We all want our devices to do more, Wi-Fi, GPS...but are really willing to give up battery power??? Full story here

Which is why the capablity of carrying an extra battery is so important.

Very true! I have seen our battery sales increase by probably 5%...and inquires for batteries and extended batteries with the extended doors. Next week Im shipping an extended battery we will be carrying to Adam, so he can test it with the Diamond...

 People are often willing to sacrifice alot for longer battery life.  Typically when I say to people that 3g/HSDPA uses alot of power,  they are happy to put the phone into gsm only mode.  sure they can't surf the web as quickly, but activesync email performance barely notices the hit. 

I am in a situation where I can have my phone on charge for a majority of the time and usually need to.

I use my device heavily: I am always connected to net for RSS feeds with Push emails coming down during my waking hours; I regularly surf the web, usually from rss feeds or browsing this forum; listen to music and/or TomTom while travelling and watch YouTube videos as often as somebody enquires "have you seen that?".

My battery will usually last me less than one day when I am in full multimedia mode, but it will last for a couple of quite days when I'm only texting/emailing and using it as my watch.

This causes me no concern and an extended battery would only be a consideration with a smaller device such as the Diamond or Touch Pro. 

I have a friend with a Nokia N95. This device is larger than my Touch Cruise and he is only a light user, but the battery will drain within a few hours if he even dares to make a phone call. For him the battery life is a definite consideration for his next phone.

For me, size is all important. I want the functionality of Windows Mobile, but I wouldn't pay the price of turning it into a brick just for longer battery life. This is why the Touch Diamond and Pro are looking more and more promising.

I have to admit that I have always been a bit paranoid about the entire battery-life issue. For as long as I can remember, way back to when I got my very first cell phone, I've been suspicious and ever-watchful of the battery levels. Even today, I keep all my devices in whatever low-power mode is available as much as I can.

What seems strange to me is that battery life doesn't really seem to have improved very much for phones over the years, as it has for laptops and other devices. Is that true, or is it just me? Because in general, I feel somewhat disappointed in almost all of my devices' battery life - for me, these are absolutely critical pieces of technology that allow me to communicate and get work done, and I really don't want to be concerned about running out of juice halfway through the day.

It just seems like manufacturers should be able to make batteries that have the power of some of the big extended ones - or even more - but in the form factor of a standard battery. Is it just the laws of physics and chemistry that get in the way? 

Bill Fisher:

What seems strange to me is that battery life doesn't really seem to have improved very much for phones over the years, as it has for laptops and other devices.

I agree...I remember when the Big "to-do" was going from Ni-mH to Li-Ion...even then not much improvement that I can see...

Bill Fisher:

I've been suspicious and ever-watchful

 I agree with you Bill I have my device turns off after 5 mins. of no use...

Bill Fisher:

....battery life doesn't really seem to have improved very much for phones over the years, as it has for laptops and other devices. Is that true, or is it just me?

I think part of the issue is that they may develop better batteries,  but this is in parralel with amazing technologies that use more power. Its a war of attrition!

davidc:

I think part of the issue is that they may develop better batteries,  but this is in parralel with amazing technologies that use more power. Its a war of attrition!

You got that right.. There will be no winners.

Bill Fisher:

Is it just the laws of physics and chemistry that get in the way? 

My first Mobile phone was an Ericsson (No Sony involvment yet) which had a two line monochromatic display, which made phone calls, code text and used the new WAP 1.0 - that was all. The battery was same physical size and could last 8 days with normal usage. Our latest devices view full HTML wesites and emails, are Video and Audio capable, along with GPS and have the connection options of Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPRS upto 3G speeds. My full battery can be drained by GPS within 4 hours, 1/6th of 1 day.

One of the main points of discussion quite recently was the fact that we are requesting more and more features, more and more power hungry devices, but the battery industry is unable to keep up. The battery manufacturers have admitted that we have been at the limit of the efficiency of Li-ion batteries for quite some time now. This has lead a number of R&D teams to look at alternative fuels for batteries, namely methanol fuel cells and sugar based fuel cells. These include Sony and Nokia.