Wish the industry would focus on improving battery life

[iEvolution]

Anyone else agree?

I mean battery life has not improved as much as I thought it would, in fact many of them are downright pathetic.

I still carry the media player & phone combination in order to put up with my app/music demands while still having a battery for texting/talking.

tin anode technology needs to hit the market ASAP. (supposed to triple the capacity of current lithum ion batteries).

 

[Bugeyeblue]

I agree. More memory, better battery, same price. Or hey, I'd even pay more.

 

[adder7712]

I miss those days where I only have to charge my phone maybe 1 or twice a week.

Too bad modern smartphones are power hungry monsters due to their large screens and multithreaded CPUs.

 

[MRU]

I miss those days where I only have to charge my phone maybe 1 or twice a week.

Too bad modern smartphones are power hungry monsters due to their large screens and multithreaded CPUs.

No smartphone has ever been able to last a week though has it? In my experience all my smartphones since 2007 introduction of the iPhone have required daily charging, which I don't mind. It's when a phone runs out of battery or needs a mid day charge that grinds my gears.

 

[LorPGDL]

if it lasted for a day when you use it heavily with some to spare if you go out i would be very happy- my note used to be able to do that, but ics and jelly bean significantly degraded battery life.

i dont care for 7mm thin smartphones, make it a 1 cm and put batteries in it lieks the razr maxx has, nobody is going to notice a 3 mm difference in real world usage.

 

[VulchR]

I use a Mophie battery pack, which works well. I have a 4S that I leave all the gizmo's on and it never runs out of battery if I charge it each night. The problems is that I like to use my phone hiking, and that chews through both batteries pretty quickly. Thus, in my opinion, the industry's fetish with thin phones is getting ridiculous. Give me a slightly thicker phone and a bigger battery, or add a solar or kinetic recharger that actually works....

 

[sand_man]

I want a battery that charges from 0% to 100% in around 20 minutes. A 1440mAh battery that's capable of that would be adequate IMHO.

 

[adder7712]

No smartphone has ever been able to last a week though has it? In my experience all my smartphones since 2007 introduction of the iPhone have required daily charging, which I don't mind. It's when a phone runs out of battery or needs a mid day charge that grinds my gears.

Yeah, I don't mind charging my phone daily but hopefully there will be advancements in battery technology to allow longer battery life for smartphones.

 

[Stuntman06]

You realise that once someone makes a better battery, someone else will add features that use more power and we'll be back to square one.

 

[G51989]

Agreed.

While, it was a long time ago, early 00s I had an HP iPAQ running Windows Mobile, that had a touch screen ( chew off part of your finger nail, thats how I ditched my stylus!, well I had it, but never used it much ), thing could do most things a smartphone today could do, but the battery would last 2-3 days no problem, even with heavy use!

 

[Dr McKay]

The annoying thing I hate is when a Smartphone is thicker than the competition, reviewers immediately remark on it and compare it to other thinner phones, even if it has a way bigger battery. A lot of them seem to make a big deal out of it too.

 

[OceanView]

Anyone else agree?

No, I don't agree, haven't you heard about the Note 2?
I can almost go 2 days on a charge. And the best part is that you can get additional batteries and switch them out if you need to.
No need to attach an ugly extended battery pack.

 

[b166er]

Since basically every phone has crappy battery life (by our demanding standards) every company gets away with it. Apple has no reason to put a lot of focus on battery life, because no one else is doing it any better than they are. Same goes for Samsung. The Note 2 is an obvious exception but, the size of the device kind of puts it into another category in my opinion. Anyone can put a massive battery in a very large phone, it's not like Samsung made their batteries any more efficient.

When someone takes that first step toward an amazing battery, the rest will follow.

 

[strausd]

No need to attach an ugly extended battery pack.

Only need to carry a big *** phone everywhere you go.

Let me know when the battery life in the giant Note 2 makes it to smaller sized phones around 4.5". The battery life in the RAZR Maxx HD needs to become the standard like quad-core and 1080p screens are becoming the standard.

 

[matttye]

No, I don't agree, haven't you heard about the Note 2?
I can almost go 2 days on a charge. And the best part is that you can get additional batteries and switch them out if you need to.
No need to attach an ugly extended battery pack.

Like strausd says, you need a monster-sized phone to fit in a battery capable of that kind of longevity.

Also, even if you like the Note 2 exactly as it is, I'm sure you'd rather get six days on a single charge than two!

 

[OceanView]

You guys need to read the topic name again and it's about battery life.
There are millions of people perfectly happy with the size of the Note and it's the current trend to go bigger.

I'm 100% certain as soon as Apple makes a larger screen phone, you will be the first ones to praise that it's the "perfect" size.

 

[MuddyPaws1]

Battery life is the only complaint I have about my S3. I wish they could make better batteries.

 

[Stuntman06]

The annoying thing I hate is when a Smartphone is thicker than the competition, reviewers immediately remark on it and compare it to other thinner phones, even if it has a way bigger battery. A lot of them seem to make a big deal out of it too.

This is what really bugs me. You make a phone that does everything people need, but some reviewer who doesn't like the look, feel or dimensions make a big stink and calls it a PoS. Manufacturers are so sensitive about this that they end up focussing on things that you may notice when you first see the phone and may like it, but then hate it because it cuts corners on features (like battery life) that you have to deal with for the remainder of the life of the phone.

Samsung did say a year or two ago that according to their research, people want thin phones. I think that making a phone look appealing will make people buy the phone. When they find their battery life sucks after a few weeks, they are pretty much screwed because they already dropped hundreds of dollars. It is really hard to show off battery life as a selling point because it's just not sexy. However, making the outside stylish and thin will get more people to buy your phone than making it have a long battery life.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Replaceable battery is such a simple and nice idea. Why not have that ? Shocking that only Samsung is left offering that now, every other phone manufacturer has stopped now, literally everyone Apple, Nokia, HTC, LG, Sony, Motorola, except Samsung.

Today's smartphones with closed in permanent batteries, like the iPhone 5, Nexus 4, HTC One, can do pretty well, maybe a full 24 hours, the Motorola MAXX can probably go 36 hours !!! But that's it, once the juice is out your done, and need a charger. What if your snowboarding and run out of juice and not near the lodge ? With a Samsung, you stop on the slope, change batteries in a few seconds, good to go all day again, listening to Sirius radio or music tunes.

But the Galaxy S4, can go 20 hours, and then in 10 seconds, go another 20 hours right away.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Literally, the phone I used before my current smartphone was a '06 era flip phone, and that thing could go for days on a single charge. I knew I needed a new battery when the average battery life dropped to less than 2 days

 

[jrswizzle]

Replaceable battery is such a simple and nice idea. Why not have that ? Shocking that only Samsung is left offering that now, every other phone manufacturer has stopped now, literally everyone Apple, Nokia, HTC, LG, Sony, Motorola, except Samsung.

Today's smartphones with closed in permanent batteries, like the iPhone 5, Nexus 4, HTC One, can do pretty well, maybe a full 24 hours, the Motorola MAXX can probably go 36 hours !!! But that's it, once the juice is out your done, and need a charger. What if your snowboarding and run out of juice and not near the lodge ? With a Samsung, you stop on the slope, change batteries in a few seconds, good to go all day again, listening to Sirius radio or music tunes.

But the Galaxy S4, can go 20 hours, and then in 10 seconds, go another 20 hours right away.

Or you simply make sure your phone is charging when you aren't using it.....

Or would you be snowboarding for 24 hours straight?

I get why some like the removable battery...but I for one (and I'm obviously not alone) couldn't care less about having to carry around and remember to charge another battery....I also much prefer the designs of just about every other manufacturer over Samsung.

If I wanted, I could buy an extra battery pack for my iPhone - if my 5 ran out of juice, just slap that extra battery pack on and go. But I'd venture a majority of people are like me and simply charge their phones overnight - or have a cable with them and keep their phones at least somewhat charged, whether through a wall outlet or the car or the computer.

Its a niche feature that all those other companies decided not to care about because 90% of their customers don't care either. They'd spend forever and a day including ALL the features ANYONE would like - though Samsung seems to be trying their best.

 

[matttye]

You guys need to read the topic name again and it's about battery life.
There are millions of people perfectly happy with the size of the Note and it's the current trend to go bigger.

I'm 100% certain as soon as Apple makes a larger screen phone, you will be the first ones to praise that it's the "perfect" size.

A large battery needs, guess what, a larger bodied device. The two topics are related, so I don't think we need to "read the topic name again."

What we're saying is that with the next battery technology you could get something with the Note 2's longevity in an iPhone-sized phone. Or something with three times the Note 2's longevity in a Note 2-sized phone.

 

[nick_elt]

come on people, real innovation is how thin the phone is....

 

[Tig Bitties]

So a thinner phone is more desirable, because it's sexy looking, over a thicker phone with bigger battery that would make your phone last 36 hours ?

I agree thick phones like the old EVO 4G feel like a brick, and are not cool. but the iPhone 4 thickness of like 9.5mm was just fine, why did Apple have to go like 7.6mm on the iPhone 5 ? because it looks cooler and lightweight ? If you had an option, wouldn't you say keep it the same thickness as the iPhone 4, just shove in a 50% larger battery.

I truly do not understand this fascination with ultra thin smartphones. They are thin enough already. If making it thinner, will sacrifice battery size and battery life, don't do it.

 

[matttye]

http://www.gizmag.com/tin-whisker-battery-anode/22905/

This article from June 2012 says that the inventors of Tin Anode batteries hoped to have it commercialised within a year, so maybe we're not far off?