Marquee - Battery Life Concern

[dsmalley]

Posted in LG's forum but I'lm sure I'll have better luck here -

I picked up the Marquee for my wife 10 days ago, she made the Android jump from BB. So far we're ok on the learning curve but the battery life of the Marquee is disappointing. In reading reviews everyone was pleased with the Optimus Black battery life which I got the impression was the same phone different carrier. Now after experiencing the poor battery life of the Marquee and reading more reviews I'm finding this to be a common problem. I've done all the basics (screen at 30%, no Haptic, turned off Maps, GPS and Updates). Any idea if this is maybe a software problem that will be corrected with a Gingerbread update or the Ice Cream Sandwich release? Also are there signal issues as the Marquee does seem to be weak on phone signal compared to the other 4 phones in the house (Palme Pre, BB Curve, Samsung Instinct and Replenish). Sometimes it will just say "sending" on a text message forever even when it can receive calls until I take it into and out of Airplane mode. I need to know what to expect as I'm replacing all 4 other phones soon and 2 are thinking about the Marquee.

 

[plonko]

Are you a SERO-P user? If yes, then I think the Marquee is the best non-4G phone being offered despite what I agree with you is poor battery life and reception (which the first may simply be a symptom of the latter). My wife got Sprint to send her an Airave and bought a couple spare batteries off Ebay... that's solved the critical deficiencies. There still is the problem of the phone randomly rebooting itself, but it's rare enough that it's more of a nuisance rather than a real "problem". Oh, and JuiceDefender from the Android market also seems to help, but I'm sure a few of the forum regulars will jump in and say it's just a placebo effect.

If you're not on SERO-P, then my recommendation would be to wait a couple weeks for Sprint to announce their latest batch of LTE phones (Galaxy Nexus, LG Viper, and HTC Jet) and see which one best fits each person's individual needs. Personally, I'm waiting to see what the Galaxy S III looks like before I pull the upgrade trigger on my line. If the rumors are true, it's exactly what could convince me to give up my trusty Touch Pro2.

 

[nosajsam]

If you're not on SERO-P, then my recommendation would be to wait a couple weeks for Sprint to announce their latest batch of LTE phones (Galaxy Nexus, LG Viper, and HTC Jet) and see which one best fits each person's individual needs.

this is really good advice...regardless if you are Sero-P or not, at this point I would wait. There are NO plans for an update (Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich) for this phone. In fact, the rumor is the phone will be discontinued by April (Sprint version).

if possible wait it out.

 

[dsmalley]

Thanks for the responses-

What's SERO-P?

Sprint has offered Airwave to me before but then I told the rep to take a better look at my account as the Airwave would have to connect to my Sprint Broadband router powered by a cell card as we have no wired internet in our area.

4G!!! Sprint's been teasing me with that for a couple years, last word is "within a year" so I'm not holding my breath. I'm going with the Galaxy S2 though but my wife doesn't know 3G from 4. The kids will probably go crapple i4 instead.

Lastly, I may try the mugen 1800 battery and/or a battery saver app. If Sprints really E.O.L.ing the phone I may to to get an HTC Evo Design for her if they'll swap.

 

[nosajsam]

Thanks for the responses-

What's SERO-P?

Sprint has offered Airwave to me before but then I told the rep to take a better look at my account as the Airwave would have to connect to my Sprint Broadband router powered by a cell card as we have no wired internet in our area.

4G!!! Sprint's been teasing me with that for a couple years, last word is "within a year" so I'm not holding my breath. I'm going with the Galaxy S2 though but my wife doesn't know 3G from 4. The kids will probably go crapple i4 instead.

Lastly, I may try the mugen 1800 battery and/or a battery saver app. If Sprints really E.O.L.ing the phone I may to to get an HTC Evo Design for her if they'll swap.

Sero-P stands for Sero Premium. Sero (Sprint Employee Referral Offer) is a type of discounted account that was offered a long time ago. If you don't already have it, it's almost impossible to get.

Your battery life is most likely affected by poor service area. Where are you located??

 

[SERO wireless]

Every phone is a compromise. While there's always a better gizmo available if you're willing to wait this is a unique era because of a number of factors (Sprint's 4G u-turn; better power-management in new CPUs; larger, brighter displays that use less power) the new phones in the next 3-6 months aren't going to be a little better - they're going to make anything you can get today look old-school. You're really better off waiting.

The Marquee accomplished a lot in its time, but it's the end of the line for its technology. You've identified the two main problems - short battery life and a weak radio. The large, bright display sucks power and the thin profile doesn't leave much space for a powerful battery. LG isn't known for great radios. While you can work around these issues with aftermarket batteries and an Airwave, wouldn't you rather just have a phone that works?

Sprint's network upgrades will make any tower that currently has 3G have LTE. Check when your area is scheduled to upgrade here. If you don't care about LTE, Sprint will be blowing out their WiMax phones as the new LTE ones come online. The Photon was on sale for $49 w/contract not too long ago. Look for it to be FAR soon. It has an excellent radio and 8.3 days of standby, dual-core CPU, a larger display and twice the ram.

 

[dsmalley]

That SERO deal sounds good. i've got a 25% discount that used to be on all lines but they dropped it back to just lines 1-2 when they did away with Premier. I've still got it fairly good though since all 5 lines are unlimited data without the new $10 premium charge and I use way more than the new 5 Gig monthly of data on my unlimited granfathered data card plan (I hit 25 Gig a couple months ago). Whenever I compare I'm $50 to $80 less a month than the other carriers for the phones and way ahead on the data card.

This means I'm staying with Sprint even if they take forever to upgrade my towers from 3G (Wichita, KS Suburbs).

I'm sure my location is a problem as my Pre is always low bar at home but this Marquee won't even send texts sitting in the living room.

I called today and Sprint said I can swap for 2 more days so I think I'll just take the wife in and let her pick. I did confirm with a tech rep who was suprised when she looked it up that the Marquee is estimated as EOL in late April.

Thanks again for the input.