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We see it every single week in our stores.
Someone walks in holding their phone like it's done something to personally offend them. Before we even ask what the problem is, they say it - "my battery is absolutely terrible." Then comes the list. Dead by noon. Won't last a car journey. Shuts off at 20%. Warm to the touch for no reason.
And nine times out of ten, they've been putting up with it for months. Buying power banks. Hovering near plug sockets. Turning the brightness down so low they can barely read the screen.
A battery replacement fixes all of it, usually in under an hour. But a lot of people don't realise that's even an option — or they assume it'll be complicated and expensive. It isn't.
So let's talk about phone batteries properly. How long they're actually supposed to last, why they wear out, and how to know when yours has had enough.
Two to three years, realistically. Sometimes a bit longer if you've been careful with it. Sometimes less if you haven't.
The reason batteries don't last forever comes down to chemistry. Lithium-ion batteries — which is what every modern smartphone uses — degrade a little bit every time you charge them. Not dramatically. Not in a way you'd notice week to week. But slowly, over hundreds of charge cycles, they lose their ability to hold a full charge.
Most manufacturers design their batteries to hold around 80% of their original capacity after 500 charge cycles. For someone charging their phone once a day, that's roughly 18 months. After that point you're not going off a cliff — but you will start noticing the difference.
The phone that used to easily get you through a busy day starts struggling by mid-afternoon. Then early afternoon. Then you're reaching for the charger at lunchtime. It creeps up on you.
Apple actually gives you a way to see exactly where your battery stands. Go to:
You'll see a percentage. Anything above 80% is generally fine. Once you're below that — especially if you're in the 70s — you'll feel it every day. Worth checking before you assume the problem is something else.
Android doesn't always make battery health as easy to find. Some Samsung models let you check by opening the phone dialler and typing:
*#0228#
Otherwise, a quick search for your specific model will show you the best way to check — or just pop into one of our stores and we'll take a look for you.
Two people can buy the same phone on the same day. Two years later, one has a battery that still feels pretty good. The other is charging twice a day. Here's why that happens.
These are the ones we hear about most often from customers. Have a read through and see how many feel familiar.
A phone battery that's in reasonable health should get most people through a standard day without needing a top-up. If you're regularly running out of charge before you get home from work — and you haven't suddenly started using your phone more — the battery has worn down to the point where a replacement will make an immediate, noticeable difference.
One minute it's at 45%. Ten minutes later it's at 22%. You weren't even doing anything. This happens when the battery can no longer accurately measure how much charge it's actually holding. It's a sign the cells inside are degrading unevenly, and it usually gets worse over time rather than better.
This one frustrates people no end. The phone shows 15% or 20% and then just switches off. No warning. And when you plug it in, it turns back on at 18% as if nothing happened.
What's going on is the battery can't actually deliver the power the phone is asking for, even though it thinks there's charge left. It's a hardware problem, not a software one, and it only gets worse.
Phones generate a bit of heat when you're doing something intensive — gaming, video calls, navigation. That's normal. What isn't normal is your phone getting noticeably warm just from checking your emails or playing music. A degraded battery has to work much harder to power the phone through basic tasks, and that effort shows up as heat.
This trips a lot of iPhone users up. Apple introduced a feature that deliberately reduces performance when the battery can't reliably handle peak power demands. The idea is to stop the phone from shutting off unexpectedly — but the side effect is a phone that feels noticeably sluggish. If you've updated your iPhone and blamed the update for the slowdown, it might actually be the battery causing it.
Android phones can have similar behaviour depending on the manufacturer.
Stop what you're doing and read this bit. If your phone screen has started to lift slightly at the edges, or the back of the phone feels like it has a raised area or slight bubble, your battery may be swelling.
This is a safety issue, not just a performance one. Swollen lithium-ion batteries can leak, and in rare cases can be dangerous. Don't keep using the phone — bring it in to be checked as soon as possible.
If you've started carrying a power bank everywhere because you genuinely can't get through the day otherwise, that's your phone telling you something. A power bank is a workaround. A battery replacement is the actual fix.
Some people try. We'd honestly suggest not.
Modern phones aren't designed to be opened casually. The screens are glued down, the connectors are fragile, and the batteries themselves need careful handling. We've had customers come in after a DIY attempt with a cracked screen that was perfectly fine before they started — which ends up costing more to fix than the battery replacement would have.
If you're technically confident, know your specific model well, and have the right tools, it's doable. But for most people, 45 minutes in one of our stores with someone who does this every day is the smarter option. And it comes with a warranty on the work, which a YouTube tutorial does not.
Depends on the phone, honestly.
If everything else is working well - the screen is intact, the camera is fine, the storage is enough for what you need - a battery replacement can genuinely give you another year or two out of the same device. At a fraction of the cost of a new phone. You keep all your apps, photos, and settings. You do not spend a weekend migrating everything across.
The times it's probably not worth it:
If you are not sure which side of that line you're on, just ask us. We will give you a straight answer - we'd rather tell you it's not worth it than take your money for a repair that won't make much practical difference.
Prices vary by model, but to give you a rough idea:
We will always give you the exact price before we start anything. No surprises.
We do battery replacements at our stores across the UK - Colchester, Leeds, Harrogate, Chelmsford, Bromley, Nottingham, Wakefield, Cambridge and more.
Most repairs are done while you wait. If you are not sure whether the battery is actually the problem, we are happy to take a look for free before you commit to anything.
No appointment needed — just come in.
