Form VS Function

There is a growing trend these days in the smart phone world, that trend is Thin is In. 

But what does that mean for the function of our devices? Well not much in terms of performance, but I think it's making a huge difference, for the worse, in terms of battery life. 

Companies seem to be pushing thinness more and more. So much so, that it is one of the first things mentioned when a new phone is launched. *cough* iPhone 5 *cough*

But I think this needs to change. 

At the moment, there is no talk of some sort of revolutionary battery technology. So that means generally speaking, the bigger the better. Obviously other factors come into play, like the processor and the size/resolution of the screen. Large screens suck up battery. That's just how it is. Amoled screens can help though, in that, every black pixel is not colored black, it is simply turned off; meaning you get deeper blacks and save a small amount of battery. But it's not a noticeable amount. Higher screen resolution also means that there are more pixels that need to be powered. That means with something like the Oppo Find 5, it would need a much bigger battery than the 2500mAh it supposed to come with. 

Some companies, like Samsung and Motorola, are starting to include bigger batteries with their devices. The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 2500mAh battery and the Note 2 has a 3100mAh battery. The battery life reported from the Galaxy Note was very good, but the screen was not HD. The Note has a 720p screen, so they also bumped up the battery. Motorola included a 3300mAh battery with their Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD. Yes, that name is real. But the one thing that I commend Motorola for doing is that they've resolved to include nothing less than a 2000mAh battery in every new phone. I think that is a great move.

The processor is another big part of battery consumption. The higher the clock speed, the more power it will use. Surprisingly, quad-core devices use less power. Here's why: when you are doing something power intensive on a dual core phone, it revs up both cores to compensate; if you were to do the same thing on a quad-core device, it would rev up all 4 cores, but to a lower clock speed for each. Also, most quad-core processors include a 5th core for handling less intensive things like web browsing. 

Another factor that you have to consider is you data connection. LTE is a huge power hog, and 3/4 major US carriers have LTE. I am on T-mobile which does not have LTE, so I am not really effected by this, but I know others are.

With all these battery hungry factors, I'm starting to wonder why manufacturers are sacrificing battery life for thinness. I for one, wouldn't mind have a device that is a millimeter thicker, if it meant it would last all day with ease. I happen to be a fan of HTC devices, but I have to admit, they are the worst about batteries. My One S has a 4.3" QHD amoled display, a 1.5ghz dual-core processor, and a 1650mAh battery...ridiculous. 

Well you've heard my opinion, now I want to hear yours. Would you rather have the thinnest phone eva, or bigger batteries? Let the comments role!