Battery life: Apple's solving for x

Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by STRML on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @05:11AM (#8878910)

I wish most phone manufacturers would start to pay attention to this. I don't need to save the last few mm. My pocket can handle it. But there are times when I definitely do need the extra battery life.

Marketing wins, actual practical use of the product loses.

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by swombat on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @06:01AM (#8879049)

In my experience, those days when I need the extra bit of battery life are almost always at events, or while travelling. I can spot those days in advance, they're not surprises.

So I found a remarkably simple and obvious solution: I spent £50 and bought an external battery pack, something like http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAVPower-15000mAh-External-Generatio... . It charges overnight, weighs not all that much at the bottom of a shoulder bag, but on those crucial days when battery is getting slim, I can just pull a cable out, plug it into my phone, and bingo: the phone is charged.

It's capable of charging an iPhone several times over so easily solves the problem for you and even some of your friends.

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by moe on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @06:51AM (#8879196)

and bingo: the phone is charged.

Isn't it more like "Bingo: now I have a battery pack dangling from my phone for the next few hours"?

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by swombat on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @07:11AM (#8879263)

Nope. iPhones tend to charge most of the battery in about an hour with a decent charger, so you sit down for a presentation or two, while still tweeting/etc, and by the time the presentations are done your phone is charged again.

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by Someone1234 on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @10:57AM (#8880588)

I was recently at the airport and the airport was nice enough to provide power plugs. I happen to be sitting next to them for about 1.5 hours and counted six phones, one Samsung Galaxy S3, and a 3DS.

I used to own a battery pack too, back when I had an iPhone, it was a required accessory unfortunately. Since then I've owned a Samsung Note (1), LG G2, and Sony Z3, and all three of them last 2-3 days, and I have no need for a battery pack.

Even if size was a concern I could purchase a Sony Z3 Compact which is "iPhone 6 sized" but has twice the battery life or more.

Back in the iPhone 4 (ish) day the iPhone had "impressive" battery life. However Apple has stood still while everyone else has continuously improved. Now most non-Apple phones (Galaxy S5, LG G3, Sony Z3, Note 4, Windows Phone, etc) last substantially longer than Apple unless you're buying an unbranded piece of junk.

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by csmattryder on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @05:38AM (#8878972)

You'll want to check out the Moto G/X line then, I'm a happy Moto G owner, and that thing lasts a good 36-48 hours without a charge (admittedly, mine is a year old now, and can only take 24h without a charge) and the hardware isn't completely low-spec.

Not to mention it's about the same size as the iPhone 4. Great battery life, packed into a small handset.

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by gambiting on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @05:56AM (#8879032)

Except that this line "I don't care about thickness, give me better battery life!" is repeated over and over by geeks like us, yet people pretty much always pick form over function - ie pick thinner phones over the ones working longer. So companies keep catering to the needs of those people, because that's what sells.

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by digi_owl on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @07:27AM (#8879311)

Samsung is interesting here. they still make their phones with removable backs. Thus third parties can offer larger batteries and replaceable backs. And I seem to recall a claim that in SK Samsung sell their phones with two batteries in the box. One small for "style" and one large for endurance.

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Re:Battery life: Apple's solving for x by marcosdumay on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @11:59AM (#8881003)

> they still make their phones with removable backs

Only Apple makes phones without removable backs. Anybody else wouldn't be able to sell their phones if they removed that feature.

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