Customer Reviews

AGPtek Li-ion Battery For IBM Lenovo 3000 N100 0768 C200 8922 N200 0689 Series r

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Intro:

This battery works much better than the original Lenovo battery ever did; the OEM battery has a well-known design flaw which Lenovo never publicly owned up to, which triggers a protection circuit on the motherboard which in turn requires an odd reset procedure. Once this protection feature is triggered the notebook will shut down randomly, even on AC with the battery removed. I was about to order a new motherboard for my notebook until I came across that anecdote about resetting this fault. I tried the reset procedure and confirmed the issue was the battery monitor PCB, so I left the battery out and searched for a non-Lenovo replacement battery.

I was skeptical at first about this battery when I saw the price (it's a nine-cell extended capacity battery) but I decided to give a shot: it couldn't be any worse than the original lenovo battery. BrainyDeal took a couple of days to ship it out (I was shooting for getting it before the weekend) but when it finally arrived I was pleased to see the battery fit well; it's not a perfect fit, and is obviously a reproduction made from making molds from an OEM battery (the seams are a lot more visible), but it fits a heck of a lot better than other third-party batteries I've used in the past - and the OEM Lenovo batteries are so problematic that style is not even a concern. I just want the notebook to run without shutting down randomly,

There was a slight charge on the battery when I received it but I did not run it until it charged fully. I then ran it for over two hours once charged (to verify life was decent) and it worked perfectly with kpowersaved (one of Linux's APM/ACPI monitoring/configuration apps) and the battery seems to offer decent battery life.

About Lithium-Ion Batteries

One is not supposed to deep cycle li-ion batteries often; they have the longest service life when not cycled below 30% charge but I tend to deep cycle them once in a while ; never run down to critically low but a little lower than 30%. The first time I used it as a portable I ran it down to approximately 50% and the life to that point was fairly decent, and I was running a 3D desktop so the discrete video card was working fairly hard at that point. Obviously the extended capacity in this battery lives up to BrainyDeal's promise. Just make sure you at least partially drain the batteries every few days; if even just a few minutes. Continually charging the battery to 100% without ever discharging it will kill the battery just as quickly as deep-cycling it. Also, do not believe the hype about "battery memory" as Lithium-Ion batteries do not exhibit this phenomenon to any noticeable extent. There is no need to drain the battery completely; in fact partial discharges and slow recharges will greatly extend the usable lifetime and capacity of the battery.

Fit and finish

I mentioned that the shell for this battery appears to be a reproduction unit. What I mean by this is that the shells are not molded from the orginal tooling, but the third-party's mold was probably made from a disassembled production battery. On the mating side of the battery (the connector side which meets the notebook) the fit is tight with no slack, so in that respect it is every bit as good as the Lenovo batteries made from their own tooling. The outside is another matter: the shell is slightly out of alignmnent from the chassis, and the battery seams are more visible than they are on the genuine Lenovo battery.

Why choose BrainyDeal over Lenovo?

The original Lenovo batteries have unacknowledged design defects. They are faulty from the factory. If you are choosing between more expensive original Lenovo batteries or these cost-effective replacements, take it from me: these generic batteries work better than Lenovo's own batteries. They are well worth the money, and let's face it: your notebook is a tool, not a fashion statement. No one is going to notice the minor flaws in fit-and-finish on the battery, and you will appreciate every moment of extended runtime when you're putting those last-minute touches on your presentation before your plane lands!

My Experience to date:

* I have cycled it down to 50% or so one time. It takes at least two hours to reach that state, running the compiz-fusion + KDE desktop on OpenSuSE Linux
* I have cycled it down to 80% several times
* I suspend to RAM very often
* Boot-up is the killer: booting up or rebooting will take 2% right off the charge because it is so heavily I/O and CPU intensive. If you are going to be working on the go and dual-book, select your OS and boot up before you unplug, and suspend to RAM.

My configuration:

Lenovo 3000 N100, type 0768-E7U
Core 2 duo, T7200 (2.00Ghz)
120GB HDD (older one, more power hungry than newer drives)
2GB RAM
Discrete Nvidia display card

So, my notebook is a little bit of a power hog. Swapping out the drive for a newer one would gain additional runtime, as would the 3000 models with integrated Intel video.

I have had the battery for several days now and wanted to cycle it the way I normally would prior to writing the review. I am extremely satisfied with this battery.

I've been very satisfied, upgrade from a 6 cell to a 9 cell and I am very happy with how long it lasts. Even with my power settings left on high performance, I usually get 3.5-4 hrs charge, usually shut down & started up a couple times. I only tried on power save mode once, and I want to say it last between 4.25-4.5 hrs.

For comparison sake this is on a Lenovo 3000 N100 Type 0768-A78. Nothing changed as of yet, though I am eager to see what the larger hard drive I have yet to install does for battery life.

Overall, no complaints and very happy with the performance.

Unbeatable price on the net. Great product, feels much better than OEM.
Great seller, shipped monday from NY received Wednesday in great condition, great packaging too.
Really have no complaints. My kind of shopping experience,
priced well below any deal I could find on the net, great service and shipping, great product.

Nothing really left to complain about.
Will shop again.

For the $, it's an ok buy. the oem battery in our lenovo n200 was down to 30 minutes, and this one is better than that-- maybe 1.5 hrs. I'd expect more from an extended-capacity cel.

I followed the instructions regarding completely cycling the battery several times, and it's been in use for a over a week now, so I don't think there's anything I missed for it settling in here.

So-- for $40 it's a suitable replacement, but I'm not seeing some of the extended charges that other folks are.

I think my power settings are sleep display at 5 minutes, HD at 5, standy at 15. alert at 28%, hibernate at 20%

M

I spent too much time worrying about getting a compatible replacement battery and looking up different specs, prices and sources. This was the one I chose, and I wasn't sure until about a week later when I had finished power cycling it, and had no problems in its use.

I'll upload some pictures so you can see. I used it in my Lenovo 3000 n200 0769. It fits snugly, with no rattling. When looked at straight on, it appears to be the same colour, although when you view from a side angle (second picture), you can see that it shines differently. Still it's insignificant.

NOTE: People upgrading from the default 6-cell battery to this 9-cell should be aware that it's a physically larger battery and sticks out the back, about the size of a roll of dimes across the back. I had no problem with this because I find it to make it more stable when tilted back. It is also a little heavier due to the extra cells.

One worry I had when shopping was that Lenovo's website said that it should have an 11.1V battery, whereas the replacement batteries are 10.8V. But I noticed my original battery is 10.8V too, and I read that the lower the voltage, the longer the battery lasts. The Lenovo site also had different sizes in millimetres that seemed like some wouldn't fit, but this battery fits perfectly in mine.

Battery Life & tips:
I'm definitely noticing the longer battery life, although I'm taking better care of this one and having it hibernate at 15%. I also am not leaving it plugged in after it reaches 100%. Li-ion batteries lose capacity when kept too hot, and leaving it charging and hot is said to be bad. There's an exception to this though:

You should charge fully (leave it in overnight), then drain fully (then repeat 2 or 3 times) when you first get the battery. Then once a month or two, do another full charge/full drain. This keeps your battery meter showing an accurate % for how much is actually left. Other than that, it's best to charge multiple partial charges rather than 5% -> 100%.

The higher priority out of the two is heat. High heat will ruin a battery much faster than bad charging habits.

I hope this helps in your battery shopping!

Battery fit and works well. It holds a charge better than the original battery. It is an extended life battery and sticks out past the back of the laptop. It was shipped regular mail from Asia, so took about two weeks. I am happy with it.

I can see the improvements over the power capacity. The only thing that is missing is the led indicator when you charge the battery. In the instructions book that is coming with the battery it is mentioned that all AGPtek batteries are equipped with a led that will indicate you the charging status, but this is missing on the current model.
However the battery is good...and heavy :-)

A great battery for half the price of the OEM version. It lasts just as long if not longer. One of my best purchases here at Amazon.

I just recd battery by UPS ground which was right on time as mentioned on the order. Opened the box and found no certificates as mentioned on the amazon product page. Plastic casing of the battery is little loose and clicking. I am afraid the outer casing might not last long (keeping my fingers crossed). It looks like cheap quality of plastic casing has been used. Hopefully the cells of the battery will last long. I am overall not too happy with the delivered quality as of now. Will update my review after I use this battery for some more days... I am hoping for the best

New 9 cell battery lasts twice as long as OEM, 4hours. Got fast shipping and 50% price break over OEM.