Help Extended Battery Questions

[Maacin87]

Ok, so I have a few questions about extended vs. stock batteries for Droid 3. I just ordered a Hyperion 3500 mah extended battery (link: Amazon.com: Hyperion Motorola DROID 3 Global 3500mAh Extended Battery + Back Cover: Cell Phones & Accessories) to try to really max out my battery life but here's the thing:

I've been running Steel Droid 4.5 for about 2 weeks and have experienced pretty good battery life (about 50% by the time I'd be going to sleep with moderate use). However, and I don't exactly know how/why, but my phone is now on over 4 days with 13% still left (AWESOME). Granted my talk times only been about 2 hours, some texting, light internet use, etc. which are below average for me but still over 4 days seems insane to me. Some extra info:

I keep my phone on the darkest display, use "Ultimate" setting on AutoKiller Memory Optimizer w/ advanced tweaks (SD, Memory Management, Battery*, UI, Network, and Wifi), use Extended Controls to generally keep off Wifi, Bluetooth, Sync, GPS (until I want to use obv), use Data Enabler to keep off 3G (until I want to use), use Timeriffic to go to Airplane mode from 1am-6am during the week, recently switched from AVG to Avast for anti-virus.

Questions: anyone have any review of either the Hyperion extended battery or other 3500 mah ones? Is it even worth switching considering the crazy battery life I just got? Anyone else have similar experience or opinion as to HOW this happened? Any other tips/comments? Bring it on, I'm pumped.

 

[NJ Fred]

I, too, invested in a large cpapcity battery. I have since stopped using it because it rendered my car holder and desktop stands unusable.

I also paused and took a good look at my usage of my D3. I found that I was either in my car or within easy reach of a desktop charger often enough that having my D3 simply go dead was highly improbable.

So, too, was it just about impossible to find a protective case when the high capacity battery was in use.

Now, I use the original Motorola Extended Battery that fits with the original back cover. This battery - at least in my circumstances - gives me all the juice I seem to require. And I do not have any root programs, task killers, etc. in use.

I am not, in any way, criticizing how you choose to use your D3. But from what I discern in your comment, you seem to be turning just about everything possible off. In my case, (again, no disrespect to you) that is not why I purchased a feature-rich phone.

Perhaps the solution that will benefit everyone who uses the D3 and other power-hungry handsets will be - someday - for the manufacturers to curb how quickly the power is drained. When cellular phones were merely for talking to another party, batteries had a life that was enviable. Now that they have become mobile entertainment centers, those days of high battery life with a stock battery are gone.

 

[doogald]

Questions: anyone have any review of either the Hyperion extended battery or other 3500 mah ones? Is it even worth switching considering the crazy battery life I just got? Anyone else have similar experience or opinion as to HOW this happened? Any other tips/comments? Bring it on, I'm pumped.

I do not have opinions myself, but if you read the comments on the battery at amazon.com, some people seem to have issues with it. However, this person's comment seems the best of the bunch:

Amazon.com: Odysseus' review of Hyperion Motorola DROID 3 Global 3500mAh E...

Third, other reviewers seemed to confirm that with the extended battery the Android battery meter would rapidly drop to 5% and then stay there for another 10 hours because the Android system battery statistics or calibration file is protected and can only be reset if you have root access on your phone. I have no interest in rooting, but I finally found an app called "Battery Monitor Widget" by "3c" which allows me to specify the 3500 mAH capacity of my battery. It also does its own battery calibration based on full charge/discharge cycles. And mysteriously, now that I've installed Battery Monitor Widget the built-in battery meter has started working correctly. Can't tell if it was just a matter of a week's worth of charge/discharge cycles that fixed the meter or whether the new battery app was able to update the Android battery calibration stats, but either way, "problem solved!"

The battery has good review as Amazon, but that battery status behavior is worth watching.