VAIO SZ eBay 7200mah Extended Battery vs. 5200mah OEM Battery
After about 18 months of use, my stock Sony VAIO SZ460N battery started showing signs of wear. To Sony’s credit, I am very impressed as the wear is very minimal – maybe 5 – 10% less capacity. I was browsing ebay and found a 7200mah extended battery for $55.61 plus $12.99 shipping, which is incredible considering the OEM version of this same battery sells for $265 on Amazon. It was an obvious decision.
Box Opening and Initial Impression
While the packaging job could have been done much better (a bulging box with minimal padding - obviously too small of a box), the battery was unharmed and even came in a sealed, anti-static bag. Upon first opening it, I was impressed with the build quality. I was expecting much worse given the price and the Made in China label. Build quality is identical to the OEM battery – even has the same clips and switches. When attaching it to the laptop, the extended battery fits more snugly than the OEM battery. I love this because the OEM battery always felt so loose and I was worried it would shut down if I moved it too much.
Battery Test (OEM 5200mah vs eBay Extended 7200mah)
I wanted to make sure the conditions were identical for each battery to give the best possible comparison. Since I also wanted the test to be as short as possible, I decided to test in an idle Windows desktop and leave the laptop on “VAIO Optimized” power setting and turned off all power management features. Here are some details of the sytem.
Model: VAIO SZ460N
OS: Windows Vista Enterprise SP1
RAM: 4GB
Power Settings
Profile: VAIO Optimized
Turn Off Display: Never
Brightness: Maximum
Critical Battery Action: Hibernate at 0%
The test involved booting into Windows, waiting for all the start-up processes to finish (HDD light idle), unplug the laptop and wait for it to shut down. The results were as follows:
OEM Battery (5200mah)
2 Hours, 13 Minutes
eBay Extended Battery (7200mah)
3 Hours, 26 Minutes
The Difference: 55% more usage
Conclusion and Remarks
Given that the new battery is 38.5% larger (7200mah vs 5200mah), this is impressive. I’m not sure if this was the right way to test it, but it’s the closest I can get to identical scenarios. Perhaps another test would be to put it in Max Battery Mode and play a DVD on repeat. Regardless, there’s an obvious difference between the batteries. I estimate carrying both batteries around will yield nearly 7 hours of use in Max Battery mode. Not bad for less than $70.
