Got my blackberry replaced the other day, was still having issues with the battery draining quickly with hardly any use. I decided to try the .101 OS upgraded. After a successful upgrade I noticed a big difference in battery life. I guess that was the issue all along....

Now I'm currently downloading the more recent OS upgrade .109!

Thanks guys!

i have noticed the same thing... phone in pouch 1 day battery life... phone out of pouch 2 plus days of battery life.

I promised to report back: 3 days later my battery life is now at 15%. At the date of my previous post (Jan. 07) I started with a battery at 90%. So overall, not bad at all.

In my case, the original leather pouch turned out to be one of the problems causing the battery drainage.

me too - the firmware helped loads on battery life, but the leather pouch still drains the battery much quicker.

time to fix that RIM???

How is the leather pouch the culprit? Is it because it causes a weak signal?

Heat or maybe the orientation of the phone in the pouch? Might sound daft but with my Palm Treo 680 I used to notice that having it in my chest pocket upside down while at work drained the battery very fast. The orientation part is probably just my imagination though :P

Maybe buy one the real RIM leather pouches rather than the pleather one that comes with it. My wife's OEM Curve pouch is nowhere near as nice as the one I bought for my pearl from RIM, not even close. I don't think it's leather at all. Maybe the magnet isn't in the correct place so the phone screen goes off and on unknowingly and wastes the battery?

Hi,
I too experienced poor battery life with my bold.
I think there is a bug/problem with "GPS-Location On" variable. It seems to me that, by default, the battery keeps scanning for GPS signal, and i assume there is bug. So i turned the option to "location -off". The battery life went way up, allmost twice.

I guess some of you guys who are more techie with GPS can verify it.

thanks
Dan

I cannot agree with that. I have GPS-Location always on, and my battery acts the same as with turned off.

Hey guys.

I did the .114 upgrade on Sunday morning and was able to last on a full charge up until this morning with battery life indicator in the yellow. This is with moderate use of calls, SMS, BBM, and a couple apps. Backlight at 10s, WIFI off, and a rubberized skin case (if that matters...). Got fed up and charged it again today. Will try to go for a 3 test sample to be fair.

That said, I'm wondering what you guys think about the new Seidio Extended Battery for the Curve 8900/Storm 9530 - BASI16BBX6. It's 1600mAH compared to the standard 1400mAH battery, and the claim is 15% more juice. Would it be worth it? I have to admit I'm very tempted.

Thanks.
J.

I bought my first BB last week and have been generally pleased and had to charge often because I was playing around lots. Last night I charged it fully and at 10:30 pm turned the unit completely off. It's been off ever since. It's now 3:40 the next day and it has used about 20% of my batter life. What would be running that would cause battery to run down when the unit is completely off.
Betty

Nothing is running when the unit is off. Therefore you have a defective battery. End of story. Get a new one.

Doing the math it'sonly 14.2% more mAh than the OEM, so I'm skeptical as to how much difference it would make. Seidio extended batteries aren't known for being inexpensive. I think my 8100 model was $40 with the slightly bigger door (plus shipping). It was 30% more juice (1200 vs 900 mAH EOM) and I really like it, but 14% more cowbell, I don't know. Maybe for $15 I'd go for it, not much more. I hate charging batteries all the time. Drives me nuts.

What OS are you using?

Mine also goes about 3 days tops with full charge but i must say that the 8320 curve was superior is battery life then then 8900 by far, on my 3rd day with the 8320 i would charge it for the sake of charging it but i still had a 1 quarter left of battery but on my 3rd day with the 8900 i have to charge it as it will be in the red/orange

Thank you

I have to see about the theory regarding the leahter case. My battery lifeis also severely compromised right now. I had about half battery at 10:30 AM. Granted I get MASSIVE amounts of emails and txt messages, this should not be the case. Tomorrow, I will not use the case.

I only use the case because Seidio has not released their skin for it yet.

Hi - here are my experiences re: battery life and the dreaded fake leather pouch:

Got my new 8900 2 weeks ago (via Carphone Warehouse UK). Asked supplier for new battery and new pouch after 3 days due to poor battery life. After several more days, concluded that the pouch was at least partly to blame, as I always switch phone off and leave in pouch before bed - one morning I came down and nearly half the battery charge had drained ! I have switched off WiFi and dimmed the display etc, so it's not that.

Interestingly, I noticed that the biggest drain of all was leaving it switched off, in pouch, in proximity to my PC. I am no physicist, but I suspect magnetic fields.

I have also read much about improved battery life with new OS. Mine came with .101, I gather some people have downloaded .133 with notable improvements.

So, it could be a combination of the battery, the pouch (definitely dodgy) and the OS that are at fault. But this is my 4th BB and the battery life is the worst of all - and I am a light user. There is much about this on all the other BB forums.

My best suggestion if we want RIM to fix this is to send comments directly to them (as a new member I am not allowed to post addresses yet so please close the spaces to make the correct address): bb suggestions @rim . com. Also let the networks know.

Don't forget the biggest battery drainer of all: Radios. Seeing as how the 8900 has one radio that other units didn't have=GPS I suspect that radio has something to do with people's worse battery life. The mysterious pouch I cannot explain except for testimonials from people who tossed it out and got better battery right away. IMO changing the OS doesn't directly improve battery life, it may indirectly alter radio use by either the GPS or WiFi somehow. Of course the improved screen will negatively affect battery life, but how much is anyone's guess.

watching about 8 mins worth of videos on youtube drained my battery approx 10%. I'm on the latest OS.

could it be a bad battery?

Well, over 300 emails since 0800 and multiple pictures, WiFi and use has drained my battery by 2:45. WOW! I have to see how this goes. I think this new processor and screen is propbably draining it much faster then before. I don't think its the battery. Maybe the next official OS build will improve it. Right now using .133 is probably also partly to blame.

I guess its time for a Seidio extended battery.

I just got my 8900 and I have v.4.6.1.114 installed on T-Mobile. After one day's use, I'm ALREADY down to 55%....and I'm a light user! My Curve 8320 would be at about 85% at this level normally. Do I need to install a newer version firmware? Never done this before so any help/advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Since I loaded the beta software, I will install the official release of .133 and see. My batter can hardly last half a day. Granted, I am an extremely heavy user, but no more than any of my previous devices (I have used them all all the way back to the garage-door openers). Well, except for the Bold.

i think its a defective battery because i get great battery life but i do not use the leather pouch so i wouldnt know anything about that

I have found that if I place my Blackerry into the pocket case the battery will die within 24-30 hours even if I have turned off the unit.
If I leave it outside the case the battery is fine. Either the case is defective or the design wrong. I am still investigating.

so what is the stndard battery life supposed to be? cus i leave mines off the charger all night and i wake up to by alarm and have received a dozen emails and sms and te batt lost one bar? by lunch i have it down to half way mostly on edge use age one or 2 calls and @ 100 sms, IM and emails. without a doubt it would not make it a full 19hr work day of mine.

does thissound about right?

im interested in upgradingto the latest but how do i check what i already have? im also still within my 14 day period to return it if need be.

...

I received my 8900 on Monday for which I thought was an upgrade to my 8820. The battery life is absolutely horrible. With my 8820 I would go to the gym everyday for 1 1/2 hours all the while listening to my mp3's. I would send emails at work, talk on the phone and text message (BF lives in different state and we talk for at least 2 hours each day). All the same things I'm trying to do with the 8900. Difference is I wouldn't have to charge my phone for a couple days. Now today after maybe an hour of talk time, maybe 10 text messages and receiving email but not responding I have 20% battery left after having a fully charged phone this morning. This sucks.

If you have not updated, I would highly suggest updating to the latest firmware. Seem to solve battery issues. I am a heavy users.. today alone maybe 80 sms, over 50 emails.. couple hours on the phone, with blue tooth on, WiFi on, GPS location on... installed a couple of new apps, and surfed for about 20 minutes... and my battery is showing 30%, and i consider this a pretty heavy day. My screen brightness was set to 80, and auto dim was also on.

I here a lot of people complaining about the battery, it has to be the firmware or a defective battery.. or the pouch. I DO NOT use the pouch that was included, it's just too tight and can't be good for the longevity of the keyboard.

I am VERY happy with the battery performance.. coming from an iphone.. that thing I had to plug in by noon, and it would never last an 8 hour day for me

I love the 8900.

i have my backlight set to 10 and it says auto dim, how do i get the auto dim to turn off?

I changed the screen brightness to 60 and auto dim was already on. I also went and closed any apps that I had open (never did on the 8820 but ok). Since I got it Monday I haven't had a chance to buy a skin or holster (never use a pouch) as I'm waiting on more reviews for the Seidio Innocase 360. So It's nekkid right now! Hopefully changing the brightness and closing the apps will help. If not, I will be calling T-mobile to see if they can send another battery. Thanks for the suggestions!

Options -> Screen Keyboard -> "Automatically Dim Backlight" -> OFF

When I had my 8320 Curve, wifi and bluetooth were always on. I'd be constantly getting emails all day thru multiple email addresses I would occasionally text people and surf the net a bit on the blackberry and be on the phone a bit and I would get about 2 day's worth before I have to charge the battery.

Now that I have the 8900 doing the same exact thing my battery barely last a day. :(

I'm debating about getting the 1600mAh extended battery from Sedio but at 50 bucks I might as well spend the 10 bucks more and get the 2600mAh battery instead. Then if I do that then I won't be able to use the Sedio Inocase anymore.

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

I upgraded to the latest os after having battery problems and it fixed it right up.

im trying battery booster... anyone else try this?

After replacing both phone and battery, I have found another solution to the battery life problem on the 8900. I charged the new battery for a full 24 hours, even though it said it was fully charged after about 4. I also replaced the stock pouch with a Beyza (go ebay, saved about 12$) With the new fully charged battery and the new pouch, I have gone from about 3/4 day battery life to 2 1/2 days with wifi on all the time. Hope this is helpful for folks as it was for me.

what did the case do for your battery life ?

i was wondering what this software actually does to the phone ? conserving battery, how ? wrt power consumption in general, the less activity the better for the battery, but running the software is also an activity....

maybe it reduces the intervals for auto send/receive between the phone and the towers ? also, did you notice a performance difference overall ?

i'm thinking it's more worth it to carry a spare battery...

Wow that sounds pretty fast, but I know that mine has a short life too. Not nearly that short, but I purchased a better battery from it off another website on the internet. They have things that give it a quick charge too, if you are in need of one and don't happen to have time to plug it in and wait....

I think I got mine off this website, but not entirely sure:
BlackBerry Curve 8900 Accessories

what about the ventev PowerCELL ? found it on cellguru cheaper than anyone else ($ 32)...
i read this is supposed to provide up to 3 full charges before it needs to be recharged, it looks interesting...

anyone else used it ?

Yeah batter life on my new 8900 lasts for about 1.5 days with medium use. My 3 year old SE K800i that it just replaced the battery lasted 3 days with the same use.

I just upgraded my OS on my BB 8900 lets see if that helps.

Why do they make these phones so THIN?? Cant they make this phone alittle thinker and stick a thicker battery in it?

They are making these phones thiner and thiner no wonder the battery life sucks on these.

I rather have alittle thicker phone with 2x the battery life then a skinny flimsy phone with horrible batter life.

We have 2 Curves, both access the same services and are set up in the same way with regard to Dimming/Brightness etc, etc.

With similar use, one regularly lasted 2-3 times longer than the other.

I contacted the Phone provider who said that as the phones were only a few weeks old, they would change the weaker perfoming Phone and Charger ~ not just the battery.

Now both now last about the same time as each other between charges with similar use.