A cell phone is good. A dead cell phone is not. The battery life on phones have a strange curve. The higher the cost of the phone is, the lower its battery life will be. For the most part at least. That sucks. The costliest phone should last longer. Yet the phones which cost less than Rs. 5K are the ones which provide the maximum battery life.

Sure the battery life can be extended by very careful use and by following simple steps. Turn off the backlight, turn-off Bluetooth, stop searching for signal, stop searching for Wi-Fi, switch off the vibrate function, and avoid using unnecessary options. What if the phone itself offers a lengthy talk time and an incredible stand by time?

photo © 2008 Frédéric de Villamil | more info (via: Wylio)

These 10 phones provide just that. A very good talk time and a healthy stand by time. If staying connected is the only criteria and any other feature is a bonus, then these are the phones you are looking for.

LG GX300

A 23 hour talk time and 20.3 days of stand-by time. In addition, LG GX300 provides  a 2 megapixel camera with video recording, dual-SIM capability, FM radio, MP4 player and GPRS connectivity. GX300 has a 30MB internal memory and can be expandable to 4 GB through a microSD card. Most notable feature of GX300 is its active noise cancellation with dedicated mic. Cost : Rs. 5049.

Zen M25

Talk time of 16 hours and  standby time of 72 days, probably the longest running standby time for a mobile phone. This can be useful as a secondary phone if you are using a power sucking smartphone. M25 is a dual-SIM phone which has video playing capability, 1.3 megapixel camera, FM Radio and loud speaker. Cost : 2809.

Micromax X1i+

As a part of Micromax’s marathon battery series, X1i+ offers an 30 day battery back up and 15 hours of talk time. That could get you past a week without charging even if you are a heavy talker. In addition to the incredible talk time, XLi has a FM player, music player, theft tracker and the memory can be expanded to 2GB. Like all Micromaxies, this is a dual SIM phone. Flipkart price : Rs. 1599.

Micromax X2i+

X2i+ offers 20 day standby time and 14 hour talk time. It’s is a dual SIM phone with FM player, music player and expandable memory of 4GB. Unlike X1i+, X2i+ has a digital camera. That is where it loses an hour of talk time. The only difference between X1i+ and X2i+ is the  presence of camera and an extra 2GB readability on X2i+ . Flipkart price : Rs. 1999.

Sony Ericsson J105 Naite

J105 provides a talk time of 13.75 hours and a standby time of 25 days. Battery life isn’t the only exciting feature of this phone. It packs in a 2 megapixel camera with video shooting capability and is 3G capable. The talk time and standby time provided are for 2G network though. On 3G the talk time comes down to 4 hours and 3o minutes. J105 comes with a 2 GB microSD card but can read a 8GB card. It has Bluetooth and USB connectivity. no Wi-Fi. Flipkart price : Rs. 5949.

Nokia X2

X2 provides a 13.5 hours of talk time and 22.5 days of standby time. This baby comes with a 5 megapixel camera and a 2.2 inch screen. X2 can record videos in QVGA up to 20 fps. Dual speakers, FM radio, Bluetooth and USB make X2 a noteworthy phone. X2 can read up to 16 GB cards which has to be bought separately. Flipkart price : Rs.5949.

Nokia C5

C5 provides 12 hours of talk time and 26 days of standby time. Nokia C5 is a looks like a feature phone but its features are comparable to a smartphone. The talk time provided is on a 2G network. C5 is a 3G enabled phone and on a 3G mode it will give a 5.5 hours of talk time. The only which is separating C5 from the current crop of smartphones is lack of Wi-Fi. But to me it is not a deterrent. C5 has 3G, Bluetooth, USB, 3.2 megapixel front-camera and rear-facing VGA camera, FM player, Stereo speakers and an ARM 11 600 MHz processor. This is quite a phone and probably needs a space of its own on this blog. Flipkart price : Rs. 7639.

Micromax X260 | Micromax X250

Both x260 and X250 provide a talk time of 10 hours and standby time of 2o days. X250 has a twin LED torch, FM Stereo, VGA Camera, motion sensor, bluetooth and USB. The only difference I could find out is X260 can read up to 2GB memory and X250 can read up to 8 GB. X250 price : Rs.2475. X260 price : Rs. 2289.

Micromax C2I

C2I provides 10 hours of talk time and 30 days of standby time. It has a music player, FM radio, digital camera and can read memory up to 2GB. C2I has voice recording too. Now get this. It’s a CDMA phone. Flipkart price : Rs. 1729.

Samsung Guru Dual 25 E1225

Guru Dual 25 offers a 9 hours of talk time and 17.5 days of standby time. This just scraped through. In other words, I squeezed this in. If not this list would be dominated by Micromax. And we all hate monopoly don’t we? Samsung Guru Dual is a dual SIM phone from Samsung and has a FM Radio. That’s about it. A standard phone with dual SIM and good battery life. Flipkart price : Rs. 1729

The qualifying criteria for these phones is a 10 hour of talk time. Samsung Metro 3G has promised a 10.5 hour talk time but it is no longer in stock.

My pick : I have narrowed it down to Nokia X2, Nokia C5 and Sony Ericsson J108. Considering I have never owned a Nokia phone, I am inclined to go with Nokia C5. Caveat here is, the impressive talk time provided is on 2G network. If you are using it in 3G mode then the battery advantage is lost.

PS : Care has been taken to sift through enough phones to arrive at the list. There could be noteworthy phones which might have been missed. If so, please add them in the comments.

PPS : Care has also been taken to arrive at the features either through the manufacture website or Flipkart or other credible sources. If there are mistakes then please use the comment section below to let us know. The prices are indicative only and are taken on Dec 14 2010.

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