Verizon SMT5800 Cell Phone Review - Battery Life
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Mark Brezinski Published on March 17, 2008 Comment on this |
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Summary
A smart phone is usually meant to be a two-in-one device, mixing a PDA and a cell phone. Throw in media player functionality, and smart phones are destined to have a life of constant use ahead of them. As this is the case, the SMT5800's abysmal battery life really kills its appeal. This is, by far, the worst aspect of the phone, and ruins an otherwise solid device.
Call Time (2.76)
We test call time by calling the phone on Skype and playing a never-ending conversation over both ends of the line. We leave the call going until the phone's battery dies. Typically phones last from 4-6 hours, with many smart phones lasting 8 or more. The SMT5800 died after 2 hours, 18 minutes, which is shockingly fast. We actually ordered a second test phone because we thought our first loan had a busted battery. While we've determined that yes, it did have some battery issue, this second, higher score wasn't much better. This talk time is simply not excusable on a phone that costs $200. If you're a heavy talker, you'll have to carry the charger around with you or invest in a slew of backup batteries.
Music Playback (3.59)
Testing music playback is as simple as putting an album on repeat, and then recording the decibel output. The point at which the oscilloscope flatlines is when the battery dies.
The SMT5800 lasted for 4 hours, 59 minutes in this test. Good, solid music playback battery life will fall somewhere betwen seven and eight hours, and a select few break the ten-hour mark. At 4 hours, 59 minutes, the phone will last you through the majority of a coast-to-coast flight, but don't expect to make a call when you land.
Web Browsing (3.94)
Our test for web browsing seems self-sufficient enough: we browse to a sequence of sites that automatically redirect to each other every ten seconds. Generally we can leave this test going in front of a camera, then come back later to check on it. This was not the case with the SMT5800, however. This phone would browse for 10-15 minutes at a time, then quit back to the home screen. There was no error message, and the application didn't really close. We're guessing it was a battery-saving feature that couldn't be turned off, but this is only conjecture. In any case, it was annoying as we had to sit and watch the phone, manually restarting Internet Explorer every 10-15.
The test limped on in this way for 3 hours and 17 minutes, 1-2 hours shy of average. If you're a big fan of the internet, you'll have to monitor your usage carefully, lest you render your phone incapable of placing phone calls.
Idle Time unscored
We don't score idle time, because it'd take months to get data sets. Verizon states that the SMT5800's idle time is 163 hours.
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