Replacement iPhone battery kit
Our pals at Engadget have turned up what appears to be the first third-party iPhone battery replacement kit. It comes from Brando, a Hong Kong company that is reasonably well known in the mobile accessories aftermarket. The kit includes the instructions, a screwdriver, a case opener, and the battery. Unfortunately, replacing the iPhone battery looks to be a considerably bigger challenge than on an iPod, as the battery is soldered to the motherboard and the iPhone is rather tougher to crack. If you want to get a sense for how difficult this will be, check out the iPhone take-apart video we posted earlier. In short, even though I've done an iPod replacement, I wouldn't even begin to think about doing an iPhone myself. Needless to say, this will violate your warranty.The Brando replacement iPhone battery kit is available for $20.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bruno said 6:10PM on 7-31-2007
Questions about voiding warranties are not needless to say. In fact there's a definitive need to say and only Apple can say for sure.
Will someone post any relevant documentation from Apple stating that replacing the battery yourself would void the warranty?
The most important fact is that the battery will not need to be replaced due to natural expiration within the warranty period. So by the time users need to replace their batteries, the phone will long be out of warranty.
If you need to replace it while under warranty it means there's a fault. And guess what? It will be covered under your warranty. :)
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punkassjim said 6:15PM on 7-31-2007
I'm a big fan of Brando for his PDA screen protectors, and I'm really happy to see that this kit is only $20. I wasn't even thinking that far ahead, but I'll probably buy one just to keep for later. Odds are, I'll probably weasel a way to get my battery replaced before my AppleCare is up...and in the somewhat-unlikely event that I don't want to replace this phone with something newer and shinier 4-5 years from now, I'll have that kit from Brando to get me through.
I'm kinda interested to see how long this phone will suit my needs. I tend to keep phones for a good long time, so what are the odds I'll want to keep this thing for 5+ years?
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LittleJoe said 8:12PM on 7-31-2007
As someone who has taken apart a number of iPhones at this point I feel sure in saying that the average person will NOT be able to disassemble their iphone with successful results.
The average person attempting to open one for the first time WILL bend the casing, WILL scratch the casing, and WILL be very sad as they look at their fudged up, but happily charging iPhone.
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Laura said 7:48PM on 8-11-2007
Wow I wouldn't dig into a soldered battery myself, but ipodjuice.com has an iPhone battery replacement service that costs less than apple's.
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