Battery on Skyrocket

[vracer]

When I went to AT&T today to check on iPhone 4 upgrade, the woman said she had personally had two Skyrockets returned for battery life. She says that she uses an htc Vivid and an iPhone. That's not a good reccomendation, but it's why I'm here.

The iPhone 4s underwhelms me. I guess I'm being simplistic, but I thought I could just have only the phone and texts "hot". If I want news, I can go to the Times, BBC, or Bloomberg to get it. If I want weather, I go to The Weather Channel to get it. I guess it marks me as an old guy, but I actually wear a wristwatch. I can't imagine having to reach into my pocket and turn on a device to find out what the time is.

My wife is in Euroland now; it is actually her phone that will be"upgraded", and she will get my iPhone 4. I have two weeks to make up my mind, so I'll be here a lot.

Two questions:
Is the Skyrocket AT&T only?
Is the Galaxy worse than other Android phones?
Q3: Does true 4G take more battery than h-spca, or whatever imitation 4G the iPhone 4s uses, and Q4: Can it be turned off when all you want to do is talk or text?

 

[BlackZenith]

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. Yes, if you turn off data... No, if you mean turning it off like the 3G toggle on the iPhone 3GS(which in turn puts in on Edge).

If you don't want/need LTE, you can get the original Galaxy S2. Word on the forum is that it gets better battery life.

 

[cap223]

Yes, I have had a similar experience with the Powerskin. Definitely not the cheapest option but one that works very, very well. It is especially useful when travelling and when one really wants the extended battery life. The problem is that the Powerskin for Skyrocket is currently only available at the AT&T stores. If one cares to wait a little bit, they would become available through shops like Amazon, etc, and the price would drop.

It is available on Amazon right now:

PowerSkin Protective Case with Built-in Battery for Samsung Galaxy SII SkyRocket (AT&T) AP1516i72, Black

 

[jeremylub]

I got my Skyrocket a week ago. I have usually been impressed with the battery - talking for a bit, surfing for a bit, or just letting it sit and its is fine and hardly budges. BUT, twice now it has sucked down in no time. I had a FULL charge, left it in the car while I did stuff for 3hrs, and came back and it was DEAD. This was 4 days ago. Last night it went from >50% to almost nothing in 2hrs. Not sure what is going on. Perhaps a bad unit.. or maybe I have something stupid running that I dont know about, but really have not loaded a much apps or anything, and dont have anything but the usual email, FB, etc running.

Ideas? Any way to manage runaway battery drain? This is a deal-breaker for me if it can't be stopped - but obviously it should not be happening.

 

[Eggrollz]

I got the power skin through the AT&T website last week for $35 with free shipping. It's back to $80 now. I fully charge the phone and the power skin and then turn off the power skin and just leave it plugged in since there's an on/off option for it. When the phone reaches 20% battery life left I turn on the power skin and charge the phone until the power skin gets depleted which brings the phone back to ~80%. I get a full day and more using it this way, currently i'm at 22hrs since my last full charge on the phone.

 

[nubie]

cute

 

[z28forlife]

I just checked on the phone at AT&T and its sweet! But the battery issue is keeping me from getting it.

 

[JonKimJV]

So I've heard that the battery isn't too good on the Skyrocket. This might be a dumb question but is it possible to just replace the 1850 battery with a stronger battery?

 

[andyroo]

When I first got my phone, the battery issue was overwhelming. I would unplug in the morning, and by the time I got home from work (after maybe a few texts and 15-20 minutes on the web) I would be at around 10-15% battery. TERRIBLE! If anyone is having issues that severe, you might want to try what I did - just do a factory reset. Make sure you save all your contacts and info to storage first. I cleaned house, got Juice Defender, and now I'm in a much happier place!!

 

[JonKimJV]

Are Hyperion batteries any good? It comes with a chinese charger but can that charger affect anything?