Smartphone question about batteries

[MillCreek]

So I went with the spousal unit to the local AT&T store so she could trade in her iPhone 3 for an iPhone 4S.  I was wandering around the store looking at all the various Apple, Android and Windows smart phones.  From what I saw on display, it seems the new state of the art is to have a permanent battery that is not user-replaceable.  Is this generally true of the market now, or did I just happen to see a selection that did not have user-replaceable batteries?

[Ben]

They all seem to be heading that way, which kind of sucks, because even the newest tech in phone batteries will deteriorate before your two year plan is up.

The only good news is that so many devices seem to be standardizing on micro-usb, that you're likely to have plenty of charging cables wherever you need them.

[AJ Dual]

The issue is that a non-replaceable battery allows the makers to shave several millimeters off the thickness of the unit.

And as Ben alluded to, with American "car culture", you're never really far from a recharge, and generally speaking, by the time the battery needs replacing after 3 years or so, most people are ready for a new phone because so many improvements have been introduced in the meantime.

[RocketMan]

Apple phones are known for non-replaceable batteries.  Other brands are moving slowly that way, but many are still available with replaceable batteries.

[Boomhauer]

Yeah my iPhone doesnt have a user replacable battery but it doesnt really concern me all too much. I keep charging capability close by of course.

[bedlamite]

Even some "non-replacable" batteries aren't hard to replace if you have a set of jewlers screwdrivers and you're decent with a soldering iron. I've seen the procedure for my HTC already, and it's only been on the market a couple months.

[seeker_two]

AFAIK, Blackberry phones still have user-replaceable batteries. I consider that feature a deal-maker....if I ever have to upgrade from my Torch w/ slider keyboard, I want the replaceable battery.

[Fitz]

Even some "non-replacable" batteries aren't hard to replace if you have a set of jewlers screwdrivers and you're decent with a soldering iron. I've seen the procedure for my HTC already, and it's only been on the market a couple months.

This

I've done many many repairs to phones for problems that, according to the manufacturers, should have warranted a new device.

Battery replacements, screen replacements, etc.

[MillCreek]

My current Samsung android has a replaceable battery, but it is a couple of years old and it still holds a charge just fine.  My Kindle Fire does not have a user-replaceable battery, but it seems to be also just fine at almost a year old.  I guess I should not be concerned about it when it comes time to replace the android.  My experience is colored by my cordless phone handsets, since it seems that I have to replace those battery packs every year or so.  I bet they are nickle-cad batteries, though and not lithium-ion. 

[mtnbkr]

My HTC, which has a user replaceable battery, is going strong at 9 months of constant use (biz, personal, etc).  I have an Ipod Touch from 2010 that is fine, and two iTouches from 2011 that are both going strong on the factory battery.  In 13 years of cellphone ownership, I've replaced one battery before the phone was replaced via a new contract.

The phone I had prior to the HTC had a strong enough battery to go an entire weekend without recharging even after 2 years of use (just a flipphone though).  I don't have a home phone, so our cellphones get used a lot.

Chris

[Ben]

The phone I had prior to the HTC had a strong enough battery to go an entire weekend without recharging even after 2 years of use (just a flipphone though).  I don't have a home phone, so our cellphones get used a lot.

Chris

The emergency phone I have to carry at work is a flip phone that's 5 years old and still on the original battery. It will still go 4-5 days of standby before charging (not many phone calls on it).

My original HTC EVO though, went to 50% capacity within a year. It got used a lot, not just for normal phone stuff, but being used for stuff like live mapping, etc., and was used while plugged into chargers a lot. It could be the extra heat from charging and the environment it was exposed to helped degrade the battery. It was user replaceable though, so I just went to an extended battery.

I recently did my two year upgrade to the EVO LTE, which is non-user replaceable. We'll have to see if the battery tech has improved to handle what I throw at it. I will say that power management is MUCH better with this one, and the battery seems to run cooler.

[AZRedhawk44]

Keep in mind that portable USB charging solutions are available.

http://www.duracell.com/en-US/product/instant-usb-charger.jspx

Granted, it's not as convenient as swapping out the battery.  But it will get you through an extended weekend away from wall outlets and car lighter sockets.

[mtnbkr]

Keep in mind that portable USB charging solutions are available.

http://www.duracell.com/en-US/product/instant-usb-charger.jspx

Granted, it's not as convenient as swapping out the battery.  But it will get you through an extended weekend away from wall outlets and car lighter sockets.

I have one of those.  It's great for recharging the kids' ipods or a phone.  I like to daisy-chain ours between the power outlet in the van and the device that needs charging so the device charging continues when the van is off and we're away (great if you're making a lot of stops but need that device to be recharged sooner rather than later).

Chris

[drewtam]

Battery life also depends on how the battery is treated.
Temperature, minimum drain, maximum recharge, etc


Sometimes we have no control over the battery treatment, but sometimes small changes in habits can really help.

[erictank]

They all seem to be heading that way, which kind of sucks, because even the newest tech in phone batteries will deteriorate before your two year plan is up.

The only good news is that so many devices seem to be standardizing on micro-usb, that you're likely to have plenty of charging cables wherever you need them.

Moto Droids of the Bionic generation or earlier (~1 gen back as of today) have tended to have user-replaceable batteries. That's good, because I just had to get replacement batteries (I always get a spare) due to degradation. The Droid Razr and up seem to be permanently-installed, which I'm NOT liking.

A word of caution about micro-usb cables - Motorola does something funky with theirs to ensure you need one of their cables, rather than a cheaper generic. I'm given to understand that one of the unused pins in a generic micro-USB cable is powered in the Moto ones, and that the Moto smartphones won't work without that signal. Don't know if that's actually what's going on or not, but we have a cable at home that works with my wife's and step-son's dumbphones, but not my Moto Droid Bionic. It won't even CHARGE my phone, let alone transfer data. I don't like that either, but I've got so many Moto micro-USB cables around as a result of the charging cradles I've bought and the work chargers I was told by IT to keep when our new work phones got issued recently that I have official Moto cords everywhere I need them.

[InfidelSerf]

I was pretty hot for the new One-x/s  from tmobile until I realized it doesn't have a replaceable battery and no microSD slot.
Nixed that choice real quick.  The new Samsung Galaxy S3 has both. That is my choice for a replacement of my HTC glacier (mytouch 4g)  Which while the mytouch is a great phone and still running strong the battery is due for replacement (cheap) as it only lasts half a day if that depending on how much I'm fiddling with it.

While I can see alternatives to dealing with a "non-replaceable" battery.  Not having the microSD slot is an instant deal breaker for me.
This notion that cloud storage is all you need is crap.  The cloud is worthless if you want to watch a movie on a plane.
JMHO

[erictank]

I was pretty hot for the new One-x/s  from tmobile until I realized it doesn't have a replaceable battery and no microSD slot.
Nixed that choice real quick.  The new Samsung Galaxy S3 has both. That is my choice for a replacement of my HTC glacier (mytouch 4g)  Which while the mytouch is a great phone and still running strong the battery is due for replacement (cheap) as it only lasts half a day if that depending on how much I'm fiddling with it.

While I can see alternatives to dealing with a "non-replaceable" battery.  Not having the microSD slot is an instant deal breaker for me.
This notion that cloud storage is all you need is crap.  The cloud is worthless if you want to watch a movie on a plane.
JMHO

Not just yours - no expandable storage is probably THE deal-breaker, for me. I've got to have the ability to add/replace storage space, in the form of a memory card.

[MillCreek]

If I was the Emperor of Android, I would require that all apps be able to be installed to the card storage, instead of only to phone memory.  I have no idea if this is possible from a programming standpoint. 

[vaskidmark]

So, have you discovered the biggest battery issue with the 4S yet - that the damned thing runs down faster than --  well, I'd better pick a different analogy than the one I have in mind.

In addition to the car charger and usb charger that should come with it, buy yourself an additional wall outlet charger to carry around with you.

There are lots of tips on how to extend the charge life but they all involve turning off the features that you probably got the 4S for in the first place.

And please be sure to lick Siri in the - well, wherever a disembodied female voice would hurt.  Voice recognition is the pits!  The only thing I can get done right consistently is calling contacts and I can do it about as fast by thumbing through the screens.

Last tip - if yours came with a screen protector sheet it probably did not have a cut-out for where the ear speaker is.  I spent two days with the (non)geniuses trying to get decent volume on phone calls until I figured it out by myself.  A pen knife blade following the indented space and suddenly I was hearing everything crystal clear.

stay safe.

[bedlamite]

If I was the Emperor of Android, I would require that all apps be able to be installed to the card storage, instead of only to phone memory.  I have no idea if this is possible from a programming standpoint. 

You can do it on your phone now. Root it and install CM 7/9/10 depending on what's available for your device. After I did that on my old phone, It ran Quadrant about 20% faster, and the battery lasted about 30% longer than stock using the SmartassV2 governor and the noop scheduler. The only apps that have to stay in internal memory are Google Play and some system apps. I got it down to 18MB used once, just realize that internal memory is faster so keep your commonly used apps there.

[MillCreek]

I just yesterday replaced my VM Samsung Intercept with a VM HTC One V.  It is fairly new to the market, so I will wait for some of the rootkits to mature a bit before I ponder rooting it.  With ICS and a better processor, it sure seems pretty peppy as is.

[K Frame]

"If I was the Emperor of Android, I would require that all apps be able to be installed to the card storage, instead of only to phone memory.  I have no idea if this is possible from a programming standpoint."

I believe that there are some apps available that allow you to install to the card.

[bedlamite]

That's the same phone I have now. VM One V is a PrimoC/CDMA phone, do not use anythng for the PrimoU/GSM Europe/Asia version. First, unlock your bootloader and root, then flash the recovery, there have been a few issues with Clockworkmod, but TWRP has worked 100% so far. Make a backup using TWRP, then flash a Kernel, right now you have your choice of the JMZ or Sick for ICS, and JMZ has a version for JB. Both are stable and allow your choice of governors and overclocking, mine is stable at 1.5GHz, but I've backed it off one step to 1.4GHz.There are people that have it running at 1.7GHz, but IMO that's pushing it a bit too much.

There are already a couple roms available, you can get full HTC Sense 4 or no Sense, the version that comes with our phone is a crippled Sense 4. I've already tried CM10 (based on Jelly Bean), and it's fast and stable, the only issue that needs to be worked out yet is the backlight won't turn off. As soon as that's fixed I'll be running CM10 full time.

Oh, and a 64GB class 10 SD card works in this phone, even though HTC only says 32GB. :)

[Marnoot]

A word of caution about micro-usb cables - Motorola does something funky with theirs to ensure you need one of their cables, rather than a cheaper generic.

It may not be so much a vendor specific thing as much as how much power that phone needs. Most smartphones require more current than dumbphones. Earlier, and cheaper, chargers often deliver as little as 350mA while modern smartphones can require 1-2A+. The standard way (Apple does it differently, others may as well) for a dedicated USB charger to signal to a phone that it's a "high-power" charger capable of delivering an amp or two is by shorting the two data pins together with resistance up to 200Ω. It's possible the charger that works well for the dumb phone doesn't do this due to being older or too weak, and since the Motorola phone doesn't see that short it won't enter charging mode.

See "Battery Charging V1.x Spec" here: http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs

[GigaBuist]

Keep in mind that portable USB charging solutions are available.

http://www.duracell.com/en-US/product/instant-usb-charger.jspx

Granted, it's not as convenient as swapping out the battery.  But it will get you through an extended weekend away from wall outlets and car lighter sockets.

Even cheaper while more versatile:  http://www.meritline.com/external-backup-usb-charger-for-iphone-and-ipod-black---p-55167.aspx

It's $5.99 and you can stick two AA batteries in there to recharge your USB devices.  Pair that up with a wall-wart charger and two AA NiMH batteries ($10-$16) and you've got a system that'll recharge your cell phone and/or work to keep any AA device working on rechargables.