[Hands0n]

There often comes a debate on how long the battery life of a particular handset is, with the device getting either praise or ridicule. The manufacturers claimed battery life is often a work of fiction - and reasonably so, given the sheer variables that govern how long a recharge is going to last.

For my part, I have a regime of recharging the handsets each and every night, a practise that has become a way of life for myself and my family who all adopt the same approach. In this way we always have a fully charged handset for the day ahead, probably ready to satisfy our needs. Only very rarely does the car charger lead have to come out, so this does seem to be an effective method. That "sometimes" only seems to occur when the handset is being used for multimedia for extensive periods - say when travelling and bored. But for normal telephone/text use a charge will last well into the following day.

When travelling abroad on holiday or business the home charger is packed away with the respective mains power adaptor for that country. All chargers these days will switch to the different source voltages of that country.

So, what do you do with yours? Do you strive for the maximum battery life? Does your usage profile mean that even an overnight charge does not last your awake day, or barely if that? Is it really necessary for longer battery charge capacities? Or is that a quest for the Holy Grail? One that will probably never be met?

[timothythetim]

I charge my N80 everynight and have never had the battery run out unless I forgot to charge it the night before.
Even when using it really heavily, like the mp3 player for several hours.

I'm happy.

[Ben]

I get a full day. However, I don't believe that a phone should need to be recharged every day - I think they should pack enough punch to last for about a weeks worth of calls and texts!

[miffed]

gone 3-4 days on my SPV m3100 with pretty average use , which surprises me as it has a large, bright screen and is forced to play "transmitter tennis" due to T-mobiles patchy 3G network
I have had it die after a single day - but that was a VERY heavy day

[Ben]

Now that's quite impressive for a Windows Mobile device!

[gorilla]

I charge my N80 about 3-4 times a week. I am finding that I get better battery performance out of it than I did with the 6680.

[miffed]

Now that's quite impressive for a Windows Mobile device!

yeah ! funny , reading the post back sounded more impressiive than it actually is -
My 3-4 days is really more like 2-3 days in reality :rolleyes:

I was counting the "charging" day as day 1 - i.e. I'd charge monday lunchtime - then count tuesday lunchtime as 2 days (monday / tuesday ) when in reality it had only been 24hrs (1 day !)

so my example meant to imply - Charge Monday lunchtime - dead by Weds lunchtime to Thurs - so the battery only really lasts 48 - 72 hrs - not 72 - 96 as I implied
just got a little confused as the charge spans about 3-4 days

Please don't mock my ability to grasp simple concepts :(

[Ben]

Please don't mock my ability to grasp simple concepts :(
I'd love to, but it'd just be hypocrisy :p

[Hands0n]

I could, but then again ..... glass houses .... stones ..... :D

I'm amazed that, so far, I'm the only one who occasionally (not often) runs out of power before my day is out!

[Ben]

I think I deliberately under use my phone(s) in order to prevent running out of battery, you know. There's so many features that the N80 has that I'm sure I'd use if I was confident that I could do so without being caught short!

This poll's results are interesting, but I still firmly believe that battery technology is currently a major issue.

Edit: I've enabled sleep mode again on my N80. Perhaps it'll help squeeze some more life out of the thing.

[crowfield99]

I have a very good 3G Signal from 3 in my area, If I had a poor mobile signal does it still mean the battery would discharge even quicker? Or is that not the case these days? :confused:

[Hands0n]

The rapid battery discharge often associated with 3G phones (not only from 3, but others also) is due to the handset switching between 3G and 2G where the signal strength of 3G is marginal, non existent or is overpowered by 2G. This causes a drain as the handset searches for the best signal to lock onto.

The occurrence of this is getting more rare - but we are not out of the woods yet, as the networks continue their 3G build-out across the country.