Seidio's oversized G1 battery is bursting with juice and joy

We're not particularly fond of over-sized battery covers in general; your average smartphone is chubby enough. That said, some handsets need more help than others in the longevity department and, given that we found the G1's battery life to be about a third that of the iPhone's in our review, it certainly falls in the "more help" camp. Seidio's Innocell 2600mAh replacement does the trick, offering more than twice the oomph of the stock 1150mAh cell, but it also resulting in a considerable bump in the chubbiness of a phone that wasn't particularly slender to begin with. Suffice it to say if you're still bummed about the G1's chin rubbing you the wrong way in your pocket this won't be the upgrade for you, but if your little Android stays constantly tethered to your laptop just to keep kicking, this might be $55 well spent.

[Via CrunchGear]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 8:50AM]

I was surprised to find that uninstalling the Fbook application solved all my G1 battery problems, easily lasts an entire day now (where before it would struggle to get past lunchtime.)

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:03AM]

G1 should have a live list tracking what app is using how much juice Now and Then, and a pie chart generating function will be even greater.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:43AM]

like_a_glove, that is a damned good idea.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:48AM]

Something like powertop for mobile platforms would be nice:

http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/

[alpha Posted Jan 16th 2009 11:58AM]

Power Management App is awesome for the G1, will let you turn on/off 3G/Wifi/Bluetooth/GPS/Cell Location, it can monitor for changes and modify things accordingly, and write statistics to a CSV file so you can create pie charts. Also I found the battery needed to be calibrated after I first got it (let it run completely out of juice a couple times), then the battery meter will be accurate. The phone will last a long time if idle, I am not sure if using Wifi vs 3g is better tho.

[superhobo Posted Jan 16th 2009 8:54AM]

lol?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 8:58AM]

When are fuel cells going to save us from all this crap?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:00AM]

As long as it doesn't burst said juice into your face all the sudden...

[Bratan Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:43AM]

My thoughts exactly. Phrase "bursting with juice" sounds scary when applied to battery....

[OS Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:05AM]

I have seido's extended battery for my Blackberry Curve and I have no complaints. The extra size give the phone a more secure grip for texting.

[ronin691 Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:08AM]

So wrong. The idea is to design more efficient use of the battery by the radio, display and OS, not Frankenstein your phone.

Tar pipe blog post:

http://blog.tarpipe.com/2008/10/03/improve-your-device-battery-life/

[Pete White Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:33AM]

I hadn't thought about that sim. I may have to look into them again.

[ItsTheOMGShow Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:11AM]

It's too bad (after the confirmation earlier today) that the Pre will likely be requiring this as well.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 18th 2011 5:10PM]

I laugh at 2600mAh. My HTC 6800 (aka Verizon XV6800 or Sprint Mogul) is equipped with a 3600mAh cell to use this Windows Mobile Pro phone the way God intended. (Seido makes 3200 and 3500mAh cells for this phone.)

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:39AM]

My G1 don't want none unless you got buns, hun.

[akarol Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:42AM]

Not only does it weigh and feel like a brick, it looks like one as well.

[Deny Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:47AM]

Engadget's G1 review was before RC30 came out, battery life has been greatly improved since.

[al74 Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:50AM]

G1's battery life is third of the iPhone's? They are both rated for about 5hour talk time. So either iPhone actually has 15 hours of talk time or the G1 real life talk time is 1.5 hours. I know my G1 lasts a full day with average use. Does this mean that an iPhone will last me 3 days?

[orangearrows Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:12AM]

engadget should be renamed igadget

1/3rd of iphone battery....? rumor-ing again.....


Last me a full day even with Fbook app...

Use one of the apps in the market ( power manager .....etc) to manage battery life more.

System monitor (app) should you which apps are running in the background....but unfortunately does not let you kill em.
Hope to get something to take down background running apps in future releases ....

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:19AM]

There's a new app on the market called Task Manager that lets you kill processes but you need root access to do so. The GUI has been greatly improved since it released two days ago. But as some have mentioned in the market comments Android is designed to manage processes on it's own and kill them as needed. Still, I'm a control freak and like to kill processes.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:22AM]

There's an app on the market called Task Manager that will let you kill processes but requires root access. The GUI has greatly improved since it released 2 days ago. I've read Android is smart enough to kill processes as needed on it's own but I'm a control freak and like to kill processes myself.

[orangearrows Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:29AM]

Thanks Lazaro....that helps


Tried downloading it ......says it requires root access ...and that users without root access should not try downloading it. What does that mean ?

[recharged95 Posted Jan 16th 2009 12:22PM]

I hear that.

Most iphone apps (98%) are crap and don't run in the background. The test was flawed from the start.

G1 users need to calibrate their battery (iphone users need to as well, just most don't report it on the web.

The g1 lasts as long as an iphone. The battery issue is a RC29 urban myth. If people keep saying it, I'll start saying the iphone is slow--it's 3g speeds are bogus.

[Eddie Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:22AM]

I dont think I'll mess with something like this...I mean I get a minimum of a day outa each charge (i think normally when I plug it in EOD its like 40-50%.) and thats plenty good for me :P

[saintdavid Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:35AM]

You know what, i'll save my pennies and put them towards the next android device thats worth buying

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:48AM]

Fbook used a lot of power (before I uninstalled it). Also, I've found that bluetooth is also a big battery drainer, even more so than wifi.

Hopefully Cupcake will bring better power management to the G1

[SiXiam Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:58AM]

Data is a major drain on the G1 battery, whether it be from bluetooth, wifi, or the Edge/3G service.
I've found calls don't drain the battery that much...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 11:12AM]

I don't think the battery is 1/3 of the iphones. Its not the best but the only way my friends iphone survives the whole day is if he has his 3g turned off the whole time.

[newjaruz Posted Jan 16th 2009 12:04PM]

I agree w/ SiXiam
I couldn't have said it better myself. It seems data kills the battery. I could use the phone and have a 30 min conversation on 3g and it wont affect my battery like 5-10 mins of browsing or messing with apps. I know it has something to do with the fact that the operating system is still in a very primitive state and they have some work to do in the power management deptartment especially because the G1 really is a multitasking phone.

[newjaruz Posted Jan 16th 2009 1:00PM]

I ebay'd an oversized batter but it falls short of the capacity the one above achieves... my batter pack is 2200 mAH .... its good enough for me... I use it to go to work and places where I dont care what my phone looks like or when I'm out of the house for the entire day. But when I want to look civilized I use the normal battery pack.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 12:33PM]

I don't get it, my G1 lasts all day and by the time I go to bed (8am-2am) it's usually only about half-way drained. Not great, but not terribly bad for a smart phone either.

It's not like I don't ever do anything with it either. I text message often enough, make a few phone calls here and there (business man afterall), constantly look through the marketplace to see whats new, and I absolutely can't stop playing PapiJump.

The only thing I do is actively manage my apps. Whenever I install one I gauge the reaction from my phone for the next day. If I notice a drop in battery life or performance when not using the app I immediately remove it.

G1's are like people, if you keep feeding it crap and not trimming the fat it'll become slow, unhealthy, and have poor performance.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 12:36PM]

Bleh... that 8am-2am bit was misplaced by me. I don't sleep from 8am-2am, those are the times I am usually awake.

[Chefgon Posted Jan 16th 2009 5:16PM]

The key thing draining a lot of people's batteries seems to be apps that run services in the background. Specifically, services that are polling a server over the internet to provide notifications. Data access drains the battery ten times faster than anything else, and if you have something running in the background that's connecting to a server every 60 seconds, your battery is going to be shot.

A lot of people reccomend turning off both GPS and Cell Location services, but I think that's not a big deal. I used to have them turned off but decided to turn them back on, and it has made no noticeable change to my battery life at all.

It looks to me like those location services don't run constantly in the background, all you're doing by enabling them is making them available to a program that wants to use them. So if you're not using Google Maps or some other GPS program, the GPS is never going to do anything. I haven't tried it, but running Locale would probably kill your battery since it needs almost constant location updates in order to work well.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 1:58PM]

i let my battery die a few dies and recharge fully i get alot from my battery on 3g and if i wanted to be on edge lol its real good i noticed one time my battery was on 10 percent and i turned it off and turned it back on it went to 37 percent which told me i need to recalibrate my battery and its been fine ever since

[cdubb9800 Posted Jan 16th 2009 2:09PM]

yeah I'm not for a bigger phone but having the extra juice would be nice but i noticed my battery wasn't calibrated as once my battery was at 10 percent so i rebooted and it went back up to 37 and lasted another 2hrs i went to sleep woke up and it still had juice with 1percent lol i watch youtube (for the first time on my phone) to make it die i have to say i got a lot out my phone once i re calibrated and this is on 3g edge is cool n all but checking my email is a drag

[JasonC Posted Jan 16th 2009 7:04PM]

Does the extra depth of the new back provide any sort of "lens hood" for the camera?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 9:05PM]

This cover should use the spare space around the new battery either with more battery capacity or with an wireless power charger ;)
I think there should be a cover option with wireless power receiver (sold with the corresponding wireless power pad - or 2 pads: 1@home 1@work) like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2861987.stm
I'm certain a lot of G1 users would want one of this kits...

[johnkzin Posted Jan 17th 2009 1:40AM]

They're going to have to make a new version of the clear case to fit it :-|

[neoprimalgmailcom Posted Jan 17th 2009 5:07AM]

"given that we found the G1's battery life to be about a third that of the iPhone's in our review,"

Anyone, ANYONE who finds the Iphone battery to last 2/3 longer than the G1 is a either A. a complete moron OR B. completely biased in the Iphones favor.

The battery longevity is at the very LEAST on par for both phones as long as similar situations are in place ie: 3G is enabled, Satellite & Wireless assisted GPS is enabled, Wireless when available is activated and Bluetooth is on. Obviously if you mix and match then you'll get different results. Also very dependent are the apps that the phones are running, so to really pit the phones against each other there's really only one way to do it fairly and objectively - factory reset both handsets and turn some of the non-everyday 'extras' off, and by extras I mean wireless and gps (including wireless assisted gps) and leave the somewhat essentials enabled, like bluetooth and 3G. Since let's just assume that these are the bare essentials for todays cellphone user. It'd also be nice to disable the G1's autochecking of you your gmail cloud for contacts/calendar/email etc because that's obviously an 'unfair' drain in comparison with the Iphone....but you don't even have to do that. Set brightness to 0/lowest setting and proceed to test.

The G1 comes out on top not only on pure standby (~385 hrs, roughly 16 days in 3G mode with cloud checks and BT on and wifi/gps on but not associated/ no active mapping vs. 300 hrs on the Iphone or roughly 12 days with the same setup) but also for 3G talk time where the G1 gets ~6 hrs = ~360 minutes vs. Iphones ~5 hrs = ~300 minutes. The G1 gets around ~12 days in GSM standby mode because I'm assuming the auto checks took longer (I mean, I know they do - I've tested it....but I let the phones sit without touching them for the standby tests).
The Iphone only really whips the G1 sinfully when it comes to Video and Audio Playback, where the G1 gets roughly 1/2 the time of the Iphone on a full charge. You get roughly a day of ipod music to the G1's 11-12hrs if you're lucky and 7 hrs of Video on the Ipod to a measly 4 on the G1. I'm thinking this is the case because the Iphone has dedicated video hardware, whereas the G1 uses it's CPU for video. I don't know why the Iphone plays music for so much longer....maybe dedicated audio hardware? /shrug.

There you go .... from someone who likes both phones. They both have much to offer.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 10th 2009 10:19PM]

If this thing goes off in your pocket, the Chinese government will claim it's a home made Atom Bomb...