[T-Mobile LG G2x] jacob808:
Ok coming from the 2007 HTC Tmobile Shadow which was a Windows Mobile 6 device that could browse the web, while at the same time stream audio and video in the background, also play video games such as duke nukem and quake and could be modified with tons of ROMs and tweaks all the while keeping a charge for 3 days, I was sorely disappointed when I finally upgraded and got the G2x superphone with the Android operating system.

This being my first touch screen android, I expected this to do all what the Shadow could do and more. Ok granted I'm still learning this device what initially disappointed me was the miserable battery life that would last at most 3 and a half to 4 hours with continous use such as web browsing and watching videos, listening to music and playing videogames.

Then about two weeks playing with the phone I found it couldn't multitask, sort of, since I could listen to audio and video while browsing on the Shadow, but with the G2x I tried streaming audio/video from one window then opened another and tried surfing the web with the stock browser along with Dolphin, Skyfire, and other "high profile" 3rd party browsers, but the audio/video on the first window would stop.

Fast forward to today, I read an article on Opera Mini 6 from a magazine called "Android" I believe, and to my surprise they were raving about this browser that seemed outdated compared to the others I just mentioned above, but it made me think about my Shadow and how I used the Opera Mini 4 browser as the default internet browser.

I thought how much I loved that browser because it was so fast even on 2G, although it couldn't do flash videos, it still could play the videos on mobile sites with the right media player.

Now having experimented with the other "high profile" browsers I mentioned and how great it brings the "desktop" experience to a cellphone minus the multitasking, those browsers required the extra processing power and battery juice of 4G to appreciate in all it's glory.

Aha! This hit me and I thought, "ok this new modern device of a superphone with the new Android OS, does indeed do all that the 4 year old Shadow could do and does it better, but battery technology has been lagging, so let me try and duplicate what I had on my Shadow and once again try the Opera Mini browser, even though it doesn't support flash videos, it does render the page on their servers and opens lightning fast on 2G, this benefits alot because not only can you disable 4G, you also use less data which is good if you have limited plan or don't want them to down throttle your data if you go over, and the most important thing of all is that since the browser is FAST on 2G, disabling 4G extends your battery by 4 times as much if you had it on!"

So having downloaded and installed Opera Mini free from the market, I had a more enthusiastic outlook for this browser than I did when I tried it when I first got the phone. I actually tried the multitasking were I open a video/audio let it play in the background and then browse. I'm happy to report that it does exactly how I was doing on the Shadow, since Opera Mini downloads the video or audio file letting you play it on the music or video player then you can go back to the browser and surf while the media still plays in the background! Awesome. Even though it's not as flashy as the stock or Dolphin browsers, it get's the job done and saves huge amounts of battery while still look good and did I mention FAST.

Now if you want to watch videos then you can turn 4G back on and use the Youtube app or stock browser if you don't mind draining the battery. Me, I'm now using the Opera Mini browser as default since most of my internet browsing is reading articles or going on forums which mainly consist of text and pictures which Opera excels at without using 4G. So I have the use 2G only option enabled in my network settings and I downloaded 2g/3g on/off widget from the market for free to switch quickly if I wanted to use 4G.

I also disabled background data in my sync options to conserve even more battery life, since I noticed the only app that uses it on my stock G2x is the android market. If I wanted to use the market I just reenable it.

Besides Juicedefender free my last weapon to combat excessive battery drain is Auto airplane mode also free from the market. I enable auto airplane mode when I'm at work, since I'm not allowed to receive calls nor use my phone, and this is the strongest so far as it kills the cell standby radio which is the number 1 culprit of battery bleed when not using the phone at all.

The question I hear yall asking is, "so did this give you 3 days of battery life on a single charge?" Try it and find out for yourselves :)