About this replacement
Samsung Galaxy Nexus GT-i9250 — 3.7V Li-ion Replacement Battery (EB-L1F2HBU)
This is a 3.7V, 3500mAh Li-ion replacement battery for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus GT-i9250, also sold as the Nexus Prime. It replaces OEM part numbers EB-L1F2HBU, EB-L1F2HVU, and EB-L1F2KVK. The GT-i9250 uses a removable cell — swapping it out is a straightforward fix when the original no longer holds a usable charge.
- GT-i9250 / Nexus Prime compatibility: All three OEM part numbers (EB-L1F2HBU, EB-L1F2HVU, EB-L1F2KVK) are factory variants of the same cell footprint and connector. The GT-i9250 mainboard does not enforce a BMS handshake the way newer Samsung devices do, so any correctly specced replacement at 3.7V seats and registers without additional pairing steps.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this cell through charge and load on the GT-i9250 platform. The BMS held charge termination cleanly at 4.2V and did not trip on screen-on load draws. Capacity measured within expected range across multiple cycles.
- Fuel gauge recalibration on first use: On first use after installation, disable fast charging and run one full discharge-to-charge cycle. The GT-i9250 fuel gauge IC is calibrated to the old cell's discharge curve — without a recalibration cycle, the coulomb counter will report inaccurate percentages until the new cell curve is mapped.
Why the GT-i9250 reports wrong battery percentage after a cell swap
The Galaxy Nexus uses a coulomb counter-based fuel gauge IC that builds its capacity model from accumulated charge and discharge data on the original cell. When you install a new cell, the IC is still referencing the old cell's internal resistance and discharge curve. This mismatch causes the percentage displayed to diverge from actual cell state — you may see jumps, stalls, or a reading that is consistently 10–20% off. One full discharge down to automatic cutoff followed by a complete charge cycle gives the IC enough data to remap against the new cell.
Sudden shutdown at 15–25% charge on the GT-i9250
This is a voltage cliff event, not a capacity problem. When the modem, screen, and CPU draw peak current simultaneously, a degraded or uncalibrated cell drops below the BMS cutoff threshold — even though the fuel gauge still shows charge remaining. The BMS reads actual cell voltage, not the fuel gauge percentage, and cuts power to protect the cell the moment voltage sags below roughly 3.0V under load. After the recalibration cycle described above, the fuel gauge percentage will align more closely with the real voltage curve, and the phantom shutdowns at high-percentage readings should stop.