Seeing as how I'm on my first smartphone after coming from a feature phone, I fully expected that smartphones would be able to do a minimum of a day and a half light to moderate usage, which is what my phone has been doing since I got it.
If I'm lucky I can calibrate it for 2 days and a little extra, but that's kind of rare with my normal use.
Yeah, a lot of people who get their first smartphone are surprised to learn that they have to charge it everyday.
It's about time it is. I'm surprised no one addressed this within the past 2 years. Is it really that large of an economic cost for either/both parties?
I think the problem is that people have been wanting thinner and thinner phones, so they've been able to make the phones thinner, but as a result, they've been unable to make the batteries much larger.
Galaxy S II - 8.49mm, 1650mAh
Galaxy S II Skyrocket (LTE) - 9mm, 1850mAh
Galaxy Note LTE - 10mm, 2500mAh
Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) - 9.47mm, 1850mAh
Galaxy S III - 8.6mm, 2100mAh
Droid Razr - 7.1mm, 1780mAh
Droid Razr Maxx - 8.99mm, 3300mAh
HTC One X - 8.9mm, 1800mAh
HTC EVO 4G LTE - 8.9mm, 2000mAh
Finally, though, I think we've hit the point where devices won't get significantly thinner. Phones seem to be hovering around that 8-10mm range now, so hopefully manufacturers will now try to work on fitting larger batteries in these tiny frames.