Thoughts on replacing iPhone 11pro battery

daivid

I have an iPhone 11 pro that I bought second hand 3 years ago. I'm still happy with it except that this winter the battery life has dropped off a cliff, needing repeat charges in a day even on light use, and shutting down from showing 40% or more. Into spring the battery is lasting better but not great.

As I see it have three options:
1. buy a non-apple battery for about £20 and hope it's ok - hard to know, if any, which brand can be trusted.
2. Get apple to replace with a genuine battery for £85 - though I suspect the current battery is not a genuine one so would that complicate getting apple to do it?
3. Just run the phone until battery life is so bad I replace the phone.

Thoughts/suggestions welcome.

oldernonethewiser

I replaced the battery on a 12.  Worked for another year before I decided to upgrade.  Pretty fiddly job but was interesting to do.

I could have got a local company to do the job at a lot less than Apple were charging.

You could ask Apple what they would do if it was not a genuine battery that was in the phone.

The phone will be supported until 2026 so if you like it, worth hanging on to it.

coffeehound

oldernonethewiser said:

I replaced the battery on a 12.  Worked for another year before I decided to upgrade.  Pretty fiddly job but was interesting to do.

Can I ask: how long did it take?  Did you need to buy tools?

facade

Have a look here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2B7x7LEFsQ

If you buy an eBay special battery, they usually come with the tools, there is one kit for £13.99 that looks an absolute bargain compared to the £40 other sellers want for a "genuine" battery.

(Mind you, there may be more risk of a £14 battery exploding than a £40 one.....)

lr1277

Deleted comment

daivid

oldernonethewiser said:

I replaced the battery on a 12.  Worked for another year before I decided to upgrade.  Pretty fiddly job but was interesting to do.

I could have got a local company to do the job at a lot less than Apple were charging.

You could ask Apple what they would do if it was not a genuine battery that was in the phone.

The phone will be supported until 2026 so if you like it, worth hanging on to it.

Thank you. I think I will ask apple, £85 for two more years seems decent value. Having watched videos and done various gadget repairs I'm sure replacing the battery is within my abilities, the concern is more around getting a decent battery to put in. 

oldernonethewiser

coffeehound said:

oldernonethewiser said:

I replaced the battery on a 12.  Worked for another year before I decided to upgrade.  Pretty fiddly job but was interesting to do.

Can I ask: how long did it take?  Did you need to buy tools?

I bought the battery on eBay and it came with the relevant screwdrivers.

Took less than an hour, some of that time was taken up finding a screw I dropped, they are very small.

The hardest part was removing the adhesive holding the battery in place.  It is like chewing gum and it snapped so there was nothing left for me too pull on.

Dental floss, yes really, to the rescue.

I think the battery cost me about £11 so was worth doing.

coffeehound

^ good tips 👏   My iP11 is starting to go downhill so think I'll give the DIY route a go

Cisco001

Timpson do it for £50...

daivid

I had it repaired by apple as I limited myself to the binary choice of DIY cheap £25ish battery or Genuine battery from apple for £85. Reasoning that the apple battery is most likely to last well and least likely to malfunction, £85 to keep my phone going for another 2 years ish represents good value IMO.

RE the 3rd party battery, that wasn’t a problem per se though had they found it had been put in in a way that prevented a replacement they would have reversed what they had done so far (at no cost).