Battery Up, Battery Down

If you're a regular visitor here, then you know that one of my favorite pastimes is monitoring smartphone battery usage. I've been battery obsessed since the days of my Treo 600 when my 3+ hour daily commute had me paranoid about running out of juice.
I honestly can't remember what my battery life was like on my Treo 600 and 650. I wasn't really what I'd call a 'power-user' back in those days. I do remember toting a charger when we'd take day trips, for what its worth.
Windows Mobile always had poor battery life with the apps I was running. No matter which device I had (except for the Ubiquio) availability of a spare battery was always a prerequisite. In fact, it was finally the poor battery life that drove me to the Bold.
Battery life on my Bold and now Onyx have been exceptional. I obsess over it simply because of my nature and not out of any necessity at all. And this Easter I learnt a very valuable lesson about the importance of having long battery life. You can always prepare by grabbing a charger or spare battery, but what happens when an unforeseen circumstance takes you out of your usual routine?
While browsing the PreCentral forums I found this intriguing thread which was all about tracking the battery life on the Palm Pre. The runtime results were abysmal! And the final kicker was the unfortunate owner who was experiencing over 16% drain rate per hour. It reminds me to be grateful for the battery life I enjoy on my Onyx everyday, and the spontaneity that it affords me

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