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Give me your battery life specs

Got the iPhone 4, not quite as happy with it has I had expected to be. Considering switching to the TB. I hear mized things about the battery--both that it is poor, and also that there are ways to significantly increase battery life. Please give me your specs--how heavily do you use your TB and how long do you get out of a single charge?

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androidburn

MostlyALurker wrote:
Got the iPhone 4, not quite as happy with it has I had expected to be. Considering switching to the TB. I hear mized things about the battery--both that it is poor, and also that there are ways to significantly increase battery life. Please give me your specs--how heavily do you use your TB and how long do you get out of a single charge?

Everyone's usage is different. For telephone calls only, it is "OK." As a media player, the stock battery is just "OK." Add Internet access, it gets challenging. You can significantly extend the battery life by (a) turning off 4G, (b) spending more money as was probably planned by getting the extended battery which should solve most battery issues entirely. If you turn off 4G, people report life similar to that of a droid x.

While there are people that say the phone lasts them through the day, make no mistake, the battery is very poor. HTC plays a regular game by seeing how low capacity of a battery it can put into the phone (this 4G battery actually has 10% LESS power capacity than the 3G Droid X). Like a bullet to the brain that this wouldn't be a great idea.

Despite all of this, if I had a choice between the iPhone and the Thunderbolt, I wouldn't even consider it a choice. You don't always need 4G but having it is beneficial. If the iPhone isn't for you, I'd say that you'll love having all the neat stuff for Android and not dealing with iTunes, DRM and Apple's limits of the OS for transferring files. If you like the screen size (I do) for text entry, etc. then it's an easy choice right now.

MostlyALurker

androidburn wrote:

MostlyALurker wrote:
Got the iPhone 4, not quite as happy with it has I had expected to be. Considering switching to the TB. I hear mized things about the battery--both that it is poor, and also that there are ways to significantly increase battery life. Please give me your specs--how heavily do you use your TB and how long do you get out of a single charge?

Everyone's usage is different. For telephone calls only, it is "OK." As a media player, the stock battery is just "OK." Add Internet access, it gets challenging. You can significantly extend the battery life by (a) turning off 4G, (b) spending more money as was probably planned by getting the extended battery which should solve most battery issues entirely. If you turn off 4G, people report life similar to that of a droid x.

While there are people that say the phone lasts them through the day, make no mistake, the battery is very poor. HTC plays a regular game by seeing how low capacity of a battery it can put into the phone (this 4G battery actually has 10% LESS power capacity than the 3G Droid X). Like a bullet to the brain that this wouldn't be a great idea.

Despite all of this, if I had a choice between the iPhone and the Thunderbolt, I wouldn't even consider it a choice. You don't always need 4G but having it is beneficial. If the iPhone isn't for you, I'd say that you'll love having all the neat stuff for Android and not dealing with iTunes, DRM and Apple's limits of the OS for transferring files. If you like the screen size (I do) for text entry, etc. then it's an easy choice right now.

First, how can you turn off 4G? I thought there wasn't an option for that?

4G isn't an issue for me---I don't need it. If I could easily turn if off, it would make the TB a lot more appealing to me. I guess what I am really trying to decide is do I:

a) get the TB and deal with poor battery life, even though the phone is really more than i need

b) get the Samsung Fascinate even though it is very buggy

c) cross my fingers and wait until the end of the month until the Incredible 2 is released.

To do option (c) I would have to return my iphone, revert back to my previous plan and reactivate my bb, and wait another few weeks. Certainly doable but also a hassle.

pocproductions

I've had quite a few phones over the years (G1, iPhone 3GS, G2) and I would say the thunderbolt is on par with all of them in terms of battery life. That being in an average day where you aren't just rocking out on the phone all day you will need a charge at the end of the day. If you just sit there and stream youtube or browse, and keep that display on you'll need a charge halfway through the day. The Iphone 4 is a little better than the three but it isn't significant. I considered picking up the 1600mah battery for the thunderbolt but after I've cycled through the battery a few times, i.e. completely killed it, the life is significantly better. Not kidding it will be twice as good as when you first turn the thing on. I think a lot of people are missing this point and jump on the battery-life-sucks thing too quickly.

A couple good things to do are keep your display low like 25% or less, turn off background updating on as much stuff as you can stand (I kill it on facebook, blockbuster, news apps and weather, but leave it on for gtalk and gmail), and use a wifi whenever you can as it requires less energy.

Really there isn't an android out there nor an iphone that won't require a charge at the end of the day. Unless you want to get a huge ugly aftermarket battery. (Which isn't an option on the iphones...)

For instance, today I've made two 15 min phone calls, browsed a bit, chatted a bit, checked email a bunch of times and written a couple of them. My battery is 75% and I'm 5 hours since unplugged which was a full charge. That battery life is pretty okay with me, but to each his own of course.

Also, if you download the free app "phone info" it will give you all the network options you want, you can select ev-do, cdma or lte only, or combinations.

I personally am a big fan of this phone. It's the best out of the smartphones I've had, and I don't miss iOS ONE BIT! Android is so much more fun if you like tweaking with things, and you can really have the ui you want out of it. One thing to keep in mind is the unlimited data will go away sometime by mid summer, and no one is saying when. Get on that grandfathered unlimited data while you can.

keezy

MostlyALurker wrote:

First, how can you turn off 4G? I thought there wasn't an option for that?

4G isn't an issue for me---I don't need it. If I could easily turn if off, it would make the TB a lot more appealing to me. I guess what I am really trying to decide is do I:

a) get the TB and deal with poor battery life, even though the phone is really more than i need
b) get the Samsung Fascinate even though it is very buggy
c) cross my fingers and wait until the end of the month until the Incredible 2 is released.

To do option (c) I would have to return my iphone, revert back to my previous plan and reactivate my bb, and wait another few weeks. Certainly doable but also a hassle.

Dial *#*#4636#*#* and hit Phone Information and scroll down to "Set preferred network type" and change it to CDMA (auto PRL).

Found that on another thread here.

PJNC284

For turning off 4G, I'd suggest LTE On/Off from the market. http://www.droid-life.com/2011/04/04/want-to-turn-off-4g-lte-on-the-htc-thunderbolt-try-lte-onoff/. The developers of the app should be very familiar to the orthodontists among us.

soxrock

I have had the Thunderbolt for 3 days now - chose it over the I-Phone based on free android aps & larger screen size (this is my first smartphone & want to be able to see what I am browsing!) . I already have some concerns about the battery life but have just tried this fix to see if it makes it last longer. My husband (who has the HTC Incredible) suggested making sure to click off the screen to try to extend battery life as well. I'm hopeful that some of these tricks work, as I do really like the phone so far otherwise!

MostlyALurker

pocproductions wrote:

For instance, today I've made two 15 min phone calls, browsed a bit, chatted a bit, checked email a bunch of times and written a couple of them. My battery is 75% and I'm 5 hours since unplugged which was a full charge. That battery life is pretty okay with me, but to each his own of course.

That actually doesn't sound that bad. My 2-year-old BB curve needs to be charged at the end of a day of moderate web surfing. Basically, as long as I can make it through a day, I'm ok. It's the middle of the day charge that bothers me. I'm not a big streaming media person. Mostly email and web surfing.

cmsjarhead

I have installed a Seidio 1700mAh battery which now provides me with about 7.5+ hrs of heavy use.

Today I was on the phone for at least 2.5 hours, received about 120 emails, replied to about 20 or so using the phone, I use my phone for business so its set up for constant push sync. I was nailed up to the 4G/LTE network all day as well but, no surfing.

I also use my phone with a Bluetooth headset, nice little device if your hands are full, throughout the day which saves a little on the battery not using the speaker phone. I just checked my battery and I still have 43% left.

This is a smart phone unless you don't ever turn on the screen it'll drain your battery rapidly nature of the technology. My iPhone 3GS required daily recharging just like my current iPhone 4 and this one has a much larger battery...

MostlyALurker

So...should I jump on the TB or wait for the Dinc2?

I'm indecisive so any opinions would be great.

AZSALUKI

tbolt. i'm not real familiar with the Dinc 2 though. i have an incredible and it could not have been a better device in my opinion. i still love it a year later. i am getting my tbolt tomorrow though. the Inc 2 battery will likely be no better than the tbolt. you can make these last long enough if you set them up right. you should be able to set it up to where you get 2.5-3 hours of actual use and another 8-10 hours of idle/standby time. if you are actually using it for 2 to 3 hours straight, then yes, you will run it dead. another thing to consider is how inconvenient it will be for you to have to charge it twice in a day??? it's no biggie for me as i'm usually in my car or at my desk so i can charge it whenever i need. i WOULD NOT get the fascinate unless you are into rooting. it still runs android 2.1 and nobody knows when it will get 2.2 (which has been available on almost every other droid for close to a year now). the front facing cam and LTE network is the reason i am getting the tbolt. if the battery is that bad then i'll just get the 2750 and get used to a device that looks 9 months pregnant....but wont have to worry about charging it twice a day. if you're a heavy user the battery life will be annoying, unless you can charge it often. the other option (which i did when i first got my incredible) is to get a spare. i got 2 cheapos on ebay that came with a wall charger so i have a battery at my office, in my car, and in my phone. i don't use the 2 spares often, but when i need to it is pretty handy to be able to just pop the back off and switch them out.

TBhouston

download juice defender and your problems will go away.

I could get around 8 hours of solid game/txt/video use with proper settings.. which isn't great compared to a blackberry but isn't bad for a droid

Now I get about 14 hours..but you would have to love your phone to do that so i'll digress..

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