[Lori8258]

I recently moved in with my elderly father and now I am running my phone on the battery far more often and finding out that I have very little battery life. Most frustrating is that the meter will show 40-50% and I will open an app and bam, there is no power left. I bought this unlocked phone nearly 2 years ago. At that time, the vendor told me replacing the battery runs about $50. After watching a youtube, I didn't relish the idea of DIY, and started looking for a pro to do the job. Well, it turns out to be $79.99. Putting that into a 4 year+/- old phone doesn't obviously make financial sense, or does it?

I currently use cricket wireless and it kind of frosts me that they want an extra $25.00 to buy a phone so then I started looking at other pre-paids and after looking at the specs on a few mid-range phones, I find that many don't meet the processing power of my M7. So now I am confused about which way to go.

One possible course of action is to decide the replacement phone but go ahead and order a battery and tool kit and give it a shot at the user install. If the gamble doesn't work, I'm out the $20 for the battery but will be ready to make the purchase on the new phone. On Ebay there is a non-OEM battery that is advertised as for the M7 that is a 3000 mAh battery. Anyone have any experience with an aftermarket upgrade?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Rukbat]

1. If you've never worked inside a phone before, I don't recommend DIY. One pinched wire, one broken connector pin, and you're going to be out the full repair price plus. (An AT&T phone, which will work on Cricket, for a gently used one, os as little as $50. See swappa.com.)

2. Some 3rd party batteries are good, some are shipped already shot. You take your chances - even if someone got a good one from the same vendor.

3. Never let the battery discharge past 40%. A lithium battery is not a deep discharge battery. (The manufacturers don't tell you that, because replacement batteries are a high profit item.) A battery should last at least 4 years these days.

I have the same problem with a Samsung S5. I'm too old to be opening phones up any more, and this one needs a teardown. It's about $80 locally, but I can buy a gently used one for $80. So I'll probably buy a used one if I decide to keep using an S5. (And I've repaired many phones in my time, but my eyes aren't so good any more, and my hands aren't steady. I know my limitations.)