Slashdot Mirror
LG's Latest Battery Is Also a Phone (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader shares an Engadget report: The problem with having a smartphone that you want to use all the damn time is that you'll spend a big chunk of your day wedded to an outlet. LG believes that nobody should have to suffer such an indignity, and has launched the X power2 as a remedy. The smartphone is designed to operate for an entire weekend on a single charge thanks to the 4,500mAh battery tucked inside. It'll also recharge nice and quick, too, taking just two hours to go from flat all the way back up to 100 percent. Unfortunately, like the first-generation LG X power phone, the capacious battery is the only noteworthy thing about it. The 5.5-inch display has a HD resolution, and is using an off-brand 1.5Ghz octa-core chip that we're guessing is made by MediaTek. In addition, there's either 1.5GB or 2GB RAM paired with 16GB storage, which will hardly pull up any trees when most flagships are packing twice that amount.
Call me crazy, but isn't the more logical solution to the issue of battery life to make the phone consume less power? I know people want their apps, but I'm not convinced that people want to carry around a laptop battery in their pocket. Also, my smartphone usually lasts about 6-7 days on a charge as-is, primarily because it does very little aside from phone stuff. Turn on the WiFi and that drops to around 3 days in normal use (simply being connected, without actually using the internet).
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
...essentially what my Kyocera ruggedized phone has...
Phones that have long battery lives are not a new development, but they've not typically been major priority of the most popular cell phone manufacturers. If Samsung, Apple, and to a lesser extent Motorola don't talk about it, no one cares.
One can buy a durable, long-lasting, reliable smartphone. You just have to ignore the marketing hype around the next 0.0.1 version from Apple or Samsung and actually look at what's available. My Kyocera was purchased from my carrier's brick and mortar store, they had it in-stock. Just had to go in and ask, so they took one out of the box so I could play with it, and I bought it.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Samsung Note 7 was a battery which was sold, through clever merchandising, as a phone.
I charge my Oneplus 3 once a day, usually around midnight or later, and start the use cycle again around 7 AM in the morning, everyday. I use the phone nonstop and have no problems with battery drain. Building a smart phone that's useful, with good battery life apparently isn't that hard for the motivated companies.
"...needs more than 400mAh"
-- Steve Jobs
Modern app appers use app phones powered by OTHER apps, NOT LUDDITE batteries!
Apps!
I think there's probably quite a decent niche market for this product. Some people like to use a phone primarily as, you know, a phone. They'll be attracted to the extended battery life, and won't be bothered by a bit less processing power and slightly lower resolution. Some people use smartphones as fairly basic tools, not as gaming platforms / computer substitutes / fashion accessories.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
You choose!
...they could just make the battery _removeable_ so you could have several, and you also wouldn't have to buy a new phone every 2 years just because the battery's worn out! Wow what a crazy idea!
I have the X power. It sure does last a long time on one charge. Charges quickly, too. The screen is bright. It has 16 GB of RAM. And a headphone jack. The price was nice. The built in software is far less shitware than my previous Sony phone. Build quality is reasonable.
Now that I'm out of positives, let's focus on what sucks: 1.5 GB of RAM means swapping between two apps is slow as hell. The phone is slow as hell because the CPU sucks. 720p. Headphone jack is on the wrong side, IMHO. Dimming to 80% all the time sucks (when the phone has to do even the slightest amount of work, like, say, reading mail, the display dims as it gets "too hot").
The problem with having a smartphone that you want to use all the damn time is that you'll spend a big chunk of your day wedded to an outlet.
If this is true, the problem isn't with the device.
I don't respond to AC's.
I realize the fault is Engadget's, but did you really have to copy the misleading title?
Here I thought there was some new technological advancement.
But a phone that doesn't die after less than a days use. My Moto Z Play gets me 2 days or 3 if I attach a Moto mod battery. I have no patience anymore for phones that can't get 2 days of use.
I called Google support when my Nexus 5's battery (2300 mAh) began failing (it would discharge normally for about 12 hours to 40%-50% charge, then would die in the next 20 minutes). As part of the diagnostic process, they asked me to put it into safe mode and do a battery run-down test. I didn't even know such a thing existed in Android. It disables all added-on apps. Only the phone functions and apps which shipped with the phone (mostly Google apps) will work - a nifty way for them to determine that a rogue app is not the culprit.
The damn thing lasted nearly 60 hours on a charge in safe mode, despite the defective battery. So it would appear modern smartphones (well, modern as of 3 years ago) are more than capable of lasting a weekend on a single charge. They die early because of all those damn apps which insist on waking up every 5 minutes so they can report your position, calls, texts, sites visited, photos taken, etc. back to their mother ship. Makes me wish there was a feature where you could "jail" certain apps to prevent them from running entirely, unless you specifically launch it.
I got an Nexus 5 years ago with Qi wireless charging and strategically placed charging pucks on my desks at home and work, nightstand and car console, later replaced the 5 with a Nexus 6 and added in a Nexus 7. Never worried about battery, just put the phone down whenever I was in those places. Why this hasn't caught on is beyond me. I'm sure it will become the Next Big Thing as soon as the fruit company releases it, but I am also sure that they will make their own proprietary system.
Ionce ooopenned a old 486 laptop and di scovered it used. 12 AA batteries non-rechargable. if done in the 90's, why not today?
brick phones to big phones to small phones to big phones to..... brick phones
Yeah, but how thin is it?
Yup,
I switched to the "Lite" versions of Skype/Facebook/Messenger because they were designed for 2G networks in BRICS coutries.
(Thus they phone back less to the mothership. And subsequently wake up less often).
And as for the jailing : webos powered Pre phones did attempt a bit the jailing idea.
Given that modern kernels have even better isolation features (containers like LXC and Systemd nspan), that should be even easier.
(Having each container's network connected to different types of bridges, some of them disabled when you leave for the weekend and don't want our battery to die).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
So:
- You needed to have a special charger,
- You couldn't change batteries without rebooting the phone
- Useless for other devices.
- It was certainly more expensive (when the special charger is included) than just using an external battery
Meanwhile, external batteries:
- charge off the same cables the phone does.
- You don't need to reboot
- You can charge other USB powered devices, not just "that phone"
- Cheaper
Finding somewhere that will replace "internal" batteries for little more than the battery itself costs or even doing so yourself isn't hard.
This meme that external batteries are somehow better and phones without them suck needs to die.
up to 3Gigs ram, octacore and two sims +micro SD
http://shopap.lenovo.com/in/en...
Dialectician. Archology.
there's nothing unfortunate about the phone. Most peopl don't buy the phone to brag about its specs, but because they need a phone, and the functionality offered by Android smart phones. Stop trying to convince people that the only phones that are useful are the most expensive ones.
What the actual fuck is wrong with phone manufacturers these days?
Make a device with a mid-sized stock removable battery. Sell an upgraded battery/case on your web site.
All markets: serviced.
This is not rocket science. These ideas are not new.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
- It was certainly more expensive (when the special charger is included) than just using an external battery
Not true. I was a bit late to the party, so maybe the off brand charger+battery I got was cheap because it wasn't just released yesterday, but it was cheaper than getting an external USB battery thing at that time.
Rebooting is the only valid issue I see. I wonder if one could plug the phone in during battery hot-swap? Regardless, this is a little annoying.
External batteries are significantly less efficient. Some of the most efficient USB chargers approach 80% efficiency**, but the average is around 70%. That's just the efficiency of the AC plug. I looked up several efficiency reports for external USB batteries, and they have similar efficiency's (mostly due to their internal batteries putting out between 3 - 4.3v, but needing to produce exactly 5v out of their USB plugs). They are also less efficient the more amps they're pulling (ie. the faster you charge, the worse it is). The charging circuit in the phone also incurs losses that are roughly the same.
Even if you ignore most of that, you still have to carry around a bigger battery to get the same amount of power to your phone that a removable battery would provide, and an extra cable too.
Neither of those methods are my favorite though. My favorite is (when possible) using a phone that can take an alternate back plate and a much larger battery. This lets the user pick between a thin phone with normal battery life, or a slightly thicker phone with days worth of battery life. There's no extra cord needed, no external battery charger needed, no need to lug around a battery or usb battery. If that's not enough, you can still get a extra battery or use a usb battery. I don't believe there is ANY downside to offering that (the minimal space savings really don't matter at this point, and I'd even argue they are too thin; there were already water resistant phones with removable batteries, so that argument would be useless too).
People defending the lack of user replaceable batteries suck. Allowing that feature won't take away anything from you, but will provide a feature lots and lots of other people want. As such, any time you do that, you're just being a dick for dicks sake.
** http://www.righto.com/2012/10/...
Smartphone batteries have to be connect tightly since they output far more power than simple batteries.
This means that everytime you change the battery, you end up scratching the connector.
Eventually, the connector fails mechanically before anything else and you have to replace the entire phone.
Why-why-why-oh, gawd, WHY! So, that you have to throw away in two years, that's why! I hate all this disposable crap!