Yesterday I had the phone on 3G most of the day to see how that impacted my battery life (I live in a 4G area). From what I’ve read on this thread, my battery performance has been very average for the TB and I wanted to see if I could get it to do better. I generally keep it at 15 – 20% brightness, only sync gmail and that backup assistant (can I get that only sync once a week?) and have weaned myself off of a task killer (bad habits die hard). I do tend to keep my Bluetooth on, but that’s typically only 2% of my battery drain.
Around 5:30 I was on my way to pick up a friend, and she wasn't answering her phone so I went to email her (don't worry, I was stopped at a red light). I noticed that I wasn't connected to ANYTHING so I turned 4G on to see if that would get me online and the phone just wouldn't connect. Light changed, I started driving and after a few minutes she called back. I answered on BT but didn’t check the screen to see where I was at network or battery wise.
At dinner I pulled the TB out and showed it off a little. I did notice that HTC's battery indicator was still in the green zone and it was on 4G but didn’t look at a battery widget for a percentage estimate. Tossed it back in my purse and didn't think about it the rest of the night.
When I got home around 8:30, something was wrong and my phone wouldn’t wake up. I threw it on the charger, and about 15 minutes later tried it again and it started up. Obviously, it hadn’t been sleeping, it was dead. Somehow the battery had gone from being “green” to totally dead in 3 hours, with one phone call and maybe 90 seconds of demo.
I’m curious if this was a random one-off event, or if anyone else had trouble with it last night. I’m in the DC area, live and work in solid 4G. Maybe Verizon was mucking with the towers and my 4G was going in and out and I didn’t notice? I know the last time there were 4G issues my battery really struggled.
I’ll keep the TB because 1.) I like HTC Sense and HTC phones, 2.) The camera takes way better pictures than my Incredible (though I miss the size) 3.) 4G is pretty amazing and it’s fun to make mobile networks for my friends so that their iPads run faster on my 4G hotspot than they do on their 3G. I did order the extended battery last night though, and plan to keep it handy for occasions when I won’t be able to charge throughout the day or if I get in a jam.
