recommended new 49+ 6 cell batteries for x300/301 source?

[piledriver]

Lenovo denies the part#s exist any more, or even the x300/x301 for that matter.

I suspect in most cases that the cheap batteries are really the same as the expensive ones with a different sticker.

Can anyone suggest a reliable battery vendor?

[racc]

Same question here...

Few years ago I ordered TradeShop-branded battery from a reputable-seeming seller in eBay. It was dead on arrival. Seller reacted rather well, asking to ship it back for refund. Turned out post office here does not allow Li-ion batteries being shipped by private persons, and definitely not to abroad. So the battery bounced back to me from airport... After struggle I got part of shipping attempt costs back (not battery price), and ended up keeping the broken battery.

It seems that now X300/X301 battery selection available is significantly worse than back then. At best the few X300 battery sellers in Amazon and AliExpress seem to have 1-3 product feedback. Some are really bad.

Yesterday I tried opening the DOA battery pack to diagnose the issue, but the case got totally broken. I didn't fully measure it yet. Build quality seemed a bit worrying, but not obviously horrible (I'm not a battery pack expert though). Perhaps the OEM battery case plastic could allow opening it more easily (or the opposite). Based on this experience I'm not sure if I'd want to try. Also cells are prismatic, so they not so easy to get as cylindrical cells.

[atagunov]

Perhaps the OEM battery case plastic could allow opening it more easily (or the opposite)

All the evidence I've seen online suggests the opposite. My own experience with an original 9-cell T61 batt is the same - it's not trivial to open and seems impossible to close it back. On the subject of X301 the situation indeed looks pretty grim. The standard approaches are failing: usually people look for genuine ones on ebay or look for KingSener on AliExpress. Neither is turning any useful results.. KingSener seem not to be producing them for X301 at all.

One untested idea is to purchase a "GreenCell" battery. I've never purchased one and have no experience with them but at least this is a "brand" that has been around for many years. The ones I've seen seemed pretty expensive for what they are - around £50-55, but c'est la vie it seems. In my view this has a better chance of yielding a useful batt than just buying random unbranded batts.

Another idea is to look also at ultrabay batteries. This is less outrageously expensive in the UK and while being a smaller capacity it can probably be of some use for X301 users. I generally don't search with Google anymore (I'm now a duckcuckgo fan), but when looking to buy things online I still find Google "shopping" search unbeatable. This item was turned up to my attention by doing Google "shopping" search for a "Thinkpad X300 battery".

Lastly if you can build an "extension cable" for ThinkPad batteries you should be able to use pretty much any Lenovo battery at all with you X301. Of course it's a lot less convenient, but might be useful under some circumstances.

[600X]

There are still plenty of listings on eBay, at least for now. Seller ratings vary, but I've seen worse before: https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Original-4 ... Sw6dhfPzlM