Phone and PDA Thread

I have an LG Venus slide phone.
It sucks. Lately the battery has been crapping out sooner that it should.. pretty chince if you ask me!

The BLAY wrote:

I have an LG Venus slide phone.
It sucks. Lately the battery has been crapping out sooner that it should.. pretty chince if you ask me!

Well, VZW hasn't sold that model for about 2 yrs so the first question I would have is how old the phone & battery are. Any rechargeable battery wears down after so many cycles or charges. Also charging your phone all night every night will cause the battery to not take a full charge and it will swell up causing a poor connection to the phone over time.

well that would make sense.. i leave it plugged in all the time.. any remedy for that?
I got the phone about a year and a half ago at most. It was a replacement phone (that I had to buy) b/c the charging port on my old phone broke

The BLAY wrote:

well that would make sense.. i leave it plugged in all the time.. any remedy for that?
I got the phone about a year and a half ago at most. It was a replacement phone (that I had to buy) b/c the charging port on my old phone broke

It might be possible to bring it back a bit. What you need to do is let it completely discharge for 2 wks. No more charging all night and leave it on until it shuts down. If the battery life doesn't improve then you need to get a new battery or upgrade your phone. Generally, if you're eligible to upgrade a new phone is cheaper than a new battery since batteries run $30 - $50 and an upgrade might be free.

Of course that's in American dollars. I'm not sure what it would be in Canaderian drachmas or geese or syrup; whatever you use up there.

U.S. uses bucks; Canada uses pucks.

I have a cell phone, but I rarely have need to use it. Therefore, I sought out the cheapest service I could. TracFone.

Got the nicest one they carry - LG 600g. Flip, camera (which I have no real use for), bluetooth that will actually interact with my computer (this is a rarity with TracFones, but again - I don't have much use for it), external caller ID (also a rarity on TracFone flips). Overall, nice.

Then it fell. Like two or three feet. Now the screen's cracked, pixels are slowly getting swallowed up in the void, & it doesn't hold a charge worth a damn. I used to work for a cell company (Powertel) so I know all about batteries. What a shitty phone.

I'll probably buy another tho. That external caller ID is an absolute must.

Oh & if anyone ever wants to text me, it's 404.825.5322. If TracFone ever puts out a phone with a texting keypad, I'll be all over it.

I have the Brigade from Casio, which I dub my New Earth phone. It's MIL-STD-810F-certified to withstand water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, salt, fog, humidity, solar radiation, high altitude, and extreme temperatures. Yes it's limited compared to the DROID and iPhone types, but it'll survive a war!

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[quote="NightRat"]I have the Brigade from Casio, which I dub my New Earth phone. It's MIL-STD-810F-certified to withstand water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, salt, fog, humidity, solar radiation, high altitude, and extreme temperatures. Yes it's limited compared to the DROID and iPhone types, but it'll survive a war!


Yes the Brigade is more limited than the Droid but you might be surprised at how much it can do. It has a good camera that also takes video; it can access the web and email; it has a compass, flashlight and more phone-specific apps/features; most importantly, it has the life of a cockroach. You can stomp it, dip it, throw it & probably detonate a nuclear device next to it then pick it up and make a call or send a text message on it's qwerty keyboard.

This is the first phone I show all my contractors and it usually ends up being the one they take home.

im upgrading to this:

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i am a cheap skate i got mine free from verizon its LG somthing or another or envy 2 its got a camera and a keyboard for texting thats all i ever need

[quote="GoblinQueen"]

NightRat wrote:

I have the Brigade from Casio, which I dub my New Earth phone. It's MIL-STD-810F-certified to withstand water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, salt, fog, humidity, solar radiation, high altitude, and extreme temperatures. Yes it's limited compared to the DROID and iPhone types, but it'll survive a war!


Yes the Brigade is more limited than the Droid but you might be surprised at how much it can do. It has a good camera that also takes video; it can access the web and email; it has a compass, flashlight and more phone-specific apps/features; most importantly, it has the life of a cockroach. You can stomp it, dip it, throw it & probably detonate a nuclear device next to it then pick it up and make a call or send a text message on it's qwerty keyboard.

This is the first phone I show all my contractors and it usually ends up being the one they take home.

Please, I LOVE the Brigade, just saying it's not for the iPhone types. I have played with all the features, with the exception of finding the compass. But in my area, only one out of 3 official Verizon stores/kiosks have a display one out. And it has to be ordered from Verizon directly and mailed to me.

[quote="NightRat"]

GoblinQueen wrote:

NightRat wrote:

I have the Brigade from Casio, which I dub my New Earth phone. It's MIL-STD-810F-certified to withstand water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, salt, fog, humidity, solar radiation, high altitude, and extreme temperatures. Yes it's limited compared to the DROID and iPhone types, but it'll survive a war!


Yes the Brigade is more limited than the Droid but you might be surprised at how much it can do. It has a good camera that also takes video; it can access the web and email; it has a compass, flashlight and more phone-specific apps/features; most importantly, it has the life of a cockroach. You can stomp it, dip it, throw it & probably detonate a nuclear device next to it then pick it up and make a call or send a text message on it's qwerty keyboard.

This is the first phone I show all my contractors and it usually ends up being the one they take home.

Please, I LOVE the Brigade, just saying it's not for the iPhone types. I have played with all the features, with the exception of finding the compass. But in my area, only one out of 3 official Verizon stores/kiosks have a display one out. And it has to be ordered from Verizon directly and mailed to me.

thats the phone i need really but i am a cheap ass so i can buy more toys!!!

That Brigade is sweet. I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat if TracFone would service it.

Iphone for me. I love the damn satan machine. Internet anywhere you go. Haven't had any problems here in Texas with coverage.

Down side? My wife saw how much I liked it and now guess what? That's right, I'm now paying for two. It has to be wrong to pay so much for phone service.

I have an Envy2 cause my wife made me. I call cellphones "husband minders".

I've got a Boulder. It's military grade, so you can kick it around in the dirt, wash it off in the sink and make a call on it. I got it because I'm hell on cell phones and I love it.

I have the Droid. Absolutely love the phone. LOL, lately with my computer issues its been my one link to the internet. I have a few small gripes about it, but on the whole, it's probably the best phone I have ever had. Totally MURDERS the Blackberry Storm. Had one of those, and it would take me about 3 years to tell you all the problems I've had.

Droid has been good to me. I like the Google platform, and will probably stick with it.

thatjimboguy wrote:

I've got a Boulder. It's military grade, so you can kick it around in the dirt, wash it off in the sink and make a call on it. I got it because I'm hell on cell phones and I love it.

LOVE Casio phones!

Rob0213 wrote:

I have the Droid. Absolutely love the phone. LOL, lately with my computer issues its been my one link to the internet. I have a few small gripes about it, but on the whole, it's probably the best phone I have ever had. Totally MURDERS the Blackberry Storm. Had one of those, and it would take me about 3 years to tell you all the problems I've had.

Droid has been good to me. I like the Google platform, and will probably stick with it.

Since I work all the time (not to mention the insane time that Blue is on the computer), how do you think I post to the forums? I love the browser on my Droid. Thinking about getting the Incredible but I don't really need it.

My cousin has the Incredible and he worships the ground it walks on. It's actually kind of funny to watch the way he acts when he talks about his phone.

I'd love the droid (had one for two days) if I wasn't afraid of touch phones...and me breaking them.

I hear that. That's why I have a Boulder. It's a flip phone and damn near unbreakable.

Blay raised a question early in the forum about his battery. How to keep your battery life good is something that everyone has a different opinion on, even reps working for the same company. Since I have been working with cell phones for 10 yrs and I have never had a battery problem, I figured I would pass on what I do with my phones.


1. When you get a new phone, the battery has a partial charge on it from testing at the factory. Run it ALL the way down until the phone dies, then charge it to capacity (2-4 hours). Do this for 2 weeks. Then to maintain this, just run it until it's dead once a month. Even with the lithium ion batteries that come with cell phones now, battery memory is still an issue so....

2. Try to only charge your phone when NEEDED. Don't take it off the charger, use it for the day then plug it back in when you get home. This will lead to the above mentioned battery memory, where the battery 'thinks' that a capacity charge is only a couple of hours. On today's phones, typical stand-by time (time the phone is on but not being used) is up to 72 hours. Most phones make background connections that are transparent to the user to check for software and application updates and this is where your battery gets used plus the slimmer the phone the faster the battery will run out. The days of getting 2 weeks out of one charge are pretty much gone and probably won't be back.

3. Charging overnight - DON'T DO IT! When you plug your phone in it charges until you unplug it from the wall. Seems like a simple concept, right? The problem is that your phone does not stop charging when the battery is full, it keeps channelling power into the battery. This will cause your battery to swell so that the contacts are not meeting the phone properly as well as being a safety issue since eventually the casing will crack and the battery will leak. I have never seen a manufacturers warranty that covers a swollen battery but they are replaced by providers in some cases. Full charge is somewhere between 2 and 4 hours, depending on make and model. If you do charge overnight occasionally, it shouldn't be a problem but all the time is a definite no-no.

4. It doesn't matter if you charge your phone with it turned on or off. It may take a few minutes longer to get full charge (5-15 mins) but it isn't that big a deal. Just throwing that one out there because some people are pretty emphatic that phones MUST be turned off the get a full charge. Not really but I try not to argue with the lunatic fringe that wander into my store during the full moon.

GoblinQueen wrote:

3. Charging overnight - DON'T DO IT! When you plug your phone in it charges until you unplug it from the wall. Seems like a simple concept, right? The problem is that your phone does not stop charging when the battery is full, it keeps channelling power into the battery. This will cause your battery to swell so that the contacts are not meeting the phone properly as well as being a safety issue since eventually the casing will crack and the battery will leak. I have never seen a manufacturers warranty that covers a swollen battery but they are replaced by providers in some cases. Full charge is somewhere between 2 and 4 hours, depending on make and model. If you do charge overnight occasionally, it shouldn't be a problem but all the time is a definite no-no.

Oops...so the past 3+ years of overnight charging is bad? Now I know. Thanks!