What is the average expected battery life?

[Boyne Shark]

Having had various Nokias for years, and one Blackberry, I've been presented with an early Father's Day gift of an HTC Hero, I've found it difficult to get used to but I'm getting there, however one thing I am going to have difficulty with is the short battery life.
With my old Nokia, a Nokia 6110 Navigator, I was easily able to get about 5 days from my battery under normal usage which would be mainly sending text messages and the odd phone call but with the HTC Hero I can barely get 2 days from the battery. To my knowledge the only apps which connect to the Net, without permission, are the Weather app and Gmail. I would prefer if I could set the Weather App only to connect if I really want to know the weather, and Gmail only if I want to know what e-mails I have. I'm guessing such things affect the battery life. Clearly Bluetooth and WiFi are turned off.
I'm curious to know what battery life others get, and more to the point how they get it?

 

[hilgerone]

Wow, two days! Consider yourself blessed. Just plug it in every night. Never could figure out why some folks don't want to plug it in daily. It won't hurt the battery at all. Put the charger by the bed a viola, plenty o battery.
There are also numerous discussions on this board about battery life, battery life improvements, and extended batteries. Do a little searching and it will turn up a wealth of info. I'm contemplating which extended battery to get as I'm happy to make it 12 hours with mine.

 

[Xyro]

I can usually around 2 days, depending on how much I use it, but all the things I've done to improve it require root/2.1.

When you get updated to 2.1, get JuiceDefender. It's lets you leave your internet on but without wrecking the battery.

 

[Joehunni]

I get roughly 8 to 15 hours depending on use so you should feel like Jesus with your piss poor 2 days lol.

 

[Xyro]

Ok we need to clear things up here guys:

What phone are you talking about Boyne Shark?

This is the GSM Hero section but Joehunni and hilgerone should really be in the CDMA Hero section

 

[Boyne Shark]

I have an HTC Hero locked to the Meteor network in Ireland, I've seen some crazy battery life quoted such as " Stand-by of Up to 440 h (2G) / Up to 750 h (3G)" on gsmarena

[/URL][url=http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hero-2861.php]HTC Hero - Full phone specifications[/url][URL="http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hero-2861.php"]

I'm guessing to get this kind of Stand-by life from your battery there must be a full moon during a high tide while the wind blows from the East and you stand on your left leg.... or something like that.

Am I to understand that there are "extended battery's", battery's of a larger capacity which may extend the life beyond a day or two, and if so what can be expected from these batteries and where can they be bought?

Thank you for your replies and help so far.

 

[Xyro]

Yeah you can never really believe the battery life quotes. But there are some things to try. Turning off Mobile data/WiFi/GPS/Bluetooh when not actually using them is a definite must. Screebl (free) is a useful app too; you can set the screen timeout as low as you want when using it. I think there's a list of all these tips somewhere, it's been discussed here before.

But in general, it's pretty normal to have to charge a smartphone every day or too. I guess battery life technology hasn't been keeping up with all the new advances in hardware.

I bought an extended battery of 3000MHz (as oppposed to the Hero's 1350MHZ). It does last more than twice as long, obviously, but it sticks out massively. It adds about another 50% of the hero's length to the back. It's pretty annoying so I don't use it often.

So I'd buy an extended battery that fits in the existing back cover, if you can.

 

[adam_hilluk]

i barely get a day out of mine so 2 days is blessed

i'm going to try this scrrebl suggested and hope it improves things, have no idea what to expect though....

 

[Wardogz]

Try switching to GSM only if you are in a non 3g area, the phone uses alot of battery when it searching for a 3g signal and can't find one

 

[Xyro]

Try switching to GSM only if you are in a non 3g area, the phone uses alot of battery when it searching for a 3g signal and can't find one

By dialing *#*#4636*#*#*, tapping Phone Information and selecting it from the dropdown menu.

GSM auto (Prl) works with 3G and is better than the default setting in terms of battery life. But it may not work on all networks.