Why do Dell batteries cost so much?

(Just to clarify; I'm talking about original and genuine OEM batteries and not cheap generic batteries. )

I find it odd that brand new, genuine OEM Dell batteries bought off ebay cost 1/2 or 1/3 of the Dell website prices.

How is it possible to get an original OEM battery from Honk Kong with free shipping and still only pay 1/3 of the original price? I simply don't understand how the chinese suppliers can make a profit out of that. At the same time UK retailers on ebay sell their batteries for about 3/4 the price of a battery from dell.com. It's still a good deal, but not as good as the chinese batteries.

Take a look at these batteries for example:
6-cell for XPS M1330
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120451005932
9-cell for XPS M1330
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/85WH-NEW-genu...cessories_LaptopBatteries?hash=item27ae43f919

I bought both of them for less than what a single 6-cell battery would have cost in my country and shipping from China only took 8 days!!! I've checked these batteries with Everest Utlimate edition and they show 0% wear and the battery life seems to be to spec.

 

Personally I think Dell is losing/lost its edge business-wise.. the way way over-priced components don't help at all either.

 

..........

 

They were always priced high and newer models would most likely have expensive batteries. Higher cell= More $$$

 

Are you sure they are really OEM batteries? I bought one of those too and it looked exactly the same and worked great....for about a month before it died.

 

Only time will tell, if they are fake or real.........

What ever the case all accessoires are over-priced, that is how they make even more cash.

 

More expensive because Dell sells them. And, cheaper because the prices are always much cheaper in China for purchases, where the ebay sellers get them! Take a look at dealextreme.com, for example.

For me, personally..when it comes to batteries...I will get them directly from Dell. That way I know the warranty is backed up in case something is faulted with the battery.

Cin...

 

The original batteries sold by most serious ebay sellers come with a 1 or 1/2 year warranty. I really don't think the security you get from buying an "official" Dell battery from Dell themselves warrants a 300% increase in price.

I do find it odd though that ebay batteries rarely come with "date of manufacturing" info on the serial sticker.

 

If any the unofficial batteries result in any damage to your computer, the warranty is probably voided as well, as Dell will certainly argue that the batteries were not up to spec.

 

I dont think they would ever know, if you keep original battery that computer came with.

I'm in same doubt, i have 9 cell that degraded over 1 yr period, now it lasts only about 3hrs. I want to buy 6 cell that would last me same time, but make my laptop lighter.

I dont know if i should go for $50 ebay battery.

 

Dell batteries only last for about 18 months before they become almost useless (in my experience). A long as the ebay batteries last for at least half as long they are a bargain compared to dell batteries. I'm talking about batteries sold as "genuine" on ebay (though it is hard to tell if they really are genuine or not) and not generic trash. make sure the batteries come with at least a six month warranty.

 

My original Dell battery is running strong after 3 years ...

 

Impressive! It all depends on how many charge/discharge cycles the battery is subjected to of course. Since I use my notebook to take notes in college the battery is drained pretty much everyday, hence the 18 month lifetime.

 

My 2 year old battery can only hold half a charge lasting only 1.5 hours. The problem with cheaper batteries from China is that they make very good knock offs and sometimes difficult to get a refund. By the time the battery conks out you can't leave a negative feedback anymore. $160 for a battery that lasts for a couple of years or more and is coming from Dell is pretty cheap in the long run.

 

My original dell battery died at 13 months. My "genuine" ebay battery has been doing fine for 2 years. I paid $60 from portablecomponents. YMMV

 

One thing about the "Chinese" batteries (genuine dell batteries are Chinese too), is that the cells are replaceable. A dead Dell battery will prevent brand new cells from charging, while the Chinese ones will. You can get high quality cells to replace in one of the batteries for less than the price of a Chinese battery.

As far as the cells used, the Dell ones might be higher quality, though I have taken a look at them and they show no markings of any kind so you can't really be sure where they came from other than South Korea.

Overall though I don't think there is a lot of difference between them. They are both made in China as cheaply as possible. As with many Chinese knockoffs of electronic goods I suspect someone at the factory made off with the schematics and sold them to someone else, for them to manufacture and probably make as much or nearly as much profit as the factory making the originals.

 

Buy a broken laptop on eBay. Sell working parts out for more than you paid. Keep battery

 

The thing is, everyone says to get a genuine on on eBay, but how can one tell that its truly genuine? :/

I'll need to buy a new battery soon and the genuine Dell 9 cell on the D630 is both notoriously unreliable in terms of battery lifespan and is almost obscenely expensive

 

Well..you don't without a spectrum analyzer Read the return and warranty policies offered or pay the big bucks and get the ones shipped from dell.

LOL, you pay more from Dell to offset the exploding battery liabilities? Fully charged these are small thermo-chemical weapons

 

Trust me that all the ones shipping from China are "fake." At electronic markets in China they have the exact same ones selling for about a third of the ebay price.

 

This is fact. Your warranty would be 100% void if it were proven. Proving it however...different story.

 

This is sooo true.

 

They don't have to prove it. They just have to claim it, then it's up to you to either accept that or sue them.

 

I have bought several replacement batteries from Ebay with out issues.

I got most of those from US Based Sellers with High Feedback.

They all seemed to have the proper Dell Part Numbers etc, but doesn't mean they are not a knock off.

 

..and side by side they look like perfect copies. I'll never buy Dell genuine batteries again again again..battery dies..

My Dell counterfeit battery has been great the last two years. I can't say the same for the laptop which should be back from Dell GPU intensive care sometime this week.

 

Dell batteries are worth every penny. I bought one from eBay and it didn't last long. Money saved wasn't that much considering the life span. My first battery for the m1530 lasted almost 2 years while the eBay one lasted only 8mos. It's also difficult to get a warranty from an eBayer from China. They will not respond to your email.

 

Yeah warranties are pretty pointless on ebay. You've pretty much got a 45 day warranty from the date of purchase for ALL batteries you buy on ebay. This is because you have 45 days to make a claim through paypal. After this time has passed, there's no incentive or reason for the seller to help you since they have the money. As kanehi said, they will just ignore you. I've had a similar experience on ebay before.

Speaking of batteries though, I want to get a 6 cell battery as I just bought a second hand M1330. It came with a 9 cell battery and I haven't done any real tests but it says it has about 4 hours remaining on power saver mode, 6/8 brightness and with wifi on. Is this normal or low? Either way I want to get a 6 cell battery so that my M1330 is lighter and slimmer. I want to get a genuine one and there's this one on ebay but now I'm a bit wary:

Original New 6 Cell Dell Battery XPS M1330 1330 WR050 - eBay, Batteries, Laptop Accessories, Computers. (end time 02-Jun-10 13:52:25 AEST)

..So even one such as this, claiming to genuine/original, is fake?

 

I bought an original Dell battery from ebay (from a UK seller). Not as cheap as from China but still less expensive than Dell's own prices. Look for an ebay seller with good feedback ratings. Those ratings will suffer if they try to sell "compatible" batteries as "original".

John

 

Hi,

I think this is okay considering this is a used computer with some wear on the battery.

Michael

 

I got a 9-cell for my Vostro 1500 on eBay, works fine. 1 year later and it has 6% wear according to Hardware Monitor, which is normal.

Battery maintenance is important, knock off or not. My brother's Vostro 1510 with original battery won't even last 30 minutes now on a "full" charge, while my original 1500 battery, which is much older, still holds 3 hours on min. display, power saver, wifi off for classes. Gotta unplug that battery when you're hooked up to an outlet

 

Most accessories yield higher profit level for the laptop companies than the laptop themselves.

Batteries are one of those essential part laptop that one must have, unless you want to run it as a desktop replacement. So they can mark the price up quite significantly and people will buy it, because they have to.

Even if they lower the price of battery, the sale volume is not going to go up by a whole lot, especially for the consumer laptops. Since they are frequently replaced, and the design of batteries may defer between iterations, unlike business grade laptops, where batteries are interchangeble for many different models, inorder to lower the total cost of ownership.

 

the OEM pricing is killing me for my replacement 9-cell battery. The darn thing isn't even made that well.....

EDIT: SCORE! I can get one from Batteries Plus for around 100 bucks.

 

Not sure why, as most IT equipment is more expensive in Australia compared to USA, but dell's batteries seem to be cheaper over here...

DELL 6-Cell 56 WHr Lithium-Ion Battery for Dell XPS M1330 Laptops : Laptop Accessories | Dell Australia

DELL 56 WHr 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery for Dell Inspiron 13 / XPS M1330 Laptops : Laptop Accessories | Dell

Australia: AU$94 = US$79.83
USA: US$149.99

Quite a big difference!

 

I think it is all to do with Dell making more money as more people would have more confidence buying an official battery from Dell rather than a generic one available online.

 

Another thing you have to consider is that the generic ones are usually 48Whr and 72Whr for a 6 cell and 9 cell battery respectively, whereas the genuine ones are 56Whr and 85Whr.

I just bought one of the 'genuine' 56Whr 6 cell batteries on ebay from a Hong Kong seller. It is indeed a knock off. The plastic doesn't have that same matte finish, and the rubber foot was square shaped. It has the Dell labels and everything which look convincing but yeah, it's a knock off. One strange thing about it is the battery wear level. It's as if these knock offs have been altered to have/show an increased charge capacity.

As you can see it's designed capacity is much less than the charge it says it holds, hence the '-19%' wear level. However after testing its battery life by draining the battery once, it has changed to -7%. I think it's only a matter of time before it goes to 0% and reaches its true capacity of 48Whr.



Performance wasn't bad though. My M1330 is probably as power efficient as you can make it with the WLED, intel graphics and an undervolted CPU. On power saver mode, 4/8 brightness and wifi ON whilst idling, I got 4 hours and 52 minutes before the laptop shut off.

I'll see how long this lasts though. I managed to hassle the seller for a partial refund seeing that I could have just gotten a generic one for cheaper if I wanted a non genuine battery.

 

I add the following words to my Ebay search:

(genuine, oem, original, authentic)

Using the parentheses, I only get results that have one of those words in the auction listing. And, I only buy from within my borders (USA) which eliminates any sellers based out of China.

We actually had good luck with our fleet of 30 D630's I'm responsible for at work --the batteries have lasted about 2.5-3 years under heavy use (they are 9-cell models on mobile carts). FYI though, Energizer makes a replacement 9-cell that is cheaper. You can probably find it through their online store, or spec it through Batteries Plus.

 

There's a reason they have more confidence.

You can be sure Dell OEM batteries use cells from a trusted manufacturer (Sanyo, Sony, Panasonic, etc.). Chinese knockoffs could have cells that come from anyone, you're rolling the dice.

Dell's OEM batteries also conform to very specific specs, and have to pass certain QA testing that Chinese knockoffs probably don't go through. I'll agree the prices are higher than any of us would like, but the only aftermarket batteries I'll buy are ones made from a name like Energizer, where I have at least some assurances.

 

Do You have a link to that statement? Was it not original Sony and Dell batteries that made all the exploding laptop headlines a few years back?

Anyone shopping for ebay batteries should do there homework, no? My ebay battery has outlasted my original Dell buy 15 months so mine must have failed the "test"

 

True --and you realize that Dell replaced those batteries under recall, right, even when out of warranty? As opposed to if you had bought one from a knockoff-manufacturer --good luck getting results there.

Yes, anyone should do their homework --however, it won't always help you if a knockoff manufacturer can't tell you what cells are in their batteries, or tells you one thing and you get something else.

There are some vendors like Batteries Plus, where you can be reasonably sure you're getting a good product. And there are probably a few top-ranked Ebay sellers who have a consistent product. However, there's also a lot of junk to sift through, and my point was that with Dell OEM batteries, you know what you're getting, though it costs you more.

 

Nope, BTDT with the Dells but agree, you should know what your getting. A search through these forums will reveal that me, myself and I are not alone in thinking that Dell batteries are not all that.

Come on Dell, and others, lets see a two year battery warranty?

 

I didn't like the battery that came with my dell 1520, after 1 year it was already dying after 30 mins on batt life. I ordered a new battery for it on ebay from hong kong and its been 1 year and this battery lasts 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours on batt life. It's wear level fluctuates from 14-19%