Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

dumb phone user and recent linux convert. I want to keep learning linux which for me means having access to real linux and a command line where ever I go.

so my main concern really is not having 50000 apps, it is the battery life. I have read on this forum that battery life is not great but I don't really know how that compares to the other options such as the android phones on the market today. does anyone here own a newer android device and care to share how the battery life would compare?

I know I could get and android and use connectbot to ssh into my always on home machine so keep learning when I am away (using ubuntu and running centos in kvm if anyone cares), but I just can't get over the coolness factor of linux in my pocket. so...that is my long winded way of asking how decent the battery life is compared to the newerish android options that seem to be gaining in popularity every day. thanks for listening.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

Battery life is directly connected to how heavily you use the device.

Keeping it constantly active and doing things will not kill the battery for some time unless it's heavy, cpu-pegging work (mainly the browser.) Activating the radios will cut it further, how much depending on which you use (with the most drain being done by WiFi with no powersaving.)

I sincerely doubt the battery life is much worse under heavy usage than ones like the DROID or Nexus One (though I don't know their battery capacities,) and even if it is shorter, for what you seem to want it's easily an acceptable trade off.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

Battery life is totally dependant upon how you use it, I can get between 5 hours and 4 days on a charge, depends how much and what for when it comes to use.

Nokia are good at battery saving at an os level (once it matures)

some other phones have the 'luxury' of a huge battery, they will last longer if they have that feature.

check battery mah ratings to get a fair objective view

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

this week, we're still suffering from a few bugs that use excess battery power, by next week the next N900 firmware should resolve a few of them issues, batteries will last longer :)

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

battery life.. hmm.. its ok-ish nowadays with under voltage, but only on idle..
if I use the device normally, gprs+web on 3g/3.5g ..

i think, constantly using the device, i can get 4 hours maximum.. this is not even heavy use... i'll have maximum 3 apps open..

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

the way i use my phone, it lasts around 2-3 days on a single charge. when i travel i use a lot more battery but extra batteries are extremely cheap for this phone so battery life is never really an issue for me.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

wow I like the fast response.

so say I am using the sprint service here in the us sitting on a park bench using the terminal to ssh into my home box to run commands, but am not using the browser (yea like that will happen once I have the internet in my hand lol), would that be a real battery killer or since it is a cli based app, not so bad even though I am on the sprint network?

also can I make bash my default shell? (I just bought a learn to program in bash book so I must ask that question).

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

lool im hearing next week since 2 months:p..

but really, comparing to other phones i had (htc hd and bb storm2 mostly), the storm battery lasted me nearly 4 days. that was heavy usage.. and data always on....
the htc hd battery was about 50% better than this one

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

Well, you'd be completely unable to make calls or use anything but WiFi if you're on Sprint :P

Doing SSH over 3G will be more battery intensive than say, 2.5G, and a text mode like that isn't exactly data intensive. You'll see usage go way up once you use an SSH tunnel and start VNCing over it like I do.

Default shell, no. System startup uses the default user shell to process scripts, and isn't compatible with Bash. You can install and start bash, I believe there are ways to have the terminal load Bash and not the default Busybox terminal.

I don't think comparing the battery life between two wildly different devices is in any way useful.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

i would say 4-5 hours..... not more than this.. maybe less than 4

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

oops I am on sprint month to month now, I meant to say t mobile which I know I would have to switch to. and yes I think I would like to be able to run ssh -Xp (home computer on 443) and use things like the x based virtual machine manager.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

The N900's display is 800x480, so the application's window runs the risk of being unusable if doing X Forwarding to the N900. That said, you could totally do that.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

I've been doing more digging and short battery life seems to be a common theme, I guess I will wait like every one else to see if this long awaited update helps at all :(

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

one thing ive noticed about this device since the battery debate started raging....

ive had the phone since mid december so have had time to play....

I cojuldnt understand what all the complaining was about battery life as the absolute worst i could get was about 8 hrs under very heavy use....... until this weekend when i went to the Isle of wight :)

3g and even 2g signal is patchy to say the least and no wireless networks where i was staying. the phone needed a recharged by mid afternoon with only web access to check the soccer scores
!!!

in comparison to where i live/work i would normally get more than 2 days with that kind of usage!
3g is patchy at best

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6...0042608274.png

here is a better indication of how the battery lasts and it's more than 4-5 hours of constant use. red or blue line are an indication of battery left. from 20:00 till 5:00 the next morning I was constantly using a full linux desktop within meamo itself (Easy Debian) which is pretty demanding. took a break between 2:00 and 3:00 and you can see that almost no battery is used when idle.
At 5:00 I changed the battery with a not fully charged one and have been surfing the net nonstop since, you can extrapolate to see how long it would last if I continued to surf nonstop. The purple bars are CPU load and I have had both wifi and 3G on throughout.

To be honest I haven't had a problem with battery life. The BL-5J battery is so inexpensive that I bought a spare so even if I use the phone nonstop for a whole day before i see a power plug, I won't have a problem.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

It takes ten seconds to swap batteries.

I am usually in range of wireless, and have been getting twelve hours without swapping lately, while overclocking at 800 mHz and using low voltage settings. This is while using the N900 continually, browsing, listening to the Economist on mp3s, etc.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

oh man, see 2 sets of opinion, like I said I have a love/hate relationship and have not even seen an actual n900....since people are talking about different battery in different places, has anyone used this in nyc on t mobile?

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

Like has been said, battery life comparisons are pretty much meaningless. It just depends on how much you use it and what you use it for. Even location can heavily influence power drain if the radio is having to search for a signal a lot. And by location I don't mean city to city, it could be block to block or even room to room.

Probably the only worthwhile comparisons are battery capacity vs screen size. Comparing those will give a rough idea of what to expect, but only very rough. It won't tell you much about power drain during stand-by, phone calls, etc. And the type of screen, not just size, will influence things.

IOW take any subjective opinions about battery life with many grains of salt.

Re: Hi I'm a dumbphone user looking at my options
 

I dont seem to have an issue with battery and I use my phone almost constantly. When quiet at work I'll spend a good few hours browsing over 3G, and then some more when I get home over wifi. Add to that about an hours worth of music traveling to and from work and an hr or so playing games. I have to charge it every night but I know that at times I have pretty heavy usage. I'm just waiting for PR1.2 to come out before I change my kernal and get better life from it.