Everyone usually has a gadget or two within reach, especially when they’re on the go. In fact, everything is going so fast these days that many people take their smartphones or tablets with them everywhere, so they can work from anywhere – even from bed. It’s a common joke these days that everyone is turning into “pod people” because we are always ducking our heads down to check our devices for one reason or another.
Power Eaters
But this heavy dependence on devices does have its difficulties. If you’re constantly on the go, this means you’re also constantly taking your devices along and using them as you move from one place to another. There won’t be a lot of time to recharge them, and it’s nearly impossible to do any recharging while in transit. Using a device (especially for Internet-related things) eats up a lot of power. Browsing the web, communicating via voip service, running productivity and game apps—you can do a lot of things with your device, but it can also only do so much.
This is why people often look for a device that has the longest battery life they could possibly get: they don’t have to resort to having external power supplies while trying to get all their work done within the day. There are even some devices whose entire selling point is a long battery life. But studies show that it may still be the users at the losing end of the power vs. performance battle.
What the Studies Indicate
The Root Uninstaller Team—the team responsible for keeping tabs on Google’s Android OS’s Battery Stats Plus—has compiled a list of the best and the worst Android devices (both smartphones and tablets) in terms battery life.
The study that generated said list revealed that the top-tier devices are not the longest lasting devices in terms from battery life. “Lesser” devices dominate the top tiers. Of course, one can argue that because both phones and tablets were in the list, the results are not as accurate as one would hope. And the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 does indeed rank the highest in the “best” category. But the rest of the devices are lesser known.
What does this say?
If you want a quality device, it probably does not have a high battery life. As current technologies stand, you’ll likely have to compromise performance in favor of a longer battery life. Although this is incredibly disappointing, the higher tier devices just aren’t as heavily packed with battery power like the other “lesser” devices. It seems you must opt for a phone whose interface is not as sophisticated in order to get longer lasting power.
One solution that might be put forward is to have users bring along a small external backup supply for their high-end devices in order to continue enjoying quality capabilities for longer periods of time. Hopefully, in the future of mobile power storage, there would be developments that wed high quality function to long-lasting battery power.
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