For those who have come from a Hero?

[Guest GuyAdams]

What have people noticed about battery life?

My Hero was 95% last night when I went to bed... I woke up 6 hours later and it was down to 23%! lol

My battery life observations are odd actually, I'm a heavy user, I have ActiveSync push email enabled, my Google Mail and I use Meebo IM which runs in the background all day. Couple these with an hour of browsing or application time and moderate text and call usage. During my first week of using the device it would last a day (7am - 9pm), then require a charge....

HOWEVER,

During the last week, with the same usage as above its now lasting 50% longer than previously, I have no idea why.

I have today also downloaded Task Manager and set it to auto kill unneeded applications when I lock the device so we will see how this improves battery life, if at all.

Thanks

[Guest The_IMF]

My battery life observations are odd actually, I'm a heavy user, I have ActiveSync push email enabled, my Google Mail and I use Meebo IM which runs in the background all day. Couple these with an hour of browsing or application time and moderate text and call usage. During my first week of using the device it would last a day (7am - 9pm), then require a charge....

HOWEVER,

During the last week, with the same usage as above its now lasting 50% longer than previously, I have no idea why.

I have today also downloaded Task Manager and set it to auto kill unneeded applications when I lock the device so we will see how this improves battery life, if at all.

Thanks

Thanks Guy.

From experience; task managers use extra memory and battery life as they run in the background constantly. The android task killer is sufficient at killing defunct tasks.

I think my mobile lasts about 1 hour longer with task killer or task panel not running!

7am to 9pm sounds brilliant. I usually have to start charging My Hero by 1pm as it's down into the low 30's!

[Guest GuyAdams]

Thanks Guy.

From experience; task managers use extra memory and battery life as they run in the background constantly. The android task killer is sufficient at killing defunct tasks.

I think my mobile lasts about 1 hour longer with task killer or task panel not running!

7am to 9pm sounds brilliant. I usually have to start charging My Hero by 1pm as it's down into the low 30's!

Well i will have to see how it goes but so far I'm noticing a 10 - 15% increase over similar usage with my Hero. In the first week it was probably very similar.

Thanks

[Guest ZiCoN]

Just love it... While standing in the shop, I was trying both the Legend and the Desire. I came in wanting to buy the Legend, but went out with the Desire.. There were just NO doubt ;)

[Guest gregDT]

Just love it... While standing in the shop, I was trying both the Legend and the Desire. I came in wanting to buy the Legend, but went out with the Desire.. There were just NO doubt ;)

I'm not having significant issues with the Desires battery. I've come from a Hero and before that a Nokia N95, so I suppose I'm used to feebly batteries in my phones and the need to charge my phone every night. I also don't use any kind of task manager as I believe Android handles Apps pretty well itself.

What I do have installed is Juice Defender. This basically turns off Wifi and APN when the screen is in standby and only lets it activate for one minute every fifteen minutes or so. It also kills Wifi and APN dead during the night. However as soon as the screen turns on the APN and if required the wifi kc9ik back in full time so I can surf the web etc. The only issue is that it can take a few seconds for the APN to activate, so flicking the screen on and diving into a web page occasionally causes a delay in the page appearing. I'm not in the employ of Juice Defender honest ;) but it does seem to work. It claims to have extended my battery life by x2.18 since I've had it installed.

As an example to day I unplugged it from the charger at about 9am. I've listened to pod-casts on the train, played an album of music, made about four or five ten minute calls, used the GPS and maps for about fifteen minutes, read my news-feeds and twitter several times, played ten minutes of solitaire, sent four text messages and used two Tube Train Apps several times. I played another album of music on the way home tonight as well. I'm now (11.30pm) looking at a battery that is at 32%. So I think there might be something in an app like Juice Defender that limits APN and WiFi etc. Oh and when I'm indoors I tend to use the low light setting on the screen. I doubt I could get two full days out of it but have no worries about a long day and evening of average use.

[Guest afiorillo]

Switched from Hero to Desire a week ago, here's my pros and cons.

PROs

1. LIGHTING FAST !!!

2. Lighter and sexy

3. Way better display: just like the iPhone one, or even better

4. Android 2.1, obviously: being able to fix an user dictionary misspelled word is priceless :huh:

5. Finally a WORKING camera (with quasi-HD filming too and a jaw dropping powerful flash LED)

6. The hard keys are easier to reach, specially the "back" one

7. Overall experience is really, REALLY good... except for the............

CONs

1. The optical 4-way thingy is totally crap compared to the lovely trackball on the Hero: also, makes many games useless

2. No wrist strap slot!!! I can't believe that, I had to arrange one by myself

3. Volume keys are still way too easy to push without really wanting to: expect more missed calls when carrying this baby in your pocket

4. You'll have to buy a totally new set of accessories, starting with chargers thanks to the different plug (MicroUSB here)

5. No "green" and "red" hard keys, you'll have to rely on touchscreen in order to end a call (proximity sensor helping a bit)

6. Audio quality and level slightly lower

[Guest The_IMF]

Switched from Hero to Desire a week ago, here's my pros and cons.

PROs

1. LIGHTING FAST !!!

2. Lighter and sexy

3. Way better display: just like the iPhone one, or even better

4. Android 2.1, obviously: being able to fix an user dictionary misspelled word is priceless :huh:

5. Finally a WORKING camera (with quasi-HD filming too and a jaw dropping powerful flash LED)

6. The hard keys are easier to reach, specially the "back" one

7. Overall experience is really, REALLY good... except for the............

CONs

1. The optical 4-way thingy is totally crap compared to the lovely trackball on the Hero: also, makes many games useless

2. No wrist strap slot!!! I can't believe that, I had to arrange one by myself

3. Volume keys are still way too easy to push without really wanting to: expect more missed calls when carrying this baby in your pocket

4. You'll have to buy a totally new set of accessories, starting with chargers thanks to the different plug (MicroUSB here)

5. No "green" and "red" hard keys, you'll have to rely on touchscreen in order to end a call (proximity sensor helping a bit)

6. Audio quality and level slightly lower

Spot on. That 4 way optical is rubbish. Doesn't work too well for me at all and what's with the change in the usb port?? Why would they do such a thing? So bloody annoying. Makes all my HTC accessories useless now!

As for the display. It is wayyyy better than the iphone and I find it to be so much faster too.

[Guest irishandrew]

Spot on. That 4 way optical is rubbish. Doesn't work too well for me at all and what's with the change in the usb port?? Why would they do such a thing? So bloody annoying. Makes all my HTC accessories useless now!

As for the display. It is wayyyy better than the iphone and I find it to be so much faster too.

I believe the change in USB port was due to a consensus amongst the big phone manufacturers to reach a standard port, to alleviate the whole dedicated charger mess - and make it easier on travellers. They went with the most open standard in the smallest form factor to allow for thin phones. Obviously seeing as it's pretty new and mini-USB has been around a while, the accumulation of spare cables etc. in peoples homes are mostly of the wrong type! Though give it a few years :-) (before the next change...)

There are adaptors out there for mini->microUSB, though make sure you get one compatible with sync. Charge only cables aren't wired in to the sync pins, and some adaptors may not support the full complement.

-Andrew.

[Guest The_IMF]

I believe the change in USB port was due to a consensus amongst the big phone manufacturers to reach a standard port, to alleviate the whole dedicated charger mess - and make it easier on travellers. They went with the most open standard in the smallest form factor to allow for thin phones. Obviously seeing as it's pretty new and mini-USB has been around a while, the accumulation of spare cables etc. in peoples homes are mostly of the wrong type! Though give it a few years :-) (before the next change...)

There are adaptors out there for mini->microUSB, though make sure you get one compatible with sync. Charge only cables aren't wired in to the sync pins, and some adaptors may not support the full complement.

-Andrew.

Thank you Andrew. I was not aware of the adaptors. I shall scour for one on eBay right now!

[Guest irishandrew]

Thank you Andrew. I was not aware of the adaptors. I shall scour for one on eBay right now!

You're welcome - have held off myself - some look a tad ungainly! Will try and pick up a few spare microUSB sync cables when I have some spare time. At least one for the car anyhow! Good luck :-)