Motorola is learning, why isn't HTC???

[Outlaw71]

I was checking out the specs of a few of the phones coming out and I noticed something about the Motorola Droid Pro that I have to admit I am a little jealous of... it comes stock with an 1860 mAh battery. Now then, here is a phone with a 3.7 inch display with a stock battery as big as my extended battery... THANK YOU Motorola, not that I'm switching over to a Droid Pro or anything, but I appreciate this train of thought. Give the customer more unplug time with their phone, what a novel idea. Of course this phone is supposed to entice a lot of RIM lovers to jump over to Android, so indeed it had better have good battery life... after all that is one of Blackberry's strong points.

Now contrast that with the specs of the HTC Desire HD... here is a 4.3 inch screen smartphone coming out with a 1230 mAh battery? WTF??? Where is the logic in that HTC? I don't give a damn what number they throw at us for 'talk-time', all of us DX owners know that talking on this phone does not kill the battery. Playing around on that huge screen is what kills the battery. Their decision to put such a small battery in such a large phone astounds me. I personally feel like Motorola should have shipped the DX with the extended battery instead of the 1540 mAh battery that came with it. I can't even imagine this phone with a 1230 mAh battery powering it!

And I'm well aware that different phones can be more efficient than others and we haven't seen what the numbers look like with the Desire HD yet. But that doesn't really matter IMO. They could have easily developed this phone with at least a 1540 mAh battery if not something more along the lines of the 1860 the Droid Pro is getting. So even if the phone gets 'decent' battery life out of the 1230 mAh it's coming with, they could have easily given their customers 50% more performance. Their decision not to, IMO just shows that they don't care.

This disappointed me because I'm looking for alternatives to Motorola when I get my next phone and I really want to like HTC. But I've heard a lot of negative things about the Dinc and the EVO, and then I saw that and I just thought, "are you kidding me"???

Well I'm the kind of guy that gives credit where credit is due. So as much as I feel like you've done wrong as of late Motorola, I have to give you kudos on this point. Throwing a bigger battery in a phone with a smaller screen than the DX is a really good move IMO... a move I would like to see more OEM's making. Bravo.

 

[WTF]

I haven't really looked at the HTC Desire HD, but if the 1230 Mah battery you described is what HTC is delivering with it, that just makes me more glad I opted for my Droid X.

But maybe there is a legit reason for the lower capacity battery? Ultra-efficient processor, etc

 

[Outlaw71]

But maybe there is a legit reason for the lower capacity battery? Ultra-efficient processor, etc

Yeah but IMO this is backwards thinking... if you have a phone with an ultra-efficient processor, that's great! Pair it with a nice, beefy 1800ish mAh battery and let your customers enjoy a full days worth of use no matter how heavily you use the device.

I can't imagine it's all that much more efficient than say the EVO is. In fact to me it basically looks like an EVO for the Verizon network. The 4.3 inch screen is going to suck that battery dry if it's on all the time. And that's what kills me, the commercials for these phones show people out running around watching television shows, movies, playing video games on them, and all that jazz. If I were to watch a 2 hour movie on my phone without it being plugged it, I wouldn't get a whole lot more use out of it after that, that's forsure.

If they're going to advertise doing those kinds of things with these devices, why don't they design their batteries to hold up to those kinds of activities? To me a 1230 mAh battery is just not a very intelligent choice for a smartphone with a screen that size... heck people complain about battery life with their Incredibles that have batteries that size, and their screens are only 3.7 inches!

 

[Deleted User]

It doesn't really matter if it's an ultra-efficient processor (which it's not). The screen is a big drain, and the wireless radios are a big drain. Neither of those are improved.

It's a downright stupid design choice, just like the Incredible. Hell, the Incredible's stock battery cover fits a 1500 mAh battery, so it's not like it was even a form-factor choice. It was stupid cost cutting and look at the Incredible forum - absolutely littered with "my battery sucks" and "which battery should I buy."

Totally agree. I can't possibly understand why a company would pack all of these deliciously energy-sucking features into their phones and then saddle it with a tiny battery.

 

[bigbadwulff]

HTCs feel like cheap crap.

 

[eraursls1984]

I was hoping you were gonna say their new phones were gonna be unlocked, although as long as I can have what I have now with the DX I think ill be happy.

 

[jroc]

I said almost the exact same thing about their decision with the Incredible, and with Desire HD.

Its mind boggling...Its also funny ppl in a thread I posted in about the Desire HD at another forum....the Engadget review mentions the small battery a few times, I tried to point out the battery life is bad cuz its a tiny battery.....and some folks still missed it...

The Droid has a 550Mhz cpu, the Inc a 1Ghz one...and HTC puts a smaller battery in the Inc compared to the one in the Droid.

HTC did this with one of their WP7 phones too....a 1200 mAh battery...thats like the smallest battery in any current smartphone..

Its mind boggling...yea a 45nm cpu helps with battery life, but at least give the phone a battery thats in most current phones.

 

[breynolds007]

I completely agree and don't understand this either. I also like HTC and want to consider them for devices in the future but so far it's amazing they continue to do this when it should be a relatively easy fix.

 

[Deleted User]

Its mind boggling...yea a 45nm cpu helps with battery life, but at least give the phone a battery thats in most current phones.

Yep, but even at that - the DX has a 45nm processor for improved battery life, and people STILL have battery life problems/concerns/complaints.

 

[Steven58]

I going to move this to where you'll get a wider audience. It's a general topic, not really DX related. Thanks!

 

[Kabob]

Wow, that weak of a battery? That is a step backwards.

 

[clutchy]

I've noticed that Motorola tends to use higher quality components in their phones than HTC does.

I have a nexus which of course is an HTC phone and the screen is great but the touch screen is crap... the signal isn't as good as on other motorola phones...

the fit and finish of the phone isn't as good, back case doesn't fit properly...


don't get me wrong i love the phone i just wish motorola made it...


personally i'd stick w/ motorola and i'll be looking to them for my next phone, but it has to be gsm or LTE w/ a sim.

 

[Martimus]

It continues to strike me as odd that HTC continues using comparatively underpowered batteries. They really should know better!

 

[Exiled]

Two things I don't like about HTC: their sucky battery life, and their cheap build quality. However, I do compliment HTC on the gorgeous designs of their phones. I love the way the inc and the new desire HDs look. I am always tempted to buy the next greatest HTC phone based on that, but then I read about other issues and remember to not buy HTC. Most people I know with incs and evos are jealous of my phone's battery life, and they think its amazing that I can make it through the day on 1 charge. Also, I feel like their phones are not solid since they are made mostly out of plastic. They just feel cheap.

 

[Drhyde]

HTCs feel like cheap crap.

My nexus one disagrees with you.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

Yet HTC Sense >>>>>> Moto-Blur :|

 

[Martimus]

Yet HTC Sense >>>>>> Moto-Blur :|

And lets not forget that Vanilla Android >>>>>>>>> HTC Sense...

 

[BORIStheBLADE]

I do agree with the OP, the battery is pretty small.
The only thing I can think about is HTC wants to keep the total phone weight and thickness down.

My HTC inc is pretty thin and I wouldn't mind it being a little thicker to have a better battery, but I feel I shouldn't have to buy a larger battery for a brand new device.

With the momentum Android has all the manufacturers seem to be focusing on bigger and faster to get sales.

 

[Demache]

Nokia BP-4L 1500 mAh battery on left

HTC BTR6200B 1300 mAh battery on right

The Nokia was a far cheaper phone (not on contract) and was a year older and the battery sizes are almost identical.

Methinks its cost cutting. Doesn't matter to me though. Bought a 3500 mAh battery, and now it is hard pressed to be drained in a day.

 

[alextop30]

Here is how I found a solution for my HTC EVO. Since I am a lazy ass and I do not like my phone plugged to the outlet I bought 2 extra batteries 1500mAh with the battery charger for 15 dollars from amazon. It charges all 3 batteries better than the wall plug plus my phone is never on a cord.

Next stop bitching at the battery life guys - all of you that want battery life pickup a blackberry and see how poor the interface is and after that you will feel good that you have a droid device trust me I changed from BB Bold 9700. I am so happy I touch my HTC at night.

In the EVO I know the extended battery you can get is something like 3000mAh so I don't really see where the problem is. You get a bunch more extra time for a slightly larger phone on the back side.

Battery power I feel will improve drastically as new technologies in storing electricity are implemented but until that time buy an extra batter and don't forget it could be worse you can have a Blackberry or even worse Steve Jobs may turn you into his slave.

 

[Outlaw71]

My original post was not supposed to be a slam against HTC, I was honestly just truely shocked when I compared the specs of the upcoming phones. I think HTC designs are some of the sweetest on the market. When I was first contemplating my first real Android device (I got initiated on a Droid 1 over a weekend, but decided I wanted to get something more up to date), I went back and forth between the DX and the Dinc. I thought the Incredible was a bit more stylish and I really wanted the trackball, but the big screen of the Droid X, and the feel of the metal frame eventually swung my vote over to the Motorola. Now, had the EVO been available on the Verizon network I can pretty much guarantee that's the phone I would have wound up with. Because it had the big screen, the front facing camera, and a nifty built in kick stand (my leather case with the kick stand came in rather handy indeed).

Now, having owned the X for 3 months now I can say without a doubt that I would never have had any use for the forward facing camera, as I honestly don't know but maybe two other people with front facing camera's in their phones that would have even allowed me to use one. And secondly... well I rarely ever talk on the phone period, let alone 'video confrence'. Now then, once they come out with 'video texting'... I'll get me a front facing camera phone.

So back to my original comments, yes I do realize that you can buy bigger/better batteries for these phones. I had to do that very thing with my DX because I was not getting out of my stock battery what I needed to get out of it. But I feel as if these manufacturers should be giving us decent enough battery life that we shouldn't assume we're going to need an extended battery the very same day we pick up our phone. For one thing, we DX owners were waiting around for quite some time before they even released the basic extended battery... and we STILL don't have the big one Seidio promised us. Verizon's extended battery adds barely anything to the weight and feel of the phone, so I'm of the opinion that they really should have just given us that battery straight away. If that had been the stock battery, I would have been satisfied enough that Seidio could have taken their own sweet time (as they have) without me getting impatient about it.

So then I feel that HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and any other OEM that's going to release smartphones with 4+ inch screens really aughta give their customers a minimum of an 1800 mAh battery powering it straight out of the gate. For starters it saves us from having almost no choice but to spend $50 bucks on an extended battery, but the other thing is, most case manufacturers design a phones case around the stock form. You can usually find a few cases that fit the phone with the extended battery and the bigger battery door, but your choices shrink considerably if you throw in a bigger power source.

So here's the thing, I like the look of both the HTC Desire HD and Incredible HD... but I view it as a big disadvantage that they come with such dinky batteries, which will force me to purchase at least one extended battery (I know this for a fact because the 1820 mAh extended battery I bought for my DX gives me what I consider to be a good baseline amount of power for my device... I couldn't get by with the 1540 mAh battery it came with, nevermind a 1230 offering), which in turn will limit my choices of cases. So I say HTC, reverse this trend and start supplying your HD phones with something more realistic behind the battery door.

And I don't just say this to HTC, I feel the same way towards all of the OEM's. I was just pleasantly surprised to see Motorola taking the initiative to pack a nice beefy battery in one of their new offerings, and it isn't even a big screen device. That actually gave me a glimmer of hope, I like that sign. And I'm hoping the other OEM's are going to follow suit. Sure energy storing technology will eventually give us batteries the size of a nickel that will power these HD devices for days. But in the mean time... 1230 mAh??? Come on, give us a break already.

 

[BORIStheBLADE]

Here is how I found a solution for my HTC EVO. Since I am a lazy ass and I do not like my phone plugged to the outlet I bought 2 extra batteries 1500mAh with the battery charger for 15 dollars from amazon. It charges all 3 batteries better than the wall plug plus my phone is never on a cord.

Next stop bitching at the battery life guys - all of you that want battery life pickup a blackberry and see how poor the interface is and after that you will feel good that you have a droid device trust me I changed from BB Bold 9700. I am so happy I touch my HTC at night.

In the EVO I know the extended battery you can get is something like 3000mAh so I don't really see where the problem is. You get a bunch more extra time for a slightly larger phone on the back side.

Battery power I feel will improve drastically as new technologies in storing electricity are implemented but until that time buy an extra batter and don't forget it could be worse you can have a Blackberry or even worse Steve Jobs may turn you into his slave.

Haha your funny. BB's are a totally different animal. They do last a long time, but people aren't asking for their Android phones to last three days, but somewhere around 10 - 14 hours with normal use.

Speaking of technical advances.... While phones are getting lighter, faster and thinner don't you think the battery life should start moving that direction too? Its ok for them to get smaller, but lets not compromise the battery life..

 

[Demache]

Haha your funny. BB's are a totally different animal. They do last a long time, but people aren't asking for their Android phones to last three days, but somewhere around 10 - 14 hours with normal use.

Speaking of technical advances.... While phones are getting lighter, faster and thinner don't you think the battery life should start moving that direction too? Its ok for them to get smaller, but lets not compromise the battery life..

Battery technology has been pretty stagnant for years now.

 

[conor.in]

With any phone it's important to realize that what you hear may not always be the case. I'm obviously an HTC fan based on my looming (9 days!) purchase of an Evo, but we tend to hear the negatives about everything. As someone on here said recently, no one comes to this board when everything works.

 

[Brisdaddy1207]

My original post was not supposed to be a slam against HTC, I was honestly just truely shocked when I compared the specs of the upcoming phones. I think HTC designs are some of the sweetest on the market. When I was first contemplating my first real Android device (I got initiated on a Droid 1 over a weekend, but decided I wanted to get something more up to date), I went back and forth between the DX and the Dinc. I thought the Incredible was a bit more stylish and I really wanted the trackball, but the big screen of the Droid X, and the feel of the metal frame eventually swung my vote over to the Motorola. Now, had the EVO been available on the Verizon network I can pretty much guarantee that's the phone I would have wound up with. Because it had the big screen, the front facing camera, and a nifty built in kick stand (my leather case with the kick stand came in rather handy indeed).

Now, having owned the X for 3 months now I can say without a doubt that I would never have had any use for the forward facing camera, as I honestly don't know but maybe two other people with front facing camera's in their phones that would have even allowed me to use one. And secondly... well I rarely ever talk on the phone period, let alone 'video confrence'. Now then, once they come out with 'video texting'... I'll get me a front facing camera phone.

So back to my original comments, yes I do realize that you can buy bigger/better batteries for these phones. I had to do that very thing with my DX because I was not getting out of my stock battery what I needed to get out of it. But I feel as if these manufacturers should be giving us decent enough battery life that we shouldn't assume we're going to need an extended battery the very same day we pick up our phone. For one thing, we DX owners were waiting around for quite some time before they even released the basic extended battery... and we STILL don't have the big one Seidio promised us. Verizon's extended battery adds barely anything to the weight and feel of the phone, so I'm of the opinion that they really should have just given us that battery straight away. If that had been the stock battery, I would have been satisfied enough that Seidio could have taken their own sweet time (as they have) without me getting impatient about it.

So then I feel that HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and any other OEM that's going to release smartphones with 4+ inch screens really aughta give their customers a minimum of an 1800 mAh battery powering it straight out of the gate. For starters it saves us from having almost no choice but to spend $50 bucks on an extended battery, but the other thing is, most case manufacturers design a phones case around the stock form. You can usually find a few cases that fit the phone with the extended battery and the bigger battery door, but your choices shrink considerably if you throw in a bigger power source.

So here's the thing, I like the look of both the HTC Desire HD and Incredible HD... but I view it as a big disadvantage that they come with such dinky batteries, which will force me to purchase at least one extended battery (I know this for a fact because the 1820 mAh extended battery I bought for my DX gives me what I consider to be a good baseline amount of power for my device... I couldn't get by with the 1540 mAh battery it came with, nevermind a 1230 offering), which in turn will limit my choices of cases. So I say HTC, reverse this trend and start supplying your HD phones with something more realistic behind the battery door.

And I don't just say this to HTC, I feel the same way towards all of the OEM's. I was just pleasantly surprised to see Motorola taking the initiative to pack a nice beefy battery in one of their new offerings, and it isn't even a big screen device. That actually gave me a glimmer of hope, I like that sign. And I'm hoping the other OEM's are going to follow suit. Sure energy storing technology will eventually give us batteries the size of a nickel that will power these HD devices for days. But in the mean time... 1230 mAh??? Come on, give us a break already.

Motorola sucks no matter what lol. Sorry