While I am generally satisfied with the Nexus One’s battery life, it is something I do have to think about and manage. So I jumped when I was offered the opportunity to test out the Seidio Innocell 3200mAh Extended Battery for the Nexus One. I found that the battery itself works great, making battery management a non-issue, though I do have a couple of complaints about the replacement back cover the larger battery requires. At $69.99, it’s more than a stock replacement battery, but worth it for someone who uses their phone heavily and does not have access to a charger throughout the day.

Battery Life
This thing just seems to last forever, even with heavy use. One day, for example, in addition to my normal use (some light web browsing, some games and other apps, a few apps that poll data every half hour), I also used Google’s turn-by-turn navigation for several errands, totaling about an hour of constant gps, data usage, and display and speaker use. Later I streamed a 20 minute YouTube video (over wifi) and listened to some music. At the end of the day, I purposely did not plug it in, and in the morning, 24 hours after it had last been connected to a charger or USB cable, the battery was still almost half charged.

With and without the extended battery and replacement back

In short, in normal use, I did not have to think about the battery at all, and generally plugged the phone into the charger each night with most of its charge still remaining.

Back Cover
It’s no surprise that a battery of double the stock battery’s capacity would not fit in the same space, and so Seidio provides a replacement back for the phone that allows room for the larger extended battery. This makes it impossible to use other standard Nexus One accessories such as cases and docks, and the larger battery weighs a bit more. These all would be an acceptable trade-offs, but unfortunately the replacement cover has a few issues that are hard to overlook.

First, the cover is made of a plastic that, while light, does not seem sturdy. This was immediately confirmed when I found two of the three small posts that attach the cover to the phone’s body had snapped off in shipping. If you buy this battery, be sure to inspect these parts when you receive it, and don’t hesitate to ask for a replacement if there is any damage.

Two of the three small posts that attach the cover to the phone's body snapped off in shipping.

Second, while the top of the case is fairly attractive and even protects the camera in a recessed area, the bottom leaves a lot to be desired, with a large, ugly gap where it meets the phone’s body. I was initially concerned that this gap would allow large amounts of dust to get into the back of the phone, but did not find this to be the case. But it certainly does not look good.

While the top of the case is fairly attractive, the bottom has a large gap where it meets the phone's body

All in all, this battery is a good value, the issues with it being for the most part cosmetic. It’s an accessory that I don’t use every day, but that will come in handy when traveling and other times when I want to make sure to get the most life out of my Nexus One between charges.

Note: Select outbound links may include affiliate tracking codes and AndroidGuys may receive compensation for purchases. Read our policy. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

11 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve been using this extended battery for several months now and I love it. My only gripe is it interferes with the camera flash causing the bottom half of the photo to be washed out. I still switch to my stock battery for the evening hours. I give it a 9 out of 10 overall.

  2. I use one of these big batteries since nearly a year for my G1 and I’m very happy with it. As you mentioned, I also don’t use it daily – most of the time the original battery is in my device. But when I’m away for 2-3 days or when I expect some heavy usage like geocaching i’m really glad to be able to switch to this battery.

  3. Does an extended battery for the Original Droid exist?
    Is someone looking at this?
    I don’t think anyone can argue, “The ORIGINAL Droid got everything “going””.

    The ONLY major drawback of the original Droid is battery life.
    and how many have been sold — quite a LARGE number.

    Let’s get an “ENTENDED” battery for the ORIGINAL Droid.

    BigOldBear

  4. I bought this when I fixed up the N1 my friend gave me (cracked touchscreen). I didn’t have any experience with the stock battery but this 2.5x (approx) battery has reinvigorated the entire Android experience for me. I came from a G1 so the difference in thickness is negligible. While I do appreciate how thin the N1 is, it makes me believe that the extra room under the case could be used to house some more advanced camera optics or stronger LEDs. It would be very awesome to have a more advanced optics system with manual focus. And at nearly doubling the thickness, why not?

    This is more of an option for retailers than after-market makers but, really, it’s kind of crazy that more phones don’t exist with excessively large battery cycles.

    What sold me on this particular battery back was actually the replacement back. All of the other backs I could find had these awkward bumps on the phone. This is the only one I could find that made the phone look like one complete item. It seems like it’s much less awkward to hold than any of the other extended life battery kits.

  5. I tested this battery for my site batteryboss.org and on a 250mA current it clocked in at an average of 2691mAh or 84% of its claimed capacity, $28.19 per amp hour, on par with the other Seidios I’ve tested.

  6. I bought the 2600mA battery for my G1 shortly after it came out. I recently gave the phone to my grandson and that battery is still going strong. One of the things that helped me decide to buy the Nexus One was knowing that this battery was available; however, I’ve been pleased with the stock battery. I work at a desk all day so I can keep it charged as required. But based on my experience with Seidio’s G1 battery, I don’tthink you can go wrong if you need the extra life.

  7. I got the Mugen 3900mah battery for my Tmobile G1 and I get lots of stares when folks see my phone. They usually think I’m using some retro 5 year old cellphone . I get 12 hours of talk time if need be, tho noone is that interesting to chat with. I go 24 hours before hitting the charger vs 6 hours before.

Comments are closed.