Smartphones and battery life....

kennysarmy

kennysarmy

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I am looking at reviews and considering upgrading my rather old Nokia mobile....

I don't use my mobile very much I know but the battery can go a week without requiring a charge...

I am looking at reviews for the htc sensation specifically but other smartphones do seem similar in that users report battery life not even lasting a day???

IS THAT RIGHT?

You have to charge your smartphone part way through every day???
 
I think most smartphones have "poor" battery life, I charge my HTC Desire HD every night and sometimes it needs charging beforehand, depends how much I've been using it. The way I look at it though, is that the battery isn't just running a phone these days, it's running a mini computer. How many laptops have you heard of running all day?
 
I haven't really noticed any degradation in my battery, I've had mine for 1.5 years, it lasts longer now I think but that's probably due to the fact I don't use it as much, after the initial pulling it out of your pocket every 5 minutes :)
Battery life was a worry for me before I got one but now I couldn't be without it :)
 
Most smartphones have fairly short battery life with normal use.

Ive got 2 days out of my HTC desire before now but thats using it as an old style phone - no constant 3G sychronising data and so on.
With "normal" use it needs daily charging.

It's not a worry for me as unlike the crapple offerings a spare battery is cheap and small to carry around so if ive hammered the phone with internet and other app use whilst out i can just put the spare battery in.

Ive had my desire about 18 months now and not noticed a decrease in battery life. If there was i'd simply buy a new battery. However, they are far better than they were years ago in terms of holding onto a charge with age.
 
I have a HTC sensation. It's a decent phone and a good iPhone alternative. Battery life is poor but if I use my phone regularly through the day for emails, web, and blog access it usually lasts the day. If i was to play games or watch videos streaming online it would probably die before the sun sets. I've had better phones for battery life but its not a bad phone all in all.
 
My iphone gets charged every night, if it's been heavily used it'll be down to less than 10%, if it's hardly used there'll be 70% left. it's just become a habit to charge it every night so I never have to worry about it going flat.
Whereas my previous phones (non- smartphone) would last days, so were unpredictable. It's actually an odd advantage having to charge it daily - and even if the battery is over 50% full I'd rather charge it and know it'll definitely last the next day - if that makes sense?
 
Thanks for the replies :)

Next question...

How did you work out what data tarif was right for you?

I don't want to stump up for a 2.5gb download limit if 500mb will be enough....

I won't be downloading songs or anything...just webpages when out and about etc.
Can use my wi-fi when at home.
 
Yeah, I have 500mb and never get anywhere near it, normally use around 300mb. Connects to wifi anywhere I go where there's a remembered network (a network you have the password for). There are apps that will keep an eye on your data usage so you don't have to worry about going over. Personally I'd go foe 500mb and see how you get on, you can always add to it :)
 
I just switched over to a smart phone (HTC Sensation XL) My battery will last a day with moderate to high use. Could last two days if i turned a lot of stuff off to conserve the power.

As for how much internet to get I went for 500mb. So far in the space of two months I have only used about 400mb most! Most of the time I use it at home on the Wi-Fi.
 
If you have wifi at home then 500mb is loads. Ive only ever used mine for a week away from home and I totalled 24mb at my normal usage, email, surfing the net, twitter Facebook etc.

Now I have wifi at work and at home, I probably don't use 10mb a month.
 
I probably charge my iPhone every day. Although to be fair it's used for a lot more than just a phone.

I could get going on for a couple of weeks between charges with my old Nokia 6100, 6200 6300 series phones but they really were pretty basic in comparison.
 
Normally I only switch wifi, mobile internet, gps etc on when I need it and rarely make/receive calls - hate phones:lol: - so can get 2 days of life but still charge daily out of habit from when I used it more.
I have 1GB of data and most months I barely use anything (see above :)) but if using it as a makeshift satnav don't use google maps and have it follow your journey, did that once and used a bucketful of data!
Most of my data use is when abroad where the charges make you work hard to use as little as possible.
 
I too run a HTC desire which is 18 months old and the battery is still going strong.
The latest software (ice cream sandwich) seems to be more power efficient and at the last check of the battery stats I managed just over 30 hours on a full charge.
This isn't bad considering I run data constantly and use the phone daily for calls, texts, emails and browsing.

As for data allowance 500mb should serve you fine for what you plan.
There is an app called 3gwatchdog which let's you keep an eye on your usage as well as set cut off parameters etc.
 
Smartphone battery life is bad. What use is a phone that can't last a day? What if you need to make a call on the way home?! Gadget show did a thing with smartphones and had them viewing video constantly. Best was iphone I think which lasted 8 hours. Worst was some android thing which lasted 2.

My N8 lasts 3 days or so of normal use. It lasts less time using 3g data compared to wifi. Only good thing about the phone apart from the camera to be honest.

To make them last turn off as much crap as possible. No constant bluetooth, wifi scanning, widgets or email checking.

On a battery life basis I'd get an iphone. The blackberries used to be good for battery life. Don't know whether they still are.
 
srichards said:
On a battery life basis I'd get an iphone.
Click to expand...

Id argue with that. The battery life on those is no better than any android phone (and worse than some). The one massive advantage android has is a user changeable battery - just carry a spare in your wallet or whatever. If an apple phone is flat, its flat. You cant do anything unless you plug it in. If android goes flat its 2 seconds to change battery.
 
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