I have had numerous cellular phones over the last few years, as I am sure most people have, and while none have been especially brilliant, some have most definitely been crap. The most common problem I have ever had with my mobile phones has been with the cell battery. The cellular phone battery has either died or it just would not last long enough and I would need to buy and carry a replacement battery.
I generally use my cell phone heaps, both for my work and for private use, so having a second battery is often worth it but having to replace a faulty or damaged battery is a pain. My current phone is working well but I would like a replacement battery for when I am not in the office.
Cell Phone Battery
These are the details of my most current phone (yep, I know it is a bit obsolete, I really should buy a new cellular phone):
Motorola Slvr L7c (Sprint)
Positives:
The Motorola Slvr L7c has decent call quality and multimedia performance. It also has a nice list of features, including EV-DO capability, Bluetooth, and a speakerphone.
Negatives:
The Motorola Slvr L7c has a low-grade VGA camera and a low-resolution display. The memory card slot is in a poor location, and the phone’s EV-DO performance was a tad slow.
Facts:
The Motorola Slvr L7c for Sprint is a more powerful alternative to the GSM Slvr L7, but it comes with some minor design differences.
Note: This product is part of the Motorola Slvr series. .
Thought it has never garnered the enormous following of the Razr, the Motorola Slvr still has been a big player in the thin-phone phenomenon. Motorola has produced several models of the slim handset with varying design and features, but only one version thus far, the Slvr L7c, is CDMA. Now out for Sprint and expected soon for Verizon Wireless, the Slvr L7c bears a striking resemblance to its closest GSM cousin, the Motorola Slvr L7. Features are similar as well, but the L7c replaces support for mobile iTunes with compatibility for Sprint’s EV-DO network. At the time of this writing, Sprint’s Slvr L7c is available exclusively at Best Buy for a reasonable $39 with service. Otherwise, you’ll pay a whopping $329.
Design
Though Sprint was a little late to the Moto party, the carrier now offers almost all the models in the company’s skinny-phone lineup. As a reminder, the Slvr is the candy bar alternative to both the Razr V3m and the Krzr K1m. We prefer the latter in terms of overall looks, but if you’re into thin and you hate flip phones, the Slvr L7c is for you. It offers almost the same dimensions as the Slvr L7 (4.48 by 1.96 by 0.51 inches) except that its profile is just a hair wider. At 3.7 ounces, it’s also a tad heavier than the Slvr L7, but it still manages to be both lightweight and trim. It also has a more solid feel in the hand when compared with the Razr V3c, and the L7c’s all-black color is attractive.
Though the Slvr L7c looks very much like the Slvr L7, it does have some significant design differences. Most importantly, the display has a lower color resolution, with support for 65,000 hues instead of 262,000. The change is annoying, as we just don’t see why you have to shift to a less vivid display when you change transmission technologies. On the upside, the 1.9-inch screen is quite large for the phone’s size. You can alter the backlighting time, and while the font size isn’t changeable, it should be fine for most users. The menus reflect the simplified design that’s beginning to show up on most Sprint phones. Splashed with lots of yellow, the interface is simple and easy to use and is a big improvement over Moto’s clunky system. The display is difficult to see in direct light and disappears completely when the backlighting is off.
The navigation array and the keypad buttons are taken from the Slvr L7 with few changes. That means they’re somewhat cramped and completely flat with the surface of the phone, with only minor separation between individual buttons and rows. Fortunately, they’re a bit less slick than on the Slvr L7, but they still can take some acclimation. A four-way toggle with a central OK button serves as your primary navigation tool; there are also two soft keys, a dedicated speakerphone key, a back button, and the traditional Talk and End/power controls. As always, the toggle doubles as a shortcut to four user-defined functions. All the keys are brightly backlit.
The Slvr L7c’s Micro SD card slot is in a terrible location.
A volume rocker and the Motorola "smart" key sit on the Slvr L7c’s left spine. Though they’re large enough, they’re too flat with the surface of the phone and are a bit slick. The mini-USB/charger port sits on the right spine just above a camera shortcut. Though we were expecting to find the Micro SD slot here as well, it is behind the battery instead. This new location is a major design flaw on the Slvr L7c, as you have to remove both the battery cover and the battery to access it. But that’s not all, as the slot itself requires a lot of dexterity and patience to secure the card correctly. The camera lens is on the top rear face of the phone. As with the Slvr L7, there’s no self-portrait mirror or flash.
Features
The Slvr L7c’s phone book holds 1,000 contacts, each of which can take five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a Web address, and notes. You can assign contacts to caller groups, pair them with a picture for photo caller ID or assign them one of the polyphonic ringtones. Other features include a vibrate mode, voice commands and dialing, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a voice recorder, a calculator, a world clock, and an alarm clock. On the higher-end, there’s also PC syncing, instant messaging and e-mail, Bluetooth, and a speakerphone.
The Slvr L7c has a simple VGA camera with no flash or self-portrait mirror.
Though it’s no different from the Slvr L7, it’s disappointing that a 3G multimedia-friendly handset such as the Slvr L7c has a low-grade VGA camera. A megapixel really is the bare minimum on a phone of this caliber. As such, the camera takes pictures in just three resolutions (640×480, 320×240, and 160×120), but you can choose from a number of editing options, including three quality settings, a self-timer, adjustable brightness and white balance settings, an 8x zoom, three color effects, three fun frames, and six shutter sounds (there’s also a silent option). The camcorder shoots 30-second clips with sound. Editing options for videos are similar to those of the still camera. Photo quality wasn’t too impressive–colors looked a bit washed-out, and objects were a bit fuzzy. Videos weren’t remarkable either, with a lot of jerkiness. You’re allotted a paltry 18MB of internal memory to store your work, but you can use a Micro SD card for more space.
The Slvr L7c has average photo quality.
As an EV-DO cell phone, the Slvr L7c is compatible with Sprint’s Power Vision streaming video service and its Sprint Music Store for music downloads to the onboard digital music player. It also supports Sprint’s On Demand service, Sirius radio channels, and the carrier’s new NFL Mobile application. You also get Sprint’s Power View feature for watching full-length movies on the handset, though we’re not quite sure why you’d want to do that. And if that isn’t enough, there’s also special programming from Comedy Central and trial versions of AccuWeather Premium and TeleNav Navigator. The interface for Power Vision and the music player is no different from that of other Sprint phones, which is to say it’s easy to use. We don’t miss the iTunes feature at all.
You can personalize the Slvr L7c with a variety of screensavers, menus and clock styles, and message tones. If you’d like more options or ringtones, you can download them from Sprint with the WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser. You get demo versions of four Java (J2ME) games–Zuma, Midnight Bowling, Pac-Man and Tetris–but you can always download more if you’re an avid gamer.
Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900, EV-DO) Motorola Slvr L7c in San Francisco using Sprint’s service. Call quality was satisfactory on the whole. We enjoyed clear conversations with little voice distortion on our end. Callers occasionally could tell we were using a cell phone, but they reported decent audio quality, as well. Volume was somewhat better than that of the other Slvrs we’ve seen, but it still may not be enough for some users. Also, we had more trouble hearing in noisy environments and had to turn up the volume a few notches to hear people clearly. Static was rare, but reception seemed to fade out now and then, especially when we were around natural obstructions. On the other hand, we encountered no interference from other electronic devices.
The speakerphone was loud and only occasionally muffled, but it performed admirably overall. Putting the speaker facedown on a table affects outgoing sound somewhat, and callers had trouble hearing us at times under that condition. Call quality was clear with the Bluetooth headset, but volume on both ends was low.
Music quality was on a par with that of Sprint’s other Motorola EV-DO phones, such as the Razr V3m and the Krzr K1m. Our tracks sounded a bit tinny, and there were noticeable bass-heavy effects. The sole speaker on the rear face provides decent output, but the music diminishes in quality the louder it becomes. You get better quality with a stereo headset, but take note that the phone uses a proprietary connection. Streaming video was a bit better than it is with most of the other Sprint Power Vision phones we’ve seen lately. Pixilation was kept to a minimum, and motions were fluid. The sound level was acceptable as well, and voices matched the speaker’s mouth. Our only real complaint is that the EV-DO connection was a bit slow, and videos took a long time to load. On the upside, videos didn’t have to rebuffer once they started.
The Slvr L7c has a rated battery life of 3.6 hours of talk time and 7 days of standby time. We managed to eke out a decent 4 hours of talk time in our tests. According to FCC radiation tests, the Motorola Slvr L7c has a digital SAR rating of 1.23 watts per kilogram.
So for now the true question is do I spend the money purchasing a new Motorola Slvr L7c (Sprint) cellular phone battery or do I just get a new phone with a better performing battery? Replacement batteries are very cheap but a new phone would be good too. Decisions, decisions…