[kwilkins]

barJohn congratulations on your very informative review, well done. I’m amazed and quite jealous about the battery times you are getting. How do you do it? You’ve said the battery remains on 100% throughout most of the day. Mind drops to 95% in less than an hour after removing it from the charger, and this is with only checking email once for less than 5 minutes.

My battery experience so far. I use up about 50-60% of my battery over a 10-hour period with moderate use. For me moderate is checking email once an hour, about 30-45 minutes of talk time, and maybe 15 minutes of web browsing.

barJohn are you using any special battery conserving techniques?

Is it possible I have a bad battery?

Will others please post whether they are getting battery life like barJohns, or more similar to my experience.

[Mark Rejhon]

The 30-45 minutes talk is causing the battery loss.

It's very easy to keep an 8700r near 100% all day if all you do is email and a few minutes of web browsing.

But once you start talking on the cellphone, be prepared to see the battery meter start moving more.

Also don't forget the novelty factor: You use the 8700 more at first than you will later, probably.

Exercise your battery with 3 full cycles then go into the habit of just usually topping it off with the occasional full cycle. Check the "Max the battery life of your BlackBerry" link inside my BlackBerry FAQ below.

Also, don't remove your BlackBerry from the charger the moment it hits 5 bars. The battery meter is at 5 bars when the battery power level is 80% -- you still have to put in another 20% more charge. (See Options->Status the instant the battery meter goes from 4 bar to 5 bar -- and you will see what I mean.) A drop to 95% is often normal for a new battery, it's not calibrated yet -- do 3 full charge cycles and it will probably calibrate itself.

[barjohn]

I don't do anything special to conserve battery life. I think that using the USB port to charge it seems to give better performance but that may just be coincidence. I really don't know. Let me see if it continues. Maybe I was the lucky one and got the great battery and you were the ...oh well I'll let you fill in the blank.

[richard371]

Had a full charge this morning now down to 40% didn't use the phone at all but used verichat and played around with it a lot.

[emale]

signal strength can have an impact and did you leave bluetooth on?

[AlbertoM]

Originally Posted by barjohn

I don't do anything special to conserve battery life. I think that using the USB port to charge it seems to give better performance but that may just be coincidence. I really don't know. Let me see if it continues. Maybe I was the lucky one and got the great battery and you were the ...oh well I'll let you fill in the blank.

eBay it. You ought to get about what? 3 large for it?

[barjohn]

I left mine on since 6:30am today. Light usage, a few emails sent, some web browsing, 10 phone calls, longest was about 15 minutes, Bluetooth on and linked to either an in car unit or a headset and it is now 5:45pm and my battery is showing all blue. If I go to status it shows 85%. It must be that I got the magical mystry battery. When not in use it was in the holster.

[cxxxkies]

Hi,

Mark Rejhon is right.. For me I've been practicing that even for new ordinary phones or even for laptops.

For the battery charging, I don’t usually use the USB connected to my PC to charge my BB. I usually charge it directly from the power outlet.

First 3X charging: 8-10 hours then make sure to drain the battery before charging it again.

I’m not sure if it will work for you guys but for me I can use my 7290 for 3 days with 1hr call everyday with 20-30 emails and few browsing.

[Soapm]

Originally Posted by emale

signal strength can have an impact

Great point, are you getting good signal levels?

[barjohn]

Update it is 10:00pm and my battery status is 80%. It is going on the charger and I am going to bed.

[greggebhardt]

The lowest I have seen my batery is 75% and I use my phone a good bit. I also use a BT headset all day. Signal is VERY good in Jacksonville if that makes a difference and I use about 1200 to 1500 minutes a month.

The 8700 sips power in comparison to my Nextel 7520!