Sunday, April 18, 2010

Palm Pre extended battery

Palm has made a number of critical blunders in their handling of the Palm Pre and the Pixi; to say nothing of the handling of the company overall. One such blunder IMNSHO was the battery. It would have been perfectly acceptable to have an option at purchase for either a slim battery or an extended life battery. Consumers would have been empowered to choose for themselves similarly to the way they could have opted to get the Touchstone Charger. Instead, Palm decided that all of these wonderful features that they managed to jam in to such a tiny little package, should be enjoyed 3 - 4 hours at a time.

Remedy


Thankfully two companies have stepped up to the plate and filled a void created by Palm's chronic myopia. Seidio and Amzer both have extended batteries for the Pre and Pixi. While Amzer has higher capacity offerings in this space, Seidio has more attractive pricing. The standard Pre/Pixi battery is 1150mAh which is fine for a feature phone that won't be doing much online. Wow I just described the Palm Centro which, BTW, has a 1150mAh battery that will fit into the Palm Pre/Pixi.

Seidio Offerings:



Amzer Offerings:



I purchased the Innocell 2600 mAh and have been very pleased with it. At the time of purchase it was around $65 from the precentral.net store. The larger battery cover makes the phone appreciably larger. Because of the great design of the Seidio's replacement cover, the phone looks completely normal just a little bulkier. The contour and curve is great and it feels nice in hand.

Real world Usage


When the Inocell 2600 mAh arrived, I immediately put it on the charger for a full 24 hours. The first day I used it, I was quite shocked to find that even though I'd been using the phone durring my whole hour long commute I still had more than 80% of the battery life left. Throughout the day I put the phone through moderate online use but checking email frequently and using the Facebook and various twitter applications. For the whole of the day while I was at work, I refused to plug in my phone to charge it. On my train ride home I finally got the 20% battery life warning. This was over 10 hours after I'd initially set out with the phone and new battery. Finally after about 12 hours of use I had to pop the battery out, put it in the charger and switch over to the original which had been charging while I was out.

Tips



  1. No matter which battery you get, I highly recommend you get a a standalone wall charger. Both Seidio and Amzer sell them (they look very similar)

  2. Charging by USB is generally (much) slower than using the wall outlet

  3. Charge your new battery for at least 8 hours before you start using it. If the package says 24 hours then charge it for 24 hours

  4. Keep your original battery and cover

  5. Tethering and bluetooth are battery hogs


Conclusion


I'm generally quite pleased with my decision to get the Innocell 2600 mAh. If I had one complaint it would be that Seidio doesn't offer an even higher capacity battery for the Pre/Pixi. I could have purchased one of the Amzer offerings but I have familiarity with Seidio and I trust the brand. Their products are well regarded. Amzer is a company I hadn't heard of until just recently and their websites and product images don't do much to instill confidence. Amzer's product labeling looks tacky, their website equally so. Perhaps in the future Seidio will offer something in the 3000+ mAh range, hopefully soon. Until then I'm ordering another Innocell 2600 mAh.
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