We have been having major problems with our Palm Centro's battery. It seems the battery just drains for no reason. We have tried turning off all IR and BT options, and all mail sync options. The battery won't even last 4-5 hours of standby time only.
Others have noticed this same type of behavior and complaints around the web are rising. InformationWeek has an article out today about the battery drain issue and it appears that one of the causes is Sprint's Mobile Email application. Here's what Sprint says:
The cause of this issue is linked to the Sprint Mobile Email software ("client") and email synchronization issues that only occur when a customer's password is set incorrectly or the ISP email server is unavailable. Customers who experience the email synchronization issue on Sprint Mobile Email will notice that their Palm Cento battery will drain within 1-3 hours regardless of usage patterns because of to a continuous synchronization loop. This unnecessarily keeps the device active and drains the battery until the application is removed. This problem does not occur when email synchronization successfully completes.
We've uninstalled the Sprint Mobile Email application and will do futher testing on our Centro. We hope this is the fix.
UPDATE: We got an email from Sprint today in response to this story. They've been offering an updated version of Sprint Mobile Email since December 4. All users who login using Sprint Mobile Email will be asked to download a new version of the software over the air. Sprint assures us there is no issue with the device itself. Great news!
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