Nokia coughs to ballooning batteries
An open and not shut N73 case
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Nokia has admitted that some customers are seeing BP-6M batteries, as used in the N73 handset, ballooning to several times their original size, and in some cases to such an extent that the phone case won't close.
El Reg first heard about the problem from a reader just after Christmas, and Nokia has been investigating since. Today the company assures us that the issue is nothing to be concerned about, and customers who find their batteries bulging should nip down to their nearest service centre for a free replacement.
Be sure you've got a real Nokia, though - the company won't take responsibility for fakes and has a website where you can check, and find out the location of your nearest service centre if you do have a pukka powerpack.
Lithium-ion batteries often gently swell up after a few years, and even unused batteries tend to enlarge after around three years, so those unused handsets you stuck in a drawer could be popping open as you read this. Not that there's any risk from this - it just makes the batteries hard to fit into the charger, or mobile phone, and shouldn't happen for a few years at least.
Nokia isn't saying how common the problem is, only that it affects a "limited number of batteries" and that the swelling presents "no risk to health of safety" - assuming of course that your health and safely doesn't depend on having a working telephone before you have a chance to switch batteries. ®
COMMENTS
No replacement here, either
Like Nick Bentley, my experience is that Nokia aren't admitting to anything, let alone giving replacements. Suspect this is because there hasn't been a formal advisory like there is for the BL-5C, so the customer service people don't know anything about it. I was advised to just take my phone to a Care Point to be looked at (for a few days?). It's pretty obvious what's happened - the battery hasn't swelled more than a few mm, but it's enough to look like the Incredible Hulk as he starts to burst out of his clothes....
pctechxp - the BP-6M is a lithium polymer battery, at least that's what it says on the back.....
@AC re: K850i
I think this handset is supplied with a Lithium Polymer rather than Ion.
Note sure whether these are affected in the same way but are a different chemistry.
The reason GMail takes an age to load on your N73...
...is because 3 install loads of apps (some which autostart with the phone) which eat a considerable proportion of the memory. 3 are one of the worst phone companies for doing this. Flash that phone with a generic firmware and do a factory reset, and the Gmail app will load in 2-3 seconds.
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