Report: poor battery life in 4G smartphones makes for unhappy customers

[ronjor]

By Casey Johnston

The lackluster battery life of 4G-capable phones is dragging them down in consumer ratings, according to data collected by J.D. Power and Associates. The company noted dissatisfaction with battery life "greatly impacted" customers' satisfaction with their smartphones. Because of that, owners of first-generation 4G smartphones are some of the least happy customers out there.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/...-customers.ars

[Noob]

They should stop using their smartphones so much then

[treehouse786]

not so 'smart' after all

[Mrkvonic]

Hihi, my ancient non-smartphone runs 2 weeks without recharging
Mrk

[vasa1]

Free apps suck your power: researchers

As you tap away at your free copy of Angry Birds and sneer at those who pay for games, consider this: how much is it costing you in battery life?

Plenty, according to a study conducted by researchers from Microsoft and Purdue University. Their work, which presents the results produced by an energy profiling tool called eprof, concluded that as much as 70% of the power use of free games has nothing to do with gameplay, and everything to do with downloading advertisements and tracking users.

[Noob]

Originally Posted by Mrkvonic

Hihi, my ancient non-smartphone runs 2 weeks without recharging
Mrk

If i turn off my data and all wireless services except calls/messages i would get like a week or week and a half
That's only if i don't use it a single second.

[roger_m]

I think the battery of life of my 3G smartphone (Motorola Defy) is bad enough.

Here in Australia the HTC Velocity is receiving a lot of advertising from local telecomunications company Telstra for being their first 4G phone. Which is a shame due to it's poor battery life, which of course is something the ads don't mention. A friend of mine bought one and very shortly after was trying to sell it for only $100 due to the battery life problem.

[Noob]

Well if you use your cellphonw constantly then it will not last very long for sure.

[roger_m]

Originally Posted by Noob

Well if you use your cellphonw constantly then it will not last very long for sure.

True, but quite often with smartphones the battery life is poor even if you are using the phone.

[tobacco]

Believe me..... if your worried about battery life then just move to the new "Samsung Note" which comes with a 5.3 inch screen and large battery. I have it's close relative - the Galaxy Media Player 5.0 (5 inch screen, large battery as well).

Here is an example of the battery life i had yesterday beginning with a full charge and my device powered on for 10 hours before turning off:

- downloaded and listened to 7 hours of audio podcasts
- 30 minutes of FM radio
- 1 hour web browsing that included a few online videos
- some time on android market updating 5 apps (1 app was a large 47mb game update)
- email (4 accounts)
- Dell Voice switched on for 4 hours ( free voip calling/receiving with free phone number)
- WiFi and GPS running about half the time

And when going to bed, still had 50% battery left

EDIT: Forgot to mention receiving and reading "tweets" every 30 minutes

[treehouse786]

my iphone 4 battery lasts 1 and a half days of heavy usage

[funkydude]

Originally Posted by treehouse786

my iphone 4 battery lasts 1 and a half days of heavy usage

That's "3G", not "4G".

[roger_m]

Originally Posted by tobacco

Here is an example of the battery life i had yesterday beginning with a full charge and my device powered on for 10 hours before turning off:

That is impressive battery life. However I'm not too sure about 5.3" screen, I think I would find it too big for a phone - I was using a Galaxy S2 the other day and even the 4.3" screen on that seemed a little too big.

A little off topic since this is a 3G phone, but I just ordered a Chinese android phone which comes with a a second back cover with a battery inside (and a charging socket) and clips onto the standard back cover to give extra battery life.

[farmerlee]

Poor battery life is the reason i havent made the switch to 4g yet, current chipsets are far too power hungry and battery technology is severely lacking.
The only good performers seem to be the handsets with huge batteries such as the samsung galaxy note with its 2500mah battery and the motorola razr maxx with its 3300mah battery.

[tobacco]

Originally Posted by roger_m

That is impressive battery life. However I'm not too sure about 5.3" screen, I think I would find it too big for a phone - I was using a Galaxy S2 the other day and even the 4.3" screen on that seemed a little too big.

IMO, the large screen is definitely worth it and it's surprisingly "pocket-able".