Battery Questions

[UBRocked]

There's frustration going on and I get it (I have a little bit too). But here's the key. You all have buying power. Verizon gives you 14 days to change your mind. Extended batteries are available...

Take the time to figure out how the battery shapes up...is it's good enough for you?...is an extended battery is an option?

If the stock battery life is a deal breaker, return the phone. Simple.

 

[dajogejr]

I've got the pregnant, fat daddy battery, the stocker has never been in the phone.
It's been charging since about 1PM via AC adapter (not computer USB) and it's only at 50% charge.
It had about 20% when I put it in at 9:30 AM and activated it.
Ran it down in a few hours....

This thing takes a LONG time to charge...I'm sure it's gonna be worth it.

 

[rushmore]

Come on folks

Look at the hardware on the the device, the data hungry apps and now 4G- not hard to appreciate the 1400mah battery will be challenged unless your moderate to heavy use equals light to most folks.

Valid points though by some in what is the point of having all the features if they need to be turned off. Still:

4.3" display + 1ghz cpu + 4G + wifi + gps + live wallpapers + background data + social apps + widgets + Flash = 3 minutes and 27 seconds of battery life

Well, probably about three hours if you have it all on and use it. This would be so for any phone with a 4.3" display and 4G level data.

added:

UBRocked, VZW might want to extend the 14 days for the TB, to avoid potential returns. This device has too much new stuff (4G mainly) going on to settle out in 14 days.

 

[UBRocked]

I've got the pregnant, fat daddy battery, the stocker has never been in the phone.
It's been charging since about 1PM via AC adapter (not computer USB) and it's only at 50% charge.
It had about 20% when I put it in at 9:30 AM and activated it.
Ran it down in a few hours....

This thing takes a LONG time to charge...I'm sure it's gonna be worth it.

That made me laugh! Thanks!

 

[theacoustician]

There's frustration going on and I get it (I have a little bit too). But here's the key. You all have buying power. Verizon gives you 14 days to change your mind. Extended batteries are available...

Take the time to figure out how the battery shapes up...is it's good enough for you?...is an extended battery is an option?

If the stock battery life is a deal breaker, return the phone. Simple.

Instead of "you all have buying power" (which you are correct), I'd rephrase that as "you are buying power". This is a hot rod phone. You don't buy a sports car, then complain about the mileage. If battery is what matters, take it back and get what suits you. The marketplace will eventually adjust to such user preferences.

I've got the pregnant, fat daddy battery, the stocker has never been in the phone.
It's been charging since about 1PM via AC adapter (not computer USB) and it's only at 50% charge.
It had about 20% when I put it in at 9:30 AM and activated it.
Ran it down in a few hours....

This thing takes a LONG time to charge...I'm sure it's gonna be worth it.

Are you wall charging or USB charging?

 

[Mallissa]

That made me laugh! Thanks!

Me too! I pictured a big, fat , pregnant man. lmao

 

[TheXFactor]

I'm sorry, but after having the Droid 1, Incredible, Droid X, Fascinate, Evo, one of the manufacturers of these phones sticks out like a sore thumb when it comes to battery life (hint: it's not Moto and not Samsung).

HTC needs to fix this because as more and more people shift to Android, HTC WILL TAKE A BIG HIT on repeat buyers.

Count me as one little pea in the pod. No more HTC phones for me. And it's just because of the poor battery life, whatever the reason.

The Droid X was an excellent phone for battery life. I mean truly excellent.

 

[jhsu123]

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

I ordered one too. I'll get it next week. I'll let you know as well.

 

[sean76]

Well I'm keeping this phone , even while I know there is better hardware on the Horizon! But there is enough alternatives out there to just deal. Granted we shouldn't have to, buy hey thats technology for ya. I will be keeping tabs on how it goes the next week. I doubt the TB will fare any where near what I'm getting.with the Atrix, but hopefully the Seidio 1600 does the trick. I'm not asking for a miracle, just about 8/9 hours on a full charge with heavy use...

As for this afternoon, I took it off the charger at 3:00pm at 100%, its now 4:30 here in NYC and I'm down to 70%...ehhh

 

[syntrix]

Seidio won't solve anything... see the other thread here....

Unless it's a different size, it's going be EXACTLY like the oem in the same form factor.

 

[ChiTownJim]

Yeah I don't see why anyone would spend $50 on a battery when for $15 you could buy an OEM battery and another $10 get an external charger with 2 knock off batteries

Just alternate the 2 oem batteries and charge them in the external charger you'll get better life out of them that way as well compared to charging in the phone

 

[Cavemansol]

The battery is more then capable, just turn off 4g! i took my phone off the charger at 830ish this morning, and at 215 im at 83%. thats including a short stent as a wireless router

 

[TomXP411]

Seidio won't solve anything... see the other thread here....

Unless it's a different size, it's going be EXACTLY like the oem in the same form factor.

THe OEM battery is around 1400mAh. The Sedio is 1600mAh. That's an increase of 200/1400 or 1/7. That's not very much.

The extended battery is 2750mAh, or nearly twice the stock battery's capacity. It should just about double the useful time of the phone.

But here's the thing: A device's power supply SHOULD be sized based on its expected usage over the course of a day. Ideally, it should have a 24 hour life with nominal usage, just in case the user forgot to put it on the charger the night before.

Personally, I'll have my phone's screen on somewhere between 2 to 4 hours a day. (I read. A lot.) Let's bump that to 6 hours to account for listening to music during drive time.

The iPad can run full-tilt for 9-10 hours. The Xoom can do it for about 6-7. The Galaxy Tab can do it for about the same as the Xoom. Is it unreasonable to expect 6 hours of in-use time and 18 hours of standby time? HTC advertises this phone as haivng a talk time of 6 hours and a standby time of more than 100 hours. All we're asking for is the device to operate as advertised. Is that really too much to ask?

I understand arguments about "managing the device", but you shouldn't have to manage the device. The operating system is certainly smart enough to turn things off when they're not needed, and the device should come from the factory configured for optimal power usage. Mr Joe Six Pack shouldn't have to go dig out a power management app that may or may not work, and he shouldn't have to go all over the place on the Internet trying to learn the mystical secrets of power management.

A cell phone is NOT just made for geeks. It's made for everyone, and everyone should be able to pull it out of the box, put in a battery, and just use it. If it requires a BS in Computer Science just to operate the thing, then it's failing in its mission as a piece of consumer electronics.

Personally, I'm going to give my phone until next Thursday, and then I'll see if I can stretch a full day's use out of the OEM battery. If not, it goes back to Best Buy, and I wait for the Bionic. If things DO get better... well, then I'll be very happy with what I got.

 

[Cavemansol]

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.

Android 2.1 to 2.2 was a huge improvement to the battery life, if nothing else, gingerbread will help a ton.

Plus, disabling 4g makes a monsterous difference.

 

[Cavemansol]

A cell phone is NOT just made for geeks. It's made for everyone, and everyone should be able to pull it out of the box, put in a battery, and just use it. If it requires a BS in Computer Science just to operate the thing, then it's failing in its mission as a piece of consumer electronics.

Personally, I'm going to give my phone until next Thursday, and then I'll see if I can stretch a full day's use out of the OEM battery. If not, it goes back to Best Buy, and I wait for the Bionic. If things DO get better... well, then I'll be very happy with what I got.

Id say thats accurate if it werent a "smartphone". Being what it is, it isnt made for everyone. If someone wanted just a phone, then anything they buy in that market will last for days on a single charge.

These are mobile computers dude, itd be stupid to assume you could just go pick up a new laptop and know the ins and outs of it immediately, and be pissed when it doesnt do everything for you.

As for the ipads/xoom's, The batteries in those are monsterous, and on top of that, they dont have to worry about cellular signals, so theres another energy sapper gone.

All that being said, i do agree that if HTC indeed did say 6hours talk time, then it should be able to do it. False advertising otherwise. Shit, id be satisfied if they were honest and just said 3 hour talk time, which seems to be more accurate.

 

[odiej34]

The battery is more then capable, just turn off 4g! i took my phone off the charger at 830ish this morning, and at 215 im at 83%. thats including a short stent as a wireless router

How did you turn off 4g

 

[theacoustician]

As for the ipads/xoom's, The batteries in those are monsterous, and on top of that, they dont have to worry about cellular signals, so theres another energy sapper gone.

I agree with everything else you said, but this is wrong.

There are iPads with 3G modems built in. The XOOM is currently ONLY available with a 3G modem built it.

 

[kcs7272]

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 no idea why HTC under powers their devices. I had the Atrix 4G it was shorter and thiner than the Thunderbolt yet it had a 1900 Mah battery in it stock.

So what's the deal HTC?? I just got mine about 2 hours ago so I have to wait a few days to determine the battery life. I have a feeling that some of the people with bad battery life may be in fringe LTE areas or just have bad signal to begin with.

We all know that if your device is constantly switching between 4g and 3g or even to 1x or searching for a stronger signal this will kill your battery really fast.

If battery becomes a major issue with a large amount of Thunderbolt owners it may be worth the time for ALL of us/them to contact HTC.....A LOT! this may force them to develop a larger capacity battery that is the same thickness.

 

[Cavemansol]

I agree with everything else you said, but this is wrong.

There are iPads with 3G modems built in. The XOOM is currently ONLY available with a 3G modem built it.

Isnt the 3g/4g signal unrelated to the cellular signal? Hence why a new and exciting thing is "Voice over Data"?

Im probably wrong, but i thought they were two different things.

 

[sean76]

Yes I second that question...how did you turn off 4G?

 

[Tryn2getaclu]

Just alternate the 2 oem batteries and charge them in the external charger you'll get better life out of them that way as well compared to charging in the phone

This is exactly what I want to do, please post links if you find them.

 

[syntrix]

Yes I second that question...how did you turn off 4G?

This!

Plus we all knew that 4G would require a LOT of power. I'm surprised by some of the early real world battery life reports! This is so awesome!

 

[TxGoat]

I think it's time for some people to unplug.....


Lets be serious here, if you can't get through the work day on your cell phone with the standard battery then you're either messing around way too much at work, or need to ask your employer to provide you with a simple phone that takes calls and accepts company emails.

I know some people are college students and like to play all sorts of games, update their facebook status, stream video from and to youtube, and then text 12 of their closest buddies about where they're going to do their latest binge drinking, but c'mon man (yes I like ESPN Monday Night Football) maybe it's not a super huge battery you're in need of but some Ritalin..../end rant

 

[syntrix]

4G requires a lot more power!

Think about it.. in a 1 min timeslice, you can download an isht-ton of data compared to 3G.

I think it's part:

1. New people using much more to play with the device
2. Potentially new android users, don't use ATK's.
3. Battery usage must be trained for the OS over a few days.

I was this with with my droidx the first few days, then realized I was using it so much more than my droid and it wasn't a valid comparison. I'm still on the fence about the phone, might wait a few months and see what shakes out!

 

[Cavemansol]

I think it's time for some people to unplug.....


Lets be serious here, if you can't get through the work day on your cell phone with the standard battery then you're either messing around way too much at work, or need to ask your employer to provide you with a simple phone that takes calls and accepts company emails.

I know some people are college students and like to play all sorts of games, update their facebook status, stream video from and to youtube, and then text 12 of their closest buddies about where they're going to do their latest binge drinking, but c'mon man (yes I like ESPN Monday Night Football) maybe it's not a super huge battery you're in need of but some Ritalin..../end rant

And ya i agree. Dont get me wrong, i love messin around with this thing...but im not pissed when it dies cause i just had to screw with my fantasy football/baseball teams for 4 hours...