3500mAh Seidio Battery - My Review (so far)

[themirthfulswami]

Hi all,

Just wanted to share my experience with people who may be considering an extended battery for their 6800. I recently decided to take the plunge on the super-extended battery after ditching my home phone and going cell only. Between the email checking, web surfing, texting and phone calling, the stock battery wasn't even lasting a day before crapping out. I attribute some of that to the fact that I have very weak signal in my office so often times while at work my data connection will drop and reconnect.

So early this past week my battery arrived. Install was cake as expected, though the battery door doesn't fit perfectly. It is just slightly raised in the middle.. hardly noticeable, but there. Seems like the hole for the white camera flash LED isn't quite big enough to fit around the element, too. I was initially worried about the extended backing being an annoyance, but after a week of heavy use, I've found the phone is MORE comfortable to hold, albeit slightly heavier (which I've never minded at all). With the battery on, it feels to be about the same weight as my old Treo 650 (god I HATED that phone LOL).

Ok so here are my typical settings :
Bluetooth : Off
Wifi : Off
GPS : Can't use it yet.. to chicken to install custom ROM :)
Email : 2 accounts, one set to check for mail every 15 mins, the other every 4 hours.
Backlight : 60%
Auto-Off : 2 minutes (screen and sleep mode)
Data Connection : 24/7
Software Running Full-Time : SPB Mobile Shell 2.1, SPB Diary today plugin, VITO SMS-Chat, Personalizer

I am a very heavy text and picture mail user and do a fair bit of web-surfing. Voice usage is light to moderate.

This past Thursday evening I decided to try to see how long it stretched from full charge to zero. I plugged the phone in to the wall charger and charged it up to 100% (around 6pm). With my normal usage pattern, and without plugging it into a PC to sync (so no short recharges), I was at 30% by 10pm on Saturday night. In an effort to kill it so I could recharge overnight, I used media player to loop a few full-screen WMV videos as well as turning on Bluetooth and WiFi. The bastard was resilient, though. At midnight, I still had 5% charge and "very low battery" warnings. To kill it the rest of the way, I surfed around the web for a bit.. it officially keeled over at 12:23am.

So my first official test of the super-extended battery netted me approximately 54.5 hours of "normal" usage with the afore listed settings which includes a couple hardcore hours of me making an effort to take it from 30% to zero. Having not intentionally killed it, I'm sure it would have lasted much longer.

In conclusion, I'm extremely pleased with the Seidio 3500mAh battery. It certainly delivers on it's promises. Thankfully I've never been bothered by a bulky or slightly heavy phone, so the extra weight isn't a factor for me. If anyone is on the fence about buying one, I would say go for it. If you're a heavy phone user you will really appreciate the extra juice :)

Oh yeah, one more thing, the extended battery does stick out enough to make the phone ALMOST too big for my leather bag/case thing. It was a universal leatherette belt-pouch with the magnetic click locks on it. The phone still fits but it's a super tight squeeze so I whipped out my much-loathed VZW rubberized holster for the time being. I have a Seidio spring loaded holster on order, hopefully it will be here tomorrow or Tuesday.

[rumie1971]

Just wondering if the spring loaded holster fit with the extended battery?

[rleejr79]

Just wondering if the spring loaded holster fit with the extended battery?


I think I read on the actual site that it does. I velieve I was reading the ext. battery product info. I have the Seido black rubberized case and the spring holster and was thinking of upgrading as well.

Hopefully, themirthfulswami will inform us soon.

[LvsSocer]

I second that experience - best change I've made to my mogul.

Before using the battery, it was a race to see if the battery died before the end of the day. Now I can miss a night or even two of charging and it doesn't even matter.

A word of warning: The mogul is already decently large. Adding the extended battery pushes it to the edge of being useful in one handed operation. Not that it isn't, you just have to learn to hold it slightly differently.

[Duke Nukem]

Hello

I have tried few 3000mAh batteries and they perform great. i get to use my Titan for 4 days without charging... If anyone is interested I can get them for you for 35$ with back door included...

[nas917]

Who do I need to send the money to get the extended battery?

[JokeZony0u]

So I noticed the original person never got back to completing the review. So here's my two cents:

I'm generally a heavy phone user, especially with texts, emails and web surfing due to job reqs. Here's my typical settings:

WiFi- off
Bluetooth- off (on roughly 1 or 2 hrs max a day)
Brightness- 100%
Email: 2 accounts, 1 checking every 5 minutes (Yea, I actually need it) and the other receiving emails as they arrive (meaning I get them immediately upon receiving)
Auto off: 1 minute
Data Connection: On at all times
Software Running: Just switched to Manilla 2D- definitely a cool program to check out, SPB Pocket Plus (no today plugin)- using it to flick through IE
Texting: I don't know how many I text/day but I've hit 3000 in a month
Talk times: light to moderate

So I've never actually drained the extended battery to nothing, since I'm still used to charging it on a daily basis. I generally start my day off at 6 in the morning, its now 2:00 at night and the meter shows 50%. So typically speaking this thing beats the original battery by a lot. I won't charge tonight and see how well the battery does tomorrow. Along with the battery, I also got the extended battery case which fits snuggly and also covers that "middle lift up" the original person had a problem with (I guess its a problem with all the battery doors). I also have the spring holster- which fits both regular and extended battery phones.

As for how well the battery will stand up to my rigorous usage- I'll update you all once I'm through with tomorrow

[Paul in Maryland]

I put my 3600mAh Mugen in the charger at 10pm and remove it at 6am. If I try to it with the standard XV6800 charger (250mAh/hour), it won't charge all the way. Instead I use the 450mAh charger that I bought on eBay to charge the Mugen outside of the phone. Except I don't remove the battery from the phone; the 450mAh charger uses a standard USB cable, so I simply plug the cable directly into the phone.

[JokeZony0u]

I put my 3600mAh Mugen in the charger at 10pm and remove it at 6am. If I try to it with the standard XV6800 charger (250mAh/hour), it won't charge all the way. Instead I use the 450mAh charger that I bought on eBay to charge the Mugen outside of the phone. Except I don't remove the battery from the phone; the 450mAh charger uses a standard USB cable, so I simply plug the cable directly into the phone.

As to that, I haven't had any problem charging the battery up to full using a regular charger. I generally plug it in probably 12 or 1 pm and unplug it at 6 or so. Then again, I never fully drain my battery.

As to the "review" that I had going yesterday, I am currently at 20% after 38 hours of use. I'm guessing this 20% will last several hours more since it was on 30% for several hours before

[TdiDave]

I just got one of these battery. When i plug into the charger the charging lite just blinks. Left it like this over night and still blinking.

Does this on 3 chargers:
1 - 5.5 V @ 1.0 A
2 - 5.4 V @ 2400 mA
3 - 5 V @ 850 mA

Any help ?

[JokeZony0u]

I just got one of these battery. When i plug into the charger the charging lite just blinks. Left it like this over night and still blinking.

Does this on 3 chargers:
1 - 5.5 V @ 1.0 A
2 - 5.4 V @ 2400 mA
3 - 5 V @ 850 mA

Any help ?

Are you using a seidio battery?

[TdiDave]

Yes the Seidio 3500mAh battery is the one that wont charge. My stock battery charges fine.

[JokeZony0u]

Yes the Seidio 3500mAh battery is the one that wont charge. My stock battery charges fine.

Hm..are you using the charger that came with your device? If that doesn't work..its most probably due to the battery. Seidio has a warranty on the batteries they sell

Email them first and ask what you should do, you most probably will have to ship it back if anything

[TdiDave]

Leaving the battery out of the phone for a minute or so when changing has seemed to fixed my problem of charging the 3500mAh Seidio battery.

[JokeZony0u]

Glad to hear it! Enjoy the crazy long lasting battery life we've never had before with the stock ones!

[meccanoble]

I actually bought this battery off of someone used for 3 months. Life is way better than my original battery. My original was real funny. If i'm doing nothing, it would last a few hours with extremely basic functions including screen off for majority of time. If I was to make a phone call, battery would die literally after 10-15 minutes of constant speakerphone talking, even from a full charge. Pissed me off, I use my phone for many things and sh*tty battery limited me heavily.

After installing this new battery, I am using my phone for everything again. Slingbox, navi, bluetooth music listening, web surfing and ofcourse phone calls.

I am able to keep my phone off of charge for up to 2 days with heavy use. I work out everyday or try to and I watch tv through slingbox on my phone with Jabra BT620 bluetooth head phones. Thats a lot of drainage. Yet phone still does well with 2 days of use and no charge needed. I have emails set to come in every 5 minutes as well.

Here is one major issue this battery has presented to my phone when I originally got it but doesnt happen all the time. The beauty of our phones is that they are real easy to open and close. Real smooth. But can close very fast. First few times I closed it, it slams so hard I guess that the battery gets knocked out of place. I have to remove the battery completely and put it back in to start my phone up again. Very annoying but tested a few times and it doesnt seem to happen all the time. It has happened to me maybe 3 times since I got battery (almost a week) but it happened maybe 2 times on the first day.

It depends on how hard you do it. As I was typing this, i tested it a few times. Opened and closed pretty hard like 4 times in a row with no issues. 5th time, I did it harder than I normally would and it happened again. Aside from this, very happy with battery.

[JokeZony0u]

hm, never had that problem you had. But in general- lets agree, the battery is a lifesaver for any powerhouse user

[kzibart]

Ok, so the battery is great, but what about Seidio's customer service? Here's what happened when I ordered the battery, along with a charger, hard case, and a few other accessories...

"Dear [my name here],

Please refuse the package for the carrier. The order arrived to your address belongs to another customer. Please contact customer service at 832-204-1118 for any questions.

Once we received the package, we will reship your order ASAP.

Regards,


Seidio Customer Service"

I paid for 2 day FedEx delivery, yet they want me to refuse delivery, and then they won't even send the right stuff out until they get the wrong stuff back? My wife needs the battery for an upcoming business trip. She can barely use her phone today because the current battery doesn't even last a single day anymore. Besides, I didn't get this e-mail until yesterday on the way home from work, and the package was on my front porch when I got home.

Of course, customer service was closed for the night, so I replied asking that my correct items be shipped out in an expedited fashion and offered to return the incorrect package however they wanted me to. I'll follow up today with customer service once they open as well. Wish me luck!

[kzibart]

Here's an update to my Seidio shipping issue. Apparently someone else with my same first name placed an order at the same time, and somehow ours got switched. When I called this morning, the person I spoke with said the same thing as the e-mail, that I would have to return the package and then they would ship the right one once they received the wrong one.

Since we really needed the extended battery, I went ahead and placed a second identical order and chose next day shipping. Then I called them back to cancel the original, but to my surprise the person who answered knew of my situation immediately and we came to the following agreement. I would return the package I received, and at that point they would refund my original purchase price plus the cost of the next day shipping, meaning I am still paying 2nd day shipping for something that will have taken over a week to arrive. But hey, at least I'll finally have it, and my wife will be able to use the extended battery on her business trip.

[JokeZony0u]

that's good news, seidio doesn't seem like they'll have bad customer service, its a great battery tho with the case it is somewhat of a brick haha..hope you enjoy the new extended life of it!

[TeleFragger]

wow now im torn...
stock is 1500mah
I was looking on ebay at 2100 and 2400mah

so this puppy is massive at 3500mah...

I dont care about the physical size... it wont fit in my windshield mount with the thick battery but not a biggie....

now I have to decide which to get..
anyone have a link to where to get the 3500?
for about $16 shipped on ebay I can get the 2400mah with door...

also anyone have a 2100 or 2400 that they can take a pic of next to a 3500 to see how much bigger it is?

[eigerzoom]

vendio sells a 2800mAh for $15.95 shipped
i'm thinking about that one myself
how much are people paying for the seidio?
best price i'm seeing is $69.95 plus ship on google products
best price i found on the mugen 3600mAh is $79.95

at those rates i'd rather buy two vendio's and an external charger and still come out ahead money wise

[JokeZony0u]

I paid the 70 for seidio..aside from the fact that Titan is getting old and obsolete compared to all the other phones out there now, the battery is worth it (read the review I wrote on the first page).

I suppose you should factor in whether you'll be keeping the Titan for much longer.

I've had the extended battery for over a year now and it does make the phone much larger (my friends call it a brick, I call it my weapon of choice- toss the phone hard enough at someone..its bound to knock someone out). Regardless, I wouldn't get through my day without it and would probably hate the phone