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Bet this chap rues the day he bought a smartphone

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Hello from the BA Lounge at Terminal 5.

This chap is using one of those new breed smartphones that we are all
buying. It looks like a top of the range HTC Android — from the back,
anyway. The brand doesn’t matter. All smartphones suffer from this arse.

Our collective problem is that we still seem to expect our phones will
perform across the business day.

When it comes to unusual and unpredictable situations, the problem gets
worse and worse — because at least when we’re going from home-to-office
and vice versa, we’ve made provision for the shit battery performance
(usually with chargers at each location).

This chap is actually sitting on a table in the BA lounge because it’s the
nearest position he can find where he can charge his phone.

You just know, too, that he’s only going to get about 10% additional
charge once he un-plugs and gets on his flight. Because he’s actually
using the phone whilst it’s charging. In fact he’s been on and off an
array of conference calls — so the phone is probably white hot by now.

It’s such an arse, battery performance.

I’d be hugely frustrated if it was me. But then again perhaps he — and
the rest of the nation — just accepts this… I’m seriously considering
swapping to a mobile telephone (and carrying a smartphone or iPad) to free
myself from the battery trauma.

This chap is lucky he remembered his charger. That’s second in importance
to forgetting your passport nowadays isn’t it?

Posted via email from MIR Live

15 COMMENTS

  1. I cannot believe that someone [probably] flying business has not the nouse to spend £50 on a 5000mAh external battery, that could charge his phone 3 times over.

    These things are in every gadget shop now, it’s not rocket science. Let’s accept that until something major happens to battery or processor or display or radio tech (or all 4) we will have this problem. We never had it with dumbphones ‘cos they couldn’t do anything except make calls. He does have the option to use a dumbphone and get 200hrs GSM talktime or 17 months standby on AMPS or whatever. No-one’s holding a SmartGun to his head you know…

  2. Pretty simple solution: in my bag is a battery pack with two USB outputs, and a little cable that I can plug into it and into my phone, or turn the other way around and plug it into a USB charger to recharge the pack. It cost about 25 quid.

    The battery performance on my smartphone is sufficient for of my days’ needs, but I’d rather keep the phone the size it is and keep the little battery pack in the bag rather than have a bigger phone (which is also possible with an aftermarket double-capacity battery with replacement ‘fat’ backplate – something I’d expect a frequent traveler to invest in, preferring a chunkier phone with more capacity rather than the cable faff).

    It’s not rocket science.

    [It does, however, suck that my tablet doesn’t fulfill the role of the above battery pack].

  3. Most “power” users carry 2 devices – one for phone calls and one for mobile internet.
    No one’s going to solve the battery issue anytime soon.
    You can buy emergency disposable chargers that plug into bottom of your phone from most airports.
    Did you steal any of his crisps? 🙂

  4. Flying business doesn’t necessarily qualify you as a geek alas. He probably doesn’t care — like the rest of the market he is just putting up with it. ——————————

  5. my desire HD came with 1230mAh battery. I bought a 1950mAh. & few weeks ago I got myself a 2450mAh. It’s the best thing I ever bought for my phone! only around £10. If U are able to access the battery on your phone, then definatly buy a powerful one!

  6. i actually found an AMPS network in Africa a few months ago, and some dude offered to rent me a BAG PHONE… I almost died laughing… 

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