Extended OEM Batteries for the Fuze, Tilt 2

One thing some of you may have noticed about me is that I’m not in the business of plugging or praising anything related to AT&T. That said, we are all starved for battery life. Me, I have two on me at all times. Now you could go to your local AT&T hut and drop $45 on a battery or you could somewhat safely (be mindful of seller ratings and feedback) dig around eBay for batteries that are thin enough not to require a bigger back cover, but there isn’t much stopping those guys from claiming, exaggerating rather, that their battery has double the capacity of the OEM yet somehow is the same size, or you could reach higher and get a mega battery that does require another door but be advised that back covers for HTC phones for every carrier other than AT&T may not have the right shape and button holes as, for example, every other carrier knows that no one really cares about PTT.

Or you could round up some dough and get yourself an extended OEM battery (by OEM I mean it was cooked up by the same people who made the one that came with the phone) that includes a back cover for the Fuze and Tilt 2. Not that cheap like the third parties but at least you know what you’re getting and according to some of my testing the OEM capacity numbers seem to be legit. Here’s one for the Fuze rated at 1800mAh which is a number, according to calc.exe, that is 33% larger than the 1350mAh that came with the Fuze which you could instead get for a lot less. The guys at WMExperts put on their CNet hat and reviewed the battery, said it’s pretty decent and you can read that and see some pictures to get an idea of how much thicker it will make your phone.

Finally got yourself a Tilt 2? Right on. Well buddy I got your back covered (good pun, right?) with a whopping 2150mAh battery, OEM, that includes the cover. That rating, which I haven’t tested yet because this thing’s too damn expensive, is 43% bigger than the OEM you already have which is rated at 1500mAh. Needless to say you it will need larger back cover and you can grab the two either straight from AT&T for $60 or you can save ten bucks if you trust this guy. That price is kind of ridiculous and you may be better off with another OEM 1500mAh. And you didn’t hear this from me but if you complain to AT&T that your battery is lasting half as long as it used to and that it can’t get you through the day, you might be able to get them to send you one on the house. A smaller one perhaps (I got an 1100mAh) but hey, extra battery.

You’ll be hearing from me soon about third party batteries as I actually invested equipment and hundreds of hours with the help of some electro-geniuses to clock batteries accurately and am turning it into an obsession. Check out the XDA thread, it’s pretty badass what we’re brewing up. It’s in its infancy but if you want to help me expand the list of tested batteries to produce some valuable information and you’re willing to order yourself a battery but have it shipped to me first to test after which I’ll mail it to you, you’d be helping the cause as I want to blow the lid off this whole mess of exaggerated claims. Let me know on XDA or send me a note in the contact form here.

Just so we’re clear, no one’s paying me to put up those links, I just did my best to hunt down the best price from people that didn’t look too sketchy. If you can find any better deals than any of those drop some links in the comments. There’s a lot of mystery with batteries but one thing I can guarantee you is that blog bossman Doug Smith (no relation) is going to email me within ten minutes after I hit the button on this post urging me to start a thread about it in the MobilityDigest forums. He just won’t let that go.

Doug Simmons