How Long Should Your Mobile Phone Battery Last?

Posted on 21 July 2009 by


3g_iphone_low_battery

I don’t remember exactly which of Wayne’s articles it was, whether it was something on the Palm Pre or the iPhone 3G S or something entirely different … but wherever it came from, it started me thinking about that bane of the mobile gadget junkie’s existence: battery life. More specifically: mobile phone battery life. Similar to what has happened with PDA’s, laptops, digital cameras and so on, mobile phone makers have constantly struggled to maintain the balance between features and battery life. Because, after all, a dead mobile phone can’t make a call, regardless of how many cool features are listed on the box. So I asked around the crew of Gear Diary, and here is what they said:

Michael Anderson: Personally, I just hung up from a call and noted I still have ~50% battery and haven’t charged in nearly a week … but then I have a non-camera phone I use only for calls and texting. On the other hand, I am charging my iPod Touch about every other day at this point because I use that for tons of stuff.

Just wondering what everyone thinks is acceptable for what sort of device?

Wayne Schulz: Don’t know but here’s how mine roll out:
- BlackBerry 8900 (EDGE only phone on T-Mobile) — 4:30 am to 11pm — no problem making it
- BlackBerry Bold (3G on AT&T) — 4:30 am to 4pm — depends on usage
- iPhone 3GS – 4:30 am to 4:00 pm — depends on usage
- Palm Pre — 4:30 am to 1pm (I’m being generous) – if I didn’t use the phone for anything it might have lasted until 4

Carly Zektzer: If i can get from morning (6am) to bed (10pm) without having to charge or lose functions to save battery life i am happy.

Daniel Cohen:
- Personally, my Touch MIGHT last a day if I am lucky. Normally does not happen.
- My iPhone- maybe half a day. I have turned off push notifications in the hope of better battery life.
It is totally unacceptable to me but it is the trade off I live with.

After having been screwed once when it died I now carry TWO different external batteries with me.

Judie Lipsett: if I am using a dumb phone, like the Vertu, I can get almost a week – because all I am doing is texting and calling. It spoils me, because when I am using a smatphone I have to recharge daily…but the key here is daily. If I can’t make it through a single day without topping the battery off, then it is crap and I won’t use it – no mater how “cool” the phone is.

Speaking of which, I have the Snap set to fetch email every 10 minutes, I use it for extensive email, texting, calls, and some surfing (it’s no iPhone, okay?), and it gets me to 4pm before it hits half charge. I’ve been VERY impressed with its battery life. :-)

Jessica Fritsche: I can make it through a whole day easily with my iPhone 3G unless I am away from home/the office and making tons of calls or using it to do a lot of surfing. I have noticed that with 3.0 my battery life isn’t as good…I heard that the 3.1 update should fix that though.

Jeff Frantz: Assuming a normal day, which means I’m in the office and therefore using my laptop for browsing rather than a phone:
- iPhone 3GS – so far I seem to get a day and a half
- BlackBerry Bold – a little more than a day, if I’m lucky
I actually haven’t noticed that much difference between the 3G and the 3GS, but then I haven’t been using any push functions, either.

Daniel Cohen: how are you people getting such good battery life out of the 3GS??? jeepers.

Jeff Frantz: In my case, I’m not using it much for email and when I do, it’s set to check manually. (Sent via BlackBerry)

Adrian Leibas
My BB Curve 8330 lasts from 6am-11:30 pm ish. That’s even with being in a building that gets no Sprint signal during work hours, searches for signal constantly and gets all pushmail for 3 different accounts.

Travis: I charge throughout the day as I can or I won’t make it. I’m going to have to get a charger for my classroom so I can make it. Game days are tricky. I sometimes don’t get home until 12:00 or later. I often run out of juice.

How about you? What sort of battery life do you get? What functionality do you use – and what do you sacrifice to get longer life? And what do you think is ‘acceptable’?

Image courtesy of Ars Technica

This post was written by:

- who has written 2381 posts on Gear Diary.

I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!

Contact the author


  • karelj

    Comparing battery life to others is a bit tricky since we all have different usage patterns.
    I hardly ever use mine for phone calls so most of the usage comes from web surfing, reading saved RSS feeds – which is a battery killer since the backlight is constantly on – and checking my tech feeds on twitter.
    That being said, my Moto Q9h will last me from 8am to 11pm on average.

  • alese

    Since I got my first WM phone (HTC Himalaya) in 2004 I’m pretty much accustomed to charging my phone every night. Although the notable exceptions were HTC Wizzard and now my Diamond with extended (1350mAh) battery where I can go a day and a half even two days without charging, but since I don’t want to be without enough charge the following day – I usually charge every day regardless.
    I use my phone for calls, mail (exchange sync – every 2 hours or manual if needed) occasional SMS, some browsing, Evernote stuff, ocassional Note2Self and of course PIM stuff (calendar, tasks, reminders…).
    I also have Bluetooth on and phone is connected to my headset and to my SE MBW-150 BT watch.

  • jkj1962

    I use a RAZR V3xx and an AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes). The RAZR will last 2 or 3 days easy, the 8525 only about a day and a half before it’s dead. I have push email on the 8525.

    Now, that doesn’t answer the question posed by the title of this article, “How Long *SHOULD* Your Mobile Phone Battery Last?”. My answer: As long as possible. I’d like to see 2 days of average use and still have 25% at a minimum. Dreaming? Yes, but I can dream.

  • Joel McLaughlin

    Must have missed this one…

    Even after the update to Android 1.5, I only get half a day depending on 3G/Wifi Usage. Usually this isn’t an issue as I usually am sitting in my cube most of the day. I also keep a USB charger at my desk and just plug it in. I DO carry a USB Battery/Charger in my bag every day just in case and if it’s sunny, I have a USB Solar Panel charger too.

    Smartphones should STOP working on features and start working on battery life. The features are all there for about 90 percent of us. Work on battery life. Let 3rd party software developers work on additional features.

  • JohnKes

    A smartphone battery should last at least a whole day, so you have time to get home and charge it.

    My old Sony Ericsson z520a phone got about 4 days to a charge. Long enough that I did not have to take the charger on short business trips.

    My new Palm Pre barely makes if from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm if I use it during the day. Sometimes I use the car charger on the way home, just to be sure. I just purchased a USB charge/sync cord from Amazon for about $5 so I can charge it during the day. What a pain to charge during the day – I hate the stupid little battery door.

  • Smitty

    Who says a smartphone battery should last all day? How long does your laptop battery last in hard use? Four hours? Three? Less? Yes, it’d be fantastic to have a 12 hours day smartphone battery, but think about what’s inside a smartphone. The iPhone 3GS has four antennas and a magnetometer. (Cellular, Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS, for those scoring at home.) That’s an awful lot of power tied up in just maintaining connectivity with outside networks. A “dumb” phone, on the other hand, only has a cell antenna, or maybe that and bluetooth. Of course it can go a week! But it can’t do anything but use that single network. And if you never leave a solid coverage area, there’s no real work. (I’ve had phones that polled themselves out of power in fringe areas, just trying to get a signal while in my pocket.) Everyone whines at the iPhone for not having a replaceable battery, then along comes the Pre with multitasking and far worse battery life when running multiple apps. Anyone see a pattern? Bueler?

    The final answer is to know your usage, and the limits of your device(s). If you know it’s going to be a long day away from power, either take along a way to recharge (external pack like the Mophie Juice Pack, or Case-Mate’s Fuel, or RichardSolo’s add-on, or even a car adapter), or turn off the radios you don’t need. If you’re not using Maps or one of the location-sharing apps on an iPhone, the GPS isn’t running. You can turn off WiFi, push notifications, and BlueTooth and get a huge shot in the arm.

    Also, be aware of where your power level is. Saying “That stupid phone ran out of juice right when I needed to make a call” is just as lame as saying “That stupid car ran out of gas just as I needed to drive to work.” Think your boss would buy that? Don’t whine – cowboy/cowgirl up and do something about it! Invest in a solution: get an extra cable for your bag, get another battery or pack, eat lunch near an outlet instead of on the patio. Write to the manufacturers and share that this is a concern and politely encourage them to research battery technology. They can’t show investors the whining of a bunch of malcontents. Cogently explain your busy and varied schedule and how longer battery life would be worth extra money and continued upgrades from you.

    Griping here is wasted typing, unless it spurs action. We all have horror stories where we were thinking the techno-fix-future had arrived, but until I see flying cars, I’m keeping a Juice Pack and a mini-USB cable in my bag, and a cable everywhere I spend any time with my laptop.