About this replacement
Cricket Debut Smart / SL101AE — 3.8V Li-ion Replacement Battery (BL-A36CT)
This is a 3.8V, 2450mAh (9.31Wh) Li-ion battery for the Cricket Debut Smart and SL101AE smartphones. It replaces OEM part number BL-A36CT directly. Fit the replacement when the original cell no longer holds a charge or the phone shuts down unexpectedly under load.
- Debut Smart and SL101AE compatibility: Both models run the same 3.8V power rail, use the same BL-A36CT connector footprint, and share the same charge IC handshake — one cell fits both without adapter or firmware change.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this cell on the Debut Smart platform and confirmed the BMS accepted the new cell, charge termination triggered correctly at 4.35V, and the protection circuit tripped cleanly on an over-discharge test below 3.0V.
- Fuel gauge recalibration on first use: On first use after installation, disable fast charging and run one full discharge-charge cycle at standard rate. This gives the fuel gauge IC time to map the new cell's discharge curve before high-current charging pushes current into an uncalibrated state.
Sudden shutdown at 20–30% on the Debut Smart after a cell swap
This happens because the fuel gauge IC is still reading the old cell's voltage-to-capacity curve. The new cell hits a voltage cliff — where voltage drops sharply under modem or screen load — at a point the gauge still reads as 20–30%. The phone's under-voltage protection cuts power before the OS can log a low-battery warning. One full discharge-charge cycle at standard rate forces the coulomb counter to rebuild its reference curve against the actual cell behaviour.
Phone warm near the battery during the first few charges after replacement
A fresh Li-ion cell has higher internal impedance than a cycled one. The charge IC pushes current into a higher-resistance cell, and the extra energy dissipates as heat at the cell terminals and the board-side charge IC. This is normal for the first three to five cycles and fades as impedance drops with use. If the phone stays warm past cycle five or the back panel feels hot rather than warm, check that fast charging is disabled and confirm the charge port is clean and making full contact.