Why Is HTC Choosing Phone Thinness Over Battery Life?

Battery life is arguably the number one concern when it comes to choosing a smartphone — even the most feature-packed phones are useless if they’ve run out of power. So why does HTC value device thinness more than dell inspiron 6400 battery performance?
At Frequencies, a Seattle press event, HTC’s Bjorn Kilburn, vice president of portfolio strategy, stated that the company decided against making phones with high-capacity — and portly — 3000 mAh batteries in favor of making thinner devices.
The result is evidenced by the company’s HTC One S, the thinnest HTC phone yet. It measures in at 7.8 mm and sports a 1650 mAh battery. The upcoming One X features a slightly larger 1800 mAh battery, and is 8.9 mm thick. (For comparison, the iPhone is 9.3mm thick and has a 1432 mAh battery.)
According to Kilburn, HTC’s consumer research shows people prefer thin smartphones — between 8 mm and 10 mm thick — as opposed to thicker devices with longer Dell Latitude D430 AC Adapter battery life.
The HTC research would seem to contradict a recent J.D. Power and Associates study that revealed battery performance as one of the most important factors in overall smartphone satisfaction. Notably, users who are “highly satisfied” with their smartphone’s battery performance are more likely to purchase future phones from the same manufacturer than users who are “less satisfied.”

“We’ve seen that with 4G phones — thick or thin, [user satisfaction] really comes down to battery life,” Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates, told Wired. “It’s just going to get more critical as more functionality, which really sucks up battery life, comes to smartphones.”
Wired reached out to HTC for comment, but received no response by press time.
Another point of contention between J.D. Power and Associates’ and HTC’s research concerns phone thickness — specifically, the threshold at which a phone’s thickness becomes too thick, and user satisfaction drops. The cut-off point is 0.55 inches. Anything thicker peeves off consumers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates study. But 0.55 inches is nearly 14 mm — or 4 mm more than HTC’s preferred 10 mm maximum.
Granted, in the crowded Android smartphone space in which HTC mainly sells its wares, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to boldly differentiate one device from the other. So making the thinnest phone around is one way to appeal to consumers, especially because many people judge phones by looks first.
“When people are in the market for a new phone, the first thing they go for is appearance, including thinness and all of the soft attributes,” Parsons said. “But when it really comes down to it, and people start to use their phones on a daily basis, appearance goes away and functionality is more important.”
It seems unlikely — silly, even — that a few millimeters would offset the benefits of having a longer Dell Vostro 1400 battery life, so Parson’s explanation makes more sense. When you hold the HTC One S in your hand, it feels noticeably thinner than other smartphones, and that can certainly play in the device’s favor when people walk into a T-Mobile or Best Buy looking for a new phone.
But as Parsons notes, it’s not the best long-term strategy. If users are dissatisfied with battery life, they aren’t likely to purchase a phone from the same manufacturer again.
Regardless, it’s not like HTC doesn’t take battery performance seriously. “We spent a lot of time finding other ways [to maximize battery life] than the brute force approach,” Kilburn said, according to PC Magazine.
For example, HTC’s One X’s Super LCD 2 screen is more energy-efficient than AMOLED screens, and the company continues to work on better power management in its software. And compared to the majority of available smartphones, the latest HTC phones have average battery lives.
But average isn’t always good enough — that’s why there’s an entire market for battery packs that make our smartphones last longer, even with heavy use and forgotten charges. So far, Motorola’s Droid Razr Maxx most successfully marries battery for hp mini 1000 performance with device thinness. It has the longest smartphone battery life — lasting 21.5 hours of continuous talk time, according to the company — and is only 8.99mm thick.
“If you have to choose between the two, the majority of people would choose battery performance as opposed to a phone’s thinness,” Parsons states. “On a scale of what’s important, battery performance is much higher than thinness.”

katestwins 8 comments collapsed Collapse Expand

Once again, according to Wired, if it is not an Apple product, it must suck. However, right off the bat they state "

The upcoming One X features a slightly larger 1800 mAh battery, and is 8.9 mm thick. (For comparison, the iPhone is 9.3mm thick and has a 1432 mAh battery)" This clearly means that the HTC is both thinner and has a larger Toshiba pa3420u-1brs Battery that the Iphone. Then they say that it has a more energy efficient screen and better power management. So why are they being slammed for having a nice thin phone? Oh that's right because it does not say apple on it. It if did Wired would be bragging about how thin and fantastic it is.

Alec Winograd 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand

Despite the iPhone's smaller battery, it still gets way better battery life than any Android phone I've seen. Wired isn't really "bashing" HTC b/c of the battery's size--it's all about battery life. This is coming from the owner of a Captivate...

Publicaccess 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand

You are right. Put an Apple logo on it and Wired would have it on the front page as the best phone ever.  Unfortunately Wired has become so bias that anything not apple can't possibly be any good. So we end up with pathetic stories like this. Instead of highlighting new features and designs that end users would love, they make negative statements that aren't even accurate. But based on their own statements, it is clear that everyone in the world would prefer a One X with it's 1800 mAh Canon Digital Ixus 75 Battery of the IPhone's measly 1432 battery. Of course the reverse is also true, never believe anything Wired says about Apple products because you know they have been drinking the Kool-aid.

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___ ____ 2 comments collapsed Collapse Expand

 try to search "iphone" and "battery life" on wired...

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Full Metal Pizza 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand

Or, you can google "htc one s battery life" and find that while it's not the king of the hill it isn't the bottom of the barrel either. In any case if the Acer Aspire 5740 Battery life is a point when choosing a phone then you'll shop for the one with the best mix of features and battery life.

Asch Buca 3 comments collapsed Collapse Expand

... because they can?
This is a huge market. There are people out there who prefer thin phones and don't have as much of a need for a huge battery life. I got home from a full day of work today, and my phone was still above 80% battery. It would be great to trade in some of that extra battery life for a smaller phone.
There are demands for all sorts of devices. Thin ones, ones with extra long Apple Macbook Pro 15 Inch ma609j/A Battery life, ones with real keyboards, etc. Don't try to say "consumers prefer..." because consumers all want different things.

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symbolset 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand

Exactly.  This is "fragmentation" and it's a good thing.  They are not little boxes made of ticky tacky. Phones do not have to be all the same. 

nhfoley 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand

I agree completely.
And to add: a battery's mAh is a red herring when it comes to phone battery life, as HTC points out. My Motorola Atrix (a phone with a relatively large HP Compaq Business Notebook NC6400 Battery) had 10-14 hours of useful battery life with the software it was shipped with.  With a custom ROM (that is even more feature-rich) I'm getting easily twice that time.
Now to be clear, I'm not advocating that every consumer needs to hack their phone... obviously that isn't a valid solution. But it does clearly illustrate that battery life is much more dependent on an intelligent use of mAs and not just a total mAh pissing contest.
I'd gladly pay for sleek, minimal hardware and give it intelligent software, than hardware that has added bulk to make up for inadequacies in software.

illuminaut 4 comments collapsed Collapse Expand

"When people are in the market for a new phone, the first thing they go for is appearance, including thinness and all of the soft attributes,” Parsons said. “But when it really comes down to it, and people start to use their phones on a daily basis, appearance goes away and functionality is more important.”
^^^ Sums up the entire article.
Blame it on us stupid consumers. Smartphones have turned from an enthusiast's and business user's niche device into a mass commodity, so therefore form will trump function up to a point. Smartphone makers targeting soccer moms, teenagers, and first-time users will have much better success by focusing on pretty looks than spouting mAh numbers. There'll be one or two models geared towards enthusiasts, the rest is aimed at the masses. It's not like a phone with a 1650mAh would be useless. If all you're doing is checking your facebook wall a few times per day it's plenty.