Sony SZ battery rip-off

I am looking to buy another standard 5200mAh or a large 7800mAh battery but found the price to be uncompetitive compare to other manufacturer especially Fujitsu/Asus on the basis of the same capacity mAh.

I might be missing something but a Fujitsu battery 5200mAh cost Aud $60 whereas the Sony SZ 5200mAh cost Aud $350. It might be lighter for the Sony battery ( not sure ) but both are lithium ion battery and I believed Sony is price gauging their customers.

What do you guys think???

 

Yup very over priced indeed - but there is no alternative is there now? :S

 

Yeah, not many options. Try to find a deal though. I just bought an almost new one from a fellow NBR member for $150 US (he got it as part of a special promo from CDW when he bought his SZ).

 

That's the trouble with propriety parts.

 

Well, most laptop batteries are proprietary. Sony's are still extraordinarily expensive relative to other laptops though.

 

can't you buy non sony-OEM? i'm pretty (though not entirely) sure they're out there. i'm certain i've seen them here in Hong Kong, especially ones for sony laptops (cuz OEM and non-branded have such a huge difference in price, specifically for consumer-ripping-off-OEM's like sony), though am not sure if there're ones made for the SZ.

 

Of course. It's a Sony.

 

That y most buyers are push-off with this expesnive accessories from Sony

 

Yeah, but there have been discussions that you have to remove a background service when Windows boots up otherwise your VAIO won't boot up properly... because it recognizes that the battery isn't a genuine Sony.

And if the battery leaks or blows up (can't make any guarantees), you won't be covered.

 

You can buy non OEM batteries, Most the battery websites will ship the large battery to Aus for about $100 AUD all up. These batteries are subject to the same stringent battery construction guidelines as sony.. And lets not forget sony batteries dont exactly have a perfect track record now do they?. Yes if you buy a Non sony battery you will need to stop a service from running (Just go to run, then type msconfig, Then go to services at startup and untick the program called ISB mgr I think, or something similar to this) This program is installed when you install sony event services and comes with all sony laptops, If it is running and a non Sony battery is inserted it will pop up with a message saying the laptop is now going to hibernate, This is very dodgy in my opinion.

 

There are non oem battery but they usually have lower mAh and I am not confident using them ie damaging the laptop.

I don't mind paying a premium for Sony's laptop since they are usually well design and are lighter than other manufacturers, however, I see parts such as Battery, mouse etc are generic items and no premium should be applied to them.

 

Actually the Non OEM batteries Ive seen have exactly the sam mAh and are the exact same weight, If anything they actually fit better, It is fairly well known that the sony batteries are to small and fairly loose, The Non OEM batteries dont appear to have this problem.

 

Is that something Sony has fixed in newer models maybe?

When I had my old S360, I definitely had the "loose battery" problem, but my current SZ460 seems to fit the battery (both the standard and extended batteries) pretty well without any real looseness.

 

My batterie is a bit loose if I move it - it makes some noise "like its hitting against it" but only tiny.

I really don't trust non OEM batteries, but like you said SONY hasn't got a perfect history but I can't exactly tell them that my laptop blew up cause I used a crappy battery. I guess I have to get the official one sometime.

 

It's worth nothing that when folks disabled the ISB Mgr program, they started to have other problems with their machines as well. I believe, for instance, the computer clock would no longer keep accurate time.. which is, obviously, a problem.

Tread carefully!

 

Odd I havent has ISB Mgr running for 9 months now (useless resource hog) And i've never had any software problems.