As we all know, Android is not the best Operating System as far as battery life goes and with manufacturers trying to keep the size and weight of devices down as small and slim as possible, the batteries are not really increasing in size.

Getting a full day of battery life from your Android device can be a challenge.  There is no real firm data on the life span of a battery and every battery can act differently to the previous. Some people say that it’s worth changing out your battery every year or so to get the maximum life from your Android device.

I was prompted to write this review after the simultaneous failure of both the batteries in our myTouch 4G’s.  Almost within the same week, both the T-Mobile myTouch 4G’s I have starting randomly shutting down for no reason.  The batteries would say they were still carrying a good charge but I’d be in the middle of doing something and the phone would simply turn off.  When I say turn off, I mean turn off.  No powering down or notification of any kind, they simply completely turned off.

I also starting having issues where I would leave the phone charging all night and when I woke in the morning it would say that the battery was only 40% charged.  If I then rebooted the phone, it would say it was 100% charged.  I decided that after 2 years of life the batteries were no longer holding a charge properly.  I also found that when I opened the cases on the phones that the batteries had swollen, which is another sign of a dead battery.

I invited a number of battery manufacturers to provide samples batteries for the Google Nexus One, T-Mobile myTouch 4G and HTC Amaze. We have two of each device with one running its stock operating system and one running the latest build of CyanogenMOD 7. Using each battery from each manufacturer I’ve calibrated the batteries to each device and then run them in real life for a few days keeping track of how the batteries will last.

UPDATE: Sorry, but the testing got cut short a little as we very suddenly decided to switch our carrier to AT&T.  I won’t go into details but I had to cut the test down to only the T-Mobile myTouch 4G.

I’ve tried to create a good baseline test environment that I think would be similar to many Android fans and higher than the average general phone user.

Testing Environment:

• Gmail (Single Gmail Account)
• Exchange Email (Single Exchange Account, Updated Interval of 30 minutes)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google Plus
• 1Weather
• WP Clock Lite (Live Wallpaper)
• Google Maps with Latitude Enabled

Battery Suppliers:

• Laza Wireless
• Lenmar
• Ontrion

My first round of tests are using the T-Mobile myTouch 4G.  I was going to perform the testing on all three devices but the amount of time to complete everything was longer than I had anticipated so I will release my results for the myTouch 4G first and then continue with testing on the Google Nexus One and the HTC Amaze at a later date. (Sorry, only T-Mobile myTouch 4G now)

The results are almost too good to be true with all the aftermarket batteries increasing my battery life from 2.5 times the life I had from my two year old original myTouch battery to around 4 times.

Many people say that two years is probably longer than the expected life of a battery, and one year is probably a good time period to think about replacing yours.  Obviously every battery has different characteristics and some last longer than others so don’t quote me on the one year thing.

Before I tell you the results of my test I have to state that It’s also incredibly hard to tell if the real life test turn up identical for each battery test.  Trying to make sure you do the same things day in, day out is pretty difficult.  I had the same applications installed.  I set them all up identically.  and I wiped each phone and battery stats before each test.

Was I on the phone for exactly the same amount of time?  probably not, but this was as close to real life as I could get it and real life is unpredictable.

 

The suppliers:

below a little intro from each supplier and specifications for the batteries samples we received.

Laza Wireless

WebSite: http://www.lazawireless.com/
Product: Zcell HTC MyTouch 4G 1450mah 2x Battery, Charger and Travel Case Combo
Price: $24.99

Quote from Laza

Laza Zcell batteries brings you standard and extended batteries that feature high capacity, top quality and more charge cycles. Zcell powered batteries are exclusive to Laza and lead the way in quality batteries and longer run times than other brands.
Laza designs and manufactures premium accessories for smartphones and handheld devices. We are committed to providing innovative quality products and superior customer service.

Laza wireless sent us two kits, and I say kits for a reason!  each kit you purchase from  Laza Wireless contains not one but two batteries and they also throw in a wall charger and package the kit in a nice little travel case.

The Laza batteries are powered by what they call the “zcell”, claiming their batterries are highly accurate and can handle more charge cycles.  The supplied batteries are a direct replacement for 1450mAh batteries included with your myTouch 4G.  A great option if you not concerned about an extended battery.

The Laza batteries worked considerably better than my two year old ones I had installed previously.  My battery life jumped from about 11 hours to about 30 hours.  This obviously includes the night when the device isn’t being used much, but still impressive.

With the travel case and wall charger, this complete package is great for the seasoned traveller.  You can take the extra battery and charge with you and swap out your used battery with the fully charged new one and immediatly start charging your used battery without the need for your phone.  It’s a nice adition, although the quality of the charger is not that great and I had a few issues getting the battery situated correctly in the charger.

For the price, which is listed at $24.99 for entire kit, it’s excellent value for money and definitly recommended if your looking for that extra power for your myTouch 4G or one of the many other battery kist they provide.

Impressive as this battery life was, it wasn’t as impressive as the Lenmar shown below.

Lenmar

WebSite: http://www.lenmar.com
Product: Lenmar CLZ427HT compatible with HTC My Touch 4G & Lenmar CLZ486HT compatible with HTC My Touch 4G
Price: $19.99 and $29.99 respectively.

Quote from Lenmar:

Thank you to AndroidStory and the Android user community for letting us share some of our great products with you. Whether you are in need of a replacement or extended battery, retractable Micro USB cables, portable batteries for power on-the-go, or power accessories like high output USB car and wall chargers, Lenmar has a full solution of products to keep Android phones powered anywhere. We test all of our products for high quality standards, have all necessary approvals for our units, and provide our consumers with a warranty because we stand by our products. Our mission is to enable consumers to keep powering forward.

Lenmar is a well known supplier of batteries and other power related accessories for many different products and I was pleased they decided to participate in our battery testing.

Lenmar sent me two batteries for the myTouch 4G.  On is a surprising replacement for the standard battery.  The surprising part is that battery is actually smaller in capacity than the original battery turning in at 1100mAh.  What’s even more surprising is that in the three days of continuous testing it turned in almost the same amount of run time as the 1450mAh Laza Wireless battery.  The Lenmar battery fell less than an hour short of the Laza battery.

Lenmar also sent me a 2200mAh battery with an extended battery cover for the back of the phone to hold it in place.  While I love having the extra capacity of this type of battery, I really don’t like the bulkiness of the extended case that goes with it.  The rear case cover is a molded plastic with a soft feel to the outside.  This type of cover seems standard for most extended battery manufacturers. If I was going on a long trip or somewhere I knew i couldn’t charge very easily, this would be a god send, but for everyday use, it’s a little bulky.

The 2200mAh battery did not double the life of my phone as far as I could tell, but I was getting well into my third day. The longest my phone lasted was 54hours, which is pretty incredible.

Be sure to check out the Lenmar website and large assortment of power related products from extended batterries to solar and travel chargers to satisfy almost any of your power needs.

Ontrion

WebSite: http://www.ontrion.com

Quote from Ontrion:

The OEM-quality batteries the company produces come in both standard and extended varieties and are compatible with all the latest smartphone models. OnTrion is committed to providing its customers and distributors with the highest-quality products and services, thereby instilling 100% trust, faith and satisfaction in them. As such, innovation, ruggedness and exceptionality are the cornerstones behind every OnTrion product.

Most of Ontrion batteries are FCC approved!

The OnTrion battery was the last Battery to get tested and didn’t get the full week of testing I wanted due to my service being changed, but I did get to run it for 4 days and was well into my third day of life when my service was switched to AT&T. With 2300mAh of capacity, the OnTrion was the largest capacity battery of the all batteries supplied and I was expecting great results. waking up on my third day of testing and seeing that my myTouch 4G was still alive and kicking is pretty incredible and just goes to show that if suppliers would provide slightly bigger, better produced batteries, people would be happier.

Ontrion makes a wide selection of extended batteries for most devices and they also sell a selection of chargers too.  Not a huge array of charing options are available as their main focus is definitly batteries and they do this very well.  You can’t go wrong choosing Ontrion for your after market battery needs.

 

Conclusion

3 suppliers of great products participated in this testing and I could not find fault with any of them.  It’s very hard to tell how the products would hold up after a year of use, but they all claim to use premium quality cells in their batteries.  Laza are a newer company and I have no historical data to use as a basis for long term claims while Lenmar and Ontrion are both tried an tested providers of aftermarket bateries.

I would recommend any of these suppliers for you battery needs and would like to them all for supplying the batterries for this test.