Nokia BP-4L Substitute Battery Test

Dec 14

Reviews David 28 Comments
battery, bp-4l, bp4l, charging, e52, e55, E71, e72, energy, extended, li ion, lithium, mAh, mobile, n97, nokia, phone, power, replacement, storage

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Approximate reading time is 4 minutes

As mentioned previously on my blog, I use a Nokia E55, which uses Nokia’s largest battery, the BP-4L. Now, if phone batteries don’t float your boat, then stop reading now. But wait, do you have a Nokia phone? Is it perhaps the E90, E71, E52, E55, N97, E72? Then if you are using any of those, would you like even more battery life? Well in that case, maybe batteries aren’t such a boring subject!

I’ve been testing an extended version of the BP-4L, sent to me for review from MobileFun.co.uk.

The Nokia BP-4L besides the unbranded extended versoin

The Nokia BP-4L beside the unbranded extended version

Unfortunately this battery isn’t branded, which is normally of concern, but I was brave and tested it out for you all. Since this battery doesn’t officially have a name, I’m going to refer to it, only for this review, as the BP-4X. Nokia’s BP-4L is a 1,500mAh battery and Nokia’s Energy Profiler application reports it as having 1,536 mAh capacity. Whereas the BP-4X is advertised as having a 1,900 mAh capacity, although the Energy Profiler application reported it as only having 671mAh. Fortunately, this is in error, as my tests did show that it does indeed last a lot longer than the standard BP-4L!

I came up with two real world tests for the two batteries:

“Light Usage”
Defined as: Checking email via Wifi once an hour between 06:00 and 23:00. Checking Twitter once every 30 minutes (with TweetS60) via WiFi. Two hours of MP3 playback and 30 minutes of internet radio streaming via WiFi, each day, both via the loudspeaker. One 45-minute session of video playback. Frequent text messaging and no more than one minute of voice calling.

“Heavy Usage”
Defined as: Checking email via 3G once an hour between 06:00 and 23:00. Checking Twitter once every 5 minutes (with TweetS60) via 3G. Constantly running Google Maps with GPS and 3G. Four hours of internet radio via WiFi and two hours of MP3 playback, both via the loudspeaker. Frequent text messaging and up to 5 minutes of voice calling.

Battery life test results

So, the good news is that the BP-4X does what it says it does, it extends the battery life you would normally get. Under light usage, it appears you’ll get more than a proportional increase in battery life, but the opposite is true for heavy usage. As the chart shows, I did these tests with a Nokia E55, so expect these numbers to be slightly different for different handsets. I would expect an always-connected N97 to last less than this, although using an E71, or even the same E55, much more carefully, you could get much longer. In fact, with very little usage, I have had this battery last for over four days in my E55.

Now for the bad news. For whatever reason, the voltage levels on this battery don’t work in the same way that the standard BP-4L does. This means that the battery meter on your phone’s screen is rendered useless (this is not true for the N97, see the update section below). There isn’t a steady decline (i.e. you see your battery bars depleting); the battery will show at full for days, then will just drop when the battery is near exhausted. Also, the voltage level drops dramatically while you are making a call. It is rather disconcerting to just get talking to someone and then have your phone telling you it’s on low power. After a while, I became familiar with how the battery behaved, and knew not to take notice of the warnings. However, this means that the job of the phone’s battery meter becomes your own responsibility: you need to mentally keep track of how much you’ve used it, when you last charged it, and for how long.

There you have it, it is impressive that you can get so much more energy stored in a unit that is exactly the same size. Most extended batteries for other phones require you to have a bulky custom cover sticking out the back of the phone. At around £12 the price isn’t bad either. The disadvantages come with having to ignore low battery warnings when you’re making a call, and seeing full power when it’s nearly exhausted, instead mentally keeping track of how much you’ve used it. Being unbranded, it’s quality is also of concern, although I can say that after a month my phone has suffered no ill effects from using this battery.

If you need a spare battery when you’re going to be away from a charger for a while, then this is definitely worth a look.

Update 12th March 2010

Thanks to Nokia PR and AllAboutSymbian.com, I have been fortunate enough to borrow an N97. I’ve tried this battery in the N97, and the battery meter works properly.

References:

Extended Battery – Nokia BP-4L Compatible [MobileFun]
E55 Batteries [MobileFun]

Day 1-2 Battery withstood normal usage but reported low power during calls. Battery level (voltage?) recovered a while after call ended.

Day 3 Finally completed first discharge by using iplayer for over an hour.

Day 4. Fully re-charged, and topped up, ran twitter, email and google maps for six hours, then internet radio (wifi) for 4 hours. Battery still showed full level.

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28 Comments (+add yours?)

Don Bradley
Jan 05, 2010 @ 23:04:47

I use a Nokia E51 and have just purchased on of these batteries base on your tests so will let you know how it works out
Don Brad

Reply
- David
  Jan 05, 2010 @ 23:08:54
  
  Hi there,
  Do you have a link for the E51 version of this? I haven’t seen BP-6MT alternative yet!
  
  Reply
Aky
Jan 29, 2010 @ 03:39:16

Greeting,
What is the FIRST (formating) charge time for this battery BP-4L?
(How long I must charge it at first time?)

Reply
- David
  Jan 29, 2010 @ 11:37:57
  
  Hello there,
  There wasn’t a formatting charge as such to do, because the battery was already charged, so my first charge was just a brief top-up. The maximum charging time I’ve had is only from complete exhausting it, which is what I quote in the chart.
  
  Thanks for reading
  
  Reply
Aky
Jan 29, 2010 @ 16:08:56

Thanks a lot,
I ask that, because I have Li-Polymer battery (3.7 V, 1500 mAh) BP-4L for NOKIA E 72. I charge it 4 hours and we will see when it’s exhausting!
That’s all…
Thanks again!
=)

Reply
michael
Feb 17, 2010 @ 13:30:07

Very good article.
I was looking at this battery last week and today as I have just upgraded to the E71 and notice I charge up at least once every 3/4 days.
Being on the road alot, I need to be sure of the actual battery level.
Thanks for your tests.

Reply
- David
  Feb 17, 2010 @ 14:26:20
  
  Hi Michael,
  Thanks for commenting. If you do get one, would you care to come back and let me know how you get on with your battery meter. I’d be interested to know if the problems I had were peculiar to the E55 or if it’s a systemic problem.
  
  Cheers!
  
  Reply
Ross
Mar 12, 2010 @ 13:55:23

Just ordered one for my n97. Thanks for the review

Reply
- David
  Mar 12, 2010 @ 13:59:59
  
  Thanks Ross, glad the review was of use to you
  
  Reply
Michael H
Mar 12, 2010 @ 14:10:00

I’ve never been the greatest fan of using un-branded batteries, specially since you never know where they come from of if someone will stand behind them if things go south.

I ended up doing some research on the matter, and after speaking with fellow owners settled on Mugen Power Batteries’ BL-4P 1800mAh offering. It gave that bit more juice than Nokia’s standard offering, and it didn’t require a new back.

I must say that I was impressed by their service, and the delivery was lightning quick (literally received it within days of ordering). They also stand behind their product if something does happen to go south despite all the QA and testing they put in.

If there was a named manufacturer or company prepared to stand behind a 1900mAh battery like this, I’d be prepared to give it a go.

Reply
- David
  Mar 12, 2010 @ 16:17:21
  
  Hi Michael,
  That’s understandable. As I touched on in the review, I’d have the same concerns, but I thought I’d try a sample of this one, and it worked out fine.
  
  Reply
Ross
Mar 13, 2010 @ 12:03:33

wow delivery was fast. i ordered yesterday and its just arrived. Just popped battery into phone see how it goes

Reply
- David
  Mar 13, 2010 @ 12:12:56
  
  Great stuff, feel free to come back and tell the world what you think about it
  
  Reply
Ross
Mar 16, 2010 @ 10:57:11

ok so I have been using the battery since saturday. I’m not sure how many charge cycles it needs to function with full capacity but it’s certainly not lasting a days moderate use.

Yesterday it was fully charged and I started using the phone from 9am. It died by 6.30pm

The original nokia BP-4L would last until the next day late morning in this situation.

My usage includes listning to podcasts (1h however this is normally at bed time when plugged in to charger), MFE syncing every 15 mins, Nokia Messaging checking every 15mins, some text messaging, 30 – 45 mins of voice calls, 1-2 hours of web browsing (opera mini)

I will continue with it for a few more days too see if it improves if not I will go back to the BP-4L and keep this as a spare.

Reply
- David
  Mar 17, 2010 @ 10:59:08
  
  Hey,
  That doesn’t sound great. Although, I have found, as I suspected I might, that there’s less of an improvement when using with an N97 too. Still though, yours is new, so a few more charging cycles are in order. Please keep me posted.
  
  Reply
Jagan
Mar 17, 2010 @ 04:13:15

I really wish Nokia would use a standard battery on their devices. I’m stuck with two devices N800 (using BP-5L) and N82 (uses BP-6MT), where the batteries are just difficult to get and even when available are ridiculously expensive (e.g. BP-6MT is 2000 rupees in India, most of the other batteries are closer to 600-700 rupees).

Reply
roberts
May 28, 2010 @ 08:15:07

I bought this battery too and must say it’s a disaster. After few hours the phone (E72) shows almost empty battery, so it starts pop up the warning to recharge battery. Then after some hours it get to medium level of power and reversed. This is something that David wrote about, so it’s subjective if someone can live with that or not. Anyway the battery holds on 50% less than the standard E72 battery (my typical consumption is 2,5 days with standard battery, this replacement one never achieved more than 1,25 day). I’m not sure if this can be changed after several recharge cycles, I have recharged it 3 times so far, but since couple of years all my phone batteries reached standard power level after 1-2 charging.

Reply
- David
  May 28, 2010 @ 09:35:32
  
  Hi Roberts,
  Thanks for the feedback.
  
  You said the extended battery never got past a day and a quarter (“1,25″). Have you ran the extended battery in the E72 until it actually powers itself off? If not, you may find that it lasts a good deal longer than 2.5 days.
  
  It is very disconcerting to to have the battery level going up and down, but the best way to get used to it, is to run it completely down a few times, i.e. until the phone shuts down, and then you get a feel for how much punishment it can take.
  
  It might be of interest to you that I have just received an E72 on review loan. I’m currently using the phone with its official Nokia battery until I’ve got a feel for how long that lasts, and then I’ll be trying this battery with it to see how it performs.
  
  Reply
  - roberts
    May 28, 2010 @ 11:50:20
    
    Hi David,
    
    of course I have ran it until it powered itself off. As you might see from my comment, I’m aware of the difference between the warning for almost empty battery and really empty battery.
    
    Regarding your estimation of lasting the battery in E72, please do not compare it to E55. The standard battery, that is same in E72 and E55 lasts in E55 much longer than in E72 (in my case E55 some 3,5 days, E72 some 2,5 days). I had 2 different pcs of E55 and 3 of E72 using each for at least several weeks, so it’s a real experience.
    
    Reply
roberts
Aug 04, 2010 @ 15:09:10

Hi David,
have you still used this replacement 1900 mAh battery in your E55 over last months? I bought E55 now and want to try this battery in it. My concern is first of all the software – system measuring (and proper indicating) of battery level. Did E55 had the luck of N97 to get proper meters?
Thanks, Robert

Reply
- David
  Aug 04, 2010 @ 18:13:21
  
  Hi Roberts.
  I haven’t used it recently with the E55, as I have still being using my E72 loaned unit. Although as my review indicates, the E55 battery meter does not correctly report the battery level with this extended battery, and the same is true with the E72. So far, it has only been the N97 that correctly reports the battery level with this extended battery.
  
  Hope that’s of some help to you!
  
  Reply
  - roberts
    Aug 06, 2010 @ 08:24:45
    
    Thanks. I’m using E55 with this battery for 1,5 day so far and my experience is very different from E72. I still have indicated full battery (E72 has been showing empty battery after 0,5-1 day)! Though I must admit, that now I use E55 for calls and sms only, while E72 I also used for emails.
    
    Reply
Mak
Oct 03, 2010 @ 08:55:45

Hi David,

Interesting article..may be you can advise me on my problem.

The battery in my Nokia E71 used to last me for 3~4 days.. and then over a period of 1.5 years it reduced to 1 day or less.. so I purchased a new battery… But I am finding same results even with new battery… first I suspected that new battery is bad.. so I go it replaced.. 3 times.. but same results. With energy profiler I can power consumption of 0.5w while idling.. any clue what could be wrong??

BR
Mak

Reply
- David
  Oct 03, 2010 @ 14:30:23
  
  The only thing I could suggest without knowing more about your phone is to check which new applications you have running. Do you find your phone is getting hot? Are you using something that’s has your phone connected to the internet more? E.g. Nokia Messaging?
  
  Reply
Joe P.
Nov 18, 2011 @ 14:04:06

Dear David,
Great article on a longer life replacement battery for the BP-4L…How do I purchase this Li-ion 3.7V 1900mAh battery you used in your article???
Happy Thanksgiving…
Sincerely,
Joe

Reply
- David
  Nov 18, 2011 @ 14:40:25
  
  Hi Joe,
  The one I reviewed was sent to me from Mobile Fun. It still sells them,
  http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/extended-battery-nokia-bp-4l-compatible-p21220.htm
  
  Reply