Over the past month, Verizon has been discounting LTE batteries. However, it was at times hard, and impossible to lock in the deal.
We initially reported the half-off battery pricing with the HTC Rezound in a previous article, but the discounts were giving users errors. Namely, if a user was logged into VerizonWireless.com, they often were charged the full price for the battery at checkout. Now, it appears all issues are fixed, and the discounts are showing up for all users.
It appears Verizon is discounting the cost of batteries on LTE smartphones as a tactic acknowledgement of the significant battery drain users are encountering. The discount also applies to extended batteries on phones that support them, such as the LG Revolution, Droid Bionic, and HTC Thunderbolt.
Customers have complained about the power drain from Verizon’s LTE network. The error is not on the part of Verizon, who was pressured by partner Vodafone to embrace LTE over rival standards. LTE is inherently going to drain more power as all other 4G standards do. Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA, or OFDM), the technology and practices that are shared nearly by all 4G standards in some form, demand high power consumption currently. Older standards such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) are able to achieve high speeds with higher latency, and slower real-world bandwidth rates.
At around $20 for an extended battery, the offer is something we have taken advantage of already in the office. LTE power consumption is a major issue, especially with features like Mobile Hotspot. I personally use a Droid Bionic and now have three batteries; two standard and one extended, with a desktop Motorola battery charger. The $45 cost for two additional batteries costs almost as much as the $39 battery charger (which oddly, Verizon does not sell on their online store).
Batteries alone however cannot help one phone; the Droid RAZR, which lacks a removable battery. Motorola is reportedly preparing an alternative Droid RAZR maxx model, continuing the RAZR maxx nameplate with a faster processor (matching Droid Bionic) and extended battery, with possibly an improved camera.
