Chances are if you’ve owned any single laptop computer for around two years or longer, at some point you’ve noticed that the battery just doesn’t last quite like it used to. Chances also are that if that was the case with your first ever laptop, you probably couldn’t believe your eyes when you went to your laptop manufacturer’s website to look at what a new battery would cost you. That is, if you could even find parts for an older model laptop like yours on that website, but that’s just part of the hassle of it all.

Costs for batteries can routinely run in the range of $150, with higher costs than even that not being the slightest bit uncommon. In some cases, the actual laptops these batteries power didn’t cost much more than double the cost of those batteries alone.

Enter the “cheap” alternative.

A few years back, a writer for PC World did an independent study of his own comparing the performance of independent battery retailers’ products to those bought directly from the computer manufacturers. Buying replacement batteries from two independent retailers, this writer timed the battery life of those two batteries versus the much higher-priced manufacturer battery. To further diversify things, he used two different types of laptops with their respective battery types to add some depth to it all.

What he found was that at very worst, the independent batteries were right on par with the manufacturer’s batteries. In one instance, the independent battery outperformed the manufacturer battery by a comfortable margin.

The conclusion from this study was that with independent battery retailers, not only will you save a significant amount of money, but you might even get an upgrade in performance. When some replacement batteries can save you more than $100 for, at worst, the same level of performance, that should just about speak for itself.