Customer Reviews

Seidio Innocell 3500 mAh Extended-Life Battery for HTC EVO 4G - Black

5 star:		(472)
4 star:		(88)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(52)

 

 

9/4/2011 UPDATE: I have had this battery for over a year now, and it is still going strong. It isn't quite as beastly as when I first got it, but I still can go a full day of hard usage and not kill it. Every once in a while, I get a runaway app that will start burning it down, but it's obvious when that happens, and I've been able to stop it. I still recommend this battery for everybody with an evo, and encourage you to send yours back if you have any problems. I absolutely love my phone, and it's because of this battery.

This battery is ridiculous! I took it off the charger 30 hours ago and it still has 70% of the battery (though that is with normal use - 4g off etc.)

My average wake-time in a day is 18 hours, so I wanted a battery that would be strong enough to take a beating and last all day. That was my main reason NOT to get an iphone (other than their terrible network.) I didn't want my music/internet/video games using the same battery my phone does. I've been stranded before with a dead battery and vowed never again would I have all those devices in one until they made a battery that could handle it. This thing does all that in spades.

Turn on 4g/gps/bluetooth/wifi, the flashlight, have pandora playing, and watch a movie at the same time FOR HOURS AND IT WON'T DIE...not that you would want to do that. I did while trying to drain the battery for conditioning before I learned that you don't need to "condition" these batteries. More on that later...

The battery does add some bulk and weight to the phone, but it feels good in my hands, especially when texting in landscape mode...like I'm holding a video game controller or something. Plus, as many people have stated, the camera lens is totally protected by the little shelf of the battery sticking out. Despite what another reviewer pointed out, the battery does not affect the pictures at all. If it does, you have a defective product and you should return it.

The evo 4g is a beast, and if you want to be able to treat it like one, you really need this battery.

Update: it's now been 48 hours and the battery is still holding at 40%. This has been with pretty moderate use (plenty of phone calls, texting, browsing, downloading, emailing, and gaming,) but with 4g, gps and bluetooth off. I have had wifi on the whole time though.

Somebody left a comment about these lithium batteries not needing to be drained all the way down (in fact, that's supposed to be bad for them) so I did some research and they were right. It's moot though, because it's not really possible to drain them all the way down. Also, as the instructions will tell you, LET THE BATTERY CHARGE FOR A FEW HOURS AFTER IT SAYS IT'S FULL. I put it on the charger with 10-20% left in it, and it charged to "green" in a few hours. So, if you're sleeping ~6 hours a night, this should do ya fine. I got some tips on battery care from the web. Amazon won't let me post the link, but if you're still not sure, just google lithium battery care or something like that.

Simple Guidelines

* Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.)

* Keep the lithium-ion battery cool. Avoid a hot car. For prolonged storage, keep the battery at a 40% charge level.

* Avoid purchasing spare lithium-ion batteries for later use. Observe manufacturing dates. Do not buy old stock, even if sold at clearance prices.

* If you have a spare lithium-ion battery, use one to the fullest and keep the other cool by placing it in the refrigerator. Do not freeze the battery. For best results, store the battery at 40% state-of-charge.

Finally my battery arrived. Because of the horrible standard battery life I was still skeptical on this one. The instructions say that the full potential of the battery will be after 5-6 full charges but I have charged it 1 full charge so far last night. Took the phone off the charger at 8am, it is not 8:30 pm and my battery is at 74%! I do about 500 texts a day, email, about 18 gigs of internet a month and this looks like finally will handle that. I have listened to Pandora radio for about 1 hour as well and have the screen bright and 4g on just to try and drain it so I can get it dead and charge it tonight. Looks like I wont be able to kill it for a few more hours. Maybe I'll leave Pandora running turn on wifi and gps and let it sit till it dies. Because of the shape of the back cover it is still pretty slim, actually feels better when holding to my ear to talk as well. Great product so far. Might even last two days after fully conditioned on heavy usage.

This is truly the extended battery we've all been waiting for.

Build quality on the battery door is superior to the original, and it's also a much better design. Tighter fit, great feel. Additionally, it also serves to keep the camera lens from touching the surface the phone is sitting on.

The battery itself is a beast. I've had it now for 3 days, and it easily goes 100% over the stock battery. Last night, I was trying to run the battery down to wipe stats and calibrate it (Custom ROM, etc), and I couldn't get it to die. :P

IMO, I believe you could easily be looking @ 36-48 hours of heavy usage on this one before it finally needs a recharge.

Highly recommended.

To start off, this battery was great while it worked. Battery life was definitely extended to about a 48 hours with a pretty good amount of use, Wi-Fi activated, GPS on, full screen brightness and all the works.

I bought the battery about a month and a half ago after reading how quickly the stock battery lasted and after experiencing it first hand. The battery worked absolutely perfect for approximately a month, charging it every other night. So, basically this thing lasted me 15 charges... terrible! What started to happen with my phone was random shut-offs and when this occurred I literally could not turn my phone on without jump starting it with the phone charger plugged in. At that point I could take it off the charged a few seconds later and it would remain on until it decided to power down again. So what happens when I'm driving to another city or in class all day? No phone access until I return home... I used the battery for about another week until the problem got out of hand where the phone would only stay on for 30 minutes until it would perform its little shutdown trick. Let me add that I would leave the phone on the charger for 3-4+ hours to make sure the battery was topped off before taking it off.

After thinking my phone was the issue (which surprised me because I have never dropped this phone and only babied it), and almost taking it in for service, I decided to return to the phones stock battery to see if there was a much more simple fix. Sure enough, once returning to HTCs battery, I have not had a single issue with my phone. No more random power-downs, no more being without a phone for half the day. I even went back to Seidios battery to see if it would work properly after some rest in its little box. It didn't.

Overall impression:
Seidios battery would have been a great product if it lasted a while longer then it did. If this had happened a year into its use, maybe I wouldn't of been so upset with this product. There is no excuse for a battery to malfunction one month into use. Don't waste your money on a product that will die this quick!

I wish I could give this product 5 stars, but not this time.

This is by far the best battery I have ever purchased. Evo owners you have to get this battery, the life of this thing is incredible. I use to get 4 to 5 hours max from my stock battery now I getting an entire day I would say from 7 am to at least 11pm before it gets to the last bar before it dies. This is with texting heavy internet usage and talking throughout the day. I cant describe to you how this battery has open up endless possibilities for this evo. I now can explore without fear of not having battery power later. Honestly this is a must buy for Htc Evo owners you will not regret it I assure you.

I thought I loved my Evo before I got this battery, I don't know what to call how I'm feeling now. This battery makes the Evo awesome. It's more than a phone for me. Now I can have live wallpaper, GPS, Wifi, autosync, etc all on and not even think about power. I even turned off the auto sleep feature since I don't have to worry about losing juice anymore with this battery.

I go from 7:00 in the morning to well after 10:30 at night without a second thought. I watch news videos, send tons of text & email messages (using Google's new Voice Search features of course), access my project management software and my CRM, do just about everything I used to do on my laptop. Of course I'm not crazy I still need my laptop for "real" work, but when I'm just touching things up or checking in who needs to carry a laptop?

As for the increased battery size, at first I thought it would be a little bit awkward but it actually isn't that big and it adds a certain balance and stability to the phone. And you can still use the kick stand (can't imagine a phone without one anymore).

This battery makes the Evo truly an incredibly device. Even my wife, the owner of a 8 month old iPhone 3GS, likes the Evo.

I don't know why this wasn't offered as an option right off the bat but hey, I'm not in charge. If you want your Evo to live up to it's potential you need this battery.

I just got my 4g last week. In only a matter of days i realized the phone was wonderful but the battery kept me from all of It's wonders. If only i could find a battery that could actually last an entire day of use. To my surprise i found a battery that can not only do that, but last for days.

I have been monitoring my battery usage and i have not had to recharge my batteries for more than 24 hours. Overnight my phone did not even drop 1 percentage. This is unbelievable to me even coming from an iphone. The back panel does not get in the way and does not hinder the phone in anyway. As said by other commenters the back panel actually helps protect your lens. When i showed the phone to my friend today he actully commented that he enjoyed the back panel. He said that it looked like it fit the phone better and should have been there in the first place. He then literally used my phone to order 1 for himself because he is buying an evo 4g on monday.

The only other thing i could see a complaint about other than the back panel, would be the weight of the battery. I myself do not find the battery to cause too much of a weight difference. My girlfriend has even said that she does not think it makes a difference. So the only factor left that i could see would be the size in your pockets. Being male i wear pants with large pockets so it is not a problem. But females who may not be carrying a purse and want to keep the phone in their pocket may find it too bulky. But in general i think females would find this phone too bulky to keep in their pockets in the first place .

Several of my friends and family have this phone and i have told them all about this battery. It seems that they are all looking into buying one shortly. I cannot express enough how great this battery truly is. I have been in amazon shoppers for the past 2 years. This is the first time i have left a comment for any merchandise i have bought. I didn't even know how to post a comment until today. But this item improves my 4g experience so much, i wanted to make sure i help anyone who was on the fence.

As a tribute to the phone and the battery i wrote this entire message using my phone and speak to text.

UPDATE: 4 weeks later, I still love this battery enough to update this review. I have had no problems with it and I have used it on trips for business and a short trip for pleasure. Having the battery was great, I used the GPS feature several times as well as calling, pictures, videos, and the usuals. This battery normally has 40-50% life left when I put it on the charger at the end of the day. That is normally 15-17 hours of use with no charge during the day. I consider myself a heavy user (as do my friends and co-workers) so if you can kill this phone any faster than me you would have to be trying. And I promise, you would still have some juice left by the time you go to bed.

*Update* 5/1/2011

The battery still works fine, but I now use it only when on extended trips. HTC has pushed out quite a few updates that have improved battery life tremendously, so I now use the OEM battery for everyday use.

*Update*

I followed the manufacturer recommendations and charged this 6 times to get the maximum amount of battery life. After a few days of testing using Battery Monitor I found I could get 24+ hours with 4G/GPS/Highest brightness on and 38+ hours with 3G/GPS/Highest brightness on before reaching the 5% warning.

Original Review:

I had been waiting for this battery to be released by Seidio for such a long time. To be honest the battery life of the OEM battery was horrible and I could only get around 8 hours of solid use out of my phone before my "5% until empty" warning came up. Now that I have this battery, I don't even worry about running out of power! I can have 4G running at all times and still get double what the OEM battery got and with 4G off the phone will last for days! The battery itself adds minimal weight to the phone.

5/5 for the battery

The backing that the battery comes with has the same soft touch coating that the OEM backing has, and has "SEIDIO" imprinted on the back. It adds about 3MM of thickness and it actually doesn't make the phone seem much more bulkier. In fact, texting is easier now with the extended backing because I can wrap my index fingers around it and stabilize the phone much better. The flash LEDs are not covered at all, the camera lens sits perfectly center, and the holes for the sound are sufficient and don't degrade the quality of sound when I play music.

5/5 for the backing

To the person that said when taking a picture with flash it causes a washed out lower right in the picture, I tested this out in numerous conditions and never saw any washing out so you may have had your backing not on tight enough. Make sure that all the latches are snapped in around the case before you take pics.

All in all, the extra thickness is worth it! Don't waste your money on the 1750 mAh "extended" batteries, they suck! Just get this one and you won't have to worry about running out of juice during the day ever again!

Thanks for reading my review! Be sure to check out the customer images, I posted a handful of pics of the product!

I love this phone but I have spent the last few weeks managing the battery.. Reading the tips and tricks on how to conserve battery instead of finding ways to utilize this amazing phone to its full abilities. I was disabling the very features I bought this phone for. I had a charging station to plug this phone in all day long at my desk, in my car, 2 locations in my house and still there where times while sitting outside I would hesitate to take a picture as I was getting battery warnings after a few hours of "normal use" for me.

I have had the new Ext Battery for a few days and it is amazing. I watched 3-4 innings of A Twins game on my Sling box and the battery lost 10% that would have drained 50% of my old phone and I actually would not have attempted this without being plugged in.

This is exactly what I wanted.. I am turning all those features on that I disabled and after 8 hours it is still at 75%.. The first tip I would tell anyone that has an HTC EVO is buy this battery and forget the other 19 tips..

Purchased this battery less than a month ago. Worked awesome first couple of weeks. Now it drains really fast. must have a bad cell or something. Contacted Seidio direct. They want it sent in it takes up to 2 weeks to test before they determine what they want to do. I could understand that if it was 6 months or atleast a few months old. But less than A month!!!!! i have to wait about a month with shipping time to get a replacement. Horrible customer service. I would never treat my customers like that. I have told everyone I know about how great this battery was and even ordered one for a friend. My good comments about it stop now.