Thinkpads Forum

I have been contemplating a battery purchase for my x220. The problem is that there are too many to choose from. So my question is what should I look for when purchasing a battery for an older think-pad like the x220.

So far, I found a few batteries that were manufactured in 2015 for under 80bucks. Lenovo is selling the same battery for 150 bucks, so I am finding it a little hard to believe. Or may I should start trusting ebay sellers more

Click Here for the ebay item.

if you would like to get a more recently manufactured, brand new, unused condition battery for x220, get the battery for x230 instead (44, 44+, 44++). These work fine in x220, charges and all, and exact same specs, just that they are still in production, so you are not getting old stock.

what to look for: make sure the items are listed as genuine, original, with good reviews from other buyer, and come in the proper packaging since it is not easy to ship batteries from overseas nowadays.

you can get them for $30-$60 on Aliexpress, depending on the number of cells and different sellers/shipping conditions.
eBay sellers mark up a lot more on top of the Aliexpress prices. Since the original batteries are manufactured/assembled in China, why not get from the source? (Aliexpress sellers are based in China)

of course, if you need the full warranty (glorious 365 days) from original manufacturer website/retail shops, you are surely welcome to pay 2-3 times more for it, but I would rather get 2-3 batteries and slowly wear them out over 2-3 years instead.

Do you have a link for the $80 battery? Once bought what was supposed to be a genuine battery for my X200, even had the right picture, but it was a third party battery and I got my money back.

ZaZ wrote:Do you have a link for the $80 battery? Once bought what was supposed to be a genuine battery for my X200, even had the right picture, but it was a third party battery and I got my money back.

Sure. I edited my post so that the link is more obvious

hengster wrote:if you would like to get a more recently manufactured, brand new, unused condition battery for x220, get the battery for x230 instead (44, 44+, 44++). These work fine in x220, charges and all, and exact same specs, just that they are still in production, so you are not getting old stock.

what to look for: make sure the items are listed as genuine, original, with good reviews from other buyer, and come in the proper packaging since it is not easy to ship batteries from overseas nowadays.

you can get them for $30-$60 on Aliexpress, depending on the number of cells and different sellers/shipping conditions.
eBay sellers mark up a lot more on top of the Aliexpress prices. Since the original batteries are manufactured/assembled in China, why not get from the source? (Aliexpress sellers are based in China)

of course, if you need the full warranty (glorious 365 days) from original manufacturer website/retail shops, you are surely welcome to pay 2-3 times more for it, but I would rather get 2-3 batteries and slowly wear them out over 2-3 years instead.

Thanks for the detailed reply. The warranty part probably explains Lenovo's pricing.

I never heard of Aliexpress before, but it seems like a good place to order things. The only gripe being shipping. I guess once I can find a seller with decent shipping/returns option I will give it try.

hengster wrote:eBay sellers mark up a lot more on top of the Aliexpress prices. Since the original batteries are manufactured/assembled in China, why not get from the source? (Aliexpress sellers are based in China)

eBay gives you (the buyer) better protection, and there is at least a direct communication between you and the seller. Thus, the percentage of scammers on eBay seems to be lower, sellers will more willingly go the extra mile to satisfy you (especially Far East-based sellers), and if all fails, there is a better chance eBay will help you recover funds.

Not to say that there are no honest sellers on Aliexpress or that there is no chance to be burnt badly on eBay. It's just a probability thing.

As always, paying with a credit card will add another layer of protection should things go south.

I have bought several on Amazon and they were genuine and worked fine for both x220 and x230. These were the 44++ 9-Cell. About $80 each.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085M ... detailpage

It is also possible to pick up a genuine used battery for X220/X230 on eBay etc. The advantage of buying used is that you normally avoid all the fake/incorrectly described/"compatible"/ships from China but pretends otherise batteries etc. Though with used batteries I would only buy from a seller that reports the exact remaining capacity and an actual photo of the battery (don't want to buy and find only 40% capacity left). There are used batteries with 80%+ original capacity remaining as lots of the machines seem to have been mostly used at desk for their whole life.

Of course there's the 4, 6, & 9 cell batteries to choose from. 6-cell is standard and raises the back a little. 4-cell is trim. 9-cell sticks out the back a bit.

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/migr-76756

Is it also true that x230 tablet batteries will fit x220 tablets?