How important is battery life to you?

March 28, 2012/Stuart Wood

A number of factors contribute to a smartphone’s battery life. Faster and more powerful processors, of course, will drain battery more rapidly. That doesn’t bode well for the quad-core processor phones we’ll see this year. 4G LTE networks also drain battery faster than 3G networks (which drained battery faster than 2.5G networks, as iPhone 3G customers quickly learned). Software, too, can drain battery. Applications that frequently pull data from the network can drain battery significantly. A recent study shows that ads served from free apps can drain battery as well. There are just so many ways that you can lose battery life throughout the day. Recent DC power trends have enabled us to charge our phones faster. That does help, in a way. If you do find a charger sometime during the day, a rapid charger can bring you back to full life relatively quickly. The problems arise when people simply have no access to an outlet. Currently the options are limited: extended battery or a spare battery. Both have their downsides. What we’ll need sooner, rather than later, is software and hardware that more efficiently consumes battery power. Thankfully, there is hope. Plenty of companies are doing research involving lithium-ion batteries. This is mostly as they apply to electric cars, but the life-extending technology they develop could eventually cross over to cell phones. More powerful batteries, combined with hardware and software efficiency measures, could lead us to a cell phone battery that can handle high-powered hardware and software for an entire day. ]]>

Posted in

2 Comments

  1. Phil on March 29, 2012 at 7:10 am

    It is important to me. That is why I use an iPhone on StraightTalk service.



  2. Tashina on March 31, 2012 at 10:26 pm

    Battery life is the second most important feature to me on a phone-behind call quality. Currently I’m using a Galaxy SII, and the battery life leaves much to be desired. I hate having to charge my cell phone every single day-sometimes even twice a day depending upon my usage. I have a myCharge which I (…ahem) *borrowed* from my sister, but I am starting to think that a smartphone is just not worth it to me. I miss my feature phone. It may be basic, but at least I only had to charge it about once or twice a week, not each day.
    I think I am going to return this phone and either get a feature phone, or go back to my e71 on Straight Talk.