So I've had the BB Bold for a couple of weeks so far and am totally loving it. My only gripe is with the battery life, it seems to wind down really fast. With moderate usage of phone, internet, email, music, etc. I'm lucky if I get 48 hours of use before it winds down.

I had read somewhere that wi-fi can really drain battery life. Is that true and if so, should I turn mine off? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Are you using the WiFi? if so then leave it on, if not then turn it off lol. Same with bluetooth. Make sure you are closing all apps when you are done with them as well.

Really?!! No kidding?!!! Duh, of course I'm closing all apps when I'm done! When the AT&T guys set up my BB, they had activated all 3 speeds, EDGE, Wi-Fi and 3G - and had said that the phone would automatically search out the fastest speed and go with that. But if the Wi-Fi is a huge battery drain, then I could consider switching that off and just keeping the EDGE and 3G. Has anyone else out there done that?

I alternate between them. While at home or in the office, I use 2G only with wifi on, if I am in an area I know has solid 3G, I use 3G only with wifi off, and if I am travelling I use 2G only.

Very rarely do I use the 2G & 3G option, I was seeing too much battery drain.

How do you change between 2G and 3G?

Edit: found the way!

I strongly recommend that you only use either 3G or 2G, not 2G/3G. The device will constantly search between edge and 3G (in my case, which I think must cost some battery life). I set mine for just 3G and it works like a charm. I'm also not using WiFi, since I have good 3G coverage here

I had wi-fi on all the time, as it turned out )))
we'll see what I'll get with having it off.

If I don't close applications as I'm done with them, use instant messaging all day, surf the net, use GPS, listen to music when on a bus, so pretty much have the phone in my hands almost all day, the battery lasts from about 7am to 10pm, which is pretty good a I think.

I will try closing apps when I'm done with them, I have wi-fi off now, so we'll see how it will improve battery life.

I find Wi-Fi drains the batter way faster than 3G. Easily 2x as fast.

I am running v 147.

I agree with your observation.

I bought a 3G iPhone and you want to talk about crappy bat life try that phone for a day or so. I had to hook it to a power source in the car in the office then charge it at night. I sold it on eBay and got about $750 for it so I bought a Rogers Bold.

Believe me when I say you got nothing to complain about with the Bold. I use wi-fi all day plus I play music and use the cam a lot and nonstop emails and the bat is only about half way gone by the time I go to bed.

I regret ever getting the iPhone it was a huge waste of time money. I knew I was going to sell it the moment I realized I had paid an ungodly amount of money on apps from the App store for the iPhone but it still didn’t have all the applications that my old 8310 came with fresh out of the box.

v162 yields the same results as far battery for you too?

I have upgraded now myself and so far on Wi-Fi it is a major improvement on battery life over the last 5-7hrs. 100% battery remains with an idle unit....v147 for me was not the case in the same situation.

Has someone like Seidio started selling replacement batteries? I used to carry a spare for my curve, thanks to Seidio. With the Bold I find it ever so important. I hope someone starts selling it soon!

Lowest I have seen OEM are $49.99 so far.

Thanks for the input, guys. I've started to keep my wi-fi turned off all the time, unless I'm in an area where there's no 3G. Let's see how much that improves the battry life.

One more question - I'm currently running the OS 4.6.0.125 (I probably left out some numbers but it's the one that came on the BB Rogers pre-installed). Are there any official firmware updates out there that address this issue? I saw that one of the sticky threads talks about a new version of the OS, but I probably won't bother to upgrade unless you guys tell me there's a significant improvement in battery life.

Pretty much every version that is being released is seeing improvements in battery life. Try the latest official release 4.6.0.147, which can be found stickied at the top of this forum listing.

I found significant improvements moving to 4.6.0.147. Battery life, and OS stability especially.