Whenever I go camping now I have to turn my Android G1 phone off for large periods of time so it will survive the weekend and be available if I need it. Never had this problem with my old mobile phones. They'd last a week or more a lot of the time.

I don't get the obsession with thin phones. I'd much rather have a thicker phone if it lasted 2-3 days instead of 1.

I haven't had a smart-phone yet, but I made a similar observation once about antennas - I would much rather have a stub antenna and better reliability than an internal antenna and have to worry about reception. I wonder if there is a market for a really reliable, long battery-life, etc, phone that was maybe the size of a small walkie-talkie?

Take a look at Philips Henium 9@9 series. http://www.asia.philips.com/promos/xenium/en/phone_other.htm...

I'm still using my G1 and when I first had it the battery life was terrible to point of me taking it back to the shop to demand another phone. The shop upgraded the software and it has been more reasonable since then. I had one of the first G1's in 2008, so there were still enormous battery issues on new phones even after the iP.

Why not just bring an extra (charged) battery when you are camping and swap it in when your phone tells you it is low?

Rather than being stuck with the extra weight everywhere you go, you just incur it when you actually will be away from a charger for multiple days.

Yeah exactly - I have 2 USB extenders hooked to my charger next to my bed so I can read emails and play Shredder Chess when I wake up... plus the alarm clock.

But again, we are not normal folks though I bet this isn't that unusual the more I think about it.

They started making USB wall plugs after all (which is a great idea).

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/05/10-usb-power-outlet-leave...