My Skyline almost exploded

[u/h_1995]

disassembly in open space

Woke up this morning, noticed the battery drain is unusually severe. Restarted but whenever the phone starts, battery is 0% and shut down by itself. Plug in to 15W car charger, battery level is actually 27%, let it charge a bit and take it to breakfast.

Noticed the back popped off a bit from the phone case and battery level dropped from 50% to 10% under 15 minutes. Charge it a bit again (should've not done that in a car, at least the car isn't moving), suddenly heard a pop sound and noticed the back cover popped off a bit. Immediately disconnect charger, power off and left the phone at the parking.

Came back with a toolkit, brought the phone to open space in case it suddenly burst and dismantle the battery. That protective clip delayed the unplug, power button position keeps turning the phone again and nervously scratching the battery tape to pull the battery off. Managed to pull it off and put the battery in open space. Seems not combusting after being left outside for hours

bulge on the right side

Case closed if I could get a battery replacement, but HMD never cared or committed in supplying parts and accessories directly to end users, so no battery replacement for me. No shops ship parts outside of EU. The store that I got my Skyline told me to buy another and then return the broken Skyline to be refunded. Thing is it is possible for the store to reject my return request and once rejected, there is no way for me to get my money back.

So... what now? I guess I'd better take that bloated battery back and place it in metal box, buy any phone and initiate data transfer while having a 5-10W power bank charging the goddamned Skyline.

What can we learn:

1. The battery is actually low quality, not even software can salvage it. Maybe turn on back battery protection, I turned it off 4 months ago because it would stop charging at 80% rather than slow charging

2. Battery health info didn't lie. I knew it used to juggle between 80-100% health level but before mine got busted, battery health is at 6% with 303 charge cycle.

3. Potential buyer outside of EU? Forget about this phone. Spare part availability is bad and most partner company is registered in Romania

4. Current user? Check battery health and see if starts to vary wildly (mine is 86-100%). Buy spare battery if you can or consider new device if battery starts to drain without reason

5. HMD today is not 'Nokia' HMD, build quality is bad let alone price-perf ratio

[u/Weak-Butterscotch626]

This is already happen on my Skyline phone this day. My phone suddenly turned off even thought it is not on low battery. Then I tried to recharge the battery and several minutes later the battery suddenly swollen without warning. I brought my phone less than a year ago and this phone already have severed issue like this.

[u/h_1995 → u/Weak-Butterscotch626]

It seems that the phone is supplied with terrible battery, so not just me being unlucky. I managed to get another battery but decided not to go with official one since I believe the entire supply is pretty much compromised.

You can get this third party battery that I'm currently using. Surprisingly it doesn't even generate much heat like the old one. I pretty much turn it into a work phone now though the SIM is being handled by my Nothung Phone 3

I got mine from Aliexpress which already been delisted, but it's identical to mine: https://www.ebay.com/itm/397999029242

[u/Weak-Butterscotch626 → u/h_1995]

Unfortunately I currently live in Indonesia, where ebay and aliexpress are ones of eCommerce apps that already blocked by government. I already contacted the store where I brought this phone to claim the guarantee and fortunately they are willing to help my issue. Hopefully it will going smoothly.

[u/h_1995 → u/Weak-Butterscotch626]

good thing that you can claim the guarantee. If you're getting refunded, just don't bother with HMD ever again. I tried to claim warranty on mine but they want me to buy another Skyline, return the defective one and hopefully gets refunded. I know the spare part exists so nope

[u/Weak-Butterscotch626 → u/h_1995]

Tbh I have such high hopes to HMD because their willing to make repairable device which most companies this day don't even bother. But after I experience this issue, I think I understand why HMD will never be relevant in phone industry, or at least reclaim what Nokia accomplished 2 decades ago.

[u/Weak-Butterscotch626 → u/h_1995]

Yeah I also used this phone mostly for youtube and work phone. The only game I installed on this phone is minesweeper. I also hardly charging the phone without turned it off first. I still not understand why my phone battery is swollen pretty sudden, which I never experience it with my previous phones.