11 replies to this topic

[david_g]

Guys, I need some advice.  The curse of the battery life has wrecked my latest attempt at a phone.  Got the Motorola Q9h late last week and loved it but the battery life is truly appalling. I did all the charging/discharging routine etc but still only getting 6 hours from full charge to dead phone (moderate calls and email only) which is a disaster esp. as i have to change the Push schedule to 30 mins.  

I have gone through several devices recently inc.

- 503G (sent back due to keyboard issue)
- E90 (brilliant but battery life and need for Mail For Exchange a nightmare so palmed it off on a staff member)
- S710 (very nice but wanted a change and 3G - wife now has it and wont give it back. Considering this again though)
- E61i (very nice but Mail For Exchange again and call reception not great)
- Samsung i600 (unusable battery life)

I also played with my colleagues Sony P1i which is nice but keyboard takes some getting used to.

So, back to the drawing board.  My perfect device would probably be the Q9 with a decent battery (keyboard is the best i've used) or a 2MP Treo with HSDPA (I thought the 503G would be that device). As I see it, my only real options are:

- HTC TyTN II - seems great but worried about battery life again and didn't really get on with the first TyTn
- Treo 750 with the new WM6 ROM when launched (my longest serving device remains the Treo 650 at 18 months so tempted but put off a bit my michelrich's comments)
- Return to the S710 (bit slow and no 3G but email, phone and Newsbreak RSS made it fine)

Sorry for the long email but i'm a bit fed up.  Any views on what to do or devices I have missed?

ps. Paul, have you settled on a device as your day to day phone? I get the impression its the TyTN II?

DG

[PaulOBrien]

It is indeed the Kaiser as my everyday device, and without any hesitation whatsoever.

Have you considered a HTC S630 (Cavalier), i.e. http://www.handtec.c...t.php?xProd=714?

P

[david_g]

Paul (MVP), on Aug 13 2007, 14:18, said:

It is indeed the Kaiser as my everyday device, and without any hesitation whatsoever.

Have you considered a HTC S630 (Cavalier), i.e. http://www.handtec.c...t.php?xProd=714?

P

I did look at that but again, worried about the battery size (similar to Q9) and not sure about the slider.  I think I will wait 2-3 weeks for the TyTN II then.  Thanks for your response

[PaulOBrien]

The Cavalier isn't a slider?

P

[david_g]

Paul (MVP), on Aug 13 2007, 16:40, said:

The Cavalier isn't a slider?

P

Noooo, i mean the slidey thing (technical term...) on the side instead of the thumbwheel

[PaulOBrien]

Ah, the joggR

P

[david_g]

Paul (MVP), on Aug 13 2007, 14:18, said:

It is indeed the Kaiser as my everyday device, and without any hesitation whatsoever.

P

Been using a WM6 upgraded TyTN for the past 2 days to get used to the form factor (second attempt) ahead of the TyTN II/Kaiser.
A colleague showed me some good ways to set up the menus/buttons etc plus some quick tips on using short cuts on the central pad to bring up previously dialled calls etc.   Anyway, the upshot is its going well and i'm pretty sure i'll get on with the TyTN II/Kaiser.

Will you be doing a Tips and Hints piece for it Paul?

[PaulOBrien]

I'll be doing a TON of stuff for it

P

[david_g]

erm, battery issue again

TyTn charged to 100% overnight, unplugged at 8 am this morning. Since then i've made 2-3 calls (couple of minutes each), had full push email on all day (i get a lot of emails) and check them fairly regularly plus 10 mins using the RSS reader (Newsbreak). The warning has just come on for Low Battery. Its 2.45 pm. Battery meter says 20%. Is that about right for a TyTN? On a day like yesterday when i was in back to back meetings all day, that would be problematic if the Kaiser was the same as it could leave me with a dead phone late afternoon. View?

Edit:  I should add that it hasnt been plugged in at my desk but all the power save settings are on.

Edited by david_g, 15 August 2007 - 01:48 PM.

[david_g]

david_g, on Aug 15 2007, 14:44, said:

erm, battery issue again

TyTn charged to 100% overnight, unplugged at 8 am this morning. Since then i've made 2-3 calls (couple of minutes each), had full push email on all day (i get a lot of emails) and check them fairly regularly plus 10 mins using the RSS reader (Newsbreak). The warning has just come on for Low Battery. Its 2.45 pm. Battery meter says 20%. Is that about right for a TyTN? On a day like yesterday when i was in back to back meetings all day, that would be problematic if the Kaiser was the same as it could leave me with a dead phone late afternoon. View?

Edit: I should add that it hasnt been plugged in at my desk but all the power save settings are on.

I guess I can answer my own question here.  The network connection is always flicking between the symbols "3G", "G" and "H" so i guess its the radio causing it.  Yesterday i used the device quite heavily all day in central london where reception was very good and got home with still 40% showing.  Panic over!

[PaulOBrien]

Yeah, being in patchy network coverage really causes issues!

P

[BustaK]

New Nokia's have the same crap battery life, believe me. I have two so far, both N95s (N95-1 N95-2), both the bloody same.

Full charge from completely dead is very quick, 1hr15mins on mine, but depletes just as fast!   A 1 hour call and 6 hours of video playing is the maximum battery life possible.

You can get 3rd party longer life batteries for many phones, but hardly any of them are genuinely good and efficient. They're usually scams, simply put and expensive too. The 1350mAh batteries won't last too long if you utilize the extra features you bought such mobile phones for. It's a very complex conundrum to balance, just as in notebooks, it is for CPU architects when trying to port 4 cores over.

You want low heat <-> better performance <-> longer battery life. Unfortunately, that aint so simple, and its diamterically opposed to providing lower battery life if you have the resources, applications and extra cores you use.

Same thing with mobiles -> the processor will drain battery, the more powerful, the more it will pull, same with RAM, and the more innovative, demanding and powerful the applications, the more battery life they will drain at a increased rate.

Then ergonomically, if they increase battery life, teh cost goes higher, and the phone is far thicker, like a brick. You have to paddle around those issues for now, before nano-phones come out.