Well, I must admit that like most, I was skeptical about how this battery would perform. I have read negative reviews about extended batteries (in general) not living up to par and have heard excellent things about them as well. I have always been under the impression that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I think I may have just found the exception to the rule!
When Seidio first offered the Innocell 3000mAH Extended Life Battery for the Epic 4G, I was interested in trying one but didn’t know if would live up to the hype. Seidio contacted me and offered the opportunity to review the battery. Needless to say I was excited at the chance to see if the battery was all that I hoped that it could be.
I am very good with mechanical devices and electrical equipment but to me a battery is just a battery. I can throw a multimeter to it just like the next guy but have ZERO knowledge as to what makes one battery better than the next. This review will cover my personal opinions on the Innocell 3000mAH Extended Life Battery and are not the opinions of the Forum, Seidio or anyone else. As always, YMMV.
Packaging
Nothing special about the way it arrived. The packaging was on par with what I expected it to be. That is, nothing too fancy nor too simple. The battery arrived in a separate container from the replacement battery door. There were also instructions included with the Innocell Battery that said
Quote:
Prior to using your new extended battery, please allow 8 hours for initial charge time. Performance will increase after 5-6 full charges.
In order to obtain the full capacity of your Seidio battery, we highly recommend that you leave the battery or your phone on the charger for an additional 2-3 hours after the charging indicator turns green or battery status shows full.
It’s worth noting that for Epic users, the charging indicator will actually turn blue instead of green.
Fitment and First Impressions
The battery is obviously larger than the stock battery. As such, a replacement door is needed that fits the new battery. Seidio reports that the new battery and door only adds 0.8cm to the depth of the device.
Everything is pretty simple and straight forward. The quality of the battery and the replacement door both appear to be of high quality and the replacement door features the “soft touch” plastic that Seidio is known for.
The battery slides into place with no problem.
The replacement door isn’t as easy to put on as the stock door. I’ve been informed that Seidio has released further installation instructions since my review of this product.
I found that it was easier if I aligned the far side of the door (side with the volume keys), pushed down on the top/bottom pieces to click them into place THEN push down on the other side (with the power button). It still won’t click in all the way but when you pull out on the side of the case just a bit and push down it seems to click right into place.
The phone with extended battery fits fine in my hands. I was concerned that it would be too big for my hands but this was not an issue. It is also easily fit in my pockets. The battery door does affect how shoulder friendly the phone is during a phone call though as the slanted portion of the door is directly where it would rest on your shoulder when making a call. The replacement door does not interfere with the flash or camera use and yet provides a subtle bit of protection for the edges of the camera lens.
Battery Use
Now… this is where things get fun! I had every intention of testing both batteries (stock and extended) and leaving them running until they died. I can confidently say that I quickly found out that I didn’t need to do this.
I would consider myself a moderate user. With the stock battery I could have 3G/wifi on the entire day and make an hour or so of phone calls, take care of work emails and personal emails, surf AF and other goodness and typically would be anywhere from 30%-5% at the end of 15hrs or so. If I used my phone as heavily as I might normally want or need to there would be no way I would last through a single day. If I wanted to include any movie watching I could kiss my battery goodbye.
Rooted users - I found that I did NOT need to calibrate the battery and that the percentages shown appeared rather accurately and without any sudden drops or changes.
The extended battery is simply amazing as far as I’m concerned. I’ve followed the same scenarios in the same locations for the same amount of times with amazing results! With the extended battery I’ve had 3G/wifi on except for 6 hours each night when sleeping when I turned off 3g/wifi but left the phone ON. Over 2.5 days on a single charge!!! For the past 3 hours I’ve been running movies on the phone TRYING to kill the battery and it FINALLY hit 5%.
Overall, I can easily and confidently say that I am EXTREMELY pleased with the Innocell 3000mAH Extended Life Battery and that I will now be able to FULLY use my phone as it is intended to be used without the need to carry a second battery, without the need to have a charger on hand and without the need to worry if my battery was going to make it through the day!
I will shortly be purchasing the Spring-Clip Holster to replace my usual Innocase Holster Combo.
I would HIGHLY recommend this product to anyone needing to push their battery life a bit further or to anyone who would consider themselves a power user.
It can be purchased from Seidio's websiteURL removed... see edit below.
EDIT: Seidio no longer carries a 3000mAH Extended battery but has replaced with with a 3300mAH extended battery! It can be purchased from Seidio's website HERE
__________________
^ This was my response to this thread
Typos or odd wording??? I blame Swype for the Swypo's!
Do you happen to remember how much display time you got on that beast? On my stock battery I get about 3-4 hrs, and I mix that with about 20 hrs of downtime to get around 24 hours of battery. If I can double that display time, I would be a very happy camper.
If it helps, I've used the phone HEAVILY today in a low signal area. Display have been on for 3 hours and 23 minutes... 3g used heavily for a good portion of the day (work emails, personal emails, google talk, forums, etc)... Phone calls (about an hour)...Off charger for just a hair under 16 hours.
3g on the entire time (except in wifi areas), gps and bluetooth off.
Great review. I just installed the Siedio 3000 mAH battery in my phone yesterday.
Do you know of a battery meter widget for the Samsung Epic 4G phone which will recognize the expanded capacity of this battery? The widgets that I tried don't seem to understand that there is a new/expanded battery in the phone.
Great review. I just installed the Siedio 3000 mAH battery in my phone yesterday.
Do you know of a battery meter widget for the Samsung Epic 4G phone which will recognize the expanded capacity of this battery? The widgets that I tried don't seem to understand that there is a new/expanded battery in the phone.
Thank you.
You mean they aren't displaying the proper percentage? I just check "Systray monitor" and it displays correctly for me.
Did you fully charge the battery and then fully drain it (a few times) as recommended by Seidio?
Last edited by Kelmar; January 6th, 2011 at 05:30 PM.
Great review! I am seriously considering this. I am not what I would consider a heavy user...more moderate...and I always have to charge my phone up during the day at work. This may be the ticket!
Thanks again for your reply! My battery situation is now significantly improved with the Siedio extended battery. It is hard to believe that they would let these phones go into circulation with such a small battery.
I am using the Gauge Battery Widget (1x1) and it seems to be tracking battery power very nicely. It compares exactly with the SysTray Monitor app---but the Gauge Battery Widget is so much nicer.
I still only get 9 hours of phone life before I need to charge it (I am a very heavy email user) and need to get my emails right away. I am an old blackberry user and the MailDroid email mail program has given me nearly instant email connectivity.
My screen timeout is set to 15 seconds (and then the app killer kicks in and kills everything that is not on my ignore list). My screen brightness is also set to zero. Haptic feedback is set to minimum.
It would be nice to somehow be able to get through an 18 hour day on this battery. Does anyone have any ideas on what I might be missing? Not sure what the difference is between cell standby and phone idle.
Perhaps I just need to exercise this battery some more in order for it to reach its full capability. Should I let it drain completely once or twice before plugging it back in? Note: I always try to keep it plugged in 2 or 3 hours after the charge light turns blue.
Thank you all in advance for any advice and commentary.
Last edited by copperman; January 11th, 2011 at 03:05 PM.
I read something that it was originally intended to be a 3300 mAh battery but they de-rated the battery after some testing and decided to classify it as a 3000 mAh.
Perhaps they reversed this decision. Strange nonetheless. I just bought the 3000 mAh. I really do think it is in the noise (3000 vs 3300).
if you click on first link given then yes we see the what the original OP payed for it but if you go trough and click on the side bar where it says samsung epic 4g the batteries then what COPPERMAN says is true. it does say 3300 then price to $75.
I read something that it was originally intended this to be a 3300 mAh battery but they de-rated the battery after some testing and decided to classify it as a 3000 mAh.
Perhaps they reversed this decision. Strange nonetheless. I just bought the 3000 mAh. I really do think it is in the noise (3000 vs 3300).
yeah i know what you mean. someone should call CS and ask about it and see what they tell you. i dont like dealing with CS so yeah thats why i dont call. but im wanting to order it if someone can confirm if its a true 3300mAH
Customer79: Hi Kevin,
Customer79: I have a Samsung Epic 4G phone.
Kevin: hi
Customer79: I see that you have a 3000 mAh and a 3300 mAh battery for this phone. Is this indeed the case or is it a mis-type of some kind?
Kevin: we have updated the 3000 to 3300
Customer79: If I bought the 3000 last week, is it a 3000 or is it in reality a 3300?
Kevin: 3000mAh is 3000mAh
Kevin: the new version is 3300mAh
Customer79: I think I read something somewhere that suggested that the 3000 was originally intended to be a 3300, but was de-rated to correspond better with real-life use. Is this the case? Could I get performance approaching 3300 with my recently purchased 3000 battery?
Kevin: no that is not possible
Customer79: OK. I sure wish I knew the 3300 was coming up before I ordered the extended 3000 batteries for my 2 household phones.
So...I guess the 3300 is a 3300. I think we all have to accept that technology is constantly changing with these phones. You got to hop in when you can and expect things to constantly upgrade and change. Clearly, my battery situation is much better with this 3000 mAh battery. My daily life no longer revolves around find a place to plug in my phone. Is 300 mAh really going to change your day? Not really.
actually i just put my order in last nite. so hopefully i get it by friday cause i chose the regular postal shipping cause it was $5. but total was like $80 and some cents uncluding shipping. so i should have a review about it by Monday after using it for the weekend.
did yours come charged or dead.. when i get mine do i put it on and turn phone and then charge, or what did you do for the first charge cycle..?
actually i just put my order in last nite. so hopefully i get it by friday cause i chose the regular postal shipping cause it was $5. but total was like $80 and some cents uncluding shipping. so i should have a review about it by Monday after using it for the weekend.
did yours come charged or dead.. when i get mine do i put it on and turn phone and then charge, or what did you do for the first charge cycle..?
Mine came with a partial charge. IIRC, I ran it down all the way then did the charging cycle that they recommended.
Has anyone's Seidio 3000mAH extended battery started acting weird? Mine doesn't last a whole day now. This is really pissing me off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Along with discharging and charging it for 5-6 charge cycles, make sure to leave it on the charger for 2-3 additional hours after the light indicates it is fully charged. If you are still have an issue, please PM me and I can assist you with the replacement process!
wish i wouldnt of been cheap and chosen a faster shipping time, here it is friday and i still havent gotten my battery.
edited a day later: Mail just came in, still nothing on the battery. Guess ill recieve it sometime next week or else ill have to be calling CS.
edited again Monday: recieved my battery in the mail a few ago. gonna drain the battery first then charge it like it says tonite after work. ill make a new post for my results on the battery.
Last edited by MannyrtFresh; January 31st, 2011 at 10:58 AM.
Device(s): EPICly Frozen and Syndecated device!
(on EC05 until 1.1 is released =))
Thanks: 2
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Is there any way to buy just a seidio battery door without the battery? Looked on the website but to no avail. Thanks, I really like the look of the battery door. =)
I just picked up a used 3000mah, and it is amazing! Without a doubt, it is more than double the life of the stock Samsung battery. I can't wait to get my Seidio 1600 for every day use to compare to the stock one.
Just got this battery yesterday. I fully drained it then charged it til it said it was full then left it on the charger for about 3 more hours just like the seido website recommends. Question is do I have to keep it on the charger after its charged every time or just the first initial charge discharge cycles?
The Samsung EPIC 4G is Sprint's specially branded version of the Samsung Galaxy S. Samsung announced all their Galaxy S devices simultaneously, and the EPIC 4G has several unique features and capabilities that help it stand out from ... Read More
[Review] Seidio 3000mAH Extended Life Battery
