Review: Extended Battery for Mogul

There is little doubt that the Mogul (aka PPC-6800 / Titan / XV6800 / Telus P4000) can deliver a wide variety of times between charges, ranging from 5 hours to 2 days… totally depending on how you use your phone. If you are a heavy user, the Mogul may only give you half of a day’s use before needing to be charged again. In an attempt to help meet the needs of those power hungry users, Seidio has released an extended OEM sized battery for the PPC-6800 ($44.95). I have tested it and found some unexpected surprises.

OVERVIEW

The good news with the Mogul is that, compared to its predecessor, it has a larger capacity battery right out of the box. The Mogul comes with a 1500mAh battery. But as mentioned above, how you use your phone will be the deciding factor of how long you have between needing to charge it again. Any type of data connection (EVDO, 1x, or WiFi) will zap your battery in what seems like no time at all. You may fall into this category and not even realize it, as this will also include any program that initiates a data connection on its own to download an update, i.e. weather plugins, news headlines, sport scores, stock prices, etc. Long and frequent phone calls are also a huge drain on the battery. Having the screen on 100% brightness vs. keeping it at 50% can take several hours out of the life of a single battery charge by the end of the day. For many, these factors can be managed to a point, but for a lot of us, we simply end up needing and using many of these things in our normal course of the day.

For most of us, our only choices end up being to stop using some of the things we would like to or need to use (which is sometimes simply impossible, i.e. email), keep a charger wherever we go (i.e. in the car, at home, in the office, etc.).

The best option, though is to get a battery with a larger capacity that can do more for a longer period of time. Even a little boost can give that vital extra last hour in the day that you needed for those all important calls, emails, or text messages for work or home.

This is where Seidio steps onto the stage. There are usually two types of extended batteries, ones that are the same size as the OEM battery that came with the phone, and those that add a large "hump" onto the back of the phone, which sometimes may even double the thickness of the phone due to the extended battery being 2-3 times thicker than the OEM battery. Obviously, it is much nicer to have larger capacity battery that does not add any extra thickness to the phone, which is what Seidio has recently offered.

The Seidio OEM sized battery offers a 1650mAh extended battery. This is, in theory, a 10% increase in battery life. It includes a 6 month (180 day) warranty period covered through the WMExperts Store.

Physical Build:

TESTING

Before we review these test results, I want to cover what the insert in the package says:

First of all, I made sure that both batteries were fully charged. I used the same phone with the same activity and settings for each. I did each test with 100% back light on the whole time while connected to WiFi, with push email enabled with a sound and vibrating email alert, and no phone calls or any extra usage. I used **SPB Benchmark** to test the battery capacity of both the HTC OEM original battery and the Seidio OEM Extended battery.

So now I wanted to test against two factors....how the Seidio Extended Battery compared against the stock battery in the Mogul and how the Seidio Extended Battery compared against itself from the first initial charge against the 7th full recharge. I tried to get each reading at approximately the same time, roughly an hour intervals during each test:

Now let's analyze the results.I will be focusing on 3 key points during the test, 1) what time it was for the 10% warning, 2) the 5% warning, and 3) total time for the battery to die. I chose these specific points because I know exactly when each happened during each test. I will look at each event separately below by listing the shortest to the longest time (longest time being better), with a percentage of increased battery life when compared with the shortest time:

It is apparent that the Seidio Extended Battery certainly has a 9.7% lift (50 minutes) in battery life at the 10% warning mark (after the 7th full recharge), which is the point that forces most of us into panic mode to find someplace to recharge our phone. But the OEM battery has a very surprising last kick to stay alive during it's last 10% of life reducing that advantage to as low as 4.1% (20 minutes) when compared to the initial charge of the Seidio Extended Battery.

The directions of Seidio stated that their battery will increase its performance after 5 or 6 full recharges, which proved to be true as it increased the final total battery life by 33 minutes and 6.9%. It also increased from the initial charge vs the 7th charge by 2.8% (17 minutes) increased battery life when compared against itself

In my controlled battery tests, it failed to meet the claim of 10% increased battery time by 3.1%, which means it only fell short by 14 minutes after 8 1/2 hours.

Controlled Test Results =

REAL WORLD RESULTS

First impressions are not always what they seem. As we all know, controlled test results and real world usage results can often times show vastly different results. This seemed to be the case with the Seidio Extended Battery. Even though the controlled tests only offered an increase time of 33 minutes, in the field I experienced 2 to 4 times the control test's 33 minute boost. I have found myself not scrambling at the end of the day to find a place to charge my phone when I am using it like I always do. I do actually get at least an extra 1-2 hours of additional time. The difference between the controlled tests and the results out in the real world do make sense; since the controlled tests used with WiFi on all the time, which is one the biggest battery drains, and is a source of connectivity that I personally only use once in a great while as a last resort while in a non-EVDO area.

I admit that I am more of a power hungry user than most. In a typical day, I field quite a few phone calls, have push mail enabled the whole time, have several plugins creating data connections to update themselves, use my Motorola H700 BT headset, BT GPS unit, sometimes my BT keyboard & mouse, and keep my screen on my Mogul at 80 -100% a majority of the time as I am often times outside or driving in the car for work.

With the original Mogul battery, I could not make it a whole work day without being forced to top off the battery. Now with the Seidio Extended Battery, I will more often than not make it the whole day on a single charge. I say "more often," because if it does end up being a heavier than normal day for me I will have to top off the phone with my car or office charger. But even in these situations there is little doubt that I would have been pressed to recharge my phone that much earlier if I had been using my original battery.

Overall I have to admit I was impressed with the results I observed in the field, especially after first seeing the results of the controlled tests.

Real World Results

Conclusion

At $44.95, it comes down to a personal choice of the necessity of Seidio OEM sized 1650mAh Extended Battery in deciding if the cost is worth the benefit. If you are going to buy an extra battery anyway and don't want to make your Mogul any thicker, then it is a no brainer.

This Seidio Extended Battery does not perform miracles, it does not deliver on what it claims to with giving you that extra 10% increase of battery life per charge in controlled tests when compared to the stock battery that came with the Mogul. But it does seem to deliver on it's promises when using it in the real world. It is one tool (out of many, i.e. having a car charger and extra travel charger with you) to give you that extra piece of mind that you will not miss that last call, text message, or vital email at the end of the day, and sometimes that can be priceless.

Besides the increased battery life, the other advantage of having the Seidio OEM extended battery, is that you still have the original battery that came with the phone as a backup battery. So if you are traveling with no access for recharging your phone, you now have two batteries to get you through the day.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Specifications:

• Compatible with Sprint Mogul & Verizon XV 6800 (when released)
• Li-ion polymer battery
• 1650mAh
• 3.7V
• OEM battery dimensions

What you get:

• Mogul OEM sized 1650mAh Extended Battery
• Documentation sheet