How worse are the non-Lenovo manufacturered batteries?

Is the rule to stick with the Lenovo-made batteries? They seem to be vastly expensive!

If not, where do you buy your 'generic' batteries from? I'm in the UK if that helps. Are there certain brains to avoid/go for?

EDIT: Not sure if it matters but i was going to get a 6-cell for my x61.

 

Lenovo doesn't manufacturer them, Sanyo, Panasonic, Sony make them and Lenovo puts their name on it. I would only buy Lenovo OEM batteries. I absolutely do not recommend any 3rd party batteries.

 

X61 doesn't have 6 cells, either 4 cells or 8 cells.

 

Well I recently bought a 3rd party battery for my old SL400 and the computer wouldn't recognize it.

They seem to be hit or miss, so to save trouble just fork out the money for a OEM one. Not just "OEM compatible".

Look on eBay for some legit ones, just make sure not to pick a 3rd party one.

 

A bit of a crap shoot. Lenovo branded batteries should be better, but they have a recent history of putting out horrible batteries under their own brand also. Many were recalled but another huge amount were not and failed very rapidly. As I had one of those that failed and wasn't recalled on my T61 I replaced that with a non lenovo battery. Other than the annoying message I get occasionally that it is not a lenovo coded battery all seems good.

 

I just got a Lenovo branded 9 cell for my X61s for $120 at Amazon. That's not too bad considering they go for $170 straight from Lenovo, and I get a whole lot of peace of mind. I was lucky and got a Sanyo, too.

 

Err...isn't Panasonic preferred over Sanyo?

 

You can also look at outlet.lenovo.com to check out whether Lenovo is clearing out excess stock of old batteries.