Battery life – the networks fault?

 

One of the most complained about things on modern smartphones, is their battery life – and quite rightly.

After years of getting us used to increasing battery life on phones, smartphones came along and we all had to get used to charging our phones once or more a day.

However, is it entirely the phones fault?

 

I’ve spent the last 3 weeks almost entirely out and about in unfamiliar places, away from my normal charging regime and have had to explore different ways of keeping my phone going. Car chargers, spare battery, changing app sync schedules and searching for mains sockets I could borrow, were all employed to keep my Desire HD working – a phone not known for its long lasting.

Over this time though, I noticed something. The biggest problem was network reception.
If I was somewhere with weak signal, the battery disappeared  like seconds on a stopwatch, but when I got to good reception, it barely moved (in comparison anyway). And this was not just my Desire HD – I have a Blackberry Torch for work that exhibited exactly the same traits. The phones used up more battery looking for a 3G signal, than doing anything else.

So is it really all phone manufacturers fault when our phones are flashing “10% left”, or should the networks with their patchy 3G coverage shoulder some blame?

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