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.