HTC EVO 3D and T-Mobile G2 Mugen extended battery review

In the past, you could own a phone that would last for days or even weeks on a single charge.  You never had to worry about lugging around you charger, but now that smartphones are taking over the world – things have changed. If you own an Android and Windows Phone device, you may have noticed that your battery performance isn’t exactly what you were used to when you were carrying around your little Nokia and Samsung flip phone. The beauty of smartphones is that they can do everything for us (mobile web browsing, Facebook and Twitter, immersive 3D gaming, music, video and much more), so we tend to use them a lot more. But in order to deliver that perfect experience, OEMs have also been delivering phones with much faster processors and massive screens which tend to consume your battery’s stored power at an alarming rate.

So how do you fix the issue? You can always keep a charger handy by having on in your car, at your desk at work, at your girlfriend’s house or even get one of those fancy solar chargers, but a better solution is to simply buy an extended battery for your device.

Typically smartphone usage for me consists of constant Twitter and email checking, 1-2 hours of gaming, 30 minutes of web browsing, snapping a few pictures, 30 minutes of GPS navigation and at least 2 hours of navigation. As you can tell, I use my phone a lot. With my stock battery in my G2, I would usually hit my 15% battery warning by 5pm. Fortunately, I have an extra charger for my phone which I use in the afternoon so that I can give my phone a quick charge before heading out from work.  Under the same conditions, I can typically get an extra hour or two out of the HTC EVO 3D, but I find myself toggling off the phone’s 4G connection whenever I’m not streaming video or surfing the web.

Over the past month, we’ve been testing out Mugen’s extended batteries for the HTC EVO 3D and the T-Mobile G2 (HTC Desire Z). Mugen’s 3600 mAh extended battery for the T-Mobile G2 comes with a replacement battery cover which matches the phone’s soft-touch gray plastic. Just pop the battery in and you’re set to go. If you’re using the new battery for the first time, we recommend you install is at night so that you can give it 10-12 hours of charging time.

Once you have a full charge, you’re set – for at least 36 hours.  The 3600 mAh Mugen extended battery for the T-Mobile G2 will allow you to use your phone as much as you want without worrying about when I will be able to plug the phone in next. With my regular usage habits, I am always able to make it through an entire work day without needing an extra charge. Most days, I am able to unplug my phone and use it for 12 hours before hitting the 60% mark.

Things look pretty much the same for the HTC EVO 3D, but the larger 4.3-inch display and 4G connection do like to consume the extra juice packed in the 3600 mAh extended battery a bit more quickly. For the purpose of this review, I left 4G on all the time since consumers shouldn’t have to choose between longer battery life and high-speed internet connection. Based on the same usage habits listed above, the EVO 3D would typically have about 50% battery life remaining after about 12 hours.

While that may not sound very impressive, 12 hours on the stock batteries included with the HTC EVO 3D and T-Mobile G2 would typically result in a dead phone, leaving me without a method to communicate with the world around me.

To see how one of these batteries would hold up when used by a more average consumer, I handed my G2 off to my wife for a few days. After roughly 50 hours, my wife finally chose to plug the phone in for another charge, but she still had just under 20% batter life remaining.

So we can clearly see the positives here, but what are the down sides to having an extended battery? The two main drawbacks to keeping your smartphone running longer with an extended battery typically include the battery’s size and cost. If you purchased your phone because it’s super sexy and thin, adding an extended battery with a thick replacement battery cover which may double the thickness of your handset may not sound too appealing. Mugen and other battery makers do have smaller extended batteries that fig snuggly with your factory battery cover, but you really don’t get much more life out of your phone.

When it comes to price, Mugen’s batteries are not exactly cheap.  The 3600 mAh batteries for the HTC EVO 3D and T-Mobile G2 from Mugen cost between $95-$100, but if you do your shopping you can find them for roughly $10 cheaper on Amazon (G2, EVO 3D). It really is a judgment call on your part based on how important extra battery life is to you. For me, the Mugen extended battery on my G2 has changed the way I use my phone, allowing me to do what I want, when I want it without worrying that my battery is going to leave me high and dry.

We know there are a lot of other extended batteries out there on the market, but we’ve all hear reports from friends on read forum posts about batteries bought on eBay that simply don’t live up to the promise. Give Mugen’s extended batteries a try and we’re pretty confident that you won’t be disappointed.