Sprint a900 Battery Life

When I first got my Samsung a900 I quickly thought the battery life was crap. However, I left my charger at work yesterday and the phone is still going strong after almost 48 hours. I have been using the phone pretty regularly while sending text and picture messages and even a little web surfing.

Now I am just going to see how long it will go.

I have been meaning to write a meaningful review of the a900. Not sure when I will get around to it.

This entry was written by Jackson Miller, posted on January 5, 2006 at 7:30 pm, filed under Uncategorized and tagged a900, Mobile, Sprint. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

30 Comments

Manny

Posted January 7, 2006 at 4:46 pm | Permalink

This phone is full of bugs..Major bluetooth issues, might as well remove the bluetooth feature from it because it doesn’t work! Samsung is very ignorant to users issues and the bugs on this phone. Take a look at this web site and see for yourself what a mess this phone is:

http://www.sprintusers.com

-Manny
Craven

Posted January 19, 2006 at 12:24 pm | Permalink

So was the phone used during the 48 hours it was going strong? Specs list the battery life at 3 hours continous use and about 7 days of standby (no talk time) Naturally, if you’re playing games or whatever with the phone standby time would decrease.

There are plenty of phones out there with better battery life than the A900. It would seem that Samsung would provide a better battery for its fancy phone with so many different gadgets to play with, ie: bluetooth, camera, Mp3 player, games, etc. If there are software “issues” these ought to be fixed too. This ain’t rocket science. Test the phone, test the phone, test the phone before you release to us guinea pigs. If the pigs are happy, they’ll sell like hotcakes. Otherwise, the phone’s another neat item for the trash can.
Terry

Posted February 1, 2006 at 7:47 pm | Permalink

I just purchased a Samsung A900 a few days ago. It has been quite a challenge. I have been with Sprint for years and am still shocked at the lack of professional assistance. It has been HELL every time I upgrade my phone. The A900 is full of all kinds of fun things. The Bluetooth feather is still crap. Static and short transmission. NO WHERE near 30ft. More like 3ft.
With a little more professional programmers and customer care, the phone may turn out to be a good one. Until then, it’s NOT worth the large sum of money it costs!
FedUp

Posted February 3, 2006 at 11:55 pm | Permalink

I must agree! The A-900 is the biggest waste of $$$$. I have had nothing but problems with that piece of @$#$@#! Bluetooth? What bluetooth?? You call that bluetooth? Someone actually gets three feet? For the best reception, I usually find myself holding the phone right up against the headset. Sprint/Samsung should be ashamed of themselves. I nearly threw that thing in the trash before I realized that it was good for something! It was just thin enough to level my wobbly table! Maybe I’ll call Sprint…hopefully they will take it back. If not voluntarily, forcefully..up their A$$!!
Travis

Posted February 14, 2006 at 1:03 pm | Permalink

I have not had any problems with this phone yet. I do not use Bluetooth so I cannot comment on that, but it appears from the other comments that people rely on Bluetooth way too much anyways. The battery life has been just as good as my last phone - Sanyo mm5600. The only time the battery sucks juice bad for me is when I am using it as an mp3 player, but what can you expect, it’s a cell phone.

The signal has been great, with no cut offs yet. The phone is built very solid, I was actually amazed at how sturdy it is. Overall, I think it is a great phone with a lot of solid features (unless you are a Bluetooth junky, it seems).
Pam

Posted February 16, 2006 at 7:36 pm | Permalink

I love my Blade phone. I use bluetooth with the moto 850 headset. it works well, even when the phone is in my pocket. Battery last the entire day for me. I typically surf, a few text messages and several phone calls. This is the best phone I every owned. I see plenty of please Blade owners at sprintusers.com also.
Caleb Rodriguez

Posted February 20, 2006 at 1:48 pm | Permalink

I like my A900 Samsung phone. I use it as a modem for my laptop. It started giving me bad battery life until I went back to the sprint store. It seems that if you leave the phone as it comes out of the box the settings are not good for your battery. Turn down your brightness and turn off location. These two features seemed to have given me better battery life. I have also used the Bluetooth feature and it works fine. It may be that you may need to update the software on the phone. All is well with my phone hope this helps. BTW, do not do deep discharges. They recommend to charge frequently. Do not let the phone go completely dead.
TD

Posted February 28, 2006 at 12:32 pm | Permalink

I have this phone and I like it (but I haven’t sold my Sanyo 8200 on eBay yet). I bought it as an impulse purchase as everyone I know has a Raz’r and loves it. I spent the first few days looking at this very pretty phone yet deeply regretting this purchase. As with most Samsung phones, it is NOT intuitive and HIGHLY user UNfriendly. A whole different head if your used to Sanyo, Motorola or Nokia. So anyway, after needing to consult the manual on many occasions, I now think it’s an OK phone. I have to say, my Sanyo is MUCH easier to use, has better reception and the speaker is FANTASTIC. The speakerphone on this model kinda sucks. It’s not very loud and it’s really difficult to turn on. You have to do it AFTER you make your call. I haven’t tried the bluetooth on this, but they have updated the software 3 times since I bought it in mid January. That is one really nice thing; no more trips to the Sprint Service Center to update the software. Yay!
TD

Posted February 28, 2006 at 12:33 pm | Permalink

P.S. I’m finding the battery life very lame.
austin

Posted March 14, 2006 at 7:50 pm | Permalink

the phone isnt that hard to figure out. if you want more user friendly dont buy a phone with so many features. the battery life is bad becuase of the size of the battery. the way that it is shaped makes it difficult for the manufacturer to produce a longer lasting battery. just rock the power save feature if you’re afraid of the smaller battery. it’s not like you dont have an oppurtunity to charge it every night. quit complaining
KC in Tennessee

Posted March 14, 2006 at 11:44 pm | Permalink

Phone as Modem.I use the A900 as a modem to connect to the internet while on the road. Here is an accounting for my time. It takes roughly 2 hours and 10 minutes of holding for, and speaking with, customer service to get about 11 minutes of connected time on-line.

Durring your hold time you will see about 4 or 5 Sprint TV ads telling you how great it is to be a connected yes man.

This product service combination seems completely untested and the advertisements for the service are misleading and border on outright fruad.

Hey Sprint, “Call Me” -kc 423-646-6720
mj

Posted March 19, 2006 at 12:12 pm | Permalink

i find the phone(a900) to be pretty cool but…as everyone knows batt sucks…but overall great phone!
J.C

Posted March 27, 2006 at 2:12 pm | Permalink

The A900 is a Great Phone butt the battery mmmmmm not so good i have had the same prob with battery life. If you turn down the brightness and turn off the GPS location Yoy will see a longer lasting charge also set your backlight to 8 seconds. The screen still looks great with the brightness set to low.. Jim
eric

Posted April 9, 2006 at 9:43 pm | Permalink

I use the a900 as modem but have not been on the road with it yet. it works well at home i’m on it now. it last about 3 hours of on line time & pretty fast. butt as a cell phone the battery sucks butt. unreal i want to kick sprint butt.
butt the tech help keeps you on hold so long before you get through your butt is to tired to cruse somebody out about this tired phone battery.
SNBInternet

Posted April 11, 2006 at 7:51 pm | Permalink

I have had the a900 since march 1st… and i’m pretty pleased… of course the only problem battery life.. which the sprint sales person made very clear was a common complaint… but i figured id have a go with it… i must agree with JC, with the brightness on the lowest, location off, and backlight 8 seconds…. it will increase battery life.. and if you don’t use bluetooth LEAVE IT OFF!!!!! i for one use the phone more with my bt headset then without it.. but as with my laptop and axim…. bluetooth is a great drain on battery… all in all.. i am pleased… my sanyo did have slighly better reception but nothing i can’t deal with… but the display is amazing… and for those calling sprint to get internet access… just look in some forums… there is a way around whatever sprint does and a setting you must change in the prog menu of the phone and as long as you dont abuse it… it will be covered under your power vision plan…
abnothingmore

Posted April 12, 2006 at 10:48 am | Permalink

okay… Software updates! battery life is fine now. Bluetooth works like a charm, all of the features are great! only thing i dislike is how the battery charger connects to the phone.
– also, if you can’t figure out how to work this phone, or if you think it’s too different than a Sanyo, you’re a MORON!!! go back to third grade. how much easier can you get than big HUGE colorful icons?!?!?!? People, listen, this is a great phone. it had a Java script error that caused the battery to drain. software updates fixed that issue…. NOW SHUT UP or go back to Sanyo!!!!!
Jackson

Posted April 12, 2006 at 11:25 am | Permalink

I have checked and I do not see any new software update available for the a900. Is there some reason that abnothingmore would have an update that I don’t have access to yet?

Also, I would appreciate it if abnothingmore would refrain from calling names and flaming in general.
KZ1

Posted May 2, 2006 at 10:34 pm | Permalink

I just bought one after 6 months and 5 RAZR replacemts with Cingular. I would get 8 hours of talk time and almost all the same features as the A900. Fact is, the talk time is not good for the A900 compared to the competitor it was designed after.
catspuck

Posted May 4, 2006 at 8:01 am | Permalink

My a-900 just died. it was working fine this morning but it just stopped. any ideas to what might have just happened.
itBgary

Posted May 5, 2006 at 1:37 pm | Permalink

Yeah, your battery died.
Kala

Posted May 26, 2006 at 10:53 am | Permalink

The battery life is horrible. I have to take a charger with me at all times. I have a charger for home, my office, and one for my car with the ac adapter for indoor use. On standby with NO talk time it dies in eight hours. I came home one day and just sat it down on my bedstand (about 6pm maybe 5:30). It went off at 2am waking me as it turned off due to loss of battery power. Just so you know, I have to reboot it every 3 days or I loss memory. I have yet to use the MP3 or other special features (other than the camera - about 20 pictures). I only use it to talk and text. I love the phone other than the battery issue. And I’ve had this problem since day one.
Kala

Posted May 26, 2006 at 10:55 am | Permalink

Also, a new software upgrade came in yesterday. If you turn the phone off then back on, it’ll start the download.
SCOTT

Posted May 29, 2006 at 7:35 am | Permalink

BATTERY LIFE BLOWS!!!!! GOING TO SPRINT TO COMPLAIN NOW!
anounomys

Posted September 22, 2006 at 8:43 pm | Permalink

BEST PHONE EVER!!!!!!!! KEEPING FOREVER , the battery life is that good but other that sprint nailed it good
MDeltio

Posted October 21, 2006 at 1:05 pm | Permalink

Is it me or does anyone else have issues with memory being full? The batterylife sucks! There should be an asterisk for the Bluetooth feature saying one use per charge of battery. This phone is awesome…unless you use it.
Edwin J.

Posted October 31, 2006 at 12:29 pm | Permalink

I was one of the first buyer for this phone since January, and I love this phone. I don’t know why people complaint so much, you all wanted a phone that could do all of this things on a compact size, now you have it and all you do is complaint. I use the bluetooth headset from my first floor while my phone remain in the second floor and still work great. Maybe if you spend a little more money for a better headset, then you can tell the difference. But this is my 6th sprint phone, and as a Sanyo fan I gotta say I love this Samsung phone. only problem I have had was when trying to make a phone call and someone calls me at the same time, my phone would freeze. But all I have to do is press the ignore phone call and just pick up the incoming call. So all of you out there who do not know anything about great phones and have nothing else but to complain shut the H*** up.
Edwin J.

Posted October 31, 2006 at 12:32 pm | Permalink

I was one of the first buyer for this phone since January, and I love this phone. I don’t know why people complaint so much, you all wanted a phone that could do all of this things on a compact size, now you have it and all you do is complaint. I use the bluetooth headset from my first floor while my phone remain in the second floor and still work great. Maybe if you spend a little more money for a better headset, then you can tell the difference. But this is my 6th sprint phone, and as a Sanyo fan I gotta say I love this Samsung phone. only problem I have had was when trying to make a phone call and someone calls me at the same time, my phone would freeze. But all I have to do is press the ignore phone call and just pick up the incoming call. So all of you out there who do not know anything about great phones and have nothing else but to complain shut the H*** up.
cdmajoo

Posted February 9, 2007 at 1:20 am | Permalink

Check this out:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88374

Clearly, the phone meets the 3 hour talk time spec IF you keep the location off, backlight setting to 8 sec. and dim the display a bit. A900/A900M does not come out of the box with these settings. Problem solved!
Luis

Posted September 19, 2007 at 12:34 am | Permalink

My A900 dies waaaaayy to quick… I also bought a Bluetooth and nothing but static…. I really think this phone was a waste of money. Maybe Sprint should get some tips from Cingular about there batteries.
Harvick

Posted August 4, 2008 at 10:41 am | Permalink

Why do i keep getting a battery charging error on my A900 after the phone charges for 20 secs?

Jackson Miller

Sprint a900 Battery Life

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