ZTE F280 Li-ion Replacement Battery 3.7V 550mAh

ZTE F280 / F228 / A933 Series — 3.7V Li-ion Replacement Battery (Li3707T42P3h463848)

This is a 3.7V, 550mAh Li-ion cell built to the Li3707T42P3h463848 OEM specification. It fits the ZTE F280, F285, F228, and A933, along with three additional ZTE models that share the same battery footprint and voltage rail. If your original cell has degraded, swells, or no longer holds charge, this replaces it directly.

• F280 / F285 / F228 / A933 compatibility: These models share the same 3.7V single-cell architecture, connector pinout, and BMS handshake protocol — which is why one cell part number covers the entire group. Swapping in a different-voltage cell will cause the charge IC to reject it.
• Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this cell through full charge-discharge cycles on compatible ZTE hardware. The BMS accepted the cell without error flags, and the charge IC completed a standard CC-CV cycle to 4.2V without cutoff events.
• Fuel gauge recalibration on first use: On first use after installation, disable fast charging if your ZTE model supports it, then run one complete discharge-to-charge cycle. This lets the fuel gauge IC map the new cell's discharge curve before reporting accurate percentages.

Why the ZTE F280 reports wrong battery percentage after a cell swap

The fuel gauge IC on ZTE's F-series devices stores a learned discharge curve from the original cell. When you install a new cell, that stored curve no longer matches reality — the IC is reading against the wrong reference. The result is percentage jumps, premature low-battery warnings, or the phone reporting 40% and then cutting off. One full discharge cycle from 100% down to automatic shutdown, followed by a full charge, forces the coulomb counter to relearn against the new cell's actual characteristics.

Sudden shutdown at 20–30% on the replacement cell

This happens when the modem or screen pulls a current spike that drops cell voltage below the BMS's lower cutoff threshold — even though the reported percentage looks safe. A 550mAh cell at 20% has very little headroom, and a brief high-draw event can collapse voltage fast enough to trigger protection cutoff. The fix is the same recalibration cycle: let the phone run all the way to auto-shutdown once, so the fuel gauge IC anchors its 0% reference to the real cutoff voltage of the new cell. After one full cycle, the shutdown threshold and displayed percentage will align correctly.