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The old Nokia phones used another strategy (and so did most other vendors): Every new model used a different battery. Which at the same time obsoleted the batte

by Tor3 8y ago

The old Nokia phones used another strategy (and so did most other vendors): Every new model used a different battery. Which at the same time obsoleted the battery in the old model, i.e. no new batteries were produced. You could still buy them, but they would have stayed on the shelf for a long time - in other words, they were as old as the battery you replaced. I bought a number of replacement batteries over the years, and without exeception the new battery (originals, mind) were as bad at keeping charge as the old one, after a couple of months. Into the drawer with the phone, buy a newer one, repeat. I'm absolutely certain that this constant change of battery form factor was just that: No point in replacing a battery because you could only find old ones. Buy new phone instead. This year I emptied a drawer full of old phones going back to around 1997 (the very earliest used NiCd batteries) until recent. Wow there were many. And I never got a new one unless the old one still worked - they all went into the drawer because they couldn't take a charge anymore. It should be said though that batteries don't die on me as quickly as they used to - the change seems to be from the last few years. They seem to keep better in storage, but charging strategy also matters - old phones used to really deep-discharge batteries before declaring them below 10% charge.

cptskippy 8y ago
> Every new model used a different battery. In the 90s when the phones were rapidly evolving and the batteries where huge and often incorporated into the exterior design of the phone. My first Nokia ~1997 was the size of a large TV remote, the second was the size of a king size snickers, the third was smaller than a regular size snickers. I had the Nokia 8290, and 6590 which were about 2 years apart and they used the same battery. They really didn't have that many batteries across their line after 1999: http://pinoutguide.com/CellularPhones-A-N/nokia_blb_battery_pinout.shtml http://pinoutguide.com/CellularPhones-A-N/nokia_blb_battery_...
tialaramex 8y ago
No. I used Nokia phones from the mid-1990s until I reluctantly bought an Android phone a few years back. The 6110 needed a different battery from the 2140 I had originally, but from there all the way until the 6310i in mid 2000s they were compatible. Its even spelled out on their Wikipedia entry. "Accessories (such as batteries) can generally be swapped between all these models."

by Tor3 8y ago

cptskippy 8y ago

> Every new model used a different battery. In the 90s when the phones were rapidly evolving and the batteries where huge and often incorporated into the exterior design of the phone. My first Nokia ~1997 was the size of a large TV remote, the second was the size of a king size snickers, the third was smaller than a regular size snickers. I had the Nokia 8290, and 6590 which were about 2 years apart and they used the same battery. They really didn't have that many batteries across their line after 1999: http://pinoutguide.com/CellularPhones-A-N/nokia_blb_battery_pinout.shtml http://pinoutguide.com/CellularPhones-A-N/nokia_blb_battery_...

tialaramex 8y ago

No. I used Nokia phones from the mid-1990s until I reluctantly bought an Android phone a few years back. The 6110 needed a different battery from the 2140 I had originally, but from there all the way until the 6310i in mid 2000s they were compatible. Its even spelled out on their Wikipedia entry. "Accessories (such as batteries) can generally be swapped between all these models."