[Riva]

Blackberry claims that it is suppose to give 5 hours of talk time and 14 days standby...which is longer than what is claimed of my 8830 despite having a smaller battery.

...I have been testing out the battery on mine and with very light usage (about 40 min of talk time and about 30 min of web browsing)...I get a little bit more than a day before it says low battery...which is horrible battery life.

With that kind of usage I could get near 4 days on my 8830...do I have a bad battery or do I just need to buy multiple batteries?

[mjbesen310]

I probably do about an hour talking everyday, but extreamly heavy usage on the SMS and E-mail... I have to charge it everynight, it wont last over a day, which is what I expect though. None of my past blackberrys would last over a day either

[Riva]

The Tour is my fifth BB and the only one that actually needs to be charged every night....which is pretty disappointing.

Does anyone have any experience with a larger battery than the standard?

[gmkahuna]

Yes, this coming Friday Seidio is going to start shipping the 2600 mAh battery. It will come with a new back cover and increase the thickness of the phone slightly but you will get a much longer life between charges.

It will not fit your standard cases, etc either.

There is also a 1600 mAh but I doubt that is worth the money to at 15% more capacity.

[kkwan77]

It's all relative to what you do on your Tour.

I go about a day and half to 2 days, I generally use it or work emails, SMS and browsing.

[puntorotary]

I dont get good signal at my job and i text and use the messenger very heavily, by 5pm i have to charge it cause it will die on me. I know the signal searching is what really puts the hurt on it. When im at home by 8 or 9 i have to plug it in. Im going to invest in an extra battery and charger.

[myersau]

I would never buy that 2600 battery, who the heck wants their phone to be slightly thicker for more battery life..is it really that difficult to charge your phone!? : /

[bacon225]

With my normal usage I get between 24 and 36 hours. My last phone was the Treo Pro with exactly the same usage I would have to charge every night. Unplugging it at AM by PM it would be down around 20 to 30%.
I am extremely pleased with the Tour my best phone so far by a long shot.
I am not jumping ship any time soon.

[Riva]

Okay well I guess it is normal...I read a Cnet review that said they got 6.5 hours of talk time on the Tour but I guess that is not realistic.

[gmkahuna]

I would never buy that 2600 battery, who the heck wants their phone to be slightly thicker for more battery life..is it really that difficult to charge your phone!? : /

There are those of us who actually need the extended capacity. I don't have the luxury of stopping mid emergency and charging my phone like some folks do. I also may not have the five minutes it takes to reboot the phone to make a battery change at that particular moment either. You have the luxury of time, it seems, to allow for a charge of your regular battery. When it's hitting the fan...I don't.

When, not if, I'm neck deep in downed trees and power lines, digging through debris to get to someone who might be injured or sitting on top of a mountain at an UHF/VHF/800 MHz.tower site that was just hit by lightning I need to be able to talk back to the office at a moments notice to get crews rolling. I also need access to weather maps and warnings because that is the LAST place I want to be in the middle of a lightning storm or a tornado. I'm Emergency Management, so I don't have a choice but to respond 24/7. The very last thing I need is to be worried that my dang battery on my phone is going to be dead when I need it. I have enough other stuff to worry about at that particular time, so yeah, I need, whether I want it or not, what the extended battery offers.

[TheSultan]

I get on average a day out of it....had about the same with the Curve.

[twylo]

If I go to class at 8 A.M. my battery is dead at around 7 P.M., no questions asked. That's usually just with heavy texting. It's kind of frustrating. Does anyone know how thick the new battery will make the phone? Will it be able to lie flat on it's backside? If it looks "stupid" then I don't really want to risk the aesthetic value of the phone.

[gmkahuna]

Twylo, it should be able to lay pretty close to flat. I plan on ordering one and when I do I will post some pics of it if no one has beaten me to it. It's not supposed to add more than about 3-4cm from what the website says.

[Aetius]

I've never owned a BB that didn't need to be charged every night!

I go through 2 full charges a day on both of my devices. The trick is plugging it in wherever you are. If you're in front of a computer, plug it into the USB. In the car? Buy a car charger. Watching TV? Plug it into the wall. You won't EVER have to worry about your BB dying.

[gmkahuna]

I've never owned a BB that didn't need to be charged every night!

I go through 2 full charges a day on both of my devices. The trick is plugging it in wherever you are. If you're in front of a computer, plug it into the USB. In the car? Buy a car charger. Watching TV? Plug it into the wall. You won't EVER have to worry about your BB dying.

My VZW Curve 8330 had the 2600 mAh battery in it and would go no less than six days before it HAD to be charged. I was on it all the time and used it alot for weather app info in the field like I said before.

There are options to charging the phone every day folks. Besides, these batteries are only good for so many charges, then you can bank on having to replace it. It's like any other rechargeable battery, eventually it will not hold a decent charge no matter what you do, but for all of us with Tours, that should be a few years off at least hopefully.

[redwanhuq]

I talk about 2 hrs daily and use the phone's data heavily, especially BBM and Google Talk all day. I get about 12 hours out of it, which is fantastic.

[Riva]

I am really surprised to hear that so many of you find this battery life acceptable...but apparently it is normal. I guess I will just end up using my Vertu more now.

[Master_Tonberry]

I think that the battery life on the tour is pretty good. I always make sure to close off all programs running in the background that I am not using. For example I had VZ navigator running in the background after I arrived at a destination and about 2.5hrs later the battery was about 60% after a full charge. BTW, extended batteries are a bit of a ripoff.

[myersau]

There are those of us who actually need the extended capacity. I don't have the luxury of stopping mid emergency and charging my phone like some folks do. I also may not have the five minutes it takes to reboot the phone to make a battery change at that particular moment either. You have the luxury of time, it seems, to allow for a charge of your regular battery. When it's hitting the fan...I don't.

When, not if, I'm neck deep in downed trees and power lines, digging through debris to get to someone who might be injured or sitting on top of a mountain at an UHF/VHF/800 MHz.tower site that was just hit by lightning I need to be able to talk back to the office at a moments notice to get crews rolling. I also need access to weather maps and warnings because that is the LAST place I want to be in the middle of a lightning storm or a tornado. I'm Emergency Management, so I don't have a choice but to respond 24/7. The very last thing I need is to be worried that my dang battery on my phone is going to be dead when I need it. I have enough other stuff to worry about at that particular time, so yeah, I need, whether I want it or not, what the extended battery offers.

well aren't you just mr. important...seems like if you were that important you would have a person on staff to charge your phone for you

[mconk]

I'm pretty disappointed w/the battery life here...as the op said, the 8830 battery is smaller-however, I'd get at least a day or more on the 8830...granted this screen is bigger/brighter, faster processor, etc...I still think its pretty sad that after 50txt messages/emails, and an hour or two of web browsing - coupled with MAYBE 30-60min of talk time, brightness @10, no apps in background, bt and gps off, and always on standby when not in use - I'm charging by 5pm...ugh. Luckilly I have a car charger, wall charger, and usb cord. Shouldn't need all that though...I just wish this thing would outlast my ipod touch one day. I will note though, as far as the 14hour standby time RIM has been quoted for...my 2nd tour lasted about 6 days with the radio off and about half a battery chatge (was using it as an alarm clock until the return kit came for it) lol...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mconk]

I thought he had a good point-but for that line of work it sounds like a nextel w/direct connect would be a better fit. I used to chirp for days with the 7100i...lol...great phone when it was new..sounds like you have a **** of a job man!

well aren't you just mr. important...seems like if you were that important you would have a person on staff to charge your phone for you

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[uflraptor]

Getting the device into Standby mode is crucial. Either doing this manually or by placing it in a case with a magnet.

[Riva]

Getting the device into Standby mode is crucial. Either doing this manually or by placing it in a case with a magnet.

Forgive my ignorance but will the phone ring in standby mode? I know it wont completely shut off.

[danoh]

Forgive my ignorance but will the phone ring in standby mode? I know it wont completely shut off.

Yes it will ring. All your alerts will function normally.

[tscharf]

I know this sounds weird, but the battery life does get better after about a week of use. For the first 2-3 days I had my Tour, I was having to charge it throughout the day. Now, after a week or so, I can get through the entire day with normal use. I took mine off the charger at 8am and I'm sitting at 47%. That's with several apps running in the background all day and normal use.