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May

Intel's New 'Silvermont' Architecture Will Offer Three Times The Peak Performance In Atom Processors, One Fifth The Power Consumption

Posted by Bertel King, Jr. in News

Most smartphone manufacturers have chosen to ignore Intel's mobile offerings in favor of ARM chips, but Intel is hoping to change their minds with its latest microarchitecture. Today Intel unveiled Silvermont, which reportedly will result in new mobile chips with three times the performance of current-gen Intel Atom processors. Alternatively, Silvermont will enable Intel's next-gen Merrifield smartphone chips to achieve the same performance levels as Clover Trail+ with one-fifth of the power consumption.

Want more specifics? Other advertised features of Silvermont include:

A new out-of-order execution engine enables best-in-class, single-threaded performance.
A new multi-core and system fabric architecture scalable up to eight cores and enabling greater performance for higher bandwidth, lower latency and more efficient out-of-order support for a more balanced and responsive system.

Feb

[New App] Qualcomm Releases Snapdragon BatteryGuru, Aims To Extend Your Device's Battery Life

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If there's one common issue with smartphones across the board, it's battery life. Rightfully so, we all want more of it without having to sacrifice usage. Thankfully, Qualcomm is looking to help owners of Snapdragon-powered smartphones get just a bit more out of their device's battery with the new Snapdragon BatteryGuru beta.

In a nutshell, it monitors your usage, "learning" what you do with your device. It discovers where you connect to Wi-Fi, what apps you often use, when you sleep, and the like. From there, it automatically configures certain aspects of the device to optimize battery life, like disabling Wi-Fi when you're away from common hotspots, and re-enabling it when you're back in the area.

Aug

Sprint's Samsung Epic 4G Touch Receives Minor OTA Update To Build FH13

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Epic 4G Touch, News, Sprint

The phone with the name everyone loves to hate – Sprint's Samsung Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch – began receiving a minor (and I mean minor) software update over the air today.

The OTA, which carries software build D710.10S.FH13 (for reference compare to the E4GT's Ice Cream Sandwich build D710.10.S.FF18), brings just one thing to the table: battery life enhancement.

Just how enhanced users should expect their battery life to be is unclear as yet, but being able to squeeze just a bit more life out of your handset is never a bad thing.

If an update prompt hasn't already hit your device, you can always check for the OTA manually by paying a quick visit to your phone's Settings menu and hitting About Phone followed by Software Update.

Feb

Editorial: The Thinness War Needs To Stop, Or, Why I Shouldn't Have To Carry A Portable Charger For My Phone

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News, RAZR / RAZR MAXX

When it comes to high tech, downsizing is often looked at as a sign of progress. Microprocessors meant whole computers, for the first time, could fit on a desktop. LCD displays made them portable - in the form of laptops. Moore's law proved that chips that once would have been classified as capable of enterprise-level computing now occupy devices that easily fit in your pocket. And advanced lithium-ion batteries meant you could finally take yourself off the AC teat for an appreciable amount of time, and you could charge your gadgets over and over without worrying about the ridiculous cycling fatigue that plagued earlier rechargeable systems.

Jan

[Review] SGP Kuel f60Q: It's The Cadillac Of Portable Chargers, With A Price To Match

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Other Reviews

While some manufacturers are doing whatever they can to increase battery life in power-hungry smartphones, most of us still have to find a way to make sure our gear stays charged on-the-go. Sure, extended batteries get the job done, but they add extra bulk to your device, and they don't help a bit if you have multiple devices to keep juiced. So, what's the most practical solution?

A portable charger.

We've taken a look at several portable chargers in the past - some good, some not-so-good. Today, we're going to check out one of the best portable chargers that I've ever used: the kuel f60Q from SGP.

Jan

Samsung Joins The Fight Against Short Battery Life, Promises 2012 Phone Will Be All-Day Strong For Most Users

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Samsung

As smartphones get larger, more vibrant displays, faster CPUs, 4G LTE network connectivity, and more features, there is one area where they still always fall short: battery life. In fact, most modern smartphones lack the ability to last a full day of regular, moderate usage without requiring some additional juice.

Samsung knows that we're all sick of doing the battery-charge-shuffle, so it's vowing to keep us away from the outlet for a full day of moderate to heavy usage with its 2012 phones, according to VP of product innovation Kevin Packingham. On one hand, this probably means slightly thicker devices with larger batteries (like the Motorola RAZR MAXX, which has a 3300mAh battery), but Sammy will also be optimizing the way the phones work, as well.

Nov

Scientists At Northwestern University Boost Lithium Ion Battery Performance Tenfold By Poking Millions Of Holes, Enabling 15 Minute Charge Times, Week-Long Life

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Off-Topic

From the day I picked up the original Evo 4G, I realized that battery technology was, no doubt, lagging behind the devices it powered. Looking to push batteries a bit closer to the impressive power of today's mobile technology, researchers at Northwestern University have significantly boosted the power of lithium-ion batteries by making a few key changes.

To achieve such impressive performance enhancements, the researchers essentially poked millions of holes in the battery's graphene layers using a chemical oxidation process. Additionally, tweaks were made to the material makeup of the batteries, including packing in more ions and speeding up their movement by replacing sheets of silicon with a different substance.

Apr

[Weekend Poll] Thinness Vs. Battery Life: FIGHT!

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Devices By Manufacturer, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see How Significantly Will The Number Of Cores Factor Into Your Next Phone Purchase?

In keeping with the more technical nature of the last Weekend Poll: what's more important to you - battery life or thinness? Obviously there is something of a balance there, but not all phones strike it well. So which is more important to you? Would you rather have a sleek, thin device with middling battery life? Or something of a porker that allows you to power-use all day without worrying about your phone running dry?

Apr

Calibrate Your Battery Stats The Easy Way To Improve Battery Life

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, News, Tips & Tutorials

If you're a rooted user, chances are that you flash new ROMs fairly often. What you may not know, however, is that your phone saves the battery statistics from old ROMs, and if you've never recalibrated your battery before, then your time away from the charger may not be as good as it could be.

This is for rooted users only.

Resetting battery stats can be an intimidating task for those who don't spend a lot of time in recovery (or who have never even booted into recovery). Fortunately, XDA member marosige has created an app that makes battery calibration a snap.

Feb

Is Two-Hour Battery Life Holding Back The Thunderbolt Release?

Posted by Zak Stinson in News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been quite the uproar over the HTC Thunderbolt, Verizon's first LTE phone. Most of the talk has been centered around the shipping date, with a rumoured release that slid from February 14th to the 24th to the 28th, then on to March 4th and 10th. After all this anticipation and disappointment, we may finally have a clue as to what is keeping this beast in its pen.

According to Engadget's sources, test units of the Thunderbolt are getting absolutely horrid battery performance. With reports of a full charge sometimes lasting two to three hours, testers of the new handset are said to be carrying another phone just to make it through the day.