Forget Flying Cars – I Just Want a Better Battery
Every year Apple and their competitors seem to make our smartphones better; right? What they mean by “better” is the typical:
- More powerful processor
- Bigger, brighter touchscreen
- More megapixels on the camera
- More memory and storage
- Thinner and lighter bodies
This is all well and good, but they still only hold a charge for little more than a day. Seriously, I use an iPhone 4 (AT&T) and I have a charger in my home office, night stand, and by the front door. If it only ended there. I have a double charger in my car and my wife’s (Palm Pixi) for when we are on the road. Then, when I get to work, I have another one on my desk. To bastardize a quote from Dirty Harry:
I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire say six shots chargers or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum an iPhone 4, the most powerful handgun power-hungry smartphone in the world, and would blow your head drain your battery clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Terrible, I know. And it was 6 if you’re counting. Six chargers!
There is some debate over what exactly was the “First” smartphone, but I’ll give it to either the Palm Treo or (Samsung) Windows Mobile phones from 2003 (my apologies to BlackBerry and Symbian fans). They were big ugly bricks that handled voice, email, calendaring, contacts, internet, apps and computer syncing. The advances in size, weight, power, apps, and screens over those 8 years is just amazing. However, those old bricks actually had a battery life was barely worse than today’s iOS or Android phones.
How is it that we can all have these $200 supercomputers in our pockets, but we still have to be enslaved to our chargers. Don’t believe me? The next time you are going away for ONE NIGHT, just try leaving your charger at home. You’re sweating right now, aren’t you?
The next iPhone (or Droid) will undoubtedly be faster, thinner, and lighter than ever and I promise I will not be rushing to buy one.
However, if it comes out with the same processor, screen, OS, and memory, BUT, has a batter that lasts five times as long. Well, then I’ll be camping out like those idiots that we all laugh at.
That thing is thin enough already! If they get new components that are ridiculously smaller, they should keep the phone the same size and jam 5 more batteries into the empty space. Maybe then, I can go out to dinner without asking for a table next to an outlet.
How come I have to settle for a miracle of modern technology that only has a one day battery? Why is smartphone battery life so pitiful?
What do you think?
What’s more important to you; features or battery life?
I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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You’re absolutely right on this one. Cell bateries need urgently to last longer. I always cringe when I bought a new cellphone and three month later my batery only lasts like 3 days. the same thing goes for laptops, we need better technolgy when it comes to bateries.
You nailed it. My HTC Inspire 4g lasts about oh… 5 hours when I’m using it hard. That is UNACCEPTABLE! Give me a 3000+ mAh battery please!
Battery is the #1 reason I haven’t moved to a smart phone. I love everything about them but would take a phone from two years ago spec wise if it could last a week per charge like my LG flip phone.