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Sonnet iPod battery replacement pack
How to revive a run-down iPod
Swapping in the new battery proved relatively straightforward. It's not quite as easy as the video makes it appear - separating the battery and the hard drive took rather more force than it seems to take the guy on the screen, for example. But it's certainly easier to grasp what to do next and how to do it from a video than it is from a series of static drawings.
Sonnet recommends iPod Mini and fourth-generation iPod users seek professional installation expertise rather than upgrade themselves. Since you need to go at the thing with a hair dryer to loosen the metal casing and weaken adhesive, it's not hard to see why. But if you're brave enough, the video will at least take you gently by the hand through the entire replacement process. It's clear from the videos that patience is more of a virtue than technical ability, and if you take your time, pausing the video as you go, you shouldn't run into difficulty.
I recharged the Sonnet battery fully and re-ran the play duration test. Sonnet claims the new cell should provide up to 78 per cent more runtime than the original battery, based on the two power sources' respective storage capacities. I got more than 22 hours and 15 minutes out the Sonnet battery.
Verdict
If you have an older iPod and you're getting seriously miffed that it's not lasting as long as it used to, $40 is a very small price to pay to revive it - and then some. I more than doubled my player's run-time, for a fraction of the cost of the comparable-capacity iPod Nano I'd been considering as a replacement.
With the exception of the iPod Mini and the fourth-generation iPod, both of which need careful heating to loosen adhesive, the replacement process is straightforward, and Sonnet's videos make it as easy to undertake as any form of instruction can. With the other models, you still need to take care, but you definitely don't need to be an expert.
This is one of the best upgrade packages I've seen, doubly so since it's pitched at a device Apple never intended to be upgradeable. I'd recommend it to all owners of older iPods. ®