HTC Says Customers Prefer Thin Phones Over Longer Battery Life, Do You Agree?

At a private event for the press in Seattle, HTC Vice President of Product Strategy Bjorn Kilburn indicated that the company had conducted research last year to decide if customers preferred thinner phones over thicker phones with better battery life.

HTC’s comments are opposite of Motorola who went the opposite route with the introduction of the DROID RAZR MAXX, with it’s “thicker” case resulting in close to 21 hour battery run time. Considering that HTC has set the One (both One X and One S) line up for the company’s future and with both devices being under 9 millimeters thick, it would seem that HTC doesn’t have any intention of building battery-heavy models in the near future.

All that said, Kilburn notes that battery life is still important, but improvements in battery life are being focused elsewhere: new battery technology and better power management in software, for instance.

What do you think? Slightly thicker devices for battery life or thinner and sleeker?

The Verge

Tags: battery life, HTC

Tom Farrell 5 pts

I have a nice thin phone that's pleasant to carry, hold, and use, I charge it every night, and if I don't also plug it in in the afternoon, the battery will die while I'm on the bus home from work. You can bet that next time I buy a phone I'll be looking at battery life.

A couple I'm friends with will not buy a phone if it doesn't have user-replaceable battery, and the first thing they do when they get it is buy spare batteries and an external charger because for professional reasons neither of them can permit their phone battery to die during the day, so they have to be able to swap it, and they simply *expect* the battery will die. So, battery is their #1 concern, above and beyond any other feature of the phone. I'm sure there are plenty of people like that.

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LainEthanMacauley 6 pts

This is the dumbest thing HTC has ever said.

hamids9898 7 pts

I do not care as long as the thickness of the charge enough, my sony 8x and not thick and thin times in 2 days of charge http://hamidshaikh.com

T1RotfDotm 5 pts

I'm sorry but that's bull. What is the difference if having a few extra centimeters to have a better battery? That's stupid. I like the feel of a heavier high quality device. At least it doesn't feel like a thin, fragile, plastic, cheaply produced device. HTC used to be great at making high quality unibody devices. But the one series feels cheap to me. I want to be able to actually use my phone with out it dying because my friend decided to play angry birds for five minutes.

Matlock 12 pts

I love HTC, but the weak point, of all their phones, has always been the low Mah batts that they put in them. The only HTC device I have owned, so far, is the HTC Radar 4g. I would sacrifice some thinness for a bigger battery. HTC not only needs to up their battery game, but they also need to streamline Sense. Hopefully Sense 4.0 will be a huge leap forward, because Sense 3.0 and 3.5 were huge battery hogs. Im currently using an unlocked GNexus on Tmo, with the Samsung extended batt, and I sacrificed the thinness of my phone, for the extra batt life.

jpb 14 pts

Um, no. I would not agree.

Wait, on second thought.......um, no, still no.

Better battery life. HTC, you may have just ruled yourself out for my next phone and I'm a huge fan of my still Incredible Incredible!

NickMacias 6 pts

I went from HTC to Motorola because of battery life. My Maxx is thinner than my Evo....

EnricoHobbs 6 pts

Htc think customers r dummies next generation htc ones will have a bigger batt or removeable batt. so u will want it same trick motorola played with razor then a maxx appeared but it will have tegra 3 quad core USA version dummies.

aelfwyne 9 pts

No, I completely disagree.

The problem is, consumers have not been given a choice.

Thick phones have been treated as budget/cheapie gadgets from day one. That is, if you get a thick phone, it's likely to be made out of cheap plastic, have a subpar screen and lack a lot of features. They have reserved the higher build quality and better features for their thinnest phones. Thus, people buy the thin phones, not just because they are thin, but because they are the best phone in every other way.

Give consumers a phone with a huge battery, but still top notch build quality (not mid-range but THE BEST), top notch processor/memory (not mid-range but THE BEST), and top-notch display (you get the idea), and people WILL buy it.

So far, such a beast dos not exist outside of maybe the RAZR MAXX.

amdestined 22 pts

This is why HTC is failing. $100 the next galaxy has at least a 2500mha battery. Samsuck gets it... the best screens, the best design and hopefully now the best battery and materials. They may just not suck anymore

operationnightfall 6 pts

@amdestined I agree Lmao,Yeah well people also prefer stock Android but I don't see HTC doing anything about that.It's like HTC has gone schizophrenic and I'm over buying anymore of their devices until they get it together.They completely butcher Android 4.0 and I'm not even sure they know what direction they want go in anymore.......HTC your lost and if you don't figure it out quickly you'll find yourselves with even less consumer's of your products.You need to try and remember what put you on the map in the first place!!!

mrwayneprice 5 pts

My TMO GS2 .. not stock Rooted , SU, and running Darkside's Digital Warefare 2.5.1.. basically it's modded 2.3.6 android .. but faster and the battery life depending ..can go from 20 to 36 hours with moderate use.... my longest using it mild was 46 hrs.. i'm assuming with heavy use would still last the whole day.. i have had no issues .. actually less than stock t-mobile... and yes all services of the phone work.. wi-fi calling etc etc.. plus the radio is modded faster.. use to average 6-8 meg now ave. 8-12meg .. some people report much higher.. just not where i live.. i could go on .. but i wont be switching to ICS unless it's proven it's performance... because my phone is like owning a Camero adding a supercharger but you still get 40 mpg LOL

xadamx1 5 pts

HTC needs to knock it off. There is no point in having a thin and sleek phone if I am unable to use it because the battery is dead all the time. I too have the Galaxy SII, while on light usage days it will get me through the day, if I have a lot of down time, I go on my phone to kill the time, this results in me having to carry around an extra fully charged battery almost everywhere I go. An annoyance considering companies like Motorola thought ahead and just made a phone with a larger battery so companies like Otter Box would make a case for it. But, if I were to buy an aftermarket battery for my current phone, a protective case would be nearly impossible to find, which is unfortunate.

TurboFool 10 pts

No, knock off this thinner, thinner, thinner crap already and give me a battery that lets me actually USE the phone I paid for for everything it can do. I have a Galaxy SII. It's wonderfully slim. Let's stop there. Start packing all that space you free up via smaller electronics with a bigger battery and let me not have to trade out my battery once a day.

Zappa

hell no! what good is a thin phone if you're unable to use it?

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