Mobile phone battery repair services?

My wife's Xperia Z1 battery is suddenly starting to die - charges fine, but discharges to empty within the hour. She's removed any recent apps in case they're causing the problem, but it's continuing.

It looks as though battery replacement isn't going to be a simple or easy job and we don't want to mess it up. I've Googled for repair services, but don't know who to trust.

So the question is - are there any battery repair services that anyone has used they can recommend? Preferably in the UK?

If the battery is taking some charge and then discharging then it's unlikely to be physically damaged (then it wouldn't work at all). The only other genuine repair technique I've come across is fully discharging the battery and then fully recharging it. To do this you must run it fully down and then keep restarting the phone until it won't do anything at all, not even report that the battery is too low (can be a tedious process) then do a full recharge for at least 48 hours straight. Even if it seems to be fully charged after a couple of hours it should continue to trickle charge for much longer. The only problem with this is some smart chargers decide the battery is fully charged and stop any further charging so they won't give that long term slow trickle recharge.

Other than that, I'm afraid I don't know of any technique that isn't just urban myth or straight out scam.

What's she's getting is the phone showing as charged, but then while using it for a short time it shows as almost out of charge, and then shuts down and becomes unresponsive anyway.

She suspects the battery has become faulty, but I really don't know these things and am happy to be advised.

Well I'm far from being an expert but I have had similar behaviour from my laptop batteries in the past. Sadly the only thing I've found that works is replacing them. But as I say it might be worth going through the process I mentioned above. In particular you must leave it on charge for a good 48 hours after discharging it as thoroughly as you can. However I have also found that whilst this can revive a Lithium battery it still won't last long. How old is the phone? Still under guarantee?

It's about 3 years old, I should think it's beyond any warranty...

I would just get a new battery. It surely should be easy enough to get a new one for an Xperia. They're not like the iPhones where you can't change batteries are they? Although looking online it's doesn't seem like they make them easy to get into... My Samsung is incredibly easy to change the battery and when in the hills I always carry a spare fully charged battery.

Vertigo said:

I would just get a new battery. It surely should be easy enough to get a new one for an Xperia. They're not like the iPhones where you can't change batteries are they? Although looking online it's doesn't seem like they make them easy to get into... My Samsung is incredibly easy to change the battery and when in the hills I always carry a spare fully charged battery.

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I looked at this, and the battery is listed as non-replaceable. I also found a guide to replacing it, but it requires tools, and is risky (delicate wires might get damaged) and usually its waterproofing is destroyed. (You're not normally even supposed to take the back off!)

For something like this, I'd be inclined to go to a mobile phone store that sells them; repair services ought to be available, and it's their responsibility if they break it.

Hey Brian,

As someone who has repaired a load of phone screens, charger ports, ipads etc I would definitely recommend you take it to a repair store if you are not comfortable with tools and or handset repair.

looks fairly accurate.

If you do decide to go ahead with it just be very careful!

At 3 years old the battery will probably be dead.

Have to love planned obsolescence!

It drives me mad; why can't the likes of Sony and Apple allow people easy access to replace their battery like Samsung do. And please note my Samsung is a waterproof one but it still has easy access to the battery.