Any of you Android owners get a full day's usage out of your phone's battery? Anyone? Well there's something wrong if you don't, according to Google co-founder Larry Page. In a recent interview, Larry Page said that your phone's battery should make it through a full day.
My Motorola Droid gets horrendous battery life, although I will be the first to admit that I have done nothing to maximize my battery usage. I work in an office all day, so I have a plug nearby all the time. The only frustrating part of this is that I either have to carry my charger with me to work, or buy a new charger to keep one at home and one in my office.
My frustration hit a peak yesterday when I was stuck in a jury selection room for 6 hours or so and I forgot to bring a book with me. I spent 3 hours straight playing games and surfing the web on my phone when I noticed that the battery had drained to 20%. At that point I couldn’t risk going the rest of the day without phone access so I had to cut my Android distractions short.
In my opinion Larry is being a bit too quick to pass the blame to the Android app developers for poor battery usage. There will always be room for improvement in the Android OS, and I hope that Froyo will at least make an attempt at fixing the quick battery drain problem. Until then, I will just have to make do with carrying my charger around with me and continue to have people ask “What’s that strange bulge in your pocket?”
I upgraded to the "standard" battery from htc for my Droid Incredible - it ups the rating from 1300mil to 1500mil. That gets me about another 1.5-3.0 hours depending on what I'm doing. Now I have a spare batter and I have a car charger as well. Android is not alone in this problem - iPhone users and crackberry addicts have the same complaints. I can't tell you how many iPhone users I see with their phone plugged into their computers during the day.
ReplyDeleteI think it's unfair for Larry to blame it on the apps - I would think the processing power and the screen would be a bigger drain. The funny thing regarding the apps is that most of the apps that I use are Google apps - gmail, Google Voice, Google Talk, Maps, etc - how much power are they draining, Larry?
You bring up a good point. Is the battery usage on Android phones any worse than on the iPhone or Blackberry devices? Probably not.
ReplyDeleteI have thought about upgrading to the extended battery for my Droid, but I think it may require a different battery cover to accomodate the larger size of the battery. I can't decide if that's worth it...