Bargain Hunting

Where can I buy a battery for my sony laptop?

With the Lenovo replacement Where can I buy a battery for my sony laptop? for my ThinkPad R50 selling for $160 -- about half what the notebook itself is worth -- there was certainly room to save some money. I also went looking for a new battery for my two-year-old MacBook Pro. Both machines have worn-out batteries that power the systems for half the time or less than they could when they were new.

With the battery part numbers in hand, I did a little nosing around on the Web. I found several places that sell Where can I buy a sony vgp-bps22a battery for a wide variety of notebooks made in the past 15 years, from ones introduced earlier this year to relics like the 12-year-old Texas Instruments Extensa 600. Many of the companies also sell AC adapters and batteries for mobile phones, digital cameras and handheld devices.

It turns out that lots of places carry replacement Where can I buy a sony vgp-bps22 battery for the ThinkPad R50; the same battery works with ThinkPad T40 series notebooks. Only a handful of online stores had a power pack for the MacBook Pro.

I was able to find both the batteries I needed at two Web stores: Laptops for Less , based in Anaheim Calif., and Laptop Battery Express , based in Grafton, Ohio. But before contacting them, I did a little research. I Googled their names to see if anybody had reported faulty products or bad experiences, or if there were pending legal actions against them.

Both appeared to be reputable businesses that have been around for several years. The products they sell include a one-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Both retailers can quickly ship out a Where can I buy a sony vgp-bps21a battery in an emergency. For instance, Laptops for Less has its warehouse near the FedEx hub in Memphis for next-day delivery.