Interestingly enough, the folks at LION Battery recognized that the design was flawed and have begun selling Mugen Power batteries that completely fill the back of the extended cover. This is a 3.7-volt battery that is rated at 4500mAh.
When I saw this battery, I had to try it and see if there was an appreciable difference — well, there is and it is significant! I have never been in a situation where I felt totally comfortable with the amount of time I have on my iPAQ, that is, until now.
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When my battery came, I was impressed with two things right away. First, as I took it from the package, its weight was significantly different than the HP extended battery I had. It was enough of a difference that I just knew that I had POWER TO SPARE. Secondly, the design was impressive. By that, it had the same features of the HP extended battery so it looked like it was made for the device but noticeably the void space was not VOID — they filled it! That means there was more power — this was good!
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Inserting it in my iPAQ, I had to go through the routine of a soft reset but then I was up and running. The battery had power in it but I wanted to charge it, get it up to full power then give it a go. It took a while to charge but all of a sudden the charge light was no longer blinking so I removed my iPAQ from the charger and began to use it.
To get my iPAQ used to the battery, I used it several days allowing the charge to drain and then recharge several times. I was impressed with the amount of time that was displayed on the battery meter (9:24) but I was certainly aware that the amount of time displayed was an estimated usage that the iPAQ determined. Considering that I am not an engineer nor do I purport that I know anything about battery power, I felt that the best way for me to determine the amount of time available was to just use it and report the results of my experience. So this is what I did…
Initially I just used my iPAQ as I normally would — a couple of hours a day running a few basic programs, playing a game or two and surfing the net. There was drain on my Spb battery meter but not significant. Each night I would recharge as was my normal custom but I started to realize that I did not need to do that. There was ample power remaining to get to and through the next day. Whether it was a conscious or sub-conscious move, I was clearly using my iPAQ more each day but I kept an eye on the battery meter. There never seemed to be significant drops in the amount of power remaining.
Then there were a couple of days that for the first time, I did not plug my iPAQ into the charger because my comfort level was starting to increase. Normal activity started to change as I added more and more time to my WiFi web work. No longer was I afraid that I would run out of power which meant that I started to do more and more on a daily basis.
To see what the potential was with this battery, I played three full-length videos one after another at one sitting (I can not imagine ever watching more than three at a time). Total time was slightly more than 6 hours, in full screen landscape mode with the volume set at its highest setting and screen brightness set just slightly below maximum brightness. At the end of the third movie, I still had in excess of 35% power remaining. Hmmm…I was impressed!