[Anonymatt]

Well my battery life is still much less than desirable. I chalk it up to a few things:
1) I don't get the greatest cell reception at all times (~1-2 bars at home and at work, though at work sometimes it dips down to no bars, but still some signal, and sometimes I even start roaming, though that is not common)
2) The radio, as pointed out by others, seems to be horribly inefficient.

I recently have been able to start getting 12 hours on a full charge (with maybe less than 5 texts, and maybe 10 minutes of phone usage, and set to check 2 IMAP accounts every 4 hours.

I used to barely be able to get 8 hours, and was basically plugged in constantly, but then I found out that the Instant Messanging was always running, even after I exited (and even after soft-resets). I then "signed out and exited" and ever since I have gotten at least SOME more batterly life.

I also have made a habit of disconnecting the data connection every chance I get just to squeeze out a little more juice.

One of the next things I'm going to try is to disable EVDO (except when I really want to use it), since I think I might be in a fringe region for that signal, causing it to constantly search and fail. I REALLY wish there was some setting or program (hint hint to anyone who knows what they're doing) that would basically look at the phone and data reception, and if it "searches" for a signal, but doesn't find it for X consecutive seconds/tries/whatever, that it would power off that radio for Y minutes/hours (all settings user adjustable, of course) so that the battery doesn't completely drain if you forget to turn off your cell when you go into a low/no reception zone (or if you don't even know you are in a place without signal).

I'm also still trying to figure out how accurate my battery gauge is, since I can take it off the charger ~7 am, it drops to 90% within 30 min and by 9 AM it is already down to 80%. It seems to hang around 50% for a while, and then takes a long time to drain further, with the last 10-20% (after the warnings start) taking the longest. It still seems to run out of juice after just around 12-14 hours, though, but again, I'm still experimenting.

This past week I tried using the Sprint Navigator a few times (3 trips, ~1 hr each) with the TP plugged in, and boy was that a disaster. During each trip, ~30 min into it, the charger stopped working and the battery would then drain without replenishment, and in the end of the trip I would be down to 50% battery. I found, like others, that if I opened the keyboard, took off the battery cover, and got cold air to blow on it, then it would start charging again, but I couldn't hold it there as I was driving, and the charging would soon stop again.

I would LOVE for my TP to be able to go a full 24 hours with essentially no usage, and I would also love for it to be able to be "plugged in" and run indefinitely, while maintaining a 100% charge level.

My build date is 11/7/2008, and I am using the stock ROM, though I did perform the registry tweaks that are supposed to improve battery life. I've also performed about 4 full drain/charge cycles, though not in a row, since I also have to charge sometimes to fit my usage patterns.

In case it matters, I have the following programs installed:
GPSToday (though I close it immediately after it opens on startup)
S2U2 (was on 1.37, but moved to 1.40 today, which supposedly has some battery saving improvements)
Gyrator 2
GAlarm (though I don't usually have any alarms set)
Batti battery monitor
Advanced Config
Diamond Tweak
(I know those last 2 are "non-specific" seeing as there could be specific settings I'm using that are different).

I plan on installing the battery monitoring program posted in this thread to see if I can gain any insights from that, but I imagine my conclusion will likely be the same as you guys: the radio is horribly inefficient and drinks battery juice like some of the fanboys drink the Kool-Aid.

I have never flashed a ROM before, but would be willing to try pretty much anything just in order to get a phone that would allow me to be unplugged for at least 24 hours with light (or even moderate) usage. I'm not expecting to be able to stream constantly, or tether, etc, and get that sort of life, but I don't think it is unreasonable to expect to go 24 hours when barely touching the device. So if anyone knows of a specific ROM that has known battery saving properties, let me know.

I wish I had more time to be able to test settings, etc., since the next thing I want to try is to go back to the factory install, just to see if something I have changed/installed might be leading to the low battery life, but the holiday season has been a hectic time, and I probably won't get the chance to try that unil Jan 7th or so, which only gives me 1 week before my 30 days are up.