925 battery replacement question

[HoosierDaddy]

I have a 521 on T-Mobile and am thinking about buying a 925 since new ones are down to the ~$250s at some stores. But my one concern is the eventual cost of battery replacement. Nokia says to send/take the phone in but their parts and labor rates are not cheap. Are there cheaper alternatives other than DIY? I believe you can buy a battery itself for less on the web. And if DIY is the only alternative, does anyone have a link for instructions/video? I found one video for a complete disassemble of the phone but would want something just for battery replacement and would need something that covered the "gotchas", not just a silent film of an expert tearing the phone apart.

I'd rather have a 5" screen and would probably hold out for an iconized version of a 1320 but guess that's not any time soon and even longer for the US.

TIA

 

[ratsttam]

My question would be, how long do you plan on keeping this phone, before you get something else? Under normal use, the battery should reach 80% of it's original capacity AFTER the three year mark. It's been a LONG time since I've had to buy a battery for a phone (trading up every other year) for a purpose of replacing a failed battery, as opposed to having a spare.

My iPhone 3g has just now reached it's 80% mark, and that is now over 4 or 5 years old now. My 3yr old Epic 4g is down to 93%, so should have a few more years to its stock battery.

Basically, cross that bridge when or even IF you come to it

 

[HoosierDaddy]

My question would be, how long do you plan on keeping this phone, before you get something else? Under normal use, the battery should reach 80% of it's original capacity AFTER the three year mark. It's been a LONG time since I've had to buy a battery for a phone (trading up every other year) for a purpose of replacing a failed battery, as opposed to having a spare.

My iPhone 3g has just now reached it's 80% mark, and that is now over 4 or 5 years old now. My 3yr old Epic 4g is down to 93%, so should have a few more years to its stock battery.

Basically, cross that bridge when or even IF you come to it

Thanks!

~3 years would be longer than needed. Are you (or anyone) saying that is likely with a 925? I assumed that battery quality and loads would be factors and that I would not know them ahead of time since the phones aren't that old. I remember replacing batteries on numerous feature phones in less than a year.

And since you mentioned having spares, is that 3 year estimate based on swapping 2 or more batteries and therefore at most half that amount of time if just one was used?