OK, GO HERE. The Motorola GSM C139 is the Tracfone that Walmart sells for under $20.00.
I'd post a photo of the battery from that phone directly, but they might not appreciate the image and hotlinking bandwidth theft..... But here is the jist of their description of the battery:
"The back cover, which hides the battery compartment, has no backlash, though can be easily removed. A 920 mAh Li-Ion battery is applied. The maker claims it is capable of about 450 hours of standby time and about 11 hours of talks. In Moscow we had the device working for averagely 5-6 days in case of two hours of talks and minimal use of other functions. Full recharging takes approximately 2 hours. Battery life is rather untypical for this class and makes a good advantage of the phone."
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Lithium batteries are getting pretty cheap. I've imported a few at a time from China for as little as $3.50 each for my own hobby electronics use. Imagine how much less Motorola pays for them buying by the thousands at a time.
They are no longer so esoteric as to be used only in top of the line devices, nor are they any longer so expensive that it is practical to re-engineer devices for NiMH or NiCd batteries just to save a couple of bucks on a discount model.
P.S. {to everyone} I finished my BLOG ENTRY on this subject if you want a better idea of where I'm coming from, and what is at the root of some of our minor disagreements from last night/this morning.
Every report I've seen ("as I recall") said that they were buying Nokia phones.
And, every piece of news footage that I've seen ("as I recall") showed piles of Nokia phones and packaging.
So, do Nokia phones use lithium batteries?
PS: The news today is that the Michigan police are reporting that they have evidence that the perps were planning on blowing the Macinac (pronounced MacinaW, which Fox can't seem to get) Bridge.
This (the fact that they are planning attacks, rather than resale schemes or meth-lab feedstock) IMO makes battery flavor moot, unless some of them are caught with a meth lab as well as the phones. The fact that they are REMOVING the batteries seems to obviate ANY application vis-a-vis the phones using the stock batteries. For the kind of "set it and forget it" application (originally created by the KGB) that a terrorist could be expected to use, I would expect them to run the phones off of large alkaline battery packs which would give essentially unlimited runtime (they can keep ganging up arrays of D cells until they have the desired amp-hour rating, the sky's the limit).
PS: I do NOT dismiss the idea that they might be stupid enough to try to sell the batteries and chargers (i.e., ebay or similar venue) to "Make Money Fast". Jihadis are crazy. Crazy stupid. The SOB who hit the WTC the first time got busted because he was pitching such a fit at the rental store, demanding a refund on the deposit for the truck he blew up in the WTC parking garage.
These loons have their own internal guidance systems, with cockamamie "right/wrong" table programming. It's "right" to blow up the infidel office building, but it's "wrong" to be denied a refund on the truck used to blow up the building -- even if such behavior puts them in the spotlight.
Therefore I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they engaged in stuff that would draw even more attention to themselves, such as selling the "extra" batteries and chargers.