Power Levels

[bystander]

I am finding my Blackjack to retain less than 15% of its power (high capacity or larger battery) at the end of a typical day.

I work in an area where Cingular has no service. I am in either no service or poor service area for the majority of the day. I do find that I get voicemail alerts but I can not check voicemail or make calls from my office. The indicator says no signal.

I was told by a customer service clerk that my low battery level at the end of a day was due to having no service and the radio working harder to try to find a tower.

What is the experience of others with the Blackjack and its larger battery?

Do I have a bad battery? Will the upcoming WM6 ROM improve the power use?

Thanks for your advice.
:?:

[scottb]

I don't have a Blackjack, but I can tell you my battery drains faster when the signal is weak. I've heard the same thing about the radio using more poower when fighting to get a signal.

[Mike Temporale]

I work in an area where Cingular has no service. I am in either no service or poor service area for the majority of the day. I do find that I get voicemail alerts but I can not check voicemail or make calls from my office. The indicator says no signal.

I was told by a customer service clerk that my low battery level at the end of a day was due to having no service and the radio working harder to try to find a tower.

Yup, that's right. If the phone has poor or no signal it will try harder to find signal and thus drain the battery. If you know there's no signal, you should set your phone to flight mode and then turn it back when you're back in the coverage zone.

This is not specific to the BlackJack - this is the way it is for all mobile phones.

[Raychelle265]

I do not use the regular battery. The cingular store I went to told me to use the extended battery. That what I use and it's fine.[/quote]

[Sven Johannsen]

That is absolutely correct. A phone in weak or no signal area will use max power to try and find a tower, draining the battery rapidly. That isn't just WM phones or other fancy ones, it is any cell phone.

I work in a shielded building where we get no signal whatsoever, and we are not even supposed to have the phones in there. Occaisionally someone forgets and is typically rewarded with a dead phone by the end of the day.

My recommendation would be to put the phone in flight mode, if you are in an area with very weak or non-existant coverage.

(just read mike's post. saw the original and just hit reply without looking at the other responses. Guess we agree ;) )