[rsilverst]

I got my Shadow 4 days ago and I am VERY close to returning it because of the battery issues. T-Mobile acknowledges there is a known issue (i.e. it must be serious), but there is no solution. They told me to not leave any apps running and to not set my emails to update automatically - so basically, to not use the device for its intended purpose!

To give you an idea of severity...

I had 2 applications running in background (Office Communicator and SmartPhlow, a traffic program). Neither of these was automatically getting data from the internet. I made one 30 minute phone call, played Solitaire for 30 minutes, and browsed the web for 10-15 minutes. Starting at a FULL CHARGE, the battery went from 100% to 51% during this 5 hour period. Then, during the night, while I was not using my phone at all (but it was presumably getting my Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook email every 60 minutes), the phone went from 51% to DEAD by morning.

Today I turned off ALL email updating, and killed all of the applications. Charged the phone to 100%. I've done nothing except a 7 minute phone call and 3 text messages, and the phone has gone from 100% to 86% in 5 hours.

So clearly, the use that I had last night is the difference between 14% battery usage and 50%, but what I did last night would definitely constitute MODEST use.

Not sure what to do because it is a very cool design. But if I cannot even use it to do the things it is designed to do, what choice to I have? Plus I hear stories that Blackberry has respectable (2-3 days) battery life with moderate to heavy use.