"smartphone battery life in general is considered adequate by just about no one."

Make that "considered adequate by one person". I think it's adequate. I have an HTC One X and it's clearly not the best in terms of battery life, but it gets through an average day on a single charge. So I can charge it at night. If I need to use it more than usual I have chargers everywhere to help, I also plan ahead by turning off things I won't need if I know I'm going to be away from a charger for a long time. When you consider what a smartphone is, and how much power is in them it's not surprising battery life is short. The best thing would be if all phones had removable batteries, so we could swap whenever the need arose. I don't know why more and more phones seem to be coming out with non-removable batteries. Seems counter-intuitive to me.

I have an iphone 5. I like my iphone 5. The battery life is atrocious.

stpauler: The bad news: the iPhone 5 offers no more batter than the iPhone 4S
Damn...I wanted a stack of flapjacks.

I shot baby batter all over my iPhone screen once.

My phone's battery is awesome. Lasts a day and a half with regular use, and a full solid day with heavy use. Of course, it's not the original battery for me S2, but it's still Samsung. Not sure why they didn't include it as standard.

I have a hard time getting upset at my phone's battery life. It's a handheld computer that can talk to satellites and get data from most of the planet in seconds or less. It fits in my pocket, has a screen that responds to touch, and holds days and days worth of music. It can record sound/pictures/video, tune my guitar, and teach me Italian. It's fairly easy to charge, there's a plug and everything, and I can usually get away with two or three days of use.

Consensus

This is more the idea that battery tech hasn't really changed much since widespread lithium-ion use, and we are asking more of the phones pretty regularly.

(I want a sealed lead acid battery on mine, so it can weigh 25 lbs and if I let it die, it never comes back)

A little battery humor for the ex radioshack employees out there.

I suspect that the people who are happy with the battery life of their smartphone fall into one of two categories:

1) Understand the hardware and are impressed that the phone does what it does with the amount of power that it uses. They would love a better battery life but they understand the limitations.

2)Don't need a smartphone to begin with so they hardly ever use it as anything other than a regular phone and the battery does last a long time

I also suspect that the vast majority of them fall into category 2.

FTA:
So let's give Apple credit for waiting the extra year to move to LTE, until LTE was actually real, whereas its competitors all decided to lie and cheat about it.

Why don't we have wireless power yet?

Data's great... it really is... but why do I ever need a charge a mobile device? Why is there not a massive power blanket yet in the airwaves that can supply power to my device so my device needs the equipment of a watch battery to ride out blips?

GET THE HELL ON THAT.

Quantumbunny: Why don't we have wireless power yet?

Data's great... it really is... but why do I ever need a charge a mobile device? Why is there not a massive power blanket yet in the airwaves that can supply power to my device so my device needs the equipment of a watch battery to ride out blips?

GET THE HELL ON THAT.

That's entirely possible if you don't mind a phone that is 3 feet long, horribly inefficient, and heavy. Not to mention completely wasteful infrastructure sending out way more power than is received and causing interference across many frequencies which are already valuable 'real estate' and highly sought after.

Quantumbunny: Why don't we have wireless power yet?

Data's great... it really is... but why do I ever need a charge a mobile device? Why is there not a massive power blanket yet in the airwaves that can supply power to my device so my device needs the equipment of a watch battery to ride out blips?

GET THE HELL ON THAT.

They have prototypes that work. The biggest problem now is getting it to work over long range while not messing up other electronic devices. There is also a big problem with efficiency.

Also, wireless power would basically be free. Not sure how you would bill for that which would make many electric companies unhappy.

I have an ObamaPhone. Only need to charge it on the first of the month.

well, my smartphone lasts about a day, unless i actually need. when traveling, i need to use it pretty heavily to check flight status (i usually fly on a discount, which means stand-by, which means I need to know the capacity of about every airplane leaving the airport in case i need to dance across the country to get to my intended destination). in those cases where my phone is really necessary, it inevitably dies in less than 12 hours.

/ i usually try to charge it with my computer on the flight. but, that kills my computer battery. what first world problems i have
// dead or alive, the phone is still coming with me. while it works, it is an extreme boon to my style of crapfest traveling. it usually only dies once i get to where i'm going, and then it's find a charger or use a payphone time. finding a payphone is a lot harder than finding a charger.

I'm currently rocking a Motorola Razr Maxx HD, and the battery life is awesome. It has a 3100 mAh battery, which makes it a little heavy, but I have literally gone two full days without plugging in, full radios on.

Kuroshin: whistleridge: a word on removable batteries: they're ridiculous. Not only are they a parlor trick, they actually cost you battery life. Take a Samsung smartphone apart and you'll see that the battery removal mechanism is as large as the battery itself. If it weren't removable, twice as much battery would fit inside the phone. So it's not only a ploy to sell you the phone base a fraudulent feature, it's also a ploy to sell you the other half of the battery life which should have been included in the first place. So no need to write in and criticize Apple for not allowing the iPhone 5 battery to be removed. The only potential for criticism here is whether Apple is failing to match up with consumer priorities when it makes its iPhones increasingly thinner and lighter rather than giving them increasing battery life.

Exactly. Smartphones don't have a lot of excess real estate, and human fingers are bulky. As a result, there's just no way a removable battery can ever be as efficient as a nonremovable one. To paraphrase Churchill, I hate the Apple battery and think it's the Worst. System. Evar...except for all the other.

LOLWUT?

The "removal mechanism" in both of my phones (Galaxy S2 and HTC Rezound) is comprised of "sharp whack to the backside."  The battery in the S2 is teh hueg and lasts for three days between charges, while the battery in the Rezound is comparatively tiny due to all the silicon meat surrounding it, and therefore lasts only one single day before going flat.  Neither phone has any sort of bulky removal system, unless by "bulky removal system" you and the author mean "four copper contacts."

Talk about a bullshiat fanboy argument.  Hell, even my old Droid X had nothing more than a tiny plastic flap as  a "mechanism" in the back.

I had the first three generations of iPhone, and while I never had battery problems, they didn't last more than two days on a single charge (especially the 3GS).  There is absolutely no merit in what you said.

If it weren't for that plastic flap, your 1500 mAh battery could have been replaced with a 1502 mAh battery.

Farkin' aye, your blog sucks.

I don't get this. I have the iPhone 5. I use it a shiatload. I have no problem with the battery. Charge once a day.

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy S3. Her battery is always empty, and it won't even charge fully overnight sometimes. If it is plugged in while she is using it, the power will still go down, EVEN THOUGH IT IS PLUGGED IN. The only solution is a second battery and external charger.

How is the iPhone the one with the bad battery?

Kuroshin: whistleridge: a word on removable batteries: they're ridiculous. Not only are they a parlor trick, they actually cost you battery life. Take a Samsung smartphone apart and you'll see that the battery removal mechanism is as large as the battery itself. If it weren't removable, twice as much battery would fit inside the phone. So it's not only a ploy to sell you the phone base a fraudulent feature, it's also a ploy to sell you the other half of the battery life which should have been included in the first place. So no need to write in and criticize Apple for not allowing the iPhone 5 battery to be removed. The only potential for criticism here is whether Apple is failing to match up with consumer priorities when it makes its iPhones increasingly thinner and lighter rather than giving them increasing battery life.

Exactly. Smartphones don't have a lot of excess real estate, and human fingers are bulky. As a result, there's just no way a removable battery can ever be as efficient as a nonremovable one. To paraphrase Churchill, I hate the Apple battery and think it's the Worst. System. Evar...except for all the other.

LOLWUT?

The "removal mechanism" in both of my phones (Galaxy S2 and HTC Rezound) is comprised of "sharp whack to the backside."  The battery in the S2 is teh hueg and lasts for three days between charges, while the battery in the Rezound is comparatively tiny due to all the silicon meat surrounding it, and therefore lasts only one single day before going flat.  Neither phone has any sort of bulky removal system, unless by "bulky removal system" you and the author mean "four copper contacts."

Talk about a bullshiat fanboy argument.  Hell, even my old Droid X had nothing more than a tiny plastic flap as  a "mechanism" in the back.

I had the first three generations of iPhone, and while I never had battery problems, they didn't last more than two days on a single charge (especially the 3GS).  There is absolutely no merit in what you said.


It's not so much the "mechanism" - it's the fact that you need to add a wall thickness around the battery to provide a pocket for it to sit in, and you need to provide a pogo pin interface and connect to the board, and you need to build spring fingers and snaps into the battery case so you can open it up rather than in a sealed phone where the battery would be mounted to the board directly. It does add volume, but not to the extent that the author is whingeing about.

BTW who the fark doesn't plug their phone in at night? Even when I toted around one of the old monochrome lumps I would plug it in every night, despite having days of standby time and only burning power when taking a call or playing all my ringtones. Get me through the day with juice to spare and I'll be happy.

redmid17: "But Apple could have instead opted to keep the iPhone 5 the same thickness and weight as the 4S in order to accommodate a bigger battery. This is back of the napkin stuff, but I'd estimate that if the iPhone 5 were as thick and heavy as the 4S, it would have about two and a half times as much battery life. That would be enough to get all but the most hyperactive of users through the day. If the choice were yours, would you want the better battery, or would you rather keep your iPhone 5 light and slender? "

WTF is this shiat? My sister has an iPhone 5. I have a Samsung Galaxy Victory. If they aren't exactly the same size, you'd only notice the difference with a very exact ruler. My battery will last at least two days and hers will die overnight. My battery has a 2,100 mAh battery. Her is  1,400 mAh. Bonus, mine is removable.

It's not like we have drastically different surfing habits either. We both had first gen Evos that would die before we left work if not charged fully or charged at work. The data package, time on phone, and texting aren't dissimilar either.

The Samsung Galaxy Victory is 0.5" thick, where as the iPhone 5 is 0.29" thick. One is almost twice as thick as the other.

/I pray you do nothing in life that requires even government level precision.

Knobbs: I don't get this. I have the iPhone 5. I use it a shiatload. I have no problem with the battery. Charge once a day.

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy S3. Her battery is always empty, and it won't even charge fully overnight sometimes. If it is plugged in while she is using it, the power will still go down, EVEN THOUGH IT IS PLUGGED IN. The only solution is a second battery and external charger.

How is the iPhone the one with the bad battery?


Sounds like your wife got a defective battery or phone (most likely since both batteries are doing this) because that's not normal or acceptable. Get the phone repaired.

Egoy3k: Knobbs: I don't get this. I have the iPhone 5. I use it a shiatload. I have no problem with the battery. Charge once a day.

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy S3. Her battery is always empty, and it won't even charge fully overnight sometimes. If it is plugged in while she is using it, the power will still go down, EVEN THOUGH IT IS PLUGGED IN. The only solution is a second battery and external charger.

How is the iPhone the one with the bad battery?


Sounds like your wife got a defective battery or phone (most likely since both batteries are doing this) because that's not normal or acceptable. Get the phone repaired.

This is her second phone. She's also an android developer and has another from work that she uses to test on. The battery on all of those things is downright horrible.

Knobbs: Egoy3k: Knobbs: I don't get this. I have the iPhone 5. I use it a shiatload. I have no problem with the battery. Charge once a day.

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy S3. Her battery is always empty, and it won't even charge fully overnight sometimes. If it is plugged in while she is using it, the power will still go down, EVEN THOUGH IT IS PLUGGED IN. The only solution is a second battery and external charger.

How is the iPhone the one with the bad battery?


Sounds like your wife got a defective battery or phone (most likely since both batteries are doing this) because that's not normal or acceptable. Get the phone repaired.

This is her second phone. She's also an android developer and has another from work that she uses to test on. The battery on all of those things is downright horrible.

It's not as horrible as you're making it sound. Either you're exaggerating or she really has a defective phone, I know 4 people with SGS3's and none has even complained about battery life, let alone encountered anything as dire as you describe.

Small form factor Big battery.

Pick ONE.

We've already maxed out the energy density levels of lithium batteries about as far as they can go in commercial products right now. It will be years before anything better is on the market.

Knobbs: Egoy3k: Knobbs: I don't get this. I have the iPhone 5. I use it a shiatload. I have no problem with the battery. Charge once a day.

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy S3. Her battery is always empty, and it won't even charge fully overnight sometimes. If it is plugged in while she is using it, the power will still go down, EVEN THOUGH IT IS PLUGGED IN. The only solution is a second battery and external charger.

How is the iPhone the one with the bad battery?


Sounds like your wife got a defective battery or phone (most likely since both batteries are doing this) because that's not normal or acceptable. Get the phone repaired.

This is her second phone. She's also an android developer and has another from work that she uses to test on. The battery on all of those things is downright horrible.

My anecdotal evidence of the S3 that MY wife uses says otherwise. I have an iPhone 4s and she gets somewhat better battery life than I do.

Egoy3k: I suspect that the people who are happy with the battery life of their smartphone fall into one of two categories:

1) Understand the hardware and are impressed that the phone does what it does with the amount of power that it uses. They would love a better battery life but they understand the limitations.

2)Don't need a smartphone to begin with so they hardly ever use it as anything other than a regular phone and the battery does last a long time

I also suspect that the vast majority of them fall into category 2.

#1 isn't a group of people who are "happy with the battery life" if they would love to have a better one. Just because you understand that battery tech sucks doesn't mean you're happy that it sucks.

The author in the article spent half the time with his mouth full of Apple wiener which is unfortunate, but he did make a good point about how phones keep getting lighter than thinner when they should stay the same size/weight with bigger batteries.

I bought a case for my Galaxy S2 specifically to make the phone heavier because it was easy to drop being so light. I would love to have a phone that weighs 2 or 3 times as much and lasts twice as long.

whistleridge: Exactly. Smartphones don't have a lot of excess real estate, and human fingers are bulky. As a result, there's just no way a removable battery can ever be as efficient as a nonremovable one. To paraphrase Churchill, I hate the Apple battery and think it's the Worst. System. Evar...except for all the other.

lolol.

You forget, with a removable battery, you can carry a spare with you, and swap it out when the first one dies.

When your integrated battery is dead, the phone has to be tied to an outlet for an hour or two before it can be used again.

Kuroshin: whistleridge: a word on removable batteries: they're ridiculous. Not only are they a parlor trick, they actually cost you battery life. Take a Samsung smartphone apart and you'll see that the battery removal mechanism is as large as the battery itself. If it weren't removable, twice as much battery would fit inside the phone. So it's not only a ploy to sell you the phone base a fraudulent feature, it's also a ploy to sell you the other half of the battery life which should have been included in the first place. So no need to write in and criticize Apple for not allowing the iPhone 5 battery to be removed. The only potential for criticism here is whether Apple is failing to match up with consumer priorities when it makes its iPhones increasingly thinner and lighter rather than giving them increasing battery life.

Exactly. Smartphones don't have a lot of excess real estate, and human fingers are bulky. As a result, there's just no way a removable battery can ever be as efficient as a nonremovable one. To paraphrase Churchill, I hate the Apple battery and think it's the Worst. System. Evar...except for all the other.

LOLWUT?

The "removal mechanism" in both of my phones (Galaxy S2 and HTC Rezound) is comprised of "sharp whack to the backside."  The battery in the S2 is teh hueg and lasts for three days between charges, while the battery in the Rezound is comparatively tiny due to all the silicon meat surrounding it, and therefore lasts only one single day before going flat.  Neither phone has any sort of bulky removal system, unless by "bulky removal system" you and the author mean "four copper contacts."

Talk about a bullshiat fanboy argument.  Hell, even my old Droid X had nothing more than a tiny plastic flap as  a "mechanism" in the back.

I had the first three generations of iPhone, and while I never had battery problems, they didn't last more than two days on a single charge (especially the 3GS).  There is absolutely no merit in what you said.

I furrowed my brow like a caveman at the op, trying to imagine what sort of convoluted "ejection system" was being bandied about. I finally decided the poster thinks batteries eject like old school VCR tapes.

Fano: I furrowed my brow like a caveman at the op, trying to imagine what sort of convoluted "ejection system" was being bandied about. I finally decided the poster thinks batteries eject like old school VCR tapes.

I don't think you understand how much electricity springs and contacts consume.

Half the battery power of a phone with a removable battery goes to keeping the springs springy. It's a big problem.

ಠ_ಠ

Slaxl: When you consider what a smartphone is, and how much power is in them it's not surprising battery life is short. The best thing would be if all phones had removable batteries, so we could swap whenever the need arose. I don't know why more and more phones seem to be coming out with non-removable batteries. Seems counter-intuitive to me.

It would be neat if you could hot swap them without rebooting. Like, the phone has two but can run off of one, giving you time to swap them one at a time. If you could, I wouldn't mind having a couple extras around.

sigdiamond2000: Is it really that f*cking hard to plug your phone in when you go to bed at night?

We have near field charging now. You don't even HAVE to plug things in to charge them anymore.

Here's the most well known one.

If you're having trouble with iPhone 5 battery life and/or data usage, reset your settings and power cycle it. Especially, turn off iCloud Safari syncing, which is apparently a hog.

namatad: I wonder how long before we start hearing the massive battery discharges may cause planes to explode and your pants to melt.

Um. probably 2007 or so, when china shipped some bad Li-ion cells to several computer makers.

Battery life will continue to improve as programmers get better at managing resources and core components of the OS are optimized for battery.

iOS has a delegate/listener pattern for things like "is the Internet on" and "did my data change" that helps keep polling out of developers' hands. The more developers that use the right patterns, the more the battery will last, as OS manufacturers optimize the components that do the polling under the hood.

Slaxl: Knobbs: Egoy3k: Knobbs: I don't get this. I have the iPhone 5. I use it a shiatload. I have no problem with the battery. Charge once a day.

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy S3. Her battery is always empty, and it won't even charge fully overnight sometimes. If it is plugged in while she is using it, the power will still go down, EVEN THOUGH IT IS PLUGGED IN. The only solution is a second battery and external charger.

How is the iPhone the one with the bad battery?


Sounds like your wife got a defective battery or phone (most likely since both batteries are doing this) because that's not normal or acceptable. Get the phone repaired.

This is her second phone. She's also an android developer and has another from work that she uses to test on. The battery on all of those things is downright horrible.

It's not as horrible as you're making it sound. Either you're exaggerating or she really has a defective phone, I know 4 people with SGS3's and none has even complained about battery life, let alone encountered anything as dire as you describe.

It really is that bad. Maybe it has to do with how she uses it that has destroyed the battery, but it's really, really bad.

It's also just my experience, I realize, but we've purchased 7 iPhones and never had an issue. Now 1 Samsung Galaxy S3 (2 if you count the one that died a week after she got it) and she is constantly aggravated by the battery.