Phones Battery life on smart phones

[bmac4]

So I was just thinking about battery life, and how smartphone makers choose to release a phone with not so great battery life. In the past year I have had the nexus 4, iPhone 5, and note 2. The only phone with great battery life was the note 2, and that is because it had such a large battery. My question is how can these phone designers, and the makers feel good about sending a smartphone to the market with such crappy battery life? It is not like they don't know it because there is all kinds of beta testing with the phones before they release them.

Is it that Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung, and the rest of the gang just don't care? Is it they would rather have a small thin phone than have good battery life? Have we as consumers just said you can put whatever battery size you want. We will still buy the phone? It just seems like this would be something that is rather important in the phone design process. Maybe not.

 

[MRU]

It's the ever revolving problem. Consumers generally demand - and manufacturers want to impress/give us with much thinner and bigger screened devices with faster processors and graphics - but battery technology isn't quite keeping up to same speed as every other component.

Personally I'd rather they stop going for the .5 mm thinner each iteration and gave me 20-30% more battery than I would have had otherwise.

 

[bmac4]

It's the ever revolving problem. Consumers generally demand - and manufacturers want to impress/give us with much thinner and bigger screened devices with faster processors and graphics - but battery technology isn't quite keeping up to same speed as every other component.

Personally I'd rather they stop going for the .5 mm thinner each iteration and gave me 20-30% more battery than I would have had otherwise.

Yes I could careless how thin my phone is. You give me 3000mah battery, and that would be just fine with me. I actually prefer the fatter and heavy devices than the new thin phones. I love the weight and thickness of my old blackberries.

 

[JH-]

Consumers aren't voting with their wallets to push this demand. They aren't really being given the option of good battery variants but consumers aren't pushing enough for this over other features.

 

[bmac4]

Consumers aren't voting with their wallets to push this demand. They aren't really being given the option of good battery variants but consumers aren't pushing enough for this over other features.

Which I really don't understand. People complain about it enough. Why can't they demand it too? I would vote with my wallet, but what would I vote for? There is nothing on the market that has enough battery life.

I don't agree with the people that say it is only because battery technology has not caught up with phone technology. Sure battery tech has not grown very much in the last 10 years, but that does not mean you can't put bigger batteries in phones. No phone on the market has anything close to a 3000 mAh battery. I know phone makers want small phones, but come on. Some of us do care more about battery life.

 

[bearda]

Which I really don't understand. People complain about it enough. Why can't they demand it too? I would vote with my wallet, but what would I vote for? There is nothing on the market that has enough battery life.

I don't agree with the people that say it is only because battery technology has not caught up with phone technology. Sure battery tech has not grown very much in the last 10 years, but that does not mean you can't put bigger batteries in phones. No phone on the market has anything close to a 3000 mAh battery. I know phone makers want small phones, but come on. Some of us do care more about battery life.

If you really want to vote with your wallet get a Motorola Razr Maxx

 

[bmac4]

If you really want to vote with your wallet get a Motorola Razr Maxx

Not on Verizon

 

[tbayrgs]

If you really want to vote with your wallet get a Motorola Razr Maxx

Or a Galaxy Note II, LG Optimus G Pro, LT G2, upcoming Note III, possibly the HTC One Max...

Sure, most of those are pretty large but they do have substantial batteries.

Kidding aside, I agree as much as everyone that devices are thin enough. Improve the battery tech and we can keep those thin devices while increasing battery life.

 

[Markyboy81]

The s4 is a very thin phone yet still manages to accommodate a massive battery. For me personally battery life has never been an issue as I generally get through the day without needing to charge. If I do need to top up, there's a charger at work, in my car, and most other places I go.
I do however understand that other people's circumstances are very different.

 

[appleisking]

Meh idk I don't think the average consumer complains that much about battery life. Maybe we do cuz we're enthusiasts, we do a lot with our phones, but a person using it for email, occasional web browsing, and a little bit of gaming prob won't complain.

 

[bmac4]

Meh idk I don't think the average consumer complains that much about battery life. Maybe we do cuz we're enthusiasts, we do a lot with our phones, but a person using it for email, occasional web browsing, and a little bit of gaming prob won't complain.

You might be right. I know my sister (who is not at all a tech person) can burn through her iPhone battery pretty quickly looking at facebook, and all those social media apps. It does not bother her enough to complain though which I guess is the point.

We as tech enthusiast pick apart everything about a phone. I guess most phones are geared toward the masses. The only thing is the nexus 4 is not that at all, but out of the 3 phones I have it had the worst battery life. Yet it is my favorite phone because it has stock 4.3. I feel like this phone if any should have amazing battery life. Most people consider it a developer phone. Which if a developer used it they would need some pretty descent battery life.

 

[strausd]

I was looking at the Nexus 4 and Droid Maxx just now and it looks like even with a larger 3500 mAh battery, the Droid Maxx is thinner than the Nexus 4.

 

[bmac4]

I was looking at the Nexus 4 and Droid Maxx just now and it looks like even with a larger 3500 mAh battery, the Droid Maxx is thinner than the Nexus 4.

Wow I did not know that. So why in the world can't we have better battery life?

 

[T5BRICK]

Wow I did not know that. So why in the world can't we have better battery life?

The battery capacity isn't the only part of the equation. Fast, quad core processors and huge, bright screens can drain a battery really quickly. Aggressive power management can help with this, but if it is too aggressive, the phone slows down and people complain about "lag."

Additionally, old dumbphones lasted for days partially because they were just used for texting and phone calls. You couldn't check your email or browse the internet or play GTA3.

 

[Spacial]

Every product is a compromise, especially when it's comprised of so many components in such a small package. I give Apple a lot of credit for not only their external physical designs, but the internal layout of various parts. To allow as much room as they do for a very practical battery, is an excellent engineering accomplishment.

 

[strausd]

The battery capacity isn't the only part of the equation. Fast, quad core processors and huge, bright screens can drain a battery really quickly. Aggressive power management can help with this, but if it is too aggressive, the phone slows down and people complain about "lag."

Additionally, old dumbphones lasted for days partially because they were just used for texting and phone calls. You couldn't check your email or browse the internet or play GTA3.

The point being made is that a phone with a slimmer size has a much larger battery capacity (nearly 170% of the total capacity of a Nexus 4 which is thicker). That specific part wasn't really about energy efficiency of the components.

 

[bmac4]

Every product is a compromise, especially when it's comprised of so many components in such a small package. I give Apple a lot of credit for not only their external physical designs, but the internal layout of various parts. To allow as much room as they do for a very practical battery, is an excellent engineering accomplishment.

I am not sure you can call it a practical battery. Sure the standby battery life is great, but when you are using the iPhone 5 not so good. They made a super then phone, and stuffed all the components in. Great, but I could careless about how thin a phone is if the battery can't get me through the day. I guess consumers like you are the ones that drive style over function. That seems to be the trend these days.

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The point being made is that a phone with a slimmer size has a much larger battery capacity (nearly 170% of the total capacity of a Nexus 4 which is thicker). That specific part wasn't really about energy efficiency of the components.

Than you that was what I was going to say. Smart phones have gotten a lot more powerful, but in a smaller package which is fine for everything except the battery. All the other parts have gotten smaller, but the battery is the one thing that still needs a lot of room. It seems the battery is a after thought a lot of the time.

 

[musika]

Battery life on the Moto X is looking great.