Poor Battery Life in Current crop of 4G phones?

BDD888 · Oct 5, 2011

I was told that 4G android phones currently have really bad battery life. Stories of people bringing their charger to work or the phone won't last the day (8 hours). True? Or is that only of the 1st gen 4G phones?

What about the Motorola Atrix/Bionic? Samsungs?

MyssT · Oct 5, 2011

I have a Samsung Charge. That statement is true concerning my phone...the battery life is horrible! BUT....the phone is so nice to work with I don't mind. Hopefully there will be an app soon (they are already available for some phones) that will allow me to turn the 4G off when I don't need it!

I have all kinds of chargers all over the house and in my bag...

jerofld · Oct 5, 2011

You can't turn off your 4G? Ouch.

My phone reminds me if I have 4G on and doesn't detect a 4G signal so I can turn it off.

BDD888 · Oct 5, 2011

I just did a little research. Found out that the Samsung Galaxy S II can do 16 hours continuous. And I think 24 hours if on standby. So not bad. Though, there are some 4G phones rated at only 6.5 hours continuous.

How important is LTE ) | Rogers LTE? Is that something to have to future proof your 4G phone? Rogers...one of our main carriers...will be rolling out a Samsung Galaxy S II X LTE phone. Might consider that.

Was actually considering the Apple iPhone 4s but it's only a 3G. Which is okay for now but what about the future? If 4G does become the standard. Most of our major carriers support 4G.

BDD888 · Oct 5, 2011

MyssT said:
I have a Samsung Charge. That statement is true concerning my phone...the battery life is horrible! BUT....the phone is so nice to work with I don't mind. Hopefully there will be an app soon (they are already available for some phones) that will allow me to turn the 4G off when I don't need it!

I have all kinds of chargers all over the house and in my bag...

Which Samsung 4G phone do you have? The Galaxy S II? According to the specs you're supposed to get roughly 16 hours of continuous use no? How bad is the battery life?

ASC · Oct 5, 2011

4G is a new(ish) Technology, and it will take them time to tweak the radio's so they are more battery efficient.

I'm willing to bet that the "Model T" didn't have great fuel economy when they first started rolling off the assembly line.

afrost55 · Oct 5, 2011

I have the thunderbolt so i feel your pain. Turning off 4g works wonders, but then again it sucks because whats the point then.

pawdog · Oct 5, 2011

What's the point of it being on when not in use.

MyssT · Oct 5, 2011

Which Samsung 4G phone do you have?

Charge

I turn off all the background stuff that I can...my battery might last 5 hours with very intermittent use. 2 1/2 hours tops with continuous use.

Medion · Oct 6, 2011

BDD888 said:
I was told that 4G android phones currently have really bad battery life. Stories of people bringing their charger to work or the phone won't last the day (8 hours). True? Or is that only of the 1st gen 4G phones?

What about the Motorola Atrix/Bionic? Samsungs?

Anything using the first (current) generation 4G LTE chips (Verizon only, soon to be AT&T) will have less battery life than you're used to. These things are supposedly power hungry. Disabling them seems to make battery life noticeably more reasonable. However, I don't own one, so I can't comment on the ease of disabling 4G.

"4G" phones on T-Mobile and AT&T use existing 3G technology. Their battery life isn't any worse than you'd expect from a similar 3G phone. LTE is the current killer. Qualcomm has announced that they plan to integrate a second generation LTE implementation into their designs "soon." According to them, it will offer significant power savings over the current LTE chips. Qualcomm stated awhile back that they would be shipping to OEMs in late 2011, and I don't know if that schedule has moved in either direction. However, when chips are shipped to an OEM, it usually takes an average of 6-12 months before we start seeing phones using these chips on the market. So, we're talking nearly a year from now. source

Between the size and the power use, I can see why Apple claims that LTE isn't "ready" yet, even though I don't totally agree with them. source

Poor Battery Life in Current crop of 4G phones?

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