Apple, Everyready, etc., well those manufacturers would have a lock on the market and you can bet batteries prices would be sky high not to imply many batteries don't seem overpriced anywhere you buy them.

But thankfully there are hundreds, probably thousands, of manufacturers out there who do make good batteries to the "Original Equipment Manufacturer" (OEM) specifications. Now Apple products which have a reputation for high quality like their iPhone is made in China with some components coming from various other countries....but the key here is the parts and manufacturing process comply to Apple's standard's for manufacturer and design. And while they then say Made in China (like so many brand name products now days), we (the public) assume it's a quality product based on us trusting a certain name brand.

Heck, I could order say 10,000 batteries from a manufacturer in China, tell them what I want printed on the battery and its packing "Pib SuperDuper Long Life Battery" and they would make it. And if I gave them the specific specification the battery must meet (say Samsung or Apple battery specifications) they would make it to those specifications or maybe better...of course I would probably need to send some inspectors for a no notice inspection to ensure they are not lying to me about making it to my specifications. I sure hope Pib is a brand name you will trust and buy.

Another product awash in China fakes is microSD memory cards and other memory products, both in design/quality and packaging.

Yeap, trying to figure if a product you are getting ready to buy, whether online or in a store, will many times just come down to trust of that seller and you may find out that trust is unfounded.

Here's Ebay warning on Fake Batteries: Link

Her's Ebay warning on Fake microSD cards, SSDs, and fllash memory: Link

[rak sa_ngop]

I once bought a battery from a Samsung Service Centre which was actually cheaper than the generic copies sold in one of the big stores (Power Buy?).

Luckily mine was in stock so best buy from Samsung if you can, IMO.