smartphone battery life RANT

[PC_Suchti]

So ... most of you probably have their 2nd, 3rd or even 10th smartphone and have gotten used to the ridiculous battery life of these stupid things.

 

I'm one of those few who still use more of a classic cell phone ( w810i ) it basicly does all the things you actually need on a phone ... calls, text, music, photos, videos, mail ( if you have a data plan ) and other random stuff ...

Sure it doesn't run angry birds and the screen is just tiny... but it runs for up to 8 FREAKING DAYS on a charge!!!

According to http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_w810-1402.php it has a standby time of up to 350h ...

well on light use it actually manages around 200h so thats not too far off.

And that's on the 6+ year old battery it came with...

 

Pick ANY new phone on that page ... the spec-sheet tells you that those have 300-450h of standby time ... BULLSHIT!

 

Charge it...put it on your desk and only touch it once a day to check the battery...

at BEST ... with EVERYTHING turned off ... you'll get around 2-4 days ...

so 24 x 4 is 300h ?! I don't think so!!!

 

btw I didn't just pull those numbers out of thin air ... checked this myself on Samsung Wave 2 ( 3-4 days on pure standby wifi on, bluetooth off, cellular data off) and Samsung Omnia7 ( in batterysaver mode it tells me that it'll last for 36h ).

 

Tell me about your experience ... what phone do you use? how long does it last on a charge?

Is there even a valid reason to use something that can't run for a whole day IF you actually use it?

 

Am I just stupid and/or getting old ?!

[Thunderjolt]

Maybe both

I do agree with you though. Smartphone batteries are getting ridiculous. Then again Phone tech is advancing much faster than battery tech, Maybe someone should throw a lot of money into batteries and find a much better way to store and preserve the electricity.

[Matsy]

My phone lasts for like 2 weeks without charging.

Ah the joys of hating/not using smartphones.

[Stewie]

I get through a day with my HTC One which is enough for me. That'd include using some internet, apps etc. I have a portable charger with me at university though in case I do drain the battery.

[helping]

It's a compromise. Technology has gotten more energy efficient over time, they could make a phone with hardware that was more efficient and thus give better battery life, but then nobody would want it because the Samsung Galaxy [X] XIV v2 MK.5 just came out with an 24 core processor and 12gb of RAM and anything marginally less is trash.

They could just put better batteries in there, we certainly have the technology for it, but then nobody would buy the phone because it's going to cost you a kidney, and if you make it rain and bought it anyway, your investment would be wasteful since it's out of date within a year anyway.

I use an EVO 3D and it usually lasts me the entire day unless I'm playing on youtube for a long time. It can last up to two days if used lightly. It's usually on WiFi and I have 4g always off unless on youtube.

You might not think so, but to remain competitive there is a price ceiling on cellphones as there are on most market commodities. That price is rising over time, but for now with the specs demanded the rest of the phone's budget allocated for power efficiency and battery potential is constrained. It's not as glorious as raw specs, especially to common consumer market and therefore not the biggest focus.

[Mixzzz]

Well, I dont care about the battery life if its 1 day or more since I always charge it at night... and micro usb charger is like everywhere... But sometimes the battery cant long for one day and at that point I can agree that smartphones suck at this point

[Cad6500]

I have a cherry mobile titan w500 (local rebrand of the kanko w990) and it lasts about 2 days, which is enough for me since I charge it every night

[PC_Suchti]

what's also bothering me is ... how do manufacturers determin the standby time to get 300+ hours??? since it's nowhere near the real numbers ... or do they define "standby" as shutting the phone down o_O

[dklhs90]

what's also bothering me is ... how do manufacturers determin the standby time to get 300+ hours??? since it's nowhere near the real numbers ... or do they define "standby" as shutting the phone down o_O

Quite easy to grasp. Stanby means screen off just sitting there.

[amiah137]

I use a blackberry 9700 and guess what?....I barely last a day even though i only use it for the occasional calls and text. To add to that, blackberry's implementation on how to preserve battery when the phone is on it's last legs is to shut off the radio and wifi and you can't even take pictures! At that point it's like my phone is trying to troll me by saying i'll stay on but you can't use me.  

 

Anyway smartphone manufactures really need to pay attention preserving battery whilst they figure ways to advance technology.

 

p.s. you're not stupid and YOU SHALL NEVER GET OLD!!! 

[wkronbaek]

I have a smartphone which is pretty slow so I dont use it much, just texting a couple of times a day and sometimes listening to music, It lasts 2-4 weeks. On an 1800 mAh battery - just turn off gps, bluetooth, wifi, data, all that crap, if you have any background bloatware root and uninstall those, and it uses basically no battery while on standby (Like, 1% a day).

 

So yeah, your rant kinda doesn't apply to me.

[KamiKatze]

I wouldn't care if manufacturers decided to build slightly thicker phones again with double the battery. I havew a Nexus 4. It runs for a day for frequent use. When i start playing during lecture though... This is ridiculous!

[chaozbandit]

Samsung Galaxy SII GT-I9100M. Lasts me anywhere from 8 to 12 hours depending on how much I use it while on campus. I always carry a portable battery pack with me in my messenger bag, so battery life isn't really a concern to me anymore.

[pcman2000]

My Note 2 (3100mAh) drains at about 5% per day if you don't use it.

[Stewie]

I use a blackberry 9700 and guess what?....I barely last a day even though i only use it for the occasional calls and text. To add to that, blackberry's implementation on how to preserve battery when the phone is on it's last legs is to shut off the radio and wifi and you can't even take pictures! At that point it's like my phone is trying to troll me by saying i'll stay on but you can't use me.

 

Anyway smartphone manufactures really need to pay attention preserving battery whilst they figure ways to advance technology.

 

p.s. you're not stupid and YOU SHALL NEVER GET OLD!!! 

 

That's pretty legit.

[ttam]

My Galaxy S3 on normal use will last me 3 to 3 1/2 days (72 to 84 hours) problem free and this includes WiFi on 24/7 on a single charge.

 

Now if you're smart and disable things running in the background, turn off anything that can drain (gps, bluetooth, wifi, services, etc) your phone can last 

 

The one you linked for example, is a not very battery intensive phone up UP TO 350 hours is possible.