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Replacement battery for Android Dev Phone 1

This is a long pending post that I wanted to write. In April, after about a year of purchase of my Android Dev Phone 1 (a.k.a. ADP1), its battery started draining out. It became so bad that that I had to keep the phone always on charging. While at home/office, I used to charge it using USB/AC power. While driving, I kept it charging using a nifty car adapter.

After about a week of frustration and laziness (to search for a fix), I decided to buy a replacement battery. But the question was, whom do I contact for the replacement battery? HTC? Google? or Brightstar (the distributor) ? Phew….

While I was Googling around to find an answer, I came across the site of Mugen Power http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/. It looked interesting enough to try shipping a replacement battery from here. So I decided to chuck out Google, HTC and Brightstar and go for Mugen Power. But it wasn’t a joy ride to start with. The first stumbling block was as follows:

Will Mugen Power’s ‘TMobile G1 Dream battery’ work for ADP1?
The battery that Mugen Power sells is labelled for TMobile G1 Dream. While TMobile G1 Dream and ADP1 are the same hardware, I didn’t want to take any chances.

So, I filled up the Contact Us form on the website asking whether the same battery will work for my ADP1. I got an E-mail reply within 4 hours asking me to send the photographs of the phone’s battery. After sending the photographs, I got a reply within 7 hours confirming that the T-Mobile G1′s battery will fit in my ADP1. The E-mail also mentioned the link http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/htc/htc-dream.html from where I could buy the battery.

The take home from the above are:

• While the responses were coming from a Gmail address , Mugen Power’s support is quick and effective.
• The battery for T-Mobile’s G1, sold by Mugen Power, fits in and works for an Android Dev Phone 1.

The shipping experience
Following the link, I bought “Mugen Power HTC Dream T-mobile Google Phone G1 1200mAh Extended Replacement Battery [HLI-G1SL]“. Sorry for the long name, but that’s what it is called.

Note that I went for the 1200 mAh battery. The battery which ships with ADP1 is a 1150 mAh – so this Mugen Battery was hardly an extended battery. But, one can also go for 2400 or the 3900 mAh batteries which will keep your phone powered up for days! But note that the 2400 and 3900 mAh options need a extended battery cover due to the size of the battery. Fortunately the battery cover is shipped alongwith.

Coming back to my shipping experience, I ordered the 1200 mAh battery priced @ $26.95. I went for Free Shipping and not for the Speedpost option. The latter costs $36.13 (more than the cost of the battery!) but promises delivery within 2-6 business days. Free shipping quoted a delivery within 10-15 business days. But guess what, I received the battery in 8 days! I placed the order on 29 April and it got delivered to my residence at New Delhi, India on 8 May.

Seems I was lucky because one of my friends who ordered an extended battery for his HTC Touch, received the battery after 15 days at Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Note that there were no import or customs duty to pay. That is, I owned the battery at the cost of $26.95 (all inclusive).

To sum up, the Mugen Power battery came to rescue when I was desperate. When fully charged, the battery keeps the phone alive for about 7-8 hours under heavy usage – Twitter, Facebook and E-mail sync, WiFi and GPS at times, screen at its full brightness and active wallpaper! This performance is almost same as that of the ADP1′s battery – which it shipped with. My phone is powered by Mugen Power battery for more than a month now.

Replacement battery for Android Dev Phone 1, 10.0 out of 10 based on 4 ratings
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