Oh, LOL I didn't think to offer solutions because I (obviously mistakenly) thought the OP's friend had replaced the TP with an iPhone!
I guess I read the thread too fast.
For what it's worth vis a vis battery life, I picked up the official HTC extended battery (I also have the ludicrous 3000mah one, which I hate). It's 1800mah, which actually makes a huge difference for me, and the back doesn't make the phone that much larger. At least to me it's tolerable. I was on the phone for about 1.5 hours yesterday with push mail going all day and periodic checking 2 additional IMAP accounts and at 9pm my battery was 70%. I'm really happy with it (and that's on the stock ROM).