Just how much is amazon a mah? Our a milli-amp

AMonger · Jun 15, 2011

I think that's the abbreviation for milli-amp.

The engineers behind modern smartphones compromised severely when it comes to battery size and capacity. I can't think of any that are a reasonable capacity. And as phone specs advance, it's going to get worse, absent a quantum leap in battery technology. I have a dual core processor, and I'm lucky to get 2 or 3 hours on a charge if I'm using the phone for anything.

The stock battery is 1500 mah, or mAh, or whatever it is. I saw an after-market battery said to be 1700 mAh, but that doesn't seem to be a substantial upgrade. There's a 4500 mAh battery available, but it requires making the phone much thicker, and then you can forget about a case to protect it.

So just how substantial is 200 extra mAh?

LDB · Jun 15, 2011

Well, 200 on 1500 is about 13 1/3 % which is about 8 minutes per hour so if you are getting 2.5 hours it would add about 20 minutes additional. It sounds like one of the chunky add ons that doubles or more is your only significantly useful option.

Turtle · Jun 15, 2011

I've got a thick, extended battery for my Droid. It's a 2800 mAH. Got it at seidioonline.com. Got the thicker case for it, too. The phone's firmware doesn't know about the extended battery, so the phone will freak out when it thinks the battery is at 10% or 5%, but I can keep going with it. Or, I can simply reboot the phone and it'll think there's still 80% left in there. Works well enough. I actually like the thicker phone, easier to hold. Never understood the obsession with thin.

Everybody knows, thicker is better.

I think, is it Diva? who also has one of those? Might want to check with her for her experiences with it.

Well, not about the thicker is better part, but about the long-lasting aspects of it.

scottm4211 · Jun 15, 2011

Without getting into phone warz, I wonder why the Droid operating system is so hard on battery life as compared to other smartphones?

Dakota · Jun 15, 2011

Turtle said:
Everybody knows, thicker is better.

I think, is it Diva? who also has one of those? Might want to check with her for her experiences with it.

Well, not about the thicker is better part, but about the long-lasting aspects of it.

Stop bragging Turtle

Oh, Seidio makes the best case for the original droid!!!

Turtle · Jun 15, 2011

scottm4211 said:
Without getting into phone warz, I wonder why the Droid operating system is so hard on battery life as compared to other smartphones?

It's really more the screen than it is the OS. The Droid screens use bigger, brighter and more powerful LCDs than the iPhone, and the screens are bigger. Then there's the CDMA (for Verizon) thing which requires considerably more power because of how the signals are sent and received, and then there's multitasking and background processes like GPS and WiFi and Bluetooth (which can all be turned off to save battery) and non-Apple phones letting you do what you want when you want. But faster processor speeds, expandable storage, and the simply ability to customize your home screen all takes a battery toll, too.

Extending battery life on the iPhone is the foundation for everything on that phone, so anything done to it is done with that first and foremost in mind.

It was quite a shock when I got my Droid, which was also my first smartphone. Before that, I was going 5-7 days between charging the phone. Now it's a couple of times a day, or I just pretty much leave it on the charger all the time.