Okay Geek Farm
More and more features - What About the Battery?
Darryl Cobb
I do appreciate all the advances in processor speed - and multi-tasking that our favorite handset makers are making. I do appreciate the glorious responsiveness of the touchscreens, the snappiness of your OS’s and all of the tight integration of my social networks with my Contact List. I even appreciate being able to truly have my handset become an extension of my desktop, help me when I’m lost, assist in making informed decisions regarding restaurants and gadgets and even keeping me updated on the World Cup. But who will step up to take on the greatest challenge of them all; Battery Life!
You see, as an EVO 4G owner, I’m happy. Not just happy I own one of the best handsets on the market but happy I owned the HTC Hero prior because that means I have a second battery. And if I didn’t have a second battery, I couldn’t enjoy all the richness this phone delivers on. But I can’t just beat up on the EVO 4G because I had the same issue with the Hero, even after the firmware update that was dropped down from the lords of HTC. The CEO of HTC, Peter Chou didn’t make me feel any better by saying, “We are using extreme modes, and the battery is a concern. What we’re trying to do is — the battery is removable, unlike the iPhone — you can remove it and replace it. This is one area that we’re really working on improving. I don’t have a lot of good news.”
Yes I can always buy batteries or walk around with solar panel jeans to keep my super phone charged up so I can use every goody available to me. Oh and you have to love those phone thickening super batteries on the aftermarket too! Yes I can always download a battery manager to extend the juice in my battery for a couple of extra hours. Yes I can do all those things. But why should I? I have to admit, that is one big thing the boys at Cupertino got right. According to LocalTechWire, “Jobs said the company waited so long because it wanted to offer multitasking in a way that didn’t drain the iPhone’s battery or reduce the phone’s performance.”
Can we have our cake and eat it to? I think we can because if we can’t what is the point of having a 2GHz smartphone with the battery life of those cheap dollar star AA batteries we use in our wireless controllers to get us to payday? With all the innovation that’s coming down the pipe, I hope it’s either in power consumption or better batteries. I could throw in a lame Star Trek, “I need more power.” reference but I won’t. I know, I know, I just did.
