Jake

Cingular Blackjack Battery Life Upgrade

I committed to Cingular’s Blackjack phone as my newest portable communication tool last weekend. My biggest fear in making the transition from my old Cingular 2125 was battery life. Everyone I know who owns a Blackjack up to this point had complained of less than 24-hour battery time on a single charge. I think even with the spare battery included, a heavy phone user would be in trouble. The good news is, this problem has been fixed. Cingular now sells the phone with 2 extended life batteries. In my own testing, with regular conversations on the phone throughout the day and email downloading every 15 minutes, I’m seeing a 48-hour uptime from a single charge. That includes time I spend browsing the Web and sending text messages. I can live with that. And it still comes with two batteries. If you have a Blackjack, make a call to Cingular and ask them to do a warranty swap on your existing batteries. According to the local rep at a store in Seattle, Cingular is upgrading anyone who complains to the newer longer life batteries. Well worth the investment in my book.

5 comments

  1. they would only give me 1 extended life but they took both the regular batteries AND THE BATTERY DOOR

  2. You can also conserve considerable battery life by turning off the 3G and going to GPRS only. If still need voice and data simultaneously 3G is still needed – say streaming video and waiting for a phone call on GPRS it goes to voicemail.
    Best way is to set up a shortcut to toggle between the two with the quicklaunch button.
    1. Connect to your BlackJack via Active Sync/WMDC
    2. Explore your mobile device (click Explore in Active Sync or WMDC from PC)
    3. Browse to Windows directory
    4. Select the file “BandSel.exe”
    5. Right click and choose Create Shortcut.
    6. Got to bottom of file list, and Cut the new “Shortcut to BandSel.exe” file.
    7. Next Paste it into the Windows\StartMenu directory where ever you’d like it and rename it if you want.
    And there ya go a quick toggle between 3G and GPRS.

  3. Even better follow:
    1. Connect to your BlackJack via Active Sync/WMDC
    2. Explore your mobile device (click Explore in Active Sync or WMDC from PC)
    3. Browse to Windows directory
    4. Select the file “adminsettings.exe”
    5. Right click and choose Create Shortcut.
    6. Got to bottom of file list, and Cut the new “Shortcut to adminsettings.exe” file.
    7. Next Paste it into the Windows\StartMenu directory where ever you’d like it and rename it if you want.
    8 Select Option 3 Netowrk & Call Settings
    9: Select option 5 Network Mode
    Select GSM
    This will allow you to turn 3G off and default to edge with out the need to decide on the 850 or 1900 GSM band
    And there ya go a quick toggle between 3G and GPRS.
    Leave a Comment

  4. Another idea:
    Once you create a shortcut you can also create a speed dial to the application: I made speed dial to the 9 key.
    After you have the shortcut in the start menu
    Select
    Start
    Scroll to the adminsettings shortcut (or whatever you have renamed it to)
    select the menu button.->add speed dial
    select 9 or what ever speed dial you want to add
    and now you have a one click access to turnning 3G on and off.

  5. Some users will find a real problem with the extended life battery. It makes the phone just thick enough that when in the ATT slide on leather case, buttons constantly are held down. It turns out, even with the keypad locked, this consumes power. For me, with light usage, the difference in battery life is 2 days (in the case) vs. 14 days (not in the case), both with the extended battery. My battery life with the standard battery, in the case, is around 10 days.
    It’s hard to say if the root problem is with the extended battery, the keypad controller in the BJ (or perhaps the keypad device driver), or the leather case. It’s the interaction of all three that seriously degrades battery life.

Comments are closed.