Unless you use the phone alot, which will drain the battery, or it's defective, then the best way a battery needs to be replaced is if it can't hold a charge for long periods of time. It may sound like you'll need to replace the battery, but batteries don't need to be replaced every six months, unless you you use your phone to the point that you wear out the battery that soon. I had 2 different phones that didn't have the batteries replaced the entire time I owned them. I should mention is the phone is tri-mode and it goes into analog a lot, then that'll drain the battery quickly too, even more so than if you use it a lot on digital only. On average, batteries last 2-3 years.