Replacement for LG Optimus F3 (Small with Great Battery Life)

[smitbret]

My Father-in-Law has been using a T-Mobile branded Optimus F3 for the last couple of years. We recently switched to AT&T and moved all of our phones over and since then, his F3 has terrible battery life. He used to get about 2.5-3 days out of it. Now he gets about 18 hours. I bought him a new battery and did a wipe of the phone but no dice.

So, now he wants a new one. The F3 had a 4" screen and great battery life. Those are his requirements. Better stick with Android, too because I dread trying to teach him another OS.

Any recommendations other than another F3?

 

[Crono]

There aren't many good 4" display phones anymore. Anything in that size is going to be old and outdated or very low-end and likely not Android. And that drop in battery life may be from poor/inconsistent signal strength on the new network (given the timing), especially if it continued after changing the battery and no changes or updates were made to the phone. If that's pure standby time or standby time with occasional usage, any new phone with better than average battery life should last longer between charges, especially if it has Android 6 (Marshmallow) because of Doze.

I'd recommend the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact (available unlocked on sites like Amazon) or the less expensive Moto E. The caveat with the E (unlike the G, which is larger) is that it isn't going to get major updates from Motorola. Good battery life on both and they aren't significantly larger overall versus the F3. Size comparison is below.

There are also new Xperias being announced at Mobile World Congress at the end of this month, with a couple of sites mentioning a 4" Xperia Z6 Mini. That might be the ideal phone if it's made available in the U.S. or if you can find it for sale unlocked online when it's released.

 

[smitbret]

There aren't many good 4" display phones anymore. Anything in that size is going to be old and outdated or very low-end and likely not Android. And that drop in battery life may be from poor/inconsistent signal strength on the new network (given the timing), especially if it continued after changing the battery and no changes or updates were made to the phone. If that's pure standby time or standby time with occasional usage, any new phone with better than average battery life should last longer between charges, especially if it has Android 6 (Marshmallow) because of Doze.

I'd recommend the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact (available unlocked on sites like Amazon) or the less expensive Moto E. The caveat with the E (unlike the G, which is larger) is that it isn't going to get major updates from Motorola. Good battery life on both and they aren't significantly larger overall versus the F3. Size comparison is below.

There are also new Xperias being announced at Mobile World Congress at the end of this month, with a couple of sites mentioning a 4" Xperia Z6 Mini. That might be the ideal phone if it's made available in the U.S. or if you can find it for sale unlocked online when it's released.

I figured someone would mention signal strength but that is not the issue, it's why we switched. Out here in East Idaho, it's like the land that time forgot. There's some good speed out of the T-mobile service but coverage is just spotty. I can't make a phone call in my office that is 30 feet from the front door and if you stand in the wrong spot in my basement.......

Anyway, I will look into those. He doesn't need much. Thanks.

EDIT: Wait a minute...... The F3 is a T-mobile branded phone. Could the battery drainage occur because it is looking for T-mobile LTE and not getting it because it is on the AT&T network? If I just set the phone to look for a 4G/HSPA instead of LTE could that solve the battery woes?

 

[ElFenix]

might could be. even the overlap bands aren't complete overlap and it could be at&t's LTE bands are on some of the partial overlap bands in your area.

though, UMTS/HSPA band overlap could be worse (there's less there than on LTE, generally)

http://www.droid-life.com/2015/02/0...sm-cdma-wcdma-lte-verizon-att-sprint-tmobile/