Cricket Phones & Poor Battery Life: Help

D

Dina Forever

New member
Hello forum...I have some growing concerns about poor battery life of Cricket branded phones and them not being charged while on them.

I've owned 2 Cricket phones now since becoming a customer over 2 years ago. I also just turned on a relative to the Cricket service about 2 weeks ago. I love my Cricket service, but this phone situation must change.

My first phone with Cricket was a Kyocera Slider, brand new. It required daily charging, as my battery became low on a daily basis with usage. Also, it would not charge while I talked on the phone. When the battery died, the phone shut off never to come on again until it had enough charge to. This makes no sense. Sadly, I once found myself in a situation where my battery died during a robbery where I was a witness only after 1.5 hours of talking on the phone prior to the robbery.

I never had these phone problems using GSM phones prior to Cricket.

The Slider failed unexpectedly within that first year, could not be repaired and therefore I got a refurb Motorola E310c from the Cricket store. I am still using this phone and it too requires daily charging.

Yet again, I can talk about 2 hours, along with texting in between, before the battery dies completely and shuts the phone down. Now I have to carry 2 batteries just to use my phone longer during the day (approx 4-6 consistent hours a day). The E310c is not MMS or Web capable, and thus, I don't use those services. I never used those services on the Slider either.

All I have ever done on my Cricket phones are: talk and text. I talk over 5000 minutes per month and text daily, all during the day and eve. My phone is generally not in use, but on and idle, from 2am - 9am each morning.

Now that my relative has started Cricket, she too experiences the same poor battery life on her UT Starcom where her battery must be charged, daily, and dies daily. Her phone too will not charge while speaking on it. This is now 3 different phones on the same carrier with terrible battery life, no charging available while on the phone and daily dying batteries.

Is this common? It cannot be a phone issue because this is now 3 different phones, unless this is how CDMA phones are designed to work?

Can someone please educate me on what's happening here and how to immediately fix it? Are there other phones that we should be using, whether Cricket-branded or unlocked from Verizon, Sprint, Allel to stop these issues?

Thanks in advance for your help.

LL
 
Actually its probably the hanRABets more than anything.

I charge every phone I own nightly. I am still at almost completely dead every night. I've owned tons of phones, GSM and CDMA and they all do it. If you don't have to charge your phone every night, consider yourself lucky.

Look at cell phones on phonescoop and gsmarena. Most have talktimes of 200 minutes or less. Thats 3 hours of talk time.
 
Isriam, thanks for your feedback! :)

I actually use & share GSM and UMTS phones daily at my workplace with coworkers. They can be charged while using them and they do not die daily with all of the abuse we give them with browsing the Web, sending multiple SMS, MMS and with making phone calls. We use Blackberries, LGs, Nokias, Samsungs, all GSM or UMTS.

Therefore, I have to disagree that this is normal for GSM phones and that it's still unacceptable for CDMA phones.

I'm searching online now to see if it's because we're using "cheap" CDMA phones that we lose longer batt life and the ability to charge while using the phone.

LL
 
What phones do you use? A lot of it has to do with the phone, and the capabilities.

The only phone I've used in the past 2 years that held a charge longer than a day with lots of usage was a Nokia 6230.

My 8525, HTC Titan, Wizard, BB 8700, all required charging daily.

As for charging while talking or texting, that is a phone problem. I spend many many hours on my phone every day (100-300+ Minutes) and keep my phone on the charger the whole time.

My problem is with bluetooth heaRABets not lasting longer than 2 hours :)

It has always been my experience that older phones (TDMA) get lots longer battery life because of no color screens, larger phones and batteries.

Try using a Nokia N95 or N73 and see how long they last. N95 lasts about 3 hours :)

BTW UMTS is a huge power drain also, most people run GSM only unless they are browsing the web. Its been my experience with PPC-6700, PPC-6800, LG ENV, LG Chocolate, Nokia 6265i and other CDMA phones that they last exactly the same amount of time as my GSM 8525, Wizard, 6230, 8700, 8820, and CU320.
 
Ok, cool...

We use the Motorola E310c and UT Starcom 7025.

You know, you've said the key word here - NOKIA! I want a Nokia 6265i for Cricket and became really frustrated that they ceased selling it without me getting one.

I just know that I'd really desire a great working Nokia for my Cricket service for ultimate satisfaction but that battery situation has to be better.

I will check into a couple of the models you mentioned. And you're right about using data on a UMTS device, that does drain the batt more than using data on a GSM device.

LL
 
I use verizon phones flashed to Cricket. My chococalet 2 vx8550 worked really well and the battery lasted awhile. My enV is decent, but like I said honestly I haven't had a phone in 4 years that I didn't charge every night or while I was on it.

Check out ebay, you can get a program to flash a 6265i from US Cellular or Telus to cricket :)
 
It can depend on the area also maybe? i know my CDMA phones that i have some that i dont hardly use at all i have to charge them Daily and im lucky if i go one day with out charging, my Nokia GSM phone i go almost a week with out charging it, and thats with talking and WAPing on it etc. im going to start looking at this more in detail and see what i get starting on monday.

however i think GSM has alwasy been better then CDMA on battery life, and yes Nokia N95 OMFG! i think i was lucky if i even made it to night time on that thing, it would kill the batter like nothing. >_> that damn phone neeRAB a Nuclear battery or something geezee
 
You could be running in to a couple things. If you spend a majority of your day in marginal coverage with a CDMA phone, your battery life will be shorter.

CDMA is elegant in that it attempts to use the least amount of power possible. When your phone is idle, it falls asleep and only pays attention to the network on its slot cycle index. When its slot cycle index comes up, your phone will then listen to the network and see if it is receiving a phone call or any other messages, then it goes back to sleep.

If you're in marginal coverage, your phone will spend more radio power, attempting to talk with the nearest base station.

If you're in REALLY poor phone coverage, your phone will have its radio powered up most of the time, either doing a short of long frequency scan, where it attempts to find the pilot channels and lock on to a network. Your phone will burn through its charge fairly quickly that way.

Cricket purchases its phones through the same channels as the other cell carriers. There's really no way to purchase "cheaper quality" phones. A VZW RAZR will be the same as a Cricket RAZR, will be the same as an Alltel RAZR, assuming they're the same Motorola part.
 
with regarRAB to charging while the phone is in use: some phones will not charge will the phone is in use when using an aftermarket (read as: cheap piece of junk) charger. These are the ones you sometimes get for free or for like $5-$15. I'm pretty sure this applies to all Kyocera's. They will continue to charge while using the phone if you use an OEM charger. (these are typically about $25-$30 and are made by the same manufacture as the phone)
 
You probabaly improperly charged your battery the first time anyhow... Its not just cricket phones its user error...

When you buy a new phone you should fully charge then disarge the battery with normal use till the phone dies and keep doing this way... newer batteris remeber the first charge.. If you bought your phone and got in the car started charging it took it off the charger you killed your battery basically.. Read up on Batteries and how to maintine good charge on them...
 
Some say it is, some say it isn't.

I've never "conditioned" a new LI battery and they usually last longer than the spec's state.

Conditionining means fully charge, fully discharge, fully charge, fully discharge and then you are pretty much done, use the battery how you wish.
 
ive never had a problem with the GF's cricket branded rzr but my Kyocera its battery indicator is oddball, one minute i have no battery another its half a battery. then it shuts off, no beeps no warnings and its all sporatic.

I've pretty much chalked it up to being a cheap phone.
 
Most Kyocera's from cricket are crap. Then again most phones from them are because they are all mostly refurbs and rebranded from some other company. Thats why new flashed phones are better. Then again my battery life always sucks because im always on my phone.
 
cricket sells only new phones most of the time. the rare refurbished phone is usually associated with a special promotion and they are available only for a limited time.
 
Thats bogus, because I discharge my phone pretty often, even leaving them idle for 4-5 months at a time without a charge and they still work fine :)

I didn't say batteries needed a conditioning period, I'm just saying some people say they do, some people say they don't.
 
I think we should take it as they come, i just alwasy tell ppl to kill there battery then do full recharges and discharges. anyhow i the the reason my Metro and Cricket phones dont last cause maybe i do use them, but at the most i only log about 1hr of calls a day, and i log more hrs on my ATT phone and i know that Mofo last forever bleh who knows anymore.
 
I'm learning from everyone's insight and feedback, thanks!

Smick, I'm in the Greensboro, NC area, where Cricket says I have great coverage. I agree, as I can only remeraber once not having service during a brief, bad storm over a year ago. I don't experience dropped calls either.

I'm going to look into some other models that have better battery life.

LL
 
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