How bad (comparatively) is the battery?

[Guest Sanddancer75]

My Blade was my first Android phone & so far I'm very happy with it, except for one thing. The battery. It really is terrible. I'm needing my phone for work now & am having to keep it constantly plugged in while I'm in the office or in the car just to get through the day. It's getting to the point where I'm starting to seriously look at other phones before it starts getting me in trouble. How does the battery compare to some of the better phones (work pays for most of my contract so I'd like something decent)? I like the size of the Desire S, but the battery only sounds a little better, but it's running a faster CPU so is it noticeable? Does anyone have any other recommendations?

[Guest ColdEmbrace]

Battery is the main issue with all smart phones, I think rather than worrying about how good it is in terms of another phone, because frankly the other phone wont be much better, you need to see what causes you the most battery drain and look into reducing it

[Guest k0zmic]

Well the Desire S processor is meant to be more power efficient so maybe it will be a little better?

[Guest Timbosta]

My Blade was my first Android phone & so far I'm very happy with it, except for one thing. The battery. It really is terrible. I'm needing my phone for work now & am having to keep it constantly plugged in while I'm in the office or in the car just to get through the day. It's getting to the point where I'm starting to seriously look at other phones before it starts getting me in trouble. How does the battery compare to some of the better phones (work pays for most of my contract so I'd like something decent)? I like the size of the Desire S, but the battery only sounds a little better, but it's running a faster CPU so is it noticeable? Does anyone have any other recommendations?

...erm new battery for seven quid? Maybe 2? Also..if it's an Orange SF, I can't recall if it has a task manager icon where you can shut down all background apps. I wiped all the crappy Orange stuff off mine and loaded Froyo. honestly, it's the best phone I've ever owned. I've had it for nine months and the battery lasts all day. I charge at night on usually about 40%. screen res excellent, everything about it is good.

[Guest swisstourist]

just bought a blade 4 days ago, and make 1.5 days by using moderatly.

cut off what u dont need, and keep it with wifi/gps off, and reduce screen light.

i mean i just bought it and use it a lot for testing and install things on it , battery seems OK in relation of my previuos nokia which could make 3 days but I barely touch it.

i think people who has android play too much with their phone.

[Guest Sanddancer75]

Thanks for the replies. I might pick up a 2nd battery just to be safe & have a poke about. A reflash can't hurt & I'll be super conservative about what I'll put back on it. It's a shame that they make a phone that is capable of doing what this thing can & then skimping on the battery. I'd love to see a bigger battery come out for this thing.

[Guest Mushroom_Lord]

The blade is a budget smartphone and so battery is a compromise to keep the price down. Certainly higher end handsets have longer battery life by 2/3x

There may also be some more mid-range ones that work better too, but the blade being my first android device as well I can't really direct you anywhere here.

[Guest ColdEmbrace]

Thanks for the replies. I might pick up a 2nd battery just to be safe & have a poke about. A reflash can't hurt & I'll be super conservative about what I'll put back on it. It's a shame that they make a phone that is capable of doing what this thing can & then skimping on the battery. I'd love to see a bigger battery come out for this thing.

It's not just this phone its a flaw will all touch screen mobile phones. my SE W595 did roughly a fortnight no usage

my HTC Smart did a few days no usage.

[Guest hugobosslives]

the blades battey aint that bad.

even on cm7 you will get roughly 8 days with no usage.

normal usage gives 1.5 days which aint half bad.

[Guest Tony Sidaway]

The battery life on my Blade is terrible but that's because I use it all the time. I've taken it out full sometimes and in three or fours hours of heavy use seen the poor thing run right down to the point where it's asking to be plugged in. It's that much fun!

On the other hand, if I leave it alone for hours (even I have to sleep sometimes!) it seems to hold its charge well.

I've still got my little Skypephone as a backup so I can always just switch SIM cards if the Blade runs right down and I still need to have a phone.

Edited June 11, 2011 by Tony Sidaway

[Guest wbaw]

Blade's battery is no worse than most other smart phones & better than quite a few others, even much more expensive phones. You need to look at what's draining your battery the most. Certain widgets & apps can be bad for draining battery. Facebook & Twitter syncing all the time will kill battery life, skype is bad.

I keep my phone awake all the time, to receive incoming voip calls on wifi, everything enabled (bluetooth, gps, etc) and I can get about a day & a half.

The capacity of the battery is limited by it's physical size. Relatively small, thin & light smart phones like the blade can't have huge batteries. I've seen bigger phones with smaller batteries too.

Edited June 11, 2011 by wbaw

[Guest q123456]

with gmail syncing all the time, a little www, some 2d games, and few text and without any special care (i do not closing apps too often etc), still getting about one day. Sure, there are more battery friendly smartphones, but frankly you wont get more than two days of battery life.

Blade i think is pretty average in this aspect

[Guest k0zmic]

The capacity of the battery is limited by it's physical size. Relatively small, thin & light smart phones like the blade can't have huge batteries. I've seen bigger phones with smaller batteries too.

I think the Desire HD/HD 7 has a tiny battery for it's size, it's less than the Blade's IIRC?

[Guest Grain]

Certainly higher end handsets have longer battery life by 2/3x

How would that be? All current smartphones come with batteries rated about 1200-1400mAh, and bettery CPUs etc. do not make that much of a difference concerning battery life. Sure, more modern CPUs may be better number crunchers, but that does not matter in normal use as they'll either be sleeping or limping along at minimum clock anyways.

The Blade lasts some hours with heavy use, more than a day with typical use, and for people who use it "just as a phone", typically four days (up to eight days have been reported). Many other smartphones will not reach that battery life, especially for light use.

I have the feeling that people talking about "Blade's bad battery life" haven't had any other smartphone before, expect miracles (gaming for more than a few hours on battery or having wifi on all the time), or are simply fooled by their friends claiming their HTC's battery would last a month ;) .

Edited June 12, 2011 by Grain

[Guest ufizo]

You might also want to try battery calibration, in case you havent already done it.

[Guest popoyaya]

Just get one of these:

http://www.tecknetonline.co.uk/products/Te...and-Others.html

Will fully recharge your phone 3-4 times while out & about. Only £21.

[Guest hedgepigdaniel]

Goodness me, no one has mentioned spare parts yet! The Blade and its battery might be cheap, but they are certainly not disgraceful, and not being able to get through a day is not normal!

First thing to do is to open spare parts on your phone and check which apps have been using the battery. Especially the apps that have been waking your phone off. Either set up those apps not do do so or uninstall them. Turn off wifi when its not being used, make sure you don't have any apps retarded enough to use gps constantly (there would be an icon in the notification bar). Update to the latest version of whatever ROM you are using, some previous builds have had battery problems, particularly cyanogenmod. Turn on auto screen brightness. I once found that wiping data and restoring apps with titanium stopped a constant battery drain that I couldn't find the source of.

[Guest swisstourist]

guys complain when they go on their laptop and play only 1-2 hours off socket until battery is empty, it s ok...

suddenly they expect a cell phone to hold his juice for 3 days in a row with eavy usage. doesnt make sens to me.

something is wrong in you little head!

[Guest Mushroom_Lord]

How would that be? All current smartphones come with batteries rated about 1200-1400mAh

Yes but mAh doesnt tell you everything about the battery (quite). So you could expect a better battery. Also they may have more efficient Cpu's/hardware, but not necessarily as fast.

Though still, it will always be the case that people will never get terribly good battery on a smartphone. Unless a third party starts producing some seriously badass batteries. (for probably about £50 ;) )

[Guest Sanddancer75]

Unless a third party starts producing some seriously badass batteries. (for probably about £50 ;) )

I'd be happy with that. I like the phone & the support that it has on here & am having a hard choice trying to find something else. I guess I'll see what I can tweak & not rush into anything.

Thanks all.

[Guest Sanddancer75]

Well, I got a HTC Desire S last week. The phone is a lot nicer, it feels nicer in the hand & I'm finding that a lot of the apps that I'd downloaded for my OSF are just not needed any more. The battery life seems pretty much on par though.

Just thought I'd share.

[Guest Searcher2]

Well, I got a HTC Desire S last week. The phone is a lot nicer, it feels nicer in the hand & I'm finding that a lot of the apps that I'd downloaded for my OSF are just not needed any more. The battery life seems pretty much on par though.

Just thought I'd share.

I bought a Desire S shortly after buying the OSF. I sold the Desire S after it seemed that the GPS was better on the OSF than the Desire S (probably because the metal housing of the Desire S could be reducing the signal) but also because I realised I could get £270 for the Desire S and would rather pocket that and keep my £60 OSF. No doubt the Desire S is better in lots of other regards and it could have saved me hours of fiddling about (but I guess that is part of the fun) but not £210 worth to me.

As for batteries I bought 2 from ebay (item 280714023050 - £6.99 for 2 delivered) and haven't yet noticed a difference in performance against the original. I get approx 3 days on Ginger Stir Fry ROM with Airplane mode when I sleep, email checking every 10 mins, bluetooth on, 2G on and a few calls and miinor internet browsing (3G) during the day.