Battery life for 2G operation only

[Guest Dark Horse]

Thinking about getting an i600 and the overwhelming opinion from users is that the battery life is utter crap with barely 1 day under normal usage. Most of these are for 3G operation though and I'd like to hear from owners who have an i600 that they use exclusively on 2G networks. How does the battery life compare?

I currently have an SPV C500 that I use occasionally for SMS (a few per day) and rarely use for calls (perhaps 20 mins max per week) and can comfortably get 4 days full usage out of it. Would it be realistic to expect this kind of usage out of an i600 on a 2G network with similar SMS and call patterns?

The other moby I'm considering is the HTC S710, anyone lucky enough to have compared both side-by-side and can recommend which one to go for? Ultimately, I'm after a Windows Smartphone with a *good* full size keyboard and wifi together with decent battery life and a good form factor. As a benchmark, I've used the Nokia e61 that was excellent, great keyboard, fab browser, stellar battery life, slim and svelte enough to put into your pocket but it's not a Windows Mobile handset :(

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Dark Horse

[Guest chucky.egg]

In terms of "like-for-like" usage with other WM smartphones and PDAs I've had it's [edit: I600 battery life] shocking.

You could try the extended battery to get 25% more life (from memory, and in theory), but one of the main reasons I got it was for its thin dimensions. Adding a thicker battery seemed pointless.

Between the I600 and the Vox (both of which I have in boxes under my desk now) I would go for the I600, as I never got on with the Vox keyboard and its general slugishness.

I got myself a Touch, which isn't everyone's favourite and no use to you without a keyboard, but I was astounded at how much better the battery life in PocketPC is. I make medium-heavy use of the device (including satnav, calls, 24hr push email etc) and have yet to get through 50% of the battery in a day.

I would suggest having another look at PDAs with keyboards as neither the Vox nor the Blackjack cut it IMO

Edited December 27, 2007 by chucky.egg

[Guest Dark Horse]

In terms of "like-for-like" usage with other WM smartphones and PDAs I've had it's [edit: I600 battery life] shocking.

You could try the extended battery to get 25% more life (from memory, and in theory), but one of the main reasons I got it was for its thin dimensions. Adding a thicker battery seemed pointless.

Between the I600 and the Vox (both of which I have in boxes under my desk now) I would go for the I600, as I never got on with the Vox keyboard and its general slugishness.

I got myself a Touch, which isn't everyone's favourite and no use to you without a keyboard, but I was astounded at how much better the battery life in PocketPC is. I make medium-heavy use of the device (including satnav, calls, 24hr push email etc) and have yet to get through 50% of the battery in a day.

I would suggest having another look at PDAs with keyboards as neither the Vox nor the Blackjack cut it IMO

Many thanks for the reply Chucky Egg, wasn't really looking to go down the PocketPC route, the handsets are much bulkier (and expensive) plus I don't buy into the whole touch screen thing either nor the fiddly OS. I used a HTC TyTN for a week and by day 2 was ready to throw it out of the window (and probably knock someone unconcious doing so). I think even with an extended battery, the i600 would still be much more svelte than a PocketPC but how does it compare battery wise with a Vox on a 2G network? Failing that, are there any genuinely small PocketPC's available with a decent keyboard, battery life and wifi?

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Dark Horse

[Guest Magnetic_dud]

i bought the i600 yesterday and seems that the battery life is decent

of course i disabled umts, bluetooth, wifi, hdspa, less brightness, and updated to the latest radio firmware

this morning i played for 4 hours a video podcast in wifi with screen on at max brightness and the battery decreased only 35%

of course, since i bought it yesterday morning, i haven't yet tested standby life

[Guest Dark Horse]

i bought the i600 yesterday and seems that the battery life is decent

of course i disabled umts, bluetooth, wifi, hdspa, less brightness, and updated to the latest radio firmware

this morning i played for 4 hours a video podcast in wifi with screen on at max brightness and the battery decreased only 35%

of course, since i bought it yesterday morning, i haven't yet tested standby life

Many thanks Magnetic_dud, that's mighty useful and just what I was after, no need for UMTS, BT, HDSPA or a uber bright screen :(

Regards,

Dark Horse

[Guest chucky.egg]

The Vox battery (from memory, haven't used it in a long time) was about 1.5 days of my normal use (Push email 24/7 with about 50 emails, a little surfing, half a dozen SMS, 30 minutes of calls). The I600 had to be charged overnight and again when I got back around 6pm the same day.

I had BT off, UMTS off and a fairly dim backlight too.

Put it this way - I have 4 batteries and 2 chargers for the I600

[edit]

I should mention that I moved house recently, and T-Mobile (my network at the time) had poor data coverage in my new area. That could have been part of the cause, but I still had the battery problem when I swapped networks

[/edit]

Edited December 31, 2007 by chucky.egg

[Guest Magnetic_dud]

today i was in an area with poor reception and i was very surprised.

90%=>30% in only 10 hours without doing nothing!

my home is well covered and i didn't get this poor life

i hope that it is only because it's brand new and the battery has to "stabilize"...

edit:

today i was in an area with maximum reception and i was very surprised (positively).

100%=>95% in 12 hours doing:

-2 calls

-2 sms

-a call on wifi with fring

-browsing 15 minutes in wifi searching for a screenshot program that can be installed directly from ie-mobile

here the screenshots (i can't understand why the board doesn't accept these links as images.......)

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9987/sshot002zm8.bmp

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/4788/sshot003dl0.bmp

Edited January 2, 2008 by Magnetic_dud

[Guest Dark Horse]

Many thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Yes, coverage will affect the battery life enormously, in a good area, (>70% signal strength) I can get nearly a week on the C500 but at home where coverage is a bit less (50% or less signal strength), four days is a good result.

What's annoying is that HTC provided a slightly more powerful standard battery with the Hurricane that was rated at 1150mAh whereas the Vox has the older battery from the C500 rated a bit less at 1050mAh. I've got the 1150mAh battery in mine that pushes it to the extra day whereas the original battery was good for 3 days only.

Surely it can't be so difficult to produce a decent battery at > 1500mAh especially when the likes of RIM have been doing it for years with their Blackberry's. I get 2 weeks of usage out of one of these in a good signal area with push email and 30 mins calls per day. It does make you wonder whether Windows Smartphone is the culprit here when other OS can manage far better battery life.

Regards,

Dark Horse