Battery life a draining experience on “4G” LTE smartphones

There is growing dissatisfaction about battery life on first generation “4G” LTE smartphones.

According to the Wall Street Journal, early adopters in the US have been disappointed by the battery life of LTE smartphones on Verizon and AT&T’s LTE networks, with some opting to trade down to older networks. Higher data throughput and poor network coverage have been cited as key reasons for problem.

The situation has led smartphone maker HTC to apologise over smartphone thickness and poor battery life, citing the design issues as part of the reason the company missed analysts’ estimates.

Telstra have recently begun offering the HTC Velocity on their LTE network, with Optus and Vodafone expected to open their own LTE networks over the coming months.