I recently had the opportunity to extensively test the Lion 2800 mAh battery for the HTC Apache series of PDAphones. I have access to Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel devices and decided to run some side-by-side tests with the original batteries and the 2800mAh batteries in equally configured units.

First, the 2800mAh battery is larger, and requires a new battery cover in order to fit into the 6700. This may seem obvious, but to the casual user it may not be. It will add almost 1/4" of thickness to the 6700 and this can be a problem if you are using a tight case. More on that later...

Second, the 2800mAh battery charges quickly, and fits into the cradle second slot (for those users with a cradle.) It is well advised to charge the battery in the cradle using AC power fully before using it in the 6700, since it may be hard to gauge the length of time it will keep a charge the very first time that it is used. The battery can also be charged later by using either AC power or the mini-USB cable with your PC while in the 6700.

The specs on the 2800mAh battery from Lion Battery are as follows:

360-400 Mins Talk Time (tested w/talk and data and mix of both)
400+ Hours Standby Time (tested)

The specs on the original 1350mAh battery are:

150-280 Mins Talk time
200+ Hours standby Time

The original battery is seemingly lacking for most users.

One of the main reasons is that the 6700 is a power device - used for web and data sessions - and data sessions also drain battery power from the overall talk and standby times. Most users fail to account for this in their day-to-day use and accounting of battery life.

Testing

The test units started with minimal software and the test lab checked total times for standby. Each battery exceeded the posted standby times, and the 2800mAh Lion battery lasted almost 250% longer than the standard battery. In fact, it went almost 500 hours on standby before the unit shut off. That is close to three weeks!

Once we installed some software that frequently checked the web for updates (WeatherPanel) on both devices, and started making calls, we tested the battery life as it would be for a normal power user. Once again, the Lion 2800mAh battery proved itself with more than twice the battery life per charge than the standard battery. In testing, we found the standard battery lasted less than 200 minutes (averaged) per full charge during data sessions (both WiFi and EVDO sessions were tested) and the 2800mAh Lion battery lasted just over 400 minutes (405 average) for a 6.75 hour battery life.

Talk time varied widely depending on the signal strength. With a strong signal, the batteries were very effective in extending battery life, but during drive-around testing it became obvious that the Lion 2800mAh battery was much better for handling the higher power requirements of low signal strength areas.

We did not have any problems charging the 2800mAh battery. There were no faults or situations where the battery did not charge fully.

Concerns

No battery review would be complete without the identifying the concerns. In the case of the 2800mAh Lion battery, the side effects could be pretty trying on many users. The biggest problem identified was the added thickness. When using the included belt case, the buttons on the device were much more prone to being inadvertantly depressed and powering the unit on or even making inadvertant calls. This happened several times during testing, and the only logical "fix" is to invest in an appropriate case for the 6700 with an extended battery, which may not be in the budget.

Some minor concerns are the added weight and the feel with the extended battery cover. These concerns are marginal and do not affect performance in any way.

Conclusion

We found that the normal charge cycle was around daily for very heavy data/voice users to up to every 3 days for typical voice/data users.

Overall, the 2800mAh battery effectively doubles useful battery capacity, and it does it at an affordable price and comes from a reputable dealer. At $63.95 (retail) the 2800mAh Lion Battery is an even better deal than the $69.95 1700mAh Extended battery that UT Starcomm sells repackaged for cellular vendors. It comes from a battery provider with a long history of quality products, which in this day of exploding laptop batteries (think Dell!) is something to think about. They provide fast shipping and frequent the online forums looking for comments and feedback.

Pros

- Over twice the effective battery charge then the standard battery
- Complete kit has both black and silver battery doors for all models of the 6700
- Charges using standard cradle

Cons

- Added thickness
- Added weight
- May be difficult to use with standard case (inadvertant button pressing)

Score

9 out of 10
Well worth the investment!