I ordered 2 "original Nokia" BL-5J batteries from an Amazon.de seller last week and found out that they are counterfeit. I will send them back and the seller promised to reimburse me. I don't accuse the seller, the copy is so good that he may have been fooled himself. That particular seller and transaction are not the object of this thread.

The object of this thread is that there are very good imitations of BL-5J around. At first sight, they are not to be told apart from originals. So I uploaded a review and pictures on Amazon so that buyers know what to look for.

This is a front view of the batteries side-by-side. "Fälschung" is the counterfeit battery. As you will notice, the counterfeit looks incredibly similar, down to the hologram. The fake hologram is actually almost identical to the original. On the picture, they look different because they are not lit from the same angle.



This is a view from the contact side. Here the difference is obvious, but the picture is magnified. You would need very good eyes to see so much detail. The most obvious difference is the absence of holes (Löcher). Another difference which you will notice is the notch in the middle. In Nokia batteries, this notch is not symmetrical, in the imitation it is. In the N900, this notch mates with a corresponding protrusion near the contacts. The counterfeit battery is difficult to insert, because the notch does not mate properly.



I have no problem with 3rd-party batteries, but I have a problem with them masquerading the originals. So would have the law, by the way. Besides the quality of the imitation is poor: they do not work properly in the N900. Mine lasted about half as long, and the charging logic went crazy (reported that the battery was empty and then totally full within 5-10 minutes).


The pictures are mine. I explicitly put them in the public domain for you to copy and inform others as you see fit. In this thread, they come directly from Amazon.de (maemo.org does not host images). Should the link be broken (Amazon might not like direct links), here are the original pages:

Just the pictures
The complete product part

Of course, everything is in German, since this is Amazon Germany.

Thanks for the photos, for more info this has been discussed at

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...ighlight=bl-5j
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...ighlight=bl-5j

always good to see photos though....

Thanks for the cited threads. I did not notice them. They do not explicitly discuss counterfeit batteries, however. As I said, a third party battery is not a problem, if it is sold as such. A battery bearing a trademark which is proven to be counterfeit is not the same thing.

In the mean time, I have searched and found that this is not small matter. In Germany, see § 263 StGB, § 14 und §15 MarkenG, up to 5 years prison for the seller, damages to owner of the trademark and destruction of the offending goods. I am fairly certain that your local legislation has the equivalent provisions.

I have contacted Amazon.de and am waiting for an answer before I send the batteries back.

Interested people fluent in German may also read:
http://www.linksandlaw.de/urteil125-waren-haftung.htm
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19608/1.html

if it turns out that these batteries are sold from other amazon-websites as well, people shouldnt hesitate and post these pictures on the respective amazon-websites!
and of course to all other websites that sell these copies as originals.

What's so bad about counterfeit batteries? I bought two of them for a total of $10 (compared to $50 for ONE real battery) and they last several hours. Great for backups if I can't charge my phone.

If they're charging $50 for counterfeit batteries then I can see a problem but when they're $5 you know what you're buying.

There's no problem with cheap batteries, or batteries claiming to be "BL-5J compatible". It's fraudulent to sell them as "Genuine Nokia BL-5J batteries" though. Yes, from the price you'd expect them to be fake, but plenty of others wouldn't.

What part of the sentence "I have no problem with 3rd-party batteries, but I have a problem with them masquerading the originals." didn't you understand? What part of the word "illegal" don't you understand?

Amazon sells the original battery for €21, compared to €11 for a seller who pretends to sell original batteries, but in bulk. I don't think that it is obvious from the price alone that the battery is fake.

I agree that Nokia's price (€45) is outrageous. This is why we have third party batteries, brandless.

safe design plus safe circuits are outrageous too... especially with li ion

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/14/n...million-devic/

that is error in manufacturing. doesn't compare to the fact that those cheapos don't have any safety installed at the first place....