Guest PaulOBrien Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Although the Galaxy Nexus comes with a generous 1750mAh battery, there is always a desire for more battery life! Strangely, if you purchase a Galaxy Nexus in Korea you are provided with an additional 2000mAh battery with a replacement back cover for the device, oh those lucky Koreans with their fast internets and big batteries *grumble*. Well, thanks to the wonder that is eBay, those of us on this side of the planet can also get hold of said battery. :) In the name of science, I spent a shade under £35 on everyone's favourite auction site and after a 7-10 day wait it's here! click image to enlarge So, what's it like? The first point to note is that this is a genuine Samsung part. That means it's manufactured to a high quality, and most importantly retains the NFC circuitry so that swapping battery won't cripple NFC functionality on your device, potentially an important consideration. The battery itself is thicker than the stock item, and therefore comes with a replacement back cover. click image to enlarge The back cover smoothes out the 'reverse chin' on the device as you can see above and actually some feel the device feels nicer in the hand for it. Weight is only increased by 6g, although it does feel quite different to hold because of the change in shape. I noted that the shade of grey is slightly darker on the replacement, but not enough for it to be an issue for me personally (and i'm quite OCD about such things!) Battery performance is about what you'd expect from a modest 250mAh increase - improved, but not revolutionised. At £35 it does work out rather expensive for what you get, but taking into account that I do get a spare battery to take around and i've got a proper Samsung replacement with NFC, i'm pretty happy. :) click image to enlarge This item was promoted to the News page - click here to view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rocky7 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 is it possible to fit the original battery when you have the extended cover fitted? ie does it stay in securely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rocky7 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Also, that battery is more than 14% thicker, odd you only get 14% more juice out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian1 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Do you know if the thicker battery with cover will affect the compatibility with the Samsung Car Kit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dixonl90 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I have the official case, after looking at it i assume it wont fit with the new back cover as the case is moulded to the chin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PaulOBrien Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Extended cover seems to hold stock battery OK... I can shake it around with it in and it doesn't power off or anything. There is a degree of movement inside though I imagine. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Amon_RA Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 How many hours does a 250mAh increase roughly represent? Let's say that 1750mAh lasts 14 hours -> increase of 250mAh would give -> 2 hours extra? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jaxidian Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Just to chime in with some info from the US side of things. As you may or may not be aware, we essentially have the same thing going on with our LTE flavor of the Galaxy Nexus. Our extended battery comes with a replacement cover just like yours that makes the chin go away. Listed below, in no particular order, are pieces of info that apply to our phone that more than likely (but not guaranteed, of course) apply to yours: 1. TPU cases molded for YOUR GSM model tend to fit our thicker LTE model, even with the extended battery in it. TPU is very forgiving and I've yet to see a TPU case that doesn't "just work" with the extended battery. 2. Some hard cases do not work while others do. 3. The Otterbox Defender and Commuter both work with the extended battery. 4. Our phone with the extended battery is thicker than your phone with the extended battery, so anything that doesn't work on ours might still work on yours. 5. Most (not all) docks/cradles work just fine with the extended battery (including the car dock). 6. While not everybody does it, it seems fairly standard for people to use the extended battery than sticking with stock. As Paul here says, "actually some feel the device feels nicer in the hand". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jaxidian Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 @Amon_RA: Our US extended battery gives us ~1-4 add'l hours of battery life (depending on if you're the person who only gets 8 hours or 24 hours out of your stock battery, which of course depends on how obsessed you are with constantly using your phone). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jaxidian Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 @dixonl90: Don't let the molded chin fool you - many cases with the molded chin still fit our US model. It depends on the material and is ultimately something that needs tried on a case-by-case basis. Just a thought: If you happen to find a case you want that doesn't fit your extended battery, if you can find a version of that case for the US LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus, you might find that it might fit your extended battery since it would have been designed for a phone that is slightly thicker than your GSM model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jaxidian Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Regarding using the extended case with the stock battery: Just slip a small, thin piece of cardboard or a folded business card in there and that'll keep things as they should be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kaizoku_san Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 thanks for letting us know about this paul i've gotten used to the curve on the back of nexus, and the curve has actually been useful in saving it from slipping from my fingers (i kid you not :-p), so i think i'll stick to the standard battery :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest subzer0wbb Posted January 26, 2012 Report Share Posted January 26, 2012 this looks great, ill be grabbing one once i get my 32gb nexus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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