Smartphone batteries

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

OK, so we all know that smartphones suck the life out of your batteries in short order, so why don't they make them like digital cameras with easy to change batteries? That way you could have a spare to slip in when needed without having to dissect your phone.

[Nick Kuhn]

Depends on the phone. My brother has a Samsung Instinct that shipped to him with 2 batteries for that explicit purpose. I'm sure the market has become so competitive that phones no longer ship with 2 batteries. However you can buy aftermarket spare batteries for most cell phones (in fact the iPhone is the only exception that I know of).

As far as ease goes I think most phones have batteries that are removed fairly easily. Sure they don't just pop right out, but most are not too difficult that you couldn't pull the swap while in a bind.

[CAMAN]

If I had an extra battery for my BB(which I've never needed) it would only take probably 15-20 seconds to swap it out.

Iphones need to be shipped to Apple for replacement.

[SkunkedAgain]

I just turn the brightness down on my iphone when I know that it will be hard for me to charge frequently

[deadeye]

If I didn't have a body glove on my Droid it would take maybe 15 sec to swap out.

There are lots of tricks to make it last longer too. Usually I have atk on auto kill, wifi off and screen brightness turned down. Just the screen brightness made a huge difference. I use my phone very heavily but I got plenty of life left in the battery when I plug it in the end of the day.

I have had a extended life battery on all of my phones short of the Droid and while they are ugly, they make a huge difference. I would have one in the Droid if there was a decent one out there.