[Slash82]

Hey friends,

I'm a bit frustrated...
I have been using my Bold 9900 since it came out in September.
At first I was super excited.
As I was super excited from the day I saw the first picture of it back in January 2011...

But now, after using it for a while my excitment has dropped a bit.

Don't get me wrong - it's a great device, the keyboard is the best I have EVER used and the screen is crisp and clear!

But I can't get along with:

1.The batterylife:
Often I have to charge it 3times(!) a day from red to 100% - even on 2G!
Sure I use it a lot (writing about 50Emails a day), use it for research on the web an social networks...
But my old, trusty Curve 8900 lasted easily a whole day under same conditions.

2. The camera:
Compaired to my old (8900) 3Mxp. camera that new 5Mpx. is a joke - no autofocus and very, VERY(!) bad pics in darker rooms.
Also the HD-video recording is ONLY acceptable, when you are filming on a bright day - in rooms or low light, forget it! fuzzy and noisy.

I'm even thinking of switching back to my old 8900.

Is the a solution in sight, considering new batteries etc?
Will 7.1 bring more batterylife?

I know - the camera will be the same... :/

Or should I switch to 9790.
Do you think the "small" bold is better for my needs?
Anyone of you used both devices?

I really makes me sad, because the 9900 was the blackberry I have ever dreamt of!
Perfect formfactor!

Hope you understand my frustration a bit.

[FuzzyB]

I can't get passed the "charge 3 times a day" statement...you must not have your device set up properly. Make sure you have the gps turned off, backlight brightness down to 10-20, social apps to check every 1-2 hrs., etc there is no way you should need to charge even a fraction of that often. I use my 9930 pretty hard all day and only ever charge when I'm asleep.

[fragment137]

I've never had to charge my phone that much, even on a heavy use day..

I found better battery life after upgrading to 7.0.0.4**, and it got better after I installed the leaked 7.1.... maybe try that? it should improve a bit.

[Coraya]

Yeah. Three charges a day is ridiculous. Try turning down your brightness, closing your apps, bluetooth, wifi when you're not using it, leave the bbm groups you're in if you don't chat on it much, set the frequency to "manual" for facebook and twitter. There's no need for it to be checked constantly unless that's all you do all day. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head unless your device is just a lemon. Like I've said in several other posts, I'm having a delightful experience with my 9930. 7.0.0.374 by the way. No need for me to update to 7.1 unless the battery life is somehow better. Battery life is great for me right now.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[Slash82]

Thank you for all your replys!
I have got my display down on 10,
Automatic backlight dim on,
Backlight timeout is 20sec.,
Almost every time on 2G,
The messengers I have running in the background are: gtalk, imo, bbm, whatsapp and facebook on 30min. refresh;
Memory clean on 5min.
And I'm running on: 7.0.0.598
(Till now "best" batterylife for me)

Thats it.

Do you think or know if the 9790 would be significant better??
Or is it almost the same?

I'd love to have about 10-12hours of batterylife.

When I don't use my bb and keep it in standby the battery lasts about 15hours.
That means: max. I check my inbox about every 5hours and don't make calls.

[juliankueh]

Thank you for all your replys!
I have got my display down on 10,
Automatic backlight dim on,
Backlight timeout is 20sec.,
Almost every time on 2G,
The messengers I have running in the background are: gtalk, imo, bbm, whatsapp and facebook on 30min. refresh;
Memory clean on 5min.
And I'm running on: 7.0.0.598
(Till now "best" batterylife for me)

Thats it.

Do you think or know if the 9790 would be significant better??
Or is it almost the same?

I'd love to have about 10-12hours of batterylife.

When I don't use my bb and keep it in standby the battery lasts about 15hours.
That means: max. I check my inbox about every 5hours and don't make calls.

I read somewhere that gtalk, whatsapp and FB refresh every 30min are battery killers. I'm on day 2 since getting my 9900. I use FB and Twitter (only refresh when I access them), Touch (formerly Pingchat), been browsing and emailing all day and some BBM. It's 11hrs since off charger and I'm on 50%. Oh and not forgetting I did an OTA OS upgrade to .579 as well.

[emirozmen]

9790 seems like a better device for you... I guess
But note that it has VGA video recording (!) bummer.

[steiale]

uninstall memory clean.. they waste battery with no effect..
set fb to manual update.. feeds will be updated anyway when u start the app and notifications are pushed anyways..

[gooiee]

"charging 3 times a day" sounds like the very reason I used when I threw my android s2 away and switched back to BB. no doubt that my new 9900 battery is not as good as my previous curve BUT with FB refresh 30mins, whatsapp running, kakaotalk, bbm, emails running all day, I can still clock 15-20 hours on my battery. I had 100% at 8am and its 27% at 7pm now...

I web surf, sms, phones quite alot during the day too

Btw, im on 7.1 190

[Slash82]

Thank you again for all your helping advices!!
Now, I turned of fb refresh, memory clean and GPS.
(I used to have GPS on because of BB Protect - if I lose my device somewhere)

But I can`t turn off Gtalk and WhatsApp - I need to be online with this messengers.

I knew that the 9900 has not the best batterylife - but that worse.

Today I took it of the charger around 6.30am, left 3G on.
The only things I did were:
- to check facebook twice and
- a poynt update .
That�s it.
No calls and no emails.
The rest of the time I left it in my pocket.

After a restart at 11am my battery was below 50% (maybe around 30%) percent.
That�s too less batterylife for 4,5hours, I guess?
Or is it only my device?

Did anyone of try those programs like: battery boost or so?
Helpful or useless?

If the 9790 really has a much better batterylife I would sadly have to switch.
I still love the formfactor, screen and keyboard of my 9900.

[FuzzyB]

Gps on is a killer. There is no reason if you follow the advice given thus far, that you won't see a dramatic difference in battery life. Hold down the bb key on the device and see what apps you have running....shut down any unnecessary apps. Do you have wifi on?

[balenax]

There's something very wrong here, it was practically unused and battery went nuts. I have 3g on, wifi on, gps on, 2 email accounts, yahoo messenger always running, bbm ofcourse, fb set to never update itself and my battery life is very good ( well, worse than on my late 9700, but i can make it to a loong day with ease). With, let's say moderate use, and pretty bad 3g coverage ( 2-3 bars, sometimes gets to 2g too) i get 14-16 hours/charge.
- voice calls ~ 1.5 hours;
- bbm 50-100 mesages, maybe more;
- 10-15 emails;
- 20-30 yahoo im's;
- 2-4 bb news updates for ~15 sources;
- ~30 - 45 min browsing;
- checking fb 2-3 times + 5-10 fb private messages;
- 10-20 sms.

I had worse batt life since .503 came out, but after that it really was decent. Now i use .190 7.1 leak and it's great. I think it's a problem with your battery/ device. I would do a fresh install of a newer OS and install only what's really needed first, and see how it goes.


Btw, do you feel the battery getting hot?

[Slash82]

Hey friends!
Thank you again for all your replies!

To your questions:
I only use WiFi when I'm at home and turn it off, when I leave my house.
The battery only gets warm, when I surf the internet (but that's normal?)

So, I changed some things on my phone.
1. Used BBSak to wipe my device completly
2. I went back to .540
3. I bought an OEM holster (sleep mode)

Now I get up to 6-7 hours batterylife.
That's 2-3 hours more than before.
(GPS off, 2G, brightness 10, timeout 20sec.)

When I "don't use" it and keep it in the holster the whole day the battery lasts about 10hours. (Making no calls, reading no emails - just having it in the holster)

Only sometimes (I don't know why - maybe because of the network or so??) when I'm out with friends (in the cinema or at a bar or so with bad reception) it happens that my bold still lasts only about 3hours - that happens about onces or twice a week (sometimes it lasts 6hours at the same places with same usage). I don't know why?

All in all after the wipe it runs a bit better.
Still not that happy - but 6hours of the charger is a lot better than reloading it every 3-4hours.

Maybe I (sadly) change to the 9790

[BoldtotheMax]

Maybe you just a got a lemon like the one poster said, or the phone is fine and it has a bad battery?

I would be calling your carrier and exchanging it and not taking no for an answer.

If battery life is a big thing to you, the 9790 uses the same battery as the 9900, so not going to see a dramatic difference. Then again you may as something might be wrong with your 9900.

I would ask for another one. I know over here in the states with Tmobile, they let you exchange a device free of charge and if things keep happeneing, then its a small fee.

Good luck, by the way your English is pretty good!

[StumptownBold]

From reading this post, and the recomendations provided, it almost sounds like:

1. A bad handset
2. A bad battery


Take it into the store and see what they can do. I'm on 7.1 on VZW and my battery life is good and usually lasts a whole day, although every once in a while I have to charge in the late afternoon if its been a busy day. My settings are similar to the suggestions above and seemed to help improve battery life.

Don't give up, the 9900/9930 is a great phone!