Advice on buying a 4s battery

[FallenAnjel]

My 4s is 3 years old and the battery is just about shot. I'm on limited time. I get 2 hours if I'm lucky. It often discharges as it's plugged in. Today I'm struggling to get it to 100% from 87% and it's been plugged in for 4 hours! I have it in airplane mode w/ wifi on (so my son can contact me if need be).

I looking on ifixit.com and it looks pretty easy to change the battery. I have an old 4 I will take apart first to check it out then will try my own phone.

Is there just one Mah hours I can buy or are there other sizes? I would love to go a little more but I'm sure if I just got the "regular" size i'd be fine.

What is the "normal" mah for a 4s battery?

I have no money to buy another (used) 4s or even a 5 so right now my only option is to change the battery. If I wasn't planning on moving in a few months I'd just buy a 6 outright but that money is spoken for already.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[SoIsays]

Don't hesitate. Go and buy the ifixit battery and tools. If the battery turns out to be bad, just email customer service and they'll right you.

 

[BrettApple]

I've done quite a few replacements in the 4/4s/5. It's not too bad other than fighting the adhesive.

As for the batteries. The stock one is 1430 mAh. I've gotten them form iPhone4parts before for $8 but I wouldn't go with them at the moment. The prices went back up to about what you can get on Amazon for a comparable battery. Plus shipping (and processing) is pretty slow. I ordered a white conversion kit from them on Feb 25 and it still hasn't gotten here. They do quote 5-20 days however. Big range.

The most recent replacement I've done was with a Stalion battery on Amazon. It was more than some others, but it seems to be working just fine in the iPhone 5 I put it in. I might grab another for my 4s I'm restoring. They have a warranty of some sort and you can always go through Amazon if there's a problem.

I'd just grab one from a place that seems reputable and has good reviews. That Stalion one would be a decent start. iFixit is good too, but usually pricer. But I'd imagine you'd get a kit too.

So go for it, pretty easy to do yourself and you learn something while feeling a sense of accomplishment. Otherwise, there may be shops around you that can do it for a reasonable fee. I worked at a place where we did iPhone battery replacements for a flat $30.

 

[FallenAnjel]

I've done quite a few replacements in the 4/4s/5. It's not too bad other than fighting the adhesive.

So go for it, pretty easy to do yourself and you learn something while feeling a sense of accomplishment. Otherwise, there may be shops around you that can do it for a reasonable fee. I worked at a place where we did iPhone battery replacements for a flat $30.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated! I decided to go w/ iFixit because I'd have to buy a tool kit separately with Stalion on Amazon and I also used a $5 off coupon on iFixit so I'm only paying $25.

I'll try to remember to update after I fix it.

 

[FallenAnjel]

Update

Well I DID IT! I changed the battery! It literally took less than 15 minutes I'm changing my son's battery next so that should take about 5 minutes considering how easy it is.

With the old battery I would lose 1% per minute and the phone would be dead inside of two hours. Today is the first day w/ the new battery and in 3 hrs, 10 min. I've lost only 34% (or 23/128 of 1% per minute.) and I'm streaming via bluetooth so it should last even longer than that w/o streaming. I still use my battery case so I easily can get 12 hours w/o dropping below 60% simply because 99% of the places i am has wifi.

... I didn't finished this post and I'm still happily streaming away and I'm at 39% after 4-1/2 hours.