Ajay Kumar Singh

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Battery Life

—

by

Ajay
in
Blackberry Bold 9900
Blackberry Bold 9900

It’s 3rd month since I bought shiny power packed highly hyped  BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone. There are many reasons which make me believe that this phone is an absolute crap and one of the most important reason is the  BlackBerry Bold 9900 Battery life.

Initially the batter lasted for about a week with little usage then it fell down to 2-3 days and after 3 months it just lasts for 3-5 hours without any usage.

This was a shocking revelation to know that  BlackBerry Bold 9900 has problem with battery life. First I thought that the battery might be faulty and I was thinking to demand a replacement from Vodafone, however after reading the forum threads and other website I come to know that  BlackBerry Bold 9900  indeed suffers from low battery life.

On the New Year’s eve I updated the Blackberry software to 7.0.0 Bundle 2406 which doesn’t improve the battery performance.

Following are the BlackBerry Bold 9900 Battery Specifications taken from BlackBerry’s website.

Fully charged

Battery: 1230 mAh removable/rechargeable lithium-ion batteryGSM Talk Time: Up to 6.3 hours
GSM Standby Time: Up to 12.8 days
UMTS Talk Time: Up to 5.9 hours
UMTS Standby Time: Up to 12.8 days
Audio Playback Time: Up to 50 hours
Video Playback Time: Up to 7.4 hours

The signal strength is very poor in my locality and it hovers between 3G and EDGE. So if BlackBerry’s official version is correct I should get at least a week’s of battery life with moderate usage.

I’m aware that battery life also depends on mobile phone settings, networks and other stuff. I hardly use any of the advanced features and I’ve already done optimization, but the battery performance doesn’t improve.

I don’t watch any video, no browsing, screen brightness is to lowest – just 10%, GPS is off, no social networking connection no other application run in the background. Yet the batter drains down fast.

When I started writing this post I disconnected charger and after 1 hour the battery is already down to 85%. 15% drained in just 1 hour in standby mode?

I’m still in the process of doing further optimization and will see how it goes.

Comments

16 responses to “BlackBerry Bold 9900 Battery Life”

  1. Megan Avatar
    Megan

    Absolutely truth!!!
    I’ve got the same problem with mine- Firstly I thought I did something wrong- the same my friend’s kid- always complaining ‘Mom, my phone is dead AGAIN!’

    Please help!!! Aaaarrrrghh!!!!

    Ex-BlackBerry Fan… :(

    Reply
  2. Ray Avatar
    Ray

    It’s not only BlackBerry Bold 9900 which has low battery life, most of the smartphones suffer from poor battery life.

    I’m sure that tweaking the settings you can increase BlackBerry Bold 9900 battry life.

    Reply
  3. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    I, too, updated before the new year to 2406 and have noticed that the battery life has gotten worse. I haven’t been using my phone any differently than before, but have noticed a black-and-white difference with decreased battery life.

    What is going on here?

    Reply
  4. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    Pff, dude, that`s the worst phone that someone may buy these days! I had ton of problems with it > most of them software related > First i had “UNEXPECTED ERROR” screen on loading> After reinstall it happens again after a week. Now my third battery is gone!!!

    BLACKBERRY – NEVER MORE!!!

    Reply
  5. Mohammed Avatar
    Mohammed

    I bought the 9900 a week ago and noticed that the battery hardly gave me 6 hours until i had to charge again. So i updated my software to 2406 and now it gives me 18+ hours. I’m surprised that you guys aren’t getting that even after you updated the software, maybe its got something to do with the fact that i was able to update it when it was just 2 days old? So the strain on the battery hadn’t been long enough? Anyway, that’s just my theory – im not happy with 18+ hours, I’d be happy with ATLEAST 24 hours but i guess somethings better then nothing.

    Reply
    1. Ajay Avatar
      Ajay

      UMTS Standby Time: Up to 12.8 days
      That is their official specification.
      If we don’t even get 1 week of standby time then it is daylight fraud from RIM.

      I’ve already ordered a new battery and will see how it goes.

      Reply
  6. Jassim Avatar
    Jassim

    I’ve 9900 and I had battery problem too! But you know what I got the solution! Reduce your backlight, EXIT browser properly, off GPS (this sucks juice like anything)! You will see the change!

    Reply
    1. Ajay Avatar
      Ajay

      These are pretty basic measures which you have to take when you battery drains out overnight.

      I did all those. I even uninstall all Apps.

      Guess how much improvement I got?

      May be 2-3 hours more. Now it lasts for a day. This is not improvement.

      Fact, based on my own experience and other people’s experience, is that most of Blackberry Bold 9900 Batteries are faulty. I’ve never ever heard of any mobile phone having so much trouble with battery.

      It is shame on RIM.

      Reply
      1. phoneman Avatar
        phoneman

        get a life guys.. have you tried the vaunted Iphone 4S or the Android superphones.. their battery life is WORSE .. Increased features use up power .. BBerry new phones arent great for battery life compared to the older units, but THEY DO MORE and are MUCH better than their competitive counterparts.

        Reply
        1. lucky Avatar
          lucky

          The biggest bullcrap I ever heard no offense. I have had bold 9900, iphone 4s, Galaxy Nexus, and Galaxy S2 LTE. Iphone battery is the best because its internal. Second place, I would give for S2 LTE, it lasts 2 days with using it. Third place, Galaxy Nexus, not so great. Bold 9900 is the worst. If i fully use it, it would have even lasted a day. Get your facts straight and stop telling bull to people

          Reply
          1. lucky Avatar
            lucky

            *wouldn’t

            Reply
          2. Ajay Avatar
            Ajay

            That’s fact dude.

            If you battery lasts for a day doesn’t mean the rest of world will also have similar battery life.

            May be you got a little better battery that doesn’t mean it is the best.

            I bought a new BlackBerry Bold Battery, the original one. Even this lasts the same.

            Reply
  7. niranjan Avatar
    niranjan

    the similar problem i am facing with bb curve 9360. it was in service centre for almost 15 days. after that the battery life is improved for sim without bb services. but when i put in sim with bb services on the battery is down in 8-10 hrs. i dont understand the problem. same story is with bb bold 9970 os 6.

    Reply
  8. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    I’ve had my Bold 9900 for almost two months now, and I wish I could go back to my iPhone 3GS. The hardcore BB fans call iPhones ‘toys’ but my three year old ‘toy’ still out-preforms Blackberry’s latest and greatest smartphone.

    Reply
    1. Ajay Avatar
      Ajay

      BlackBerry Bold is an awesome toy. I’ve all sort of phones, iPhone, Google toys etc etc. But BlackBerry Bold 9900 stands out. The reason is that it has the power of both touch screen and keyboard. iPhones look like handicap without keyboard and I, personally, feel the same.

      Only if bold had a long battery life. Even after replacing the original battery with a new original battery doesn’t give any improvement.

      There is certainly something wrong with the phone.

      Reply
  9. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    Hey guys had my blackberry bold 9900 for around 5 months and have had 4 of them! If you are looking to save battery i found out if you just search battery and then go int the setting icon and out save battery on all the time my battery last for like 2X longer.

    Hope this helps

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *