Here is review for Seidio Innocell 4500 mAh extended life battery (SEIDIO | Innocell Extended Life Battery for Samsung Galaxy Note 2) and Seidio ACTIVE Case for Extended battery (SEIDIO | ACTIVE Extended with Metal Kickstand Case for Samsung Galaxy Note 2).
Note 2 users are very fortunate to have an amazing high capacity 3100 mAh stock battery. But its both a blessing and a curse
Yes, it will last a long time, but with a phone like this you can't put it down and want to use it non-stop. That's when you realize that you running out of juice with your original stock battery and need something with a higher capacity. With a higher capacity comes a bigger size. It's natural, higher capacity, more cells, bigger size. And you know what comes next - how the heck am I going to protect my phone with a bigger battery? Most of the companies offer an extended battery cover, but that will not offer any protection. Some might offer a slim case, but is that enough?
That is why I decided to look into Seidio solution of Extended battery AND a rugged case to enclose Note 2 with Extended battery. Even so Seidio doesn't offer capacity of those other brands claiming 6200 mAh or on par with their budget price, this company is known for delivering high quality products you can trust! Battery itself comes with a replacement battery cover to accommodate it's bigger size, and you have a choice of either white or gray colors to match your Note 2. True, there is no NFC antenna offered with this battery cover, but you have to take a closer look at the pictures. You can see a profile for NFC antenna and a tab where contacts go. I did side-by-side picture with original battery cover so you can see the alignment. I believe if you get a spare NFC antenna you can place it on the phone side with contacts pushed down by that tab on the extended battery cover. I will try it out soon once I get my hands on a spare NFC antenna.
From the picture you can see that Innocell is twice as thick as a stock battery. Extended battery cover fits perfectly, no flex once assembled, although I also believe it's not sitting right on top of battery. Very important that around s-pen opening there is an indent which makes removal of stylus very easy. To take it to the next level, Seidio offers a custom ACTIVE Extended case to fit Extended battery cover. The case has the same quality as a regular ACTIVE case with it's dual-layer protection of inner shock absorption silicone sleeve and outer exosceleton cover with a smooth rubberized coating and corner/side protection, and also a signature kickstand! NO interference with a magnet The fitment of the case is superb with every port aligned perfectly. Power and volume buttons are covered and very responsive, with a nice tactile feedback. Front of the phone has a decent lip to protect the screen of the surface, although as expected from silicone sleeve in places where exosceleton not holding it down - it pulls away. Also, typical for silicone - it will be a lint magnet. But overall it offers a great drop protection, corner protection, and a very nice comfortable grip when you hold this over-sized case. I can tell you from a first hand experience, today I dropped it down from about 4.5 ft on a concrete tile floor - not even a scratch!!! So you know the protection works!!!
Now about battery capacity. I don't have any fancy test equipment to measure it up. But I do use Battery Monitor Widget Pro which has an option for mAh calculation. Do I trust accuracy of that calculation, maybe not so much. But I trust the relative comparison between my stock battery and this new battery. So, after a few charge cycles my stock battery was showing 3200 mAh rating while this new Innocell battery was showing 5050-5390 mAh. To me this is a relative improvement of about 65%. After a few more charge cycles it might even improve. Another thing to note, I posted a screen capture of my battery after 5.5 hr of use (not very heavy, mostly just periodic checking of email and some brief web browsing) and battery went down only 3%. Not bad at all
Overall this is a very high quality product!!! I know some might argue that Innocell battery is a little overpriced, but its a quality you pay for. Plus, to me it looks like Active Extended case might fit over any other extended battery cover.
Here are the pictures for your enjoyment!!!
Note 2 users are very fortunate to have an amazing high capacity 3100 mAh stock battery. But its both a blessing and a curse
Yes, it will last a long time, but with a phone like this you can't put it down and want to use it non-stop. That's when you realize that you running out of juice with your original stock battery and need something with a higher capacity. With a higher capacity comes a bigger size. It's natural, higher capacity, more cells, bigger size. And you know what comes next - how the heck am I going to protect my phone with a bigger battery? Most of the companies offer an extended battery cover, but that will not offer any protection. Some might offer a slim case, but is that enough?That is why I decided to look into Seidio solution of Extended battery AND a rugged case to enclose Note 2 with Extended battery. Even so Seidio doesn't offer capacity of those other brands claiming 6200 mAh or on par with their budget price, this company is known for delivering high quality products you can trust! Battery itself comes with a replacement battery cover to accommodate it's bigger size, and you have a choice of either white or gray colors to match your Note 2. True, there is no NFC antenna offered with this battery cover, but you have to take a closer look at the pictures. You can see a profile for NFC antenna and a tab where contacts go. I did side-by-side picture with original battery cover so you can see the alignment. I believe if you get a spare NFC antenna you can place it on the phone side with contacts pushed down by that tab on the extended battery cover. I will try it out soon once I get my hands on a spare NFC antenna.
From the picture you can see that Innocell is twice as thick as a stock battery. Extended battery cover fits perfectly, no flex once assembled, although I also believe it's not sitting right on top of battery. Very important that around s-pen opening there is an indent which makes removal of stylus very easy. To take it to the next level, Seidio offers a custom ACTIVE Extended case to fit Extended battery cover. The case has the same quality as a regular ACTIVE case with it's dual-layer protection of inner shock absorption silicone sleeve and outer exosceleton cover with a smooth rubberized coating and corner/side protection, and also a signature kickstand! NO interference with a magnet
The fitment of the case is superb with every port aligned perfectly. Power and volume buttons are covered and very responsive, with a nice tactile feedback. Front of the phone has a decent lip to protect the screen of the surface, although as expected from silicone sleeve in places where exosceleton not holding it down - it pulls away. Also, typical for silicone - it will be a lint magnet. But overall it offers a great drop protection, corner protection, and a very nice comfortable grip when you hold this over-sized case. I can tell you from a first hand experience, today I dropped it down from about 4.5 ft on a concrete tile floor - not even a scratch!!! So you know the protection works!!!Now about battery capacity. I don't have any fancy test equipment to measure it up. But I do use Battery Monitor Widget Pro which has an option for mAh calculation. Do I trust accuracy of that calculation, maybe not so much. But I trust the relative comparison between my stock battery and this new battery. So, after a few charge cycles my stock battery was showing 3200 mAh rating while this new Innocell battery was showing 5050-5390 mAh. To me this is a relative improvement of about 65%. After a few more charge cycles it might even improve. Another thing to note, I posted a screen capture of my battery after 5.5 hr of use (not very heavy, mostly just periodic checking of email and some brief web browsing) and battery went down only 3%. Not bad at all
Overall this is a very high quality product!!! I know some might argue that Innocell battery is a little overpriced, but its a quality you pay for. Plus, to me it looks like Active Extended case might fit over any other extended battery cover.
Here are the pictures for your enjoyment!!!
That is awesome!
