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HTC Incredible S review: Battery life
This is the part of the review we hate with any HTC phone, as inevitably we've praised the slick operation and fast UI, only to have to give you the bad news that the battery isn't up to much.
We wish it was different here - but sorry, it's not really. If there's a positive spin we could take on the news, we'd say that it's definitely better than the HTC Desire HD (which was awful) but isn't much better than the original HTC Desire.
The fear is that this will dwindle over time in the same way anecdotally HTC Desires appear to be doing.
If you start using the HTC Incredible S heavily, for video, music, camera or streaming media, then that battery life drops too, so you might need to recharge. Background syncing also sucks the life out of the battery - you can see a marked difference on the battery graph when it's switched on and off.
While HTC seems to have nailed more efficient operation, the battery life seems to be being sucked by the display on the HTC Incredible S (in the same way as the Desire HD) and that's never a good thing, apparently always taking at least 50% of the drain.
You can see when installing battery readers that the phone can hold charge quite easily in normal use – even when it's got push email on and is quietly syncing in the background, the life isn't dying quickly, and as the signal doesn't drop too often it's not searching for another one.
The question is whether you're prepared to make compromises; can you live with slightly lower syncing cycles, lower brightness and fewer voice calls? If not, and you still decide to go ahead and buy the phone, you might want to carry a charger with you so you don't run into HTC Incredible S battery problems.
