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SD cards and higher capacity battery for the U8150?

P

pogs

Newbie
Hello people,

We bought an IDEOS U8150 yesterday and we are just figuring out how to use it. Seems OK for novice smartphone users, but it only came with minimal user manual and we have a couple of questions.

Has anybody installed a higher capacity/longer lasting battery in their U8150? The battery that it was supplied with sure doesn't seem to last very long.

Also, it doesn't specify what type of microSD card to use. I see that there are a few types to consider, regular microSD, microSDHC, even a microSCHD, and there's a Class 4 or Class 6. What types are people using?

Thanks in advance

Cheers, Paul
 
** Are micro SD cards called different things based on their memory capacity? I think they may all be the same size. In any event, I am using 16GB micro SD cards in my Comet/U8150.
** I'm not aware of an extra capacity battery. I have bought some spare batteries, though, for not much money. I just swap them out. Also, I don't run Bluetooth or GPS or even wifi all the time to conserve energy.
** Finally, I don't think any phones these days come with very detailed manuals. The Internet has taken the place of that. You just have to read forums such as this one and do searches to answer questions.
** This is a very capable little phone. I prefer it to my Nexus One, mainly because it is smaller, lighter, and fits easily in a shirt pocket. I wouldn't use it to watch a video, but that's about it. For the price, it really is one of the best deals available.
 
Hey thanks for the reply, but I've been doing a lot of searching and reading more about microSD cards and they vary quite considerably with regard to speed classes and compatibility with devices like mobile phones. One place says that to use a microSDHC look for the logo on the unit to confirm compatibility, but I haven't seen it on the U8150.

Yeah I have followed the 8 things to do to conserve battery power (including turning of WiFi, bluetooth etc) and while it helped somewhat battery life is really short. I did see a 1500mAh battery (actually from a Nokia) that is supposed to fit, but that 's not a lot greater than the genuine battery.

A friend dropped by yesterday with a nice new Nokia (E63 Ithink it was) given to her through work that came with a complete user manual. We had a laugh over the useless bit of paper that came with the U8150.

I've spent a fair bit of time searching on the internet for more information about the U8150 and did find this forum and watched the video on power saving tips, so that was helpful...
 
Hey I actually got an email reply from the Huawei company with a good sized Word document to go with the U8150. Basically a Q&A sort of thing, but certainly a lot more info than came with the phone.

Unfortunately it doesn't answer the question of whether a microSDHC will work or not. I'm still trying to get an answer about that before I buy anything.

Also I did see a 3900mAh after market battery for the U8150 but it is kind of pricey.

The power saving tips have helped somewhat but I noticed that the local temp and weather is incorrect. I wonder what I need to turn back on to fix that...
 
@pogs
Hey yes it does support micro SDHC, I'm running a 8gig microSDHC class 6 and it is performing great. before i bought the 8gig i did have a microSD 1gig class 4 but that was quite slow especially on startup of the phone when trying to load apps of the SD card.
Hope this helps :)
 
NZMikey said:
@pogs
Hey yes it does support micro SDHC, I'm running a 8gig microSDHC class 6 and it is performing great. before i bought the 8gig i did have a microSD 1gig class 4 but that was quite slow especially on startup of the phone when trying to load apps of the SD card.
Hope this helps :)
Click to expand...

Hey Mikey many thanks for the reply. Yes indeed that is helpful info. That's the kind of response I was hoping for on here - a simple answer about microSD/microSDHC from somebody who has the U8150.

I've never had anything that required microSD at all so needed some basic info. I Googled microSD cards and read that basic microSD only went up to around 2gb, and microSDHC went beyond that.

So I suspected that the U8150 almost certainly does support microSDHC (even though there is no logo to indicate that). I sent another email to Huawei but they never replied at all this time.

Interesting what you say about the microSDHC speed classes. I was about to buy a 16gb class 4 yesterday, but might look for at least a class 6.

Battery life is a bit of a disappointment even with a bunch of stuff switched off. I just wish I didn't have to switch things off - seems silly to me.

Cheers, Paul
 
pogs said:
So I suspected that the U8150 almost certainly does support microSDHC (even though there is no logo to indicate that).
Click to expand...

Since the specs states that it supports up to 32 GB, and SD is only 2 GB, it stands to reason that it supports SDHC.
Secure Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

pogs said:
Interesting what you say about the microSDHC speed classes. I was about to buy a 16gb class 4 yesterday, but might look for at least a class 6.
Click to expand...

It depends what you want to use the card for. Class 4 is adequate, but faster can be better.
Secure Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

pogs said:
Battery life is a bit of a disappointment even with a bunch of stuff switched off. I just wish I didn't have to switch things off - seems silly to me.

Cheers, Paul
Click to expand...

How long does your last ? How long do you expect it to last ?

I find it to be adequate to get through the day, which is fairly typical for many smart phones.
 
Yes that's right, that's exactly what I was saying - that I looked up info on the internet (probably was wikipedia) about microSD cards and MicroSDHC cards and figured that the U8150 almost certainly required the microSDHC card.

Thing is, when I wrote and asked about it, Huawei told me to just use a standard microSD card but as I noted above, standard microSD cards only go to about 2Gb. I wrote back to Huawei but never got a reply.

Anyway NZMikey confirmed my suspicion that the U8150 does indeed take a microSDHC. A Class 4 would probably be fine for our needs, but if I find a Class 6 for the same price I would probably go for that.

The battery lasts as little as a couple of hours depending on use, but certainly the phone requires recharging every day. One of our other phones lasts at least 7 days between charges, the other about 4 or 5 days always on, but they aren't Smartphones, just standard mobiles with 750mAh batteries.

I suppose I'll get used to charging every day or several times a day as required, just seems to me that considering what the U8150 was designed to do, 1200mAh wasn't the most clever choice of battery for this phone.

I was interested in the Mugen Power 3900mAh Extended battery for Huawei, but people advised against it. Never did hear of anyone using one of those or anything other than the genuine 1200mAh HB4J1H by Huawei.

Cheers, Paul
 
Thanks for the link. I was looking at the same Adata 8Gb microSDHC Class 6 at Warehouse Stationary for $30.

So did you find 8Gb was enough for your needs? Or did you find that you loaded that up pretty quickly? Guess it depends whether you load up heaps of pictures or video or whatever...

Cheers,Paul
 
pogs said:
The battery lasts as little as a couple of hours depending on use, but certainly the phone requires recharging every day. One of our other phones lasts at least 7 days between charges, the other about 4 or 5 days always on, but they aren't Smartphones, just standard mobiles with 750mAh batteries.

I suppose I'll get used to charging every day or several times a day as required, just seems to me that considering what the U8150 was designed to do, 1200mAh wasn't the most clever choice of battery for this phone.

Cheers, Paul
Click to expand...

Agreed, the battery is rather underpowered.

This is one of my kids phones .... but I find he gets about 2 days of moderate usage between charges. BlueTooth and GPS off, wifi on, light web surfing, some game playing, and texting ... very little voice.

Also, unless you need the 3G speeds for data, turning 3G will greatly increase battery life.

I would also recommend setcpu to scale down the cpu when not in being used.

I am sure there plenty of threads about power savings, but those are the highlights of what I have found makes the phone usable.
 
thel8elvis said:
Agreed, the battery is rather underpowered.

Also, unless you need the 3G speeds for data, turning 3G will greatly increase battery life.

I would also recommend setcpu to scale down the cpu when not in being used.

I am sure there plenty of threads about power savings, but those are the highlights of what I have found makes the phone usable.
Click to expand...

Yeah I read various threads and tips about how to reduce power consumption/increase battery life. Made all the suggested changes (the basic 8 items) turning screen brightness right down and turning off a number of things off including WiFi and 3G etc (seems silly to have to do so but whatever).

I hadn't heard of changing the "setcpu" setting - thanks, I'll try that (assuming I can find it).

Cheers, Paul
 
There's a program called CPU Master Free (there's a paid-for version but free works just fine). It changes the processor speed according to demand and I find that I can get as many as three days between charges. In addition, it increases CPU speed (overclocks) from 528 to 600 Mhz. In order to install it you need to root the phone which voids the warranty. To root, I used Z4root.

Be sure to select 'set on boot' in CPU Master (and scaling 'ondemand' which varies processor power according to its needs).

You're still better off charging every night, but at least it should now last the day.
 
Thanks for the info about setting the CPU. I'll have to think whether I want to mess with "rooting" the phone and voiding the warranty. I reckon for now I'll just get used to charging at least once a day.
 
pogs said:
Thanks for the info about setting the CPU. I'll have to think whether I want to mess with "rooting" the phone and voiding the warranty. I reckon for now I'll just get used to charging at least once a day.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a shame. Scaling of CPU frequency according to usage like this should be a default part of Android. I think, though I'm not sure, that it may be possible to unroot and remove all traces of having rooted it - but that wouldn't possible if you couldn't switch it on, for example.
 
Hi, I recently purchased a Ideos U8150 and noted that users were complaining about small battery and life/daily charging. I Googled and found Battery Bay (batterybay.net) and purchased a 3300ma battery which came with a new black cover and total cost less than $26.00NZ. Delivery was from Singapore even though the Coy was in the USA.
I purchased a 4Gb Micro SDHC card from Silicon Systems Ltd. Petone. This card was Class2. Class 2 & 4 = Standard. Class 6 = Premium and Class 10 = Ultimate. You pay heaps for the Class 10. My 4 GB cost $16.67 NZ with USB adaptor to plug into PC.
It pays to Google and compare costs. Mine is working OK and battery life is huge 7/8 days.
My only problem is that the phone doesn't show my number. Cheers.:D
 
Hi there "nu2andy",

Thanks for that post. Yeah I always Google stuff and sually find what I'm looking for but I didn't see the 3300mAh battery on batterybay.net. That's a better deal than the Mugen Power 3900mAh battery.

Maybe I'll order one of those if it really lasts 7-8 days. That would be great.

Could you tell me though - I get the impression that a larger capacity battery is thicker so the cover is supplied with it. How thick does that make your phone now? Can you show me a picture of what it looks like with the new cover?

In the end I bought a Class4 8Gb microSD card from Warehouse Stationery. Guess it isn't really important anyway.

Did you see that there's a thread on here about the phone showing "unknown number"? There was one suggestion about fixing that but in fact it didn't work, so still haven't got that sorted.

Cheers, Paul
 
Gundam168 said:
Just curious, how's the charging time for those monster batteries?
Click to expand...

That's a good question, never thought to ask about that.

By the way, I re-visited the Mugen power website and saw a YouTube video on there showing them installing their rather fat battery and the new cover. Does make the previous nice and slim smartphone look somewhat fat and ugly. Maybe the batterybay item is somewhat slimmer.
 
I wrote to batterybay to ask for an image or 2 of their 3300mAh battery. They replied, and they did put up a generic photo. You can see that the battery does appear to be fatter but the replacement cover isn't shown in profile, so no telling how fat the phone would become. I reckon they don't want to show it because its rather fat and ugly. Oh well.
 
Hi Pogs, Sorry I'm late with a reply - Depth of phone is 13m/m with standard battery and 24m/m with 3300mah battery. Takes 150 minutes to charge from flat state.
Standard phone weighs 96 grams and the larger battery model 143 grams.
I see Huawei advise to keep phone on car charger to keep the smaller battery in good charge.
Yes, you are right about the phone number not being shown when you take the Telecom number over. I think that you would need to have access to the SIM card BIOS to install the number. I have transferred all my old contacts over - but it still won't show my number.:confused:
 
nu2andy said:
Hi Pogs, Sorry I'm late with a reply - Depth of phone is 13m/m with standard battery and 24m/m with 3300mah battery. Takes 150 minutes to charge from flat state.
Standard phone weighs 96 grams and the larger battery model 143 grams.
I see Huawei advise to keep phone on car charger to keep the smaller battery in good charge.
Yes, you are right about the phone number not being shown when you take the Telecom number over. I think that you would need to have access to the SIM card BIOS to install the number. I have transferred all my old contacts over - but it still won't show my number.:confused:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I just happened to check the forum this morning and saw your reply.

The increased battery life would be awesome, but I really like the original slim design of the U8150 and think I would probably be unhappy with the increased thickness due to the 3300mAh battery.

Strange about the phone number not shown isn't it? Oh well.

Cheers, Paul
 
pogs said:
Hey thanks for the reply, but I've been doing a lot of searching and reading more about microSD cards and they vary quite considerably with regard to speed classes and compatibility with devices like mobile phones. One place says that to use a microSDHC look for the logo on the unit to confirm compatibility, but I haven't seen it on the U8150.

Yeah I have followed the 8 things to do to conserve battery power (including turning of WiFi, bluetooth etc) and while it helped somewhat battery life is really short. I did see a 1500mAh battery (actually from a Nokia) that is supposed to fit, but that 's not a lot greater than the genuine battery.

A friend dropped by yesterday with a nice new Nokia (E63 Ithink it was) given to her through work that came with a complete user manual. We had a laugh over the useless bit of paper that came with the U8150.

I've spent a fair bit of time searching on the internet for more information about the U8150 and did find this forum and watched the video on power saving tips, so that was helpful...
Click to expand...

i havew just signed up to ask thiis question,,which nokia battery is it that fits android u8150 set?
 
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