Mobile phone battery running out fast...

All of a sudden (within the last 2-3 days) the battery on my Sony Ericsson P800 has started running out extremely quickly. I'm lucky if it lasts a whole working day from a full charge - and that's just on standby! If I make any calls or SMS I'm looking at a few hours at best.

It is about 18months old now so it's probably past its best but do LiIon batteries just suddenly go south like that? Last week it was still lasting 2-3 days no probs.

Michael.

 

They can do... I found my 3.5 year old 8850 battery started lasting much longer after I'd sprayed the contacts with DeOxit and Progold... Must do that on my new phone (another 8850, since I couldn't find anything I liked. Try finding a phone now that has a metal case, b/w screen (colour eats battery), no camera.... There aren't any.

 

Perhaps worth checking the charger! The charger for my T610 needs a bit of wiggly wiggly on the cable to make sure it keeps charging. Check after a few minutes to see if the phone is still charging.

Also, on an old Nokia 8210, this happened too. The battery died after a few hours. I tried a new battery, but it still happened. The charger worked fine (tried it on other phones), but for some reason the phone would still seem to run the battery down much faster.

I'd check the charger first though.

 

That's true, I wanted a decent phone without a camera but couldn't find one.

I heard though that the emergence of mobile phones has led to big advances in battery technology. Perhaps colour screens etc. will lead to further advances.

 

theres still a few Isaac.

Here's mine.

http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/nokia-1100.htm

Its a basic handset.

 

It's a plastic fantastic though Chris.

 

oh sorry, forgot you were looking for a metal one.

 

Charger's working fine. Must have a look at the battery contacts. If anyone can source an (original) new P800 battery for me I'd be grateful otherwise I'll hit eBay...allthough that's awash with far eastern knock offs

Michael.

 

True so far. Since I work from home I hardly ever need a cell phone, but sometimes when workload is low it's nice to feel free to walk the streets or go cycling. I want no frills, b/w screen and metal case too. If you find one let me know.

 

Battery life has improved. My old Nokia 6230 (camera, colour screen etc had a good life (3-4 days)). Just got the SE K750i so the jury's still out on how long it will last!

The limit of batteries tends to be about 18 months. As soon as they reach that age, they just go without much warning.

 

Sir Galahad - I gave up and got another 8850.

Batfink - the nokia 6310i with b/w screen had a battery life that could reach about two weeks on standby. The 8850 has relatively poor battery life compared to many of its contemporaries and yet it still easily manages 4-5 days. Even after 3 years it would still last 2-3 days.

 

Went and got a new battery (from a Sony Ericsson service centre) for the P800....no change :cry: . The guy at the service centre did say that battery is most likely but a few P800s have had a problem in the battery circuit with a component going tits up causing constant power drain. Oh well, it was time to change my phone anyway and this might aswell be the reason. Was waiting for the rumoured P910i successor but deicded that I don't really need all that smartphone functionality and plumped for the Sony Ericsson K750i

Does 90% of what the P800 can do (with Java apps you can do almost anything), is nice and small and has what I've long been looking for in a phone: a decent (2mp) camera. When I get around to taking some pics with it I'll post some up here and I think a few people might be surprised at how phone cameras have moved on. It now means I have my bulky Olympus SLR for "proper" stuff and a nice pocket camera which, being my phone, I know I'll always have with me.

Michael.

 

michael, i'd be very interested to hear what you have to say about the k750i i've been waiting for the nokia n90 to arrive but am about out of patience - if it's not released in the next couple of weeks i'll be thinking very seriously about the k750i. one thing that does concern me is the robustness of the thing. how 'solid' is it as the p800 was a bit creaky. my current 5140 is damn solid but the camera and screen are awful.
cheers

julian

 

My newly acquired d500 has been very good with 3-4 days.

This is the thing though we expect that from battery now, I remember the good old days with a brick which lasted about 2 hours if you had dared make a phone call!

 

My nokia 6230 batt worked ok to start with, not a patch on the nokias I'd had before but acceptable, then after six months it just gave up, still like it now. Lasts about a day-day and half on stand by :/ Just waiting till next month to replace it. Don't know what with though.

 

my 5140 is fine - goes about a week with numerous calls before i get into the danger zone, though if i use the gps shell it only lasts for a few hours! damn useful on a bike ride though.
if i could get one with a 2mp camera, flash and a decent screen it'd be the perfect phone for me but sadly even the new 'i' version only has a better screen, the camera still sucks.
cheers


julian

 

Just at the point of needing an upgrade. Not really sure where to head. On one hand the prospect of a 3G handset for sort of broadband anywhere(ish) for my notebook appeals.

I do find I use the web a fair bit on my current thing (6600). Albeit pretty slow (GPRS), with the Opera browser I can access/execute Barclays iBank, and eBay, etc though its a bit painful at times. I think I would use a decent camera regularly too.

Recent handset experiences:
T610: great proportions and weight, nice to hold, good range of features, auto lock keypad ESSENTIAL, decent alarm, sh*t camera, good battery life, crap web browsing, crap joystick.

K700i: nice object, similar good points as the T610, camera disappoints, pretty slick OS, but lacks customisability, metal casing is a good thing.

6600: quite heavy, average battery life, average to poor camera, good OS in the sense that you can move stuff, create folders, add apps, has Opera browser which is a plus, but OS is very slow - annoyingly so, LACKS AUTO KEYPAD LOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

V800: sort of appealed initially, but went off it quick, too bulky, I dont like "clamshell" phones so went off it, then found various faults, stopped really working as a phone (couldnt receive calls), camera stopped working - rubbish.

So any thoughts on the following:
K750i: Nice size and weight, 2.0 Mp camera, auto-focus, 64MB Mem stick, noce object in the vein of the K700i, however lacks the freedom of the Nokia OS and isnt 3G. Maybe a 3G card for the notebook is a better option for connectivity anyway?

6680: 3G, open but slow OS?

Any thoughts, experiences or suggestions on these or other models? I'm a bit lacking in opinions on the more exotic smartphone type things but I hate having a bulky phone in my pocket.

 

Not sure if you played with a K700i, but I found it to be well put together and solid, nice metal case, sort of brought a tear to my eye when my keys slightly scratched the screen as it was so, well, nice. Hopefully the K750i will be similar quality. I'm almost set on one myself now.

 

First experiences of the K750i are very positive - extremely pleased with it. It seems pretty robust (the case is mostly metal) but I'm not going to drop it just to find out

Really nice, fast and intuitive UI and easily customizable. Got GPRS, internet and e-mail all configured and working this morning (since I bought it unbranded I had to do this all manually which was a bit of a fiddle but you only have to do it once).

Camera works really well and behaves like a proper camera (use of display, controls etc) - even has adjustable white balance .

I'm going to miss the Opera browser on my P800 but you can get a Java browser that looks pretty good. The other killer app I used on my P800 was WorldMate and fortunately there's a Java version available for the K750i.

I'm more than happy to have lost a bit of PDA/organizer functionality in exchange for a much smaller, sexier package with a great little camera thrown in...not to mention an RDS radio

There have been a number of firmware niggles with the K750i which were only substantially remedied in the R1J002 firmware upgrade that came out mid June but that broke GPRS on O2. Worth making sure you get a recent firmware version (mine is R1J002 and so far it's been completely trouble free).

EDIT: Latest f/w version is R1L002 which came out 22nd June and fixes the O2 GPRS problem introduced with R1J002.

You can check the f/w version with:

>*<<*<*

...where < and > are "joystick left" and "joystick right" respectively. Then choose "Service Info" -> "Software Info".

Sony Ericsson provide firmware upgrades online and they are user installable via a PC and the supplied USB cable.

Michael.

 

I'm pretty much decided on the K750i then. I think I'd rather get a 3G card for my thinkpad for everything else.

Apparently some recent research suggests that separate compact digi cameras are soon to be a bit of anomaly as phone cams continue to improve. I must admit a 2.0mp phone cam would leave me feeling generally "equipped" regards snaps.