WM7 as a zune replacement... what about battery life?

[bmbriefs]

Hi folks,
I'm due for a phone upgrade soon and am interested in getting a wm7 phone. I'm also a huge zunepass fan. Unfortunately, my zune just died and I'm wondering whether I should just wait for my phone upgrade instead of buying a zune.

My question- how does the zune player on the phone effect the battery life?

I currently use an htc android phone and the bulit-in music player hammers the battery life. Is this the same for wm7?

I'm a heavy listener and my goal would be that I would be able to listen to music 3-4 hours a day with mobile data off for most of the time and make it through the day. I would just buy a zune hd, but it seems like ms is not going to be supporting that platform in the future.

 

[Guy_serious]

Any phone is gonna turn into a paperweight with extended music use. To mitigate this, your gonna have to first decide on what carrier and want manufactuer you want to have.

HTC makes some great hardware, but general have underpowered batteries. Samsung has good battery life, but the phone's hardware quality suffers.

I have the HD7 on tmobile, and if I'm going to use the music player for an extended amount of time I turn off the 3g first and set all of my email accounts to manual update. It makes a giant difference in battery life when the phone isn't pulling down a 3g connection.

As a zune replacement? Yes, your pass works just fine <just tap and hold down on an album, song, etc. instead of purchasing buy> You'll have access to a full app store and generally pretty decent hardware.

 

[spitothec]

I'm using my Focus as a Blackberry/Zune combo replacement.. an extra battery w/ an external battery charger was about $45. I just carry the battery in my little change pocket and swap it out when necessary.

edit: here's the jammy i got, works just as good as stock. i'm also happy because it charges the battery faster than the phone.

 

[ChumsFuture]

honestly, the battery life is horrible on the best wp7 devices, the hd7 and the focus.

but as long as you have a charger at work, at the office, in the car, and also have a spare battery, then you should be fine.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

honestly, the battery life is horrible on the best wp7 devices, the hd7 and the focus.

but as long as you have a charger at work, at the office, in the car, and also have a spare battery, then you should be fine.

I get amazing battery life out of the Focus, much better than my HD7.

HD7 has a larger screen and smaller battery, so no brainer there. But the Focus goes a long way, even while listening to music with its 1500mah battery.

All I know is it is way, way better than Windows Mobile and kills Android (EVO).

 

[wmsmartphonekey]

extra batteries

I'm using my Focus as a Blackberry/Zune combo replacement.. an extra battery w/ an external battery charger was about $45.

This is actually one of the reasons I won't go down the Apple iPhone road. [They don't allow you to power down and just change the battery.]

I've been a Windows Mobile 6.5 user for about 2 1/2 years now. From day 1 I have had 2 batteries with the Motorola Qm and now the HTC Tilt2.

I've been eyeing WP7 and yesterday at the AT&T store checked out the 3 models. The HTC Surround seems the best out of them. It felt good in the hand compared to the other two.
by the way in doing some searching just now I came across an external charger for the HTC batteries:
PowerGen Multi-Purpose Universal Rapid Battery Charger for Use with HTC HD7 HD2 / Surround
Buy new: $12.95
Amazon.com: PowerGen Multi-Purpose Universal Rapid Battery Charger for Use with HTC HD7 HD2 / Surround: Electronics

 

[spitothec]

This is actually one of the reasons I won't go down the Apple iPhone road. [They don't allow you to power down and just change the battery.]

That's exactly why I switched from an iPhone to Blackberrys 3 years ago.. hahah.

 

[ProjMob_Chris]

The battery life on the Focus is great.

 

[Manuelitoohno]

TO BE HONEST. i rather have an android device like the EVO with an extended battery (3500mah) or so yea it might make it "chubbier" but the battery will last you through the whole day of non stop use...

 

[nrfitchett4]

TO BE HONEST. i rather have an android device like the EVO with an extended battery (3500mah) or so yea it might make it "chubbier" but the battery will last you through the whole day of non stop use...

are you implying that pwp7 devices won't have extended batteries? Regardless I would rather carry an extra battery than fatten the phone.

 

[gibbyhome]

I have never had to plug in my focus except at night when I go to bed, I use it at work, I go to the gym and listen to music with my motorola S9-HD headphones and I am always on it with internet and apps playing around my wife says and the battery has never been an issue...
I also have bluetooth and Wi-FI always on which I could never do on my Windows Mobile phone... So I really like the battery life of the phone ..

 

[GP07]

If you want to save a bit more power you can turn all the data off, that is, unless the music you're streaming is through Zune Pass. Otherwise if you just want the local storage music you have go into settings or w/e and turn data usage off (i forget what it's called exactly), then it's pretty much just a fancy PMP device.