Anticipating BAD battery life for the Evo

[c3PreO]

Anticipating BAD battery life for the Evo? Get a 3500mAh Battery

I?m picking up my Evo this Friday @ Radio Shack. Can?t wait!

I have a Sprint HTC Hero (1500mAh) and BB 9630 Tour (1400mAh) both with original batteries.

Both suck battery when using GPS, surfing etc. I anticipate the Evo to do the same with its original 1500mAh battery (same mAh as my Sprint Hero).

I don?t understand why phone manufacturers are so hung up on thin phones. If the screen is large and its capable of multimedia up the yin yang, why not equip it with a huge battery?? Or at least have an OEM extended battery option???

I don?t think any one of us cares if it?s a couple of mm thicker as long as it gets us through a solid day (or two) of heavy use. A sleek phone isn?t much good once it?s dead.

Sprint/HTC should have sacrificed svelteness, not battery life. Putting such a puny battery in the EVO is like putting a 10-gallon tank in a Farrari. I wouldn?t buy a car with a range less than 100 miles, and 16 hours for me is the practical minimum for a phone. And yes, I realize the Evo does more than most phones, but at the end of the day, it?s still my phone. I need it to work, worry-free.

The good news is that I think there's a solution...

Seidio will be making a Innocell 3500mAh Extended Life Battery that only adds 3-4mm to the Evo which I?ll be picking up as soon as it comes out. It has 133% more capacity than the original battery and comes with a black replacement door. I hope it matches the Evo well.

Sprint/HTC should have this as an OEM battery option.

Here's the link to the Evo 3500mAh Battery

Seidio - Your Single Source for Premium Smartphone Accessories

 

[OrderedtheEvo]

Just pick up a few chargers for now. Any touchscreen phone is going to have bad battery life if your a heavy user. It sucks but not much you can do.

 

[biscodude]

I picked up two spare batteries and a battery charger on ebay for under $20. If my battery runs out I'll just swap it out. btw, apparently the TP2 battery fits in the EVO so that's why you can find the batteries so cheaply.

I actually expect that with normal use my battery life will be fine, once I get past the initial period where I won't want to put it down.

 

[turtle3#AC]

OP-

Come on dude....you're a power user - yea, we get it. But HTC/Sprint built this phone for general consumers. Simmer down on updating your Fbook/Twitter/video blogging from your phone all while tethered 4G and listening to music and you'd easily get through a full day.

Battery life is unequivocally, 100% a function of personal usage patterns. Unfortunately, Sense UI deceives people with how much power it sucks, so amateur users will load up every widget in the world because they "look cool" and wonder why they get poor battery life. Widgets eat battery life.

3500mA battery is gonna be huge - and you probably need it - but certainly Joe Consumer would never buy a brick of a phone so that the battery lasts longer with 27 widgets open. You think it'll be "just a few mm" Think again - Check out this comparison of similar batteries in the Pre.

People would laugh at me if I had a phone that thick this day and age.

MANAGE YOUR APPS, MANAGE YOUR WIDGETS, BATTERY WILL BE JUST FINE!!!!!! Do you leave 27 apps running on your laptop when on battery? It's an analogous situation.

If you like to watch youtube HD and run your 4G constantly or watch ESPN live on Sprint TV - expect to charge your phone. It's just that simple. You're utilizing advanced power-consuming features of a top-tier multimedia phone. Until battery technology evolves into something from Star Trek, we'll always be somewhat tethered to a charger.

Stop ranting in the forums and further fueling this "battery life will suck" story....it won't - for Joe Consumer - it'll be just fine.

 

[rockdawg]

I'm really curious how the battery holds up on the EVO too. Settings and app management will play a big role to be sure. I used to hate the battery life on my Hero (7am-11pm and it was always under 25% or dead), but then I read the article about how to conserve battery life here on AndroidCedntral and the one tip about setting the Wifi sleep policy to never dramatically increased my battery life. Now, I usually have around 50% battery or more left at the end of the day.

I'm sure it won't have as dramatic of an affect for everyone, but it was a godsend for me. I assume it's because where I'm at most of the time (work and home) there's Wifi. If you're around Wifi much, definitely look into this setting.

 

[Setite]

I like the idea of the Seidio but the reviews of them are bad. I like idea of a replacement battery cover as well. If they shape it right it shouldn't make the kickstand less effective either.

http://batteryboss.org/

That battery picture is odd. They seem inefficient. Why is Amzers 2800mAh nearly 3x the thickness of the 1400mAh battery.

For the price i'll just buy two extra batteries and carry them with me.

 

[c3PreO]

OP-

Come on dude....you're a power user - yea, we get it. But HTC/Sprint built this phone for general consumers. Simmer down on updating your Fbook/Twitter/video blogging from your phone all while tethered 4G and listening to music and you'd easily get through a full day.

People would laugh at me if I had a phone that thick this day and age.

MANAGE YOUR APPS, MANAGE YOUR WIDGETS, BATTERY WILL BE JUST FINE!!!!!!

If you like to watch youtube HD and run your 4G constantly or watch ESPN live on Sprint TV - expect to charge your phone. It's just that simple. You're utilizing advanced power-consuming features of a top-tier multimedia phone. Until battery technology evolves into something from Star Trek, we'll always be somewhat tethered to a charger.

Stop ranting in the forums and further fueling this "battery life will suck" story....it won't - for Joe Consumer - it'll be just fine.

Actually, I'm not a power user, I'm just a general consumer thats hoping to get as much use of my Evo compared to my HTC Hero and Blackberry Tour because they're both not that great. It's gonna be tough though because the Evo does so much more and its rated the same mAh as my less powered HTC Hero @ 1500mAh

According to Seidio's website, they claim their 3500mAh battery will only be 3-4mm thicker. No picture yet. I'll reserve judgement after I see the photo. But if 3-4mm is too thick for you and you're afraid of being laughed at, then don't buy it. Yes turtle3, it's as simple as that. 3-4mm extra thickness is trivial to me.

It sounds like you're the one that's ranting. I'm merely suggesting that there's some good news that a alternative battery solution may be available for all of us very soon.

If only it was red too....

 

[2CupsWithString]

It's a Ferrari, a flagship, it's just going to need gas. . I plan on getting a usb charger for the office or a nice desk dock if/when becomes available.

I think with anything that runs on a battery, responsible usage is important.

I travel for around 3 hours a day on a train underground, so I'm going to turn off my radios, there's just not point to have anything searching. In the meantime before 4G is available in NYC, that'll be turned off as well, My wifi at work is horrible, so I'd rather use the 3G, so no need for the wifi, etc.

It's worth it to try to recognize your patterns and usage so you can see how maximize your battery life.

 

[c3PreO]

It's a Ferrari, a flagship, it's just going to need gas. . I plan on getting a usb charger for the office or a nice desk dock if/when becomes available.

I think with anything that runs on a battery, responsible usage is important.

I travel for around 3 hours a day on a train underground, so I'm going to turn off my radios, there's just not point to have anything searching. In the meantime before 4G is available in NYC, that'll be turned off as well, My wifi at work is horrible, so I'd rather use the 3G, so no need for the wifi, etc.

It's worth it to try to recognize your patterns and usage so you can see how maximize your battery life.

I absolutely agree with you. I'd do the same.

And while you're out of radio contact, you could be watching maybe a recorded movie stored on your mSD card on that beautiful screen....
you would hope(expect) like me that the battery will last throughout the whole movie and then some right???

Recognizing usage pattern is paramount. We all want to maximize our battery power. It's just too bad that we have to do it and not the OS itself.

 

[lembowski]

I have a charger at home, one at work, and one in my truck. If that doesn't cover it I also have a Zaggsparq 2.0 that wil provide a charge while I'm camping out on my offroad trails and such.

Battery life is subjective, but I don't expect it to be good. I figure HTC/Sprint made the phone to work with normal use. I do expect it to make it thru a 8 to 5 work day without issue. I have worked with my Droid and managed the aps running in the background and can get about a day and a half with the standard battery. So I expect the EVO to get a full day of my usage.

 

[thekarens]

I know the battery will suck, but it won't change my mind about getting the phone. Where I work as soon as I enter the office the phone starts flipping back and forth from roaming to 1x. It sucks the life right out of the battery whether I use the phone or not.

 

[feet]

If you're out a lot and using up that much battery maybe it would help to have a large external battery/charger type thing with you?

Ive even seen some that should give you one to three charges with the extended battery but just remember the larger the capacity.... the heavier it is.

 

[c3PreO]

Unlike the iPhone, we're all fortunate that we can swap out the battery for a spare.

But just like feet said - the larger the battery capacity...the heavier it will be.

I might also add, the larger the capacity, the longer the charge time too.

 

[Nate#AC]

The EVO 4G uses the RHOD160 1500mAh battery, which is the same one that comes with the HTC Touch Pro2. This is verified in the ifixit.com EVO 4G teardown (HTC Evo 4G Teardown - iFixit).

According to batteryboss.org, this battery tested at 94% capacity (1414mAh) and costs about $15.

The Seidio Innocell TP2 1750mAh which is likely the same as the Seidio Innocell EVO 4G 1750mAh battery, only tested at 1383mAh (79% of advertised). That's actually LESS than the stock OEM battery, despite the higher mAh rating. Oh yeah, and it also costs $50! Don't even consider buying this one.

The Seidio Innocell 3500mAh hasn't been tested at batteryboss.org yet, but all Seidios tested so far in the 79%-84% range of their rated capacity. At 84%, it would be 2940mAh which is approximately twice the capacity of the EVO 4G OEM battery. Price: $70

So the question you're faced with is "Is doubling my battery life worth $70 and an additional 3-4mm thickness?"

 

[c3PreO]

The EVO 4G uses the RHOD160 1500mAh battery, which is the same one that comes with the HTC Touch Pro2. This is verified in the ifixit.com EVO 4G teardown (HTC Evo 4G Teardown - iFixit).

According to batteryboss.org, this battery tested at 94% capacity (1414mAh) and costs about $15.

The Seidio Innocell TP2 1750mAh which is likely the same as the Seidio Innocell EVO 4G 1750mAh battery, only tested at 1383mAh (79% of advertised). That's actually LESS than the stock OEM battery, despite the higher mAh rating. Oh yeah, and it also costs $50! Don't even consider buying this one.

The Seidio Innocell 3500mAh hasn't been tested at batteryboss.org yet, but all Seidios tested so far in the 79%-84% range of their rated capacity. At 84%, it would be 2940mAh which is approximately twice the capacity of the EVO 4G OEM battery. Price: $70

So the question you're faced with is "Is doubling my battery life worth $70 and an additional 3-4mm thickness?"

Nate, thanks for the info man. I love it when I cruse the forums and actually learn something.

And thanks to everybody before Nate for expressing how you intend to deal with the anticipated battery issue for the Evo.

We're all in this together and can learn from each other.

 

[Droidus Maximus]

Battery smattery...

Just position yourself in such a way to always be ready. No worries, it's just the greatest friggn phone on the planet right now, if all they can complain about is the battery...then it's a bad ass phone that needs plenty of juice; much like a sports car. You don't buy the car because it's good on gas.

It's performance is priority & a ferrari with no gas may as well be a chevette! An EVO with poor recharging habits by the owner may as well be a brick.

(intro the applause)

(grin)

 

[Loondog]

The Zagg Sparq looks interesting....

The ZAGGsparq 2.0 plugs into a standard outlet and provides two USB ports for charging mobile devices. Unplugged, the ZAGGsparq 2.0 carries multiple charges with it - four complete recharges for a power-hungry Apple iPhone?. Perfect for everything from cell phones to hand-held gaming systems. Dead batteries and expensive spares are a thing of the past.


ZAGG | ZAGGsparq 2.0 | 4 full iPhone charges, Charges the iPad with an additional 5-6 hours of video, mobile battery, device charger, cellphone charger, portable battery pack, 6000 mAh lithium polymer battery, USB x2 at 1000 mAh output, AC 100-240 v/

 

[robber]

The good news is that most of us are already accustomed to awful battery life. My treo 800 was terrible, 850 slightly better, pre was terrible and the moment I use now is also terrible. Never mind the older windows mobile phones... Dont expect miracles- battery life has always been an issue with high performance phones. Chargers everywhere are the antidote.

One reccomendation is to check out "Locale" in the market. This is an app that changes your settings based on your location. Turns wifi on/off, ringer volume, screen brightness, etc all based on where the phone is. When I get home, my ringer turns down low, wifi turns on etc. It was free while it was in beta but now sells for $10 which seems outlandish but is actually a decent value since the app is so capable. This app well implemented could increase efficiency of the evo dramatically.

 

[Paladin]

I would rather carry a spare battery in my bag, pocket, keep in car or whatever, than to add extra bulk to the back of the device for one larger one.

It is super easy to swap the battery so I don't understand why you would want a larger phone. If you have to get a small belt case and keep the spare(s) there.

Just MHO! ii

 

[Yourdogsdead]

As someone said before, it's all about how you use the phone. Someone got 60+ hours on their Evo on a single charge. That's how much it can vary.