I have been using the Chinese, entry/economy-level android phone ZTE Blade as my main work phone (all my actual work phones are Nokia ones, and broken in various ways, this was a free side-offering to my iPad data plan from Saunalahti). I have been pretty happy with the small, light-weight smartphone — proving that the latest and greatest is not needed for every need (I carry my personal iPhone for most media needs), but now we have a problem. I have kept the Blade pugged into a charger every night, but suddently the battery has started dying out really fast, and even after hours of charging, the battery can be at 10-20 percent level.
I have tried out the battery reset/calibration instructions, see e.g. here:
http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-blade-modaco-com/323487/battery-recalibration-protip/
I do not seem to get the battery reset to work in the way it should; maybe the battery is just almost dead, maybe there is something wrong in the phone’s electronics, don’t know. Probably it would be possible to get the phone fixed by the professionals, but I am not sure if it is worth it. There are some pretty serious usability problems due to the inprecise touch screen and sub-standard processor — ZTE Blade is successful enough to convince you that Android is interesting and viable as an OS and a software ecosystem, but this might be the time to have another work phone. Maybe Samsung, like the new Galaxy S II? My actual needs require the phone to have a fast and responsive keyboard (a good virtual one might do as well), reliable phone and calendar functions (both my contacts and calendar are Google-synchronized) and email are the things that me, like I guess most business users value in their work phones. But it would be nice to be able to access the application sphere that I am actually researching using also the same device I use for daily communications. Currently it is my personal iPhone where I run all the games, read my Twitter and Facebook streams and do the Foursquare check-ins. I had installed all those apps to the Blade, too, but it was too uncomfortable and unresponsive to actually be usable as a rich media/gaming mobile internet device. But I suppose the best current Android devices are up for the challenge?
frans goes blog 
I had an HTC Desire Z before I got my iPhone, an I have noticed that processor-wise the HTC has more spunk. However, the location services work so fast on the iPhone compared to the HTC that it was hard to believe. Other woes aboit the HTC include the battery life in general (sometimes it might not last for a full working day if used actively) and the limited internal Flash capacity which might be a problem if you install _a lot_ of widget style apps for example.
What would make the HTC my device of choice, however, is the physical keyboard. I’m not too happy about this virtual one on the iPhone.
Hello,
Im from the internets. It’s a long story how i got on to this page, but i might have a solution for your problem. Heres the list ive done to get my own ZTE blade’s performance to a point where i dont feel a difference if im using iPhone or some Samsung’s higher end devices. Plus the batterylife has gone up from 24h to 72h.
– Root the phone
– Install Swedish Spring RLS5
– Install Scandinavian Keyboard
– Make sure you dont have Wifi etc on if you dont need them
– Recalibrate the phones battery
I’m having trouble getting my brand new batteries for my Blade to work.
They are fine with phones with android 2.1 but I have installed my operator’s new 2.2 to it and my phone currently accepts only the original battery that it had from the beginning. It just don’t charge the batteries….I had them charged at the store I purchased them from and now my phone don’t run with them…can’t take the charger off….or the phone dies.
Does anyone know if there is software solution because it seems like one.