Not according to picture on MS site and their brouchure PDF, they are small wires from the contacts (two types shown). =20
The ones I saw shots of require the moulding to hold them and no evidence of a spring, and require tight tolerance battery length, with no spring they will deform on a few changes.
Considering the tolerances on an AA battery when I was last dealing with a battery manufacturer (looking at size tolerance testing equipment), the tolerances are quite large. Especially when you have to deal with almost any manufacturer.
I suspect this will be another tie in, 'only works with batteries made by company X and Y' who of course will work out to be the most expensive or lowest performance.
--=20 Paul Carpenter | snipped-for-privacy@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk PC Services Timing Diagram Font GNU H8 - compiler & Renesas H8/H8S/H8 Tiny For those web sites you hate