Going to NY on a trip, should I buy a new cell phone before I go?

[DSGamer]

Originally Posted by blazinazn

understandable. But it is what it is though. If it's not living up to your standards then by all means return the phone and get another one that will fit your needs.

Right now it's "okay". I live with the horrible battery life because I love the way the phone works, I love the interface with SPB Mobile Shell and I adore the slide-out keyboard. I can't go back to a phone with a keyboard on the front and something like the Samsung Rant doesn't have a proper PIM package to work for me. So being on Sprint there are few options. Waiting for Android, but until then I need to make this phone work in all situations.

[blazinazn]

Originally Posted by DSGamer

Right now it's "okay". I live with the horrible battery life because I love the way the phone works, I love the interface with SPB Mobile Shell and I adore the slide-out keyboard. I can't go back to a phone with a keyboard on the front and something like the Samsung Rant doesn't have a proper PIM package to work for me. So being on Sprint there are few options. Waiting for Android, but until then I need to make this phone work in all situations.

For what it's worth, I did this hack and I seem to be getting better battery life:

HKLM/Drivers/Builtin/Battery

PollInterval > Decimal Value 20000

I have been listening to music over my bluetooth stereo headset for about about 5 hours, granted I turned off email polling to manual and have charged it for a few mins here few minutes there while tweaking my phone. I'm currently at 42% at 2:30 PM. I started listening to music around 7:15 this morning. Took an hour lunch and resumed listening to music afterwards.

I've replied to about 10 emails once I synced it manually to my phone. Did some light surfing for about 5-10 minutes, played 4 games of solitaire and no calls. That is about as accurate as I can get for you.

You may want to try the hack for yourself and see if you see any improvements

[heem_infinite]

Are you on the internet all day on your phone? I don't see how the battery won't last a day without a charge. I can go 2 days without a charge. If i'm out of town and know i won't be around a charger i just check my email a few times a day and don't play around with it unnecessarily.

[DSGamer]

Originally Posted by heem_infinite

Are you on the internet all day on your phone? I don't see how the battery won't last a day without a charge. I can go 2 days without a charge. If i'm out of town and know i won't be around a charger i just check my email a few times a day and don't play around with it unnecessarily.

My usage pattern is maybe 20/30 text messages a day. 7 or 8 short to medium phone calls. Maybe futz around with Solitaire or AvantGo. I do have the phone polling GMail every 30 minutes. I wish I could somehow set this to only happen while I'm at work. But I do use that. Not sure how much that is to blame. I rarely surf the web on it. Only when I'm stuck out somewhere and need to look something up.

That's the same usage pattern as I had with my Palm Centro and that phone could easily go 2 days without a charge.

The real shame of this is that in the end this is probably the best phone I've ever had, save my G1. Even then I'm starting to like this keyboard more and find it more comfortable overall. I'm growing to be okay with Windows Mobile and I'd have no qualms about sticking with Windows Mobile. However, the battery life makes it such that all those cool feautures are for naught.

I mean, just think about it. It's a GPS navigation system. It's an MP3 player. It's a movie player. I'd pop in a 16GB memory card and ditch my iPod if the battery life were better. I'd only need 1 device then. As it is, though, I would never feel comfortable doing that and that's a shame.

[DSGamer]

Originally Posted by blazinazn

For what it's worth, I did this hack and I seem to be getting better battery life:

HKLM/Drivers/Builtin/Battery

PollInterval > Decimal Value 20000

Just changed it. I'll give it a try. What you just described, using the phone as a music player, would be my ultimate dream come true. I could abandon all other devices and make this my main device if the battery life weren't terrible.

[blazinazn]

Originally Posted by DSGamer

Just changed it. I'll give it a try. What you just described, using the phone as a music player, would be my ultimate dream come true. I could abandon all other devices and make this my main device if the battery life weren't terrible.

Yeah I know what you mean. Before I did this hack, my battery would be down below 50% from listening to music from 7:30 till 11. Seems to be doing much better. If it makes it through the day without a charge then I know it has SOME impact.

I like having expandable memory. I have an 8 gb card right now with about 6 gbs of music and a couple of movies. If I want, I could just get a 16gb card and transfer all my stuff. That's really appealing to me. With the Ipod, you shell out $XXX and that's all you get.

[jmorton10]

I don't really understand the problem. Sure, the battery life sucks but the batteries are so small & light you can easily carry a spare & never even know it's there.

I bought two extra Seidio batteries & always carry a fully charged backup with me.

~John

[DSGamer]

Originally Posted by jmorton10

I don't really understand the problem. Sure, the battery life sucks but the batteries are so small & light you can easily carry a spare & never even know it's there.

I bought two extra Seidio batteries & always carry a fully charged backup with me.

~John

I suppose it isn't that big of a deal from a technical standpoint, but I'm trying to carry less things with me. So packing around two batteries is worse. Also, I'd have to charge those batteries somehow. Unless there's a dock I'm not aware of that means charging those while they're in the phone. Not quite sure how you do that.

Also, look at the list of devices I've owned. For only one of those devices did I ever carry an extra battery. That was the HP Jornada 720.

[Hafrust]

Put battery in phone. Charge. Take battery out of phone. Put second battery in phone. Charge. There you have it. 2 charged batteries. Repeat as necessary.

[CozBoogie]

Since there are plenty of discussions on battery performance, battery tweaks, etc., I'm gonna close this one down.

late,
Coz