Battery Life and the 7100t

[bhsalzer]

We all know by now that the 7100 screen rocks. However I am getting nowhere near that of the 7230 battery life. I knew I would be sacraficing some but this is ridiculous!

After three full days of running it and using it pretty heavy I am getting only about a days charge on the battery.

Thursday I had 15% left at 11pm or about 12 hours
Friday I had 20% left after 12 hours of use
Saturday I had 15%!

What gives. There is noway this device has 4 days of standby time like described on www.blackberry.com

Are other people seeing the same things and what are you doing to increase battery time.

I have changed screen timeout to 20 seconds from 45 and also have lowered brightness to 75%.

Please help me get more out of it.

[StevenT]

Roughly the same results for me. So far it looks like I'm getting about one to one and a half days per charge (24-36 hours), and that's with relatively light usage (especially considering that BB owners tend to be power users). Hopefully things will improve. We'll see what happens over the next 12 days, then I'll decide.

[KG]

I am seeing the same results

[capoeira]

I'm getting pretty much just one/one and half day charge on my 7100 as well. Unfortunately I will be returning the device due to this, as much as I love the email, keypad etc. on the thing, I'm going to stick with my SE p900 until RIM improves battery on it.

Hoping that RIM services become available soon to SE phones in the meantime.

-Cap

[desbrosses]

I fully charged my 7100 on Thursday 9/30. I've been using since then (20-30 minutes of phone use per day with moderate email) and my battery life shows 30% remaining (11am on Monday 10/4). The backlight has a huge impact I guess -- I adjusted the backlight brightness to 15 (which is more than adequate indoors) and the timeout to 20 seconds. I would play around with the backlight settings and see what works best.

[iRoninTMO]

Actually don't return it just yet... RIM offers an extended battery for this device. It's on a brochure that our RIM rep delivered to our store.

[ScOObydoo]

I'd like to know if this battery works:

http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/6230/1,2803,acc:1|accCategory:10,00.html

[sempai]

I have that very battery in three phones!

I pulled it, put it into a 7100t. It powers on.

HOWEVER. It just sits on a spinning hourglass, and I got squeemish and pulled it.

It was taking longer than normal to boot.

Any reason to panic? I'll try again if you want.

[Fireproof]

Do it, do it, do it!!

[Gothalyptic]

You got 14 days ;) lol shhh on the battery thing *whistles innocently* ronin didn't just hear me say that. Seriously so long as it's the same battery, the voltage, wattage etc etc it should be find, battery's don't have any way (other then contact points) that the phone knows what brand battery you put in.

[sempai]

Okay I'm doing one better - it did power up eventually but the battery is low. So I'm actually trying to charge this alien Nokia battery in the 7100t with the USB cable and we'll see what happens. It does eventually come on, but I don't know if that battery is really low or not.

I guess I'll find out!

[sempai]

You got 14 days ;) lol shhh on the battery thing *whistles innocently* ronin didn't just hear me say that. Seriously so long as it's the same battery, the voltage, wattage etc etc it should be find, battery's don't have any way (other then contact points) that the phone knows what brand battery you put in.

Sony Ericsson's batteries have something in them that lets the handset know it is an authentic battery.

The light on the Bberry is throbbing gold.

I just tried to turn it on again and it wasn't any better. Hrm.

I'll fiddle some more.

[sempai]

Okay that battery was nearly full when I put it back into a Nokia 6600.

So I guess the verdict is that you can't use Nokia's batteries with the 7100t. It just seems convinced there is no juice left.

[Fireproof]

Well, drat. We need a high-capacity battery for this thing! Maybe I'll just have to buy an extra to have on hand.

[StevenT]

Ok, I'm on my second full charge of the battery, and I'm noticing better battery life. Although, based on other comments, I turned down the backlight to about 30% and decreased the backlight timer to 30 seconds.

First charge (backlight set near max) I would be lucky to have the phone last 1.5 days with minimal usage.

Second charge, I'm at 48 hours with minimal usage and the battery level at about 30%. Note, however, that I did have the phone connected to my computer briefly (10 minutes or so each time) for a couple of synchronizations, which would have added some juice to the battery.

Based on these latest results, I would expect to charge the phone every third day.

Note: The user manual says you should charge the phone every day for 1-2 hours. It is my understanding that the latest Li-polymer rechargeable batteries last longer (more life cycles) if frequently charged as opposed to running them near dry and then charging. I'm wondering if that's the case for the 7100t?

Either way, I'm happy enough with the latest battery performance that I plan on keeping the phone. I still would like to have a larger screen and full querty keyboard like the standard BB's, but I prefer the smaller form factor of the 7100 for telephone use. I guess you can't have it all. (Of course, I may change my mind looking at the new eWorks program by Dynoplex - it looks great, but it is designed for the wider screens of the traditional BBs).

[dngo]

All lithium rechargable batteries require a few charge cycles to achieve full charge. After having gone through a few charge cycles, I've noticed much better battery life without having to change any settings at all on my 7100.

See if the battery life improves by the end of the week before returning the phone, especially if that's the main reason you don't like it.

Dave