Bah

[timill]

On Tuesday I bought a new mobile phone, to replace the existing one whose battery was dying and which had features I didn't like, such as the ability to turn itsilf on and dial out when left in a pocket.

So I took the new phone out of my pocket to check a number, and it's dead. As a doornail. Of course, it might just be the battery (though it was showing 3 bars charge of 4 this morning).

I hope I don't need it driving home this evening.

Comments

[ex-erikvolso370.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is an issue in the UK, but in the US, there's still a pretty widespread analog cell system, along with the digital one. The problem with the analog system is that it need much more power -- which is why digital phones are so much smaller.

But many digital phones in the US also have an analog transmitter block, just in case that's the only tower you can see. However, the flip side of that is the analog block uses much more power.

This used to happen all of them to me at conventions -- I'd go to a lower floor, and the phone couldn't see a digital tower, so it would kick into analog mode, and drain the battery in two-three hours.

I don't know if this is what is happening to you -- I don't even know if the UK has an analog cell system. But if it is, you get to make a hard call -- deal with the drain, or turn the analog block off. That's when you find out that it's somewhere like "your office" that's in the digital dead zone.