What sort of battery life can I expect if...

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Ok, so I'm wanting to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 from my HTC TITAN. Consider this, my TITAN battery seems to last like 4-5 hours with my usage (almost constant tethering). The thing is, with the TITAN I was fortunate, just pop a second battery in and away I go. Now, I know the 920 has a non-removable battery, so given I am almost always tethering the smartphone, as well as quite often streaming music, and browsing the web, using location services to figure out how to get from A-B.. what sort of battery life can I come to expect from the 920? I know with the Lumia 820 I again have the removable batteries (so I can double up my battery life by popping in a second battery when the first dies), but it lacks PureView, which is what is drawing me to the 920 itself, however, if the battery life for my usage isn't good enough, I'll have no choice but to go 820.

 

[George Ponder]

I'm going to say battery life is a little better with the 920 than the Titan under heavy use, no worse though.
You may not have the ability to swap out the battery on the 920 but get a car charger and charging pad to juice the battery up between stops or while you're sitting in the office/home.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

get a car charger and charging pad to juice the battery up between stops or while you're sitting in the office/home.

Of course, that works on the assumption that I drive. I get free bus travel across England thanks to my bus pass, so I have had no real desire to learn to drive. As such, I can't drive, yet. As for the office (well, it isn't technically an office as in a job sort of office, but it isn't too dissimilar), we're not allowed to plug anything of our own into their power supplies, and as the higher ups check that room like every 2-3 minutes, there's no way I'd be able to get away with it unfortunately! My only option would be to plug it into my laptop while I'm working, but then the battery life tanks on the laptop and well, I need to use it as well (the laptop is the main reason the phone is internet sharing in the first darn place!)

 

[George Ponder]

okay...
so I got nothing...

 

[UnfixedPyle]

Get the L920, and get a USB air card for your laptop, problem solved

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Get the L920, and get a USB air card for your laptop, problem solved

A USB air card? I guess that means paying extra for a second contract to cover the costs of internet on there right? Unfortunately not an option, both cost-wise, and that I also connect my HTC Flyer Android tablet and iPod Touch 4th Gen to the phone via WiFi Internet Sharing.

EDIT: Well it will be possible, and only cost ?4 extra in total, but I would have to use my TITAN just for Internet Sharing, and keep my Nokia Lumia 920 as my main phone... But I don't want to have to carry around 2 bricks! One is fine, not a problem, but 2 huge bricks for phones... When the main phone is an upgrade of the previous phone... It does seem rather mind-boggling to me. Remember that I'll also be carrying around a HTC Flyer android tablet and an iPod Touch 4th Gen, plus a MacBook Pro... I hate to say it, but that really is overkill!

I would do this by taking the Essential SIM-only ?17 (1'200 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited web) and the Mobile SIM-only ?12 (150 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited web), both with Virgin Media. Use Essential in the Lumia, Mobile in the TITAN. But again, it feels overkill, especially when you consider the reason I love The One Plan on Three is because it lives up to its name... it is the only plan I'll ever need.

 

[UnfixedPyle]

Remember that I'll also be carrying around a HTC Flyer android tablet and an iPod Touch 4th Gen, plus a MacBook Pro... I hate to say it, but that really is overkill!

but carrying 2 phones is out of the question??? Since you are currently carrying a spare battery for the phone, there are plenty of external batteries that you can carry that will charge all of those devices through USB. The L920 will never last as long as 2 batteries on the Titan, so if you really need to go that long, then an external is the only way to do it.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

but carrying 2 phones is out of the question??? Since you are currently carrying a spare battery for the phone, there are plenty of external batteries that you can carry that will charge all of those devices through USB. The L920 will never last as long as 2 batteries on the Titan, so if you really need to go that long, then an external is the only way to do it.

Or... a Nokia Lumia 820 with a second battery (after all, I can still upgrade to the wireless charging just by getting a new backplate for it, it's just the PureView, but that's something I may consider dropping for the simplicity of hot-swappable batteries)...

Well, the reason I go through the extra battery route is I can just slip the battery in the pocket after swapping them out, and then I can pull out the phone. If I have a USB charger there... then yeah, it might then also have to be taken out every time I want to use the phone so as not to unplug my . Also, remember that I carry the Flyer in my jacket pocket, which is huge by comparison to my pockets for my jeans. I have included my current spare battery charger for my HTC. It did also function as a cradle but I decided to use my old damaged backplate after replacing my TITAN on insurance... and in doing so broke the charging port for the stand part of the charger... whoops. But ya see, I like that because it's just a case of swap the batteries then it's out of the way. If I'm pulling my phone out of my jeans all the time while it's in one of those USB chargers, how likely would it be that I would also have to take out the charger as well so as to keep it charging?