Hey dr_frost I have a couple of questions and will appreciate any help you can give on them. The first question is simple but the explanation I have given is very long and detailed, so please bear with me.

I have read your first 3 posts as well as the last 10 pages of this thread, I must say I'm very impressed.

What I want to know is:

1. Based on the following information, would you reccomend a single scud or the double battery method with 2x scuds?

I run an a custom kernel device, over clocked at 1150 Mhz, with 8 desktop screens active. I cannot lower the clock settings, these are the only settings that handle my heavy usage and multi tasking. Any lower and phone becomes unresponsive. The screens contain around 14 widgets and about 50 icons in total.

I am always on the move and use my device when travelling to and from work, cinema, restaurants etc. constantly listening to music until I reach my destination. This usually totals to around 4 hours of playback per day. I also use the FM transmitter for around 1-2 hours per day when driving in the evenings/nights.

I am also texting around 150+ total messages per day to my friends, girlfriend and work colleagues, sometimes these are long messages so phone screen stays on alot while typing. I am using using moderate internet for browsing facebook, emails, talk maemo, ebay, amazon, paypal and some random google searches, totalling around 2 hours per day. This can be through Wifi or through the onboard 3g connection, depending on if I have access to a wifi spot or not.

I also have around 5gb of applications installed on this device (custom firmware to allow 8gb of total app space), most of this space is taken up by the WebOS games, but currently I cannot play them more than a few mintues as it kills my battery rapidly.

I use the original nokia battery that came with this product and it is about a year and 3 months old.

As you can see I heavily use my device, I have been using it the above way for about 7-8 months now. In the beginning of this, my battery life dropped from about 24hrs to about 14 hours when I switched from moderate usage to the above heavy usage, but that is understandable and I was actually impressed by it lasting this long, it also allowed for a lot of gaming use within this time.

But over the past 8 months or so, I have kept the same usagae but battery life has gone from 14 hours, down to around 10 hours, then 8 hours and now I am bordering the 5-6 hour mark with the above usage. This is a huge drop in 8 months.

This means I have to fully charge my phone at least 2 and sometimes 3 times per day.

This is highly inconvenient and causes limitations on usage. For example, within these 6 hours full charge, about 3 hours would be music, maybe 30 mins to an hour of browsing. Alot of texting (still 150 or so per day) and very low app usage, moderate multi tasking usage, I try to avoid it as much as possible. Virtually no game usage at all. The rest is praying the battery doesn't die out. So you can see how much I am restricting my self due to the battery charge running out so fast.

Since my original nokia battery is 15 months old, I understand this plays a big part in battery life dropping as prolonged usage lowers efficiency. Combined with the heavy usage of this phone and overclocking to 1150 Mhz, I understand why I have killed this battery from 14 hours down to about 6 hours in 8 months.

I don't mind buying another original Nokia battery for £25 and use it for another 8 months, then replace it again. This is worth it to me as I use my phone heavily for its multi tasking capabilites. I love it and rely on it for many many hours of day to day use. So I was going to buy the original Nokia battery again but came across your thread.

I know the scud is better than the original nokia battery, so I will definitely be buying that instead.

But my question is, for the heavy usage that I have described in detail above, will one Scud be enough? I am honestly not sure, but have a feeling I will have to do your dual battery mod with 2x scuds.

I don't have any desire to last a single charge for more than 24 hours, let alone 3 days. In fact if I get the 14 hours that I used to get on one charge, with such heavy usage, I will be so so happy and grateful!

Could you please do this test for me and find out? Leave the wifi on and media player constantly playing (mute it if it gets annoying), and do some browsing if you can - around 30mins to an hour. Some gaming, maybe 30mins and leave many apps running for a few hours, switch between them from time to time if you can, as well as whatever other things you fell you need to do to use phone heavily. And see how long 1x scud lasts you please?

Also do the same test with 2x scuds please? I know its a lot to ask, but I would really prefer NOT to go with the 2x scud method as I love the current back cover and shutter, and do not want to increase thickness of phone by even 1 millimeter. Although I will if I have to but I really don't want to.

So I really need to know, with my heavy usage, will a brand new scud fully charged, be sufficent enough to last at least 14 hours per day?

2. Also, second question, if I do go with the 2x scud option, is there another cover choice instead of the mugen? Like the original back cover, with the back cut out where the second battery is and a raised clear plastic piece covering this 'cut out' hole and second battery. So battery will be visible but not exposed. Only the area where battery is will be raised, rest will be with standard back cover and shutter.

Is there a modified back cover available such as this? Or are you able to modify a standard back cover to do this and send it to me? I can gladly pay for cost and postage as well as donate decently for your efforts.

If you can manage something like this, I would be so thankful. I will try to include a diagram to be clear of what I mean.

I understand this is a very long post so I thank anyone that took their time out to read it and respond to it, thank you to anyone that tries to help me in this situation.