Smart phone battery life?

[Boomyal]

I was getting ready to pull the plug and buy a smart phone today. At the last minute I asked about battery life. My old LG 8300 will go about three days on standby, less of course if I talk a lot. But at minimum it will last from sun up to bed time except maybe with unusual usage.

They told me that the Motorola Razor got about 8-10 hours, just on standby. That would not do me so I walked away.

What are your experiences?

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

My iPhone can sit in anywhere from 24-60 hours, depending on use. If you text or use a lot of apps, it's going to need to be charged. If you only use it occassionally, then it will last. Like everything else, the more you use it, the shorter the battery life. Nice thing is, it recharges fully in an hour.

 

[blouderback]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

My droid lasts about 2 days without a charge, but that was after I figured out how to disable all the automatic syncing and updating. Before that, it would last about 12-15 hours. Now, I only sync email when I go into email, updates only download when I tell them to, etc.

 

[Brewman61]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

You should be able to get more than 8 hours standby on the Razr, and the Razr Max (I think that's what it's called) has an even larger battery. You could also look up the specifications online for any phone you want to get the battery ratings. And there are a lot of things you can do similar to what Blouderback posts, to manage your battery.
Smart phones in general can be power hogs and you will go thru your battery quicker if you use the internet or run a lot of applications often. But you should be a lot more than 8 - 10 hours on standby for that phone you looked at.
I put my DroidX2 on the charger every night just out of habbit. The one thing I don't like is that the Razr doesn't have a replacable battery, I like being able to put in a fresh battery or a larger capacity one if I want. But that seems to be the price of that thin profile on the Razr.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

Whatever phone you have, turn off location services on apps that want to leave GPS on all the time. That is the huge power hog. Most apps that use GPS have GPS on only when you have them open but there are some like Google Latitude that have them on 100% of the time.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

Well I don't know how important the thinness of phone is to me and I do like the idea of a replaceable battery. Are there any other Android OS phone recommendations?

What are you supposed to do with your Razor when the battery legs shrink to unusable, throw it away?

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

I have a Samsung Galaxy that will suck a battery down quick if 4G, WiFi and GPS is enabled, especially if it's constantly searching for 4G, or WiFi. I turn all of those off and run it in 3G (which is fine for me) and the battery lasts a day stand-by. If I haven't used it much during the day and forget to plug it in at night, it's still on the next morning, but the battery is very low. If I'm traveling and in-out of cell service, where it's constantly searching for a signal, it will pull the battery down in 3-4 hours. I have a car charger, so it's not an issue unless I forget to plug it in.

 

[mscher]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

Well I don't know how important the thinness of phone is to me and I do like the idea of a replaceable battery. Are there any other Android OS phone recommendations?

What are you supposed to do with your Razor when the battery legs shrink to unusable, throw it away?

FWIW, I have never had to replace a cell phone battery, on some phones, I have had for well over 4 years.

Dw and I have had iPhones, for over 2 years now, and the batteries are holding up fine. Not sure why they would not last for two more. If, in the event, they do go bad they can be replaced, they just don't pop out, like cell phones, so they will need to go to a shop. probably true for other smartphones also.

Unless, one is somewhere, where recharging is not possible, so they need extra pre-charged batteries to swap out, a removable battery, would not be a deciding factor, IMO.

I do plug the phone in every night, which keeps the battery charged and synchronizes, email, phone list, tasks etc.

I do charge it a lot, but then I use the browser and video a lot.

 

[beezee28]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S 3 and the smartphone is awesome. The battery life is like 2 to 3 days on standby without heavy usage but if you turn on the wifi, sync etc... then all these little extra things suck the life out of the battery and would probably last like 1 day if that. I turn off all unnecessary power hungry feature and stick with basic stuff (last longer). So far happy with the new smartphone.

 

[MWBoatFan]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

I have had very good luck with the Motorola family. I have the Atrix HD right now and came from the Atris 4G. The admiral has the Atrix 2. Either of them would last me sun up till sun down with normal use. The first one (original Atrix) would go for a LONG time on one charge, say 24-30 hours with moderate use. I have heard VERY good things about the RAZR MAXX or the soon to be released RAZR MAXX HD. I am certain either of those phones will give you plenty of battery life.

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

My casio last about 4 days average

 

[hrdwrkingacguy]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

Droid bionic with the extra large battery last 5 days with normal use...I can keep the screen on and a GPS golf app running for 8 strait hours and never turn it off and my battery is at 60%...

 

[spdracr39]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

You learn to adapt to the shorter life. After you learn to use all the added features it will be worth the sacrifice. Get a car charger and keep it handy. Plug it in whenever you are in the car even if for just a few minutes and you won't have any trouble.

 

[Fleetwin]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

My Smartphone has been fine. At least as good as the Blackberry it replaced.

The only thing I have found is that battery life can be significantly prolonged by closing any applications you are not using.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

You learn to adapt to the shorter life. After you learn to use all the added features it will be worth the sacrifice.

For a moment there I thought you were talking about Marraige......

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

Hey Boom, I have a Driod 3. The battery lasts over 2 days when used as a phone/texting device. That drops to about a day if your surfing the net or using the wireless network feature. The GPS is a real battery killer, I keep it plugged in whenever used as such. The battery is located under under the back cover and snaps in and out. Additionally there are after market Extended Batterys available for under $30.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

Remeber the new smart phone's probably have more computing programs than a home computer did 5 yrs ago. Have the sales person or clerk explain all of its function's or apps...you will do what i call the moon wobble... At first i was annoyed that i had to have such a large package for the phone i liked but a few yrs later it's pretty cool stuff.

One feature to look for is wifi that is not dependet on the phone network. That is you can access the net without using your data plan...the phone just connect's to any local wireless system and they are every where you go these day's. Doing so allow you a very low cost data plan..mine is ten a month for 200mb and it rarely gets used.

Then there is the OS system...myself almost being a old fart went with a microsft system its fimilar and i understand it.. I too like the razor deal but have a HTC..nice stuff and i will never be able to use it full potential..it can even do a power point presentation. Battery life..small price just have a charger for the car..

 

[babbot]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

All smartphones are going to have relatively lousy battery life compared to a dedicated cell phone. Someone already mentioned a battery extender. If you are unaware they are external rechargeable battery packs that you plug your phone into and the phone charges off that battery pack.
Could be handy if you are away from an outlet or car. I went on amazon and boat a bunch of chargers and cables for VERY little $$. I have a set at work, car, and on the boat just in case.

 

[jkust]

Re: Smart phone battery life?

I went from mandated Blackberry to mandated iphone a couple months back. I'm not a fan of the iphone since you can tell the technology is pretty dated and that says a lot coming from a stone-age Blackberry (albeit the current model). Where battery life is concerned, the iphone lets me down when I most need it. Sure it lasts a long time on days I have all the apps shut off and am not doing much with it but when I travel and I need certain apps, the phone, email, maps etc, I'll kill a fully charged battery in 7 or 8 hours and can't pop a spare battery in there like any other smart phone. The Iphone is only 3g so does not constantly search for 4g and has a miniscule screen by today's standards and so I presume other smart phones will also chew through a battery quickly. That said there are apps out there that tell you exactly how much time you have left on the battery and break it down into categories and of course can tell you exactly how the battery was actually spent as well. I also have the newest ipad being the top model they sell and that battery is really hard to kill and lasts a long time but takes forever to charge fully.