Cell Phone Battery Life (rant)

[Dave1982]

My current cell phone is a Moto RAZR V3M. An all around decent phone, but I've never been happy with the battery life on it. I've gone through several batteries on this thing, and even when new and properly cared for, they quickly lose a huge portion of their life. Right now, I unplugged the phone at full charge around noon, and it's already almost dead. Only about 10 hours, and during that time, bluetooth was off, it wasn't connected to the web, and I made only two calls totaling less than 2 minutes. Ridiculous.

I have another battery for it in reserve which I'm going to have to install. My old Nokia was a clunky piece of crap, but when it was new, I'd last 7-10 days between charges with moderate use. I think the most I've ever gotten out of my RAZR is 2.5 days, even when I had a so-called high capacity battery (I've since switched back to standard batteries since the high-capacity ones aren't worth the extra money).

I know that battery capacity is always getting better in newer devices, but at the same time they keep cramming in more power-hungry features, so the net gain in battery life - if any - is negligible.

What I'd love to see in a next-gen cell phone (and for that matter, other portable high-tech gadgets including the iPod touch) is not fancy new features or more storage capacity, or making the devices smaller, but rather an upgrade that focused solely on making the battery last longer between recharges and longer between replacements. I don't even average one call per day, and make sure to not abuse the batteries, so there is NO good reason why I should have such poor battery life. If that means the device has to be a little chunkier, or can't have a built-in camera, or have customizable ringtones, so be it.

[HYHYBT]

It wouldn't, of course: ringtones and cameras only use battery power when they're being used.

Mine isn't *that* bad, and at nearly two years is at least still on the original battery, but all my phones before this one would go about a week without charging (turned on, little or no use). This one, when new, would do about three or four days, and now is down to about, which isn't bad except that I had been used to not carrying around the charger when I left home for a couple of days and now I can't even go take Mom's cat to the vet unless I charge it the night before.

My iPod, meanwhile, I still have no complaints about: at 3 1/2 years old, it will still do at least seven hours (of music, which is what I bought it for anyway, and isn't much worse than when it was brand new. I don't actually know how long it lasted new, but on a drive from Commerce GA to Clanton MI I had to plug it in in Cincinnati)

But only half a day, and that without use? No excuse for that.

[Broomjockey]

If you look at new smart phones, they're supposed to get *hundreds* of hours of stand-by time, and 7+ hours of talk time. So, devices do get decent battery life.

That said, I'm right there with you. When I first got my phone, the battery would last a week. Now I'm lucky if it lasts 30 hours just on stand-by. I'll get about 20-30 minutes of talk time.

[Dave1982]

If you look at new smart phones, they're supposed to get *hundreds* of hours of stand-by time, and 7+ hours of talk time. So, devices do get decent battery life.

"Supposed to" and "actually get" are two entirely different things. Motorola makes a similar claim about the RAZR V3M, but obviously results may vary.

[Bloodsoul]

My V3M is more than two years old and still on its original battery.

Then again I so rarely talk on it that I've begun to call it my $80-a-month calculator.

[Rapscallion]

Can depend where you are. I've found out that if you're in an area of low reception (or in a building with poor reception), the phone has to boost its outgoing signal to reach the closest mast and thus burns its battery faster.

Rapscallion

[Broomjockey]

"Supposed to" and "actually get" are two entirely different things.

Yes, but when I'm seeing phones with FIVE hundred hours on stand by, even a 50% actuality gets you nearly two weeks. If you're grousing about having to charge your phone even once a week, man, I can't help ya!

[draggar]

"Battery life" numbers are as misleading as "pages per ink cartridge" with your printer. This is how they determine battery life:

First, they figure out how many mAH (mili-amp hours) a 100% capacity / full battery would hold.

Then, they figure out the bare minimum mA a phone would use to run (no screen, no calls, pinging the network as little as possible, no GPS, no data, the strongest possible digital signal coming into the phone etc..) and do the math (mAH / ma = H).

Yes, I know wattage would be more logical but for some reason it's all measured in mAH).

Now, according to most regulations a battery that holds 80% of the maximum is legally considered "good".

Add in the fact that most phones now ping the network every 2.5 (roughly) seconds for an "event" (incoming call, test message, alert etc..), your are constantly streaming a GPS location, adding in continual data updates, color screens that are on, fancy ringtones, vibrate ringers, lit keypads, etc etc etc you are already, out of the box, lucky if you get 1/2 of the "up to" talk and standby times. Add in when you're out of service it's acting a lot harder to pick the service back up.

Also - the talk time is for a continuous call. One 60 minute call would typically use less energy than 30-40 one minute calls since with each call the phone needs to establish the connection with the network etc..

When I first started working with cell phones my phone would last roughly a week and a half on a charge (with moderate usage). I had two batteries - one on the charger and one on the phone and swapped them when needed.

Now I need to charge my phone every night - sometimes even during the day.

[technical.angel]

I have a G1, and I charge it every night.

I can go about a day and a half, GPS, bluetooth off, minimal phone calls, before it's dead.

But, it's my happy shiny, so I don't really care!

[Dave1982]

I'm not grousing about having to charge my phone every week, I'm grousing about having to charge it every 12 hours or so.

[Kogarashi]

My Reclaim gets decent battery life it seems, though I'm starting to suspect I got a refurb rather than brand new. Not normally a problem for me, but the phone likes to "reboot" periodically for no apparent reason. I'll just be going about my daily business and suddenly hear the phone's start-up sound play, when it's supposed to have been on the whole time. It seems to do it more often when the phone is on half battery or less.

[1756GR2]

Draggar's assessment is excellent. Having worked in the business, I can only add that V3's, in my experience, often have miserable battery life. There were some V3's that did better, but overall they were a source of constant complaint from customers. YMMV.

There is a larger battery available for them. The battery is thicker, and should come with a new battery door that accommodates it. Whether you mind having that small bit of extra bulk or not is your call. http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Extra.../dp/B000JEMFKA You can probably find better prices - this was the first one I came across using Google.

[Dave1982]

There is a larger battery available for them.

I had one of those. While it was slightly better then the standard battery, it was no where near good enough to be worth the price.

[draggar]

Draggar's assessment is excellent. Having worked in the business, I can only add that V3's, in my experience, often have miserable battery life. There were some V3's that did better, but overall they were a source of constant complaint from customers. YMMV.

There is a larger battery available for them. The battery is thicker, and should come with a new battery door that accommodates it. Whether you mind having that small bit of extra bulk or not is your call. http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Extra.../dp/B000JEMFKA You can probably find better prices - this was the first one I came across using Google.

Always compare the mAH on the battery. Look at the one on the battery you currently have and then look at the one you're buying. I've seen some "extended" batteries with only 400-500 mAH while the standard batteries that come with the phone are 850 mAH. Now you know why these "extended" batteries are so cheap. Official OEM batteries are usually your best bet (I think Sanyo makes a lot of them, too). If they're not available, Magnadyne were good, too (we used them in the stores quite often with refurbished phones). There are a lot of small no-name companies out there that sell "extended batteries" that are very cheap (not just in cost, either).

When I worked in the stores the average "standard" battery had about 900-1100 mAH and most extended batteries had 1400-1800mAH. If I remember correctly, most Motorolas were in the 800-900 range. (You can't compare different phone model batteries though since all the phones draw different amounts of power).

My Reclaim gets decent battery life it seems, though I'm starting to suspect I got a refurb rather than brand new. Not normally a problem for me, but the phone likes to "reboot" periodically for no apparent reason. I'll just be going about my daily business and suddenly hear the phone's start-up sound play, when it's supposed to have been on the whole time. It seems to do it more often when the phone is on half battery or less.

**MANY** "smart" phones have this issue - it's all the extra crap that's on them (even if you don't install anything). When something goes wrong the phone will usually reboot. This happens with all smartphones and most of the time has nothing to do with the hardware (which would be the difference between a refurb and a new phone), it's a software glitch. You may want to bring it to a store to see if there are any software / firmware updates (back up all your information beforehand if you can, though).

[Eric the Grey]

I have a G1, and I charge it every night.

I can go about a day and a half, GPS, bluetooth off, minimal phone calls, before it's dead.

But, it's my happy shiny, so I don't really care!

My G1 won't even last a full day unless I turn off the 3G networking. There is an option to use only 2G networks, and that extends mine to 1.5 days with bluetooth on, and numerous calls during the day.

That's the only thing I do not like about my phone, the battery life. I've read that the newer ones last longer...


Eric the Grey