Treo 680 Extended Battery from Seidio (2400mAh)

Posted on February 28th, 2007 by Sion Phillips

When the Treo 680 was released, I knew right away that I wanted it. It was the perfect upgrade from my old Treo 600. However, the device has a short battery life. It has a small (1200mAh) battery that does not last through long 16 hour days.

There are great battery life tips in the Treo Discussion Forum. They include:

Turn off Bluetooth unless in use
Reduce screen brightness
Turn off IR receive unless in use
Disable keyboard lights
Palm released an update addressing a bug in the camera software that improves battery life substantially.

But even with these power saving methods, Treo 680 life is short relative to other Treo models. Heavy voice and email use requires a spare battery or frequent recharging. However, thanks to Seidio, one of the most creative Treo accessory manufacturers in the community, there is now another choice: an extended 2400mAh battery! It’s larger than the standard one, and therefore comes with a customized battery compartment cover. It also lasts substantially longer.

It’s true that the Treo is less ergonomic with a larger battery cover. The cover has an edge over the battery release button. However, the battery is only slightly heavier than the stock one, increasing the Treo’s weight from 159g to 178g, and it allows you to use the device for days on end without a recharge.

Seidio recommends that you charge the battery for eight hours before first time use. They also point out that, like all modern smartphone batteries, capacity becomes optimum after a few charging cycles (in my experience 5 to 10).

The only difficulty I encountered using the battery, was a single unanticipated low battery warning that led to a soft reset. When the Treo came back online, I saw that it had 94% battery life remaining. This was a single isolated issue that hasn’t reoccurred in any size, shape or form since.

Generally speaking the battery has performed flawlessly. It more than doubles the talk and standby time of the stock 1200mAh battery. I was using between 30% and 70% of the stock battery per day. So I had to recharge everyday to ensure there was always battery power. Now, with a Seidio extended battery, I can easily go 2 or 3 days between charges.

The extended battery allows you to use the Treo 680 freely without worrying about battery life. You can happily have the Bluetooth and IR receive turned on, safe in the knowledge that you’ll have enough juice left to get through the day.

One of the selling points of the Treo 680 is that it comes in four different colors. This presents a significant challenge for manufacturers that want to color-match accessories. Seidio has embraced the colorful nature of the Treo 680, and is producing covers that match all versions of the device. My review version was gray and my Treo 680 is copper, so I can’t comment on how closely the colors match. However, I understand from an editor of this site that Seidio has several years of experience at matching covers and devices, and has done a great job with the Treo 680 extended battery covers as well.

I like having my Treo protected in a skin case, and none will fit with an extended battery cover. Thankfully, Seidio has announced a range of skins and cases to accommodate your extended 680.

So is this a good accessory? Absolutely. If battery life isn’t an a problem for you, you may want to retain the Treo 680’s slimmer form factor by staying with the stock battery. But if you want the ability to go several days between charges, this is a fantastic (even “must have”) accessory in my view.

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11 Responses to “Treo 680 Extended Battery from Seidio (2400mAh)”

ywbyun, on February 28th, 2007 at 9:21 pm Said:

I think the results on this review is a little skewed. I am currently using a Treo 700w and purchased an extended 2400mAh battery from Seidio and did not notice a huge difference in battery life as indicated in this article. In fact, I think the increase in battery life, assuming that the usage is relatively constant, is only about 15% at best. Perhaps, the difference between my experience and the author’s experience may be because we’re on two different models. However, I can’t imagine that the power usage on a Treo 680 would differ greatly from a Treo 700w. Also, reading some of the user’s experiences with the extended 2400mAh battery on the forums, it seemed like the general consensus was that the increase in battery life wasn’t significant.
albertb, on March 1st, 2007 at 1:24 pm Said:

ywbyun
The treo 700 comes with an 1800 mAh battery, whereas the 680 comes with a slimmer and lower capacity 1200 mAh battery as stated in the first paragraph of this review.

You can’t compare the improvement of the 700w to the improvement of the 680, since they use different capacity batteries.
eugarps, on March 1st, 2007 at 3:36 pm Said:

My results are very consistent with the review. While I don’t like losing the slimness of the 680, it’s really nice to be able to get through the day (or two) with battery life left. I’ve just bought a Seidio 1,300mAh battery to see if it works better than the 1,200mAh one that came with the phone.
smpaudio, on March 1st, 2007 at 6:36 pm Said:

Will this work with a 750w? If so, does it provide a reasonable improvement?
jfksabal, on March 4th, 2007 at 3:03 am Said:

This battery is excellent. My business involves heavy phone usage daily, and my results are consistent with the review — I now can go 2 days between charges. I used to run down my 1200 mAh batteries each day and start having to conserve at the end of the day — a real pain. (A typical day of mine includes hours of phone usage, a Simpsons episode or two using TCMP, several browsing and creating sessions with BugMe, and some camera work as well.) Now, I have zero worries about power. GET THIS BATTERY — it’s well worth it! A note about the larger-sized battery: I now use a side holster style leather case made by Palm and it fits perfectly and has a pocket for 3 SD cards, to boot.
eugarps, on March 5th, 2007 at 1:11 pm Said:

I agree! My battery longevity has doubled +. I have a Seidio horizontal case which is identical to the Palm horizontal case and it fits like it was made for it. I’m hoping Seidio, Boxwave or someone will come out with a silicone skin case for the 680 with the battery case hump.
eugarps, on March 5th, 2007 at 1:13 pm Said:

BTW, Seidio makes an extended battery specifically for the 750 which has the rubber feel coating.
wfelty, on April 5th, 2007 at 9:09 pm Said:

On the improvement of the battery life for the 680 vs the 700w, it is simple, just do the math.
With the 700w, you get a 33% improvement going from 1800 to 2400.
With the 680, you get a 100% improvement going from 1200 to 2400
wfelty, on April 5th, 2007 at 9:46 pm Said:

On the improvement of the battery life for the 680 vs the 700w, it is simple, just do the math.
With the 700w, you get a 33% improvement going from 1800 to 2400.
With the 680, you get a 100% improvement going from 1200 to 2400
tardya, on April 26th, 2007 at 9:09 am Said:

Excellent review. I’m a 680 owner, and ordered the 2400 mAh battery after only 5 days of use.

Thank you.
luccig, on November 24th, 2007 at 5:22 pm Said:

Please note that a Windows based Treo (the models ending in “w”) as opposed to a Palm OS based Treo are prone to less battery life due to the particularities of Windows mobile OS. The generic operating sistem, Windows Mobile, does not care too much nor is it custom made for Palm devices. Palm OS on the other side was designed from the ground up for Palm devices and most of the applications fit some guidelines in terms of usability, design, etc. This beeing said, a Palm application is using the processor power better and closer to what a mobile application should do. And of course, battery life is direct proportional with processor and other devices use.