LG BL-T16 Battery Fakes

I am a big fan of my LG G Flex 2. I purchased it after having broken the screen three times on my last Samsung phone and after 18 months of heavy use it has proved extremely robust. The battery no longer lasts a full day however, and while this phone is a sealed unit there are plenty of simple online guides for battery replacement.

Batteries were originally hard to come across in the UK, so I first purchased a new battery in New York, and on my return to London set about removing the 9 screws and installing the replacement. All looked good, but after a full charge things changed. The phone suddenly went off and would not power back on no matter what. Dismantling again (in the car, en route to a festival), disconnecting and reconnecting the battery it powered up for about 4 minutes before again terminating. Frustrated, I returned to the original battery and we were back in business for the weekend away.

A month later I found that Ebay had started to supply BL-T16 in the UK, and had one delivered speedily from a local seller. This time I found the battery had come completely drained - a bad sign for lithium batteries. It did eventually proceed to fully charge.

Once powered on, this new battery drained rapidly from 100% to 85% within about 10 minutes. Eventually after around 30 minutes the phone went dead and would not restart without completely disconnecting the battery. This clearly indicates the battery is supplying an incorrect voltage causing the phone’s protective circuit to kick in.

So, how to avoid these fake batteries? On initial glance they look identical, and have been very well replicated somewhere in deepest China. Here are mine side by side with a couple of highlights.

Firstly, notice the missing icon on the impostors. I am not quite sure how this passed faking-QC, perhaps they just could not find that one in their clip-art library. Secondly, the text above the manufacture date is misaligned compared to the original.

Finally when looking at the reverse, we can spot the serial number does not change on the fake batteries. This one is slightly more tricky one to fake, as they would need to programme a more complex printing system. After reading this I am sure they may change the number between batches, but if still in doubt just order two from the same seller, and therefore batch, to be sure.

So I will be returning my latest battery and asking sellers some awkward questions before purchasing again. If you are looking for a replacement, good luck and do check the above before purchasing. If you have had success purchasing a genuine replacement for your G Flex 2 I would be pleased to hear from you!