Battery Questions

[gwlaw99]

Amazon.com: Seidio Innocell 1600mAh Slim Extended Life Battery for use with HTC myTouch 4G and HTC ThunderBolt - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories

 

[syntrix]

After their fiasco with the dinc batteries, I'm surprised that anyone is spending money with that company!

 

[gwlaw99]

What happened with those?

 

[odiej34]

I got one. I'll post back with stats in about a week.

 

[bjanow]

What happened with those?

Long story short. Some guy extensively tested the batteries and found the Seidio to be "overstating" the mAh. Seidio didn't defend itself in the forum although I think they were around. I think the 1750 came out around 1450 or something like that. Big brouhaha over there some months ago.

 

[syntrix]

What happened with those?

member independently tested a few of their "higher capacity" batteries for the dinc.

They weren't even close to what was advertised... then the vendor mysteriously stopped trolling in that thread.

 

[howarmat]

their 1750 mah battery tested 1500-1600 mah basically. I havent seen any other extended battery out there that doesnt require a larger case so not sure what to go with yet.

 

[dequardo]

Can other (EVO?) OEM batteries be used?

 

[djscoe]

Yeah, I had the 1750 for my DInc. Didn't work any better than the OEM battery.

 

[karmamule]

I got one. I'll post back with stats in about a week.

Thanks, looking forward to this! I was disappointed by their 1750 Incredible battery, so would like to hear if this one is better.

 

[sean76]

No way is this HTC TB Stock battery going to cut it for me, im getting absolutly terrible battery life. Granted its only been a day with the phone, But I seriously doubt its going to improve that much after a week of charging. This is just the way it is with HTC and there phones. Im addicted to the speed of this phone, so I have to say that right now, its just something that I will take the hit on, and place an order for the Seidio 1600mAh battery. Come on HTC, stop being so friggin cheap! A 1600 or 1700mAh battery should have been stock with this phone. Between screen size and 4G, that's just common sense IMO.

 

[Hellershanks]

I've seen one or two people already with the OEM extended battery, you should hit up a corporate store and see if they have it.

 

[dm33]

I've seen one or two people already with the OEM extended battery, you should hit up a corporate store and see if they have it.

I wonder how heavy and bulky it is with the extended battery?

And I think HTC puts in a tiny battery to make the phone lighter and smaller. Not to be cheap.

 

[theacoustician]

No way is this HTC TB Stock battery going to cut it for me, im getting absolutly terrible battery life. Granted its only been a day with the phone, But I seriously doubt its going to improve that much after a week of charging. This is just the way it is with HTC and there phones. Im addicted to the speed of this phone, so I have to say that right now, its just something that I will take the hit on, and place an order for the Seidio 1600mAh battery. Come on HTC, stop being so friggin cheap! A 1600 or 1700mAh battery should have been stock with this phone. Between screen size and 4G, that's just common sense IMO.

1. Bump charge to condition the battery
2. It'll get better once the phone learns the battery stats
3. Turn off stuff you're not using (BT, GPS, Wifi). Use Wifi when available because it uses less battery than 4G.
4. Gingerbread will probably bring additional improvements.

Myself and others seem to think this phone will level out at about 10-12 hours a charge with moderate/heavy usage in a 4G area. If that's not good enough, then you're really not going to be happy with most Android phones.

 

[ska.t73]

I wonder how heavy and bulky it is with the extended battery?

And I think HTC puts in a tiny battery to make the phone lighter and smaller. Not to be cheap.

I have the extended battery and it does add some weight and bulk to the phone (it has a "hump back"), with that said I actually LIKE the feel of the phone with the hump back. That is just my opinion though and yours might be different. You can always go into a VZW store and ask if you can try it out to see if it is something you like or not, they should be willing to let you do that, or at least show you one that has the extended battery on it already.

 

[sean76]

1. Bump charge to condition the battery
2. It'll get better once the phone learns the battery stats
3. Turn off stuff you're not using (BT, GPS, Wifi). Use Wifi when available because it uses less battery than 4G.
4. Gingerbread will probably bring additional improvements.

Myself and others seem to think this phone will level out at about 10-12 hours a charge with moderate/heavy usage in a 4G area. If that's not good enough, then you're really not going to be happy with most Android phones.

To be Frank, I've owned the Nexus one, EVO, Incredible, Droid X, Fascinate, Atrix , and ofcourse now the thunderbolt. I understand a lot about Android and how it works! But I will tell you right now, there is no way this phone gets 12 hours out of the stock battery with heavy to even moderate use in an LTE 4G area...lol, no way! Think about that statement, the EVO shipped with a 1500mAh battery, and 4G (wimax) wasn't even released yet here in NYC, and it was still terrible. The TB ships with a 1400mAh battery and 4G is alive and well here in NYC. Sorry man, I have to disagree! I just can't see it lasting that long with use on 4G! If Motorola can ship the Atrix with an 1850mAh battery , so can HTC! It's called being cheap.

 

[willdogs]

This is something that all new smartphone owners go thru

When I first got my crappy Droid Eris I could not get past 4-6 hours on a full charge and thought it was never going to get better. After a week or two with the phone, I was getting a full day and after a month I was getting a day and a half.

You know what I relaized? It was mostly my fault. I didnt realize how much I was playing with my phone when I first got it lol. I was SWEARING that I wasnt using it that much when in fact I was....

Give it time. In a few weeks if you still need a larger battery go for it. But dont waste money just yet.

 

[theacoustician]

To be Frank, I've owned the Nexus one, EVO, Incredible, Droid X, Fascinate, Atrix , and ofcourse now the thunderbolt. I understand a lot about Android and how it works! But I will tell you right now, there is no way this phone gets 12 hours out of the stock battery with heavy to even moderate use in an LTE 4G area...lol, no way! Think about that statement, the EVO shipped with a 1500mAh battery, and 4G (wimax) wasn't even released yet here in NYC, and it was still terrible. The TB ships with a 1400mAh battery and 4G is alive and well here in NYC. Sorry man, I have to disagree! I just can't see it lasting that long with use on 4G! If Motorola can ship the Atrix with an 1850mAh battery , so can HTC! It's called being cheap.

To each his own, but I think the smaller batter has to do with being thin, not cheap.

My Droid 1 did the same thing when I first got it. I think I was getting about 4-5 hours a charge. I settled into about 10-12 after everything settled down.

Last night I was using my phone moderately (web, streaming music, Youtube video or two, lots of background syncs) and I was at about 50% after 5 hours from a full charge.

 

[redraider1]

No way is this HTC TB Stock battery going to cut it for me, im getting absolutly terrible battery life. Granted its only been a day with the phone, But I seriously doubt its going to improve that much after a week of charging. This is just the way it is with HTC and there phones. Im addicted to the speed of this phone, so I have to say that right now, its just something that I will take the hit on, and place an order for the Seidio 1600mAh battery. Come on HTC, stop being so friggin cheap! A 1600 or 1700mAh battery should have been stock with this phone. Between screen size and 4G, that's just common sense IMO.

Can you post stats once the 1600mah battery comes in letting us know what improvement you saw from that over the stock battery?

 

[dguy]

Battery issues on most phones(including the Thunderbolt) are a combination of stock settings being very draining and the user not fully understanding everything that is going on with their current configuration. Users need to do extensive research(or perhaps I should make a really big in-depth thread so I don't have to repeat myself 50 times with long battery advice) to see what they need to do for long battery life.

The Thunderbolt has pretty good battery life from my own tests. Probably at least 50% better than the Incredible. I'll be blunt and say anyone having horrible battery life at this point just doesn't quite know what they are doing with the phone. These are computers, not feature phones. You can make a laptop last hours or 30 minutes depending on what you do with it. The exact same ideas apply to ultra high end smartphones. They in all likelihood left the phone mostly at stock configuration(which is very very bad for battery life), installed a bunch of apps that they left running in full on mode instead of sleep mode(Significant majority of people on this forum don't know the difference), and probably had stuff like Facebook set to sync at really silly intervals.

Some people might take offense to that, the more clever ones will see it for what it is and attempt to learn and improve their battery life significantly. I work a 9.5 hour shift. Used the phone pretty moderately throughout the day. More than an hour of web browsing over 3G, I listened to music for about 5 hours. Periodic checking of email and such. Didn't come down to anywhere near 50% battery level.

 

[DroidL]

My Droid 1 did the same thing when I first got it. I think I was getting about 4-5 hours a charge. I settled into about 10-12 after everything settled down.

Battery life sucked on that one but they did a D/L and went from crap to pretty damn good.



Sean,
I highly recommend NOT Buying the 1600 mah battery by Seidio because you are not adding that much and you will not be happy. I am guessing you should give the phone a little more time and if you still aren't happy look into an extended 2500 or 3500 with the larger back cover.

 

[redraider1]

Can't you purchase a battery that works with the mytouch 4 or other model that will fit in the tb? I thought I saw that somewhere and usually you can get them pretty cheap

 

[PhishFunkadelic]

I am getting surprisingly good battery life so far, although to be fair I don't live in a 4G area. My phone has been off of the charger for 5.5 hours now and I still have 87% battery life remaining. That is with moderate internet/app usage today. I am taking a trip to Minneapolis in a few weeks and I am looking forward to seeing how it lasts in the big 4G. I'll give it a few more days before I can say for sure but I'm satisfied for now.

 

[sean76]

Battery life sucked on that one but they did a D/L and went from crap to pretty damn good.



Sean,
I highly recommend NOT Buying the 1600 mah battery by Seidio because you are not adding that much and you will not be happy. I am guessing you should give the phone a little more time and if you still aren't happy look into an extended 2500 or 3500 with the larger back cover.

Yup, I'm going to give it a week or so to work its way out. I'm getting about 14hrs with heavy use on my Atrix after a week of charging cycles, and thats a dual core beast! However, I suspect 4G to be the killer on the TB's battery. I'll have the seidio battery in 2-3 days, just ordered it. I was happy with the incredible battery I got from them last year. Besides , can't help to have a spare.

 

[sean76]

Battery issues on most phones(including the Thunderbolt) are a combination of stock settings being very draining and the user not fully understanding everything that is going on with their current configuration. Users need to do extensive research(or perhaps I should make a really big in-depth thread so I don't have to repeat myself 50 times with long battery advice) to see what they need to do for long battery life.

The Thunderbolt has pretty good battery life from my own tests. Probably at least 50% better than the Incredible. I'll be blunt and say anyone having horrible battery life at this point just doesn't quite know what they are doing with the phone. These are computers, not feature phones. You can make a laptop last hours or 30 minutes depending on what you do with it. The exact same ideas apply to ultra high end smartphones. They in all likelihood left the phone mostly at stock configuration(which is very very bad for battery life), installed a bunch of apps that they left running in full on mode instead of sleep mode(Significant majority of people on this forum don't know the difference), and probably had stuff like Facebook set to sync at really silly intervals.

Some people might take offense to that, the more clever ones will see it for what it is and attempt to learn and improve their battery life significantly. I work a 9.5 hour shift. Used the phone pretty moderately throughout the day. More than an hour of web browsing over 3G, I listened to music for about 5 hours. Periodic checking of email and such. Didn't come down to anywhere near 50% battery level.

You just said it..3G! Yea maybe on 3G its decent. I'm in a full blown 4G area out here. And I havent even seen my phone go to 3G...lol! Either way, this is the way it is, and the only thing to do is deal and use some tricks to make it through the day. Either way, I will make work! Phone is BLAZING FAST though...very impressive on the speed side of things.