back to article Ads watchdog slaps down Sony smartphone battery life claim

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told Sony Ericsson never again to claim that a smartphone's battery will run for more than 18 days on a single charge without making it clear in what conditions that battery life can be achieved. The ruling follows a complaint from a punter who spotted the statement, "standby time …

COMMENTS

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  1. rurwin
    FAIL

    > We hope SE's competitors will learn from this ruling and present truly realistic battery life timings in future.

    I doubt it. Move likely they will add the footnote "with minimal load and adequate and stable signal" in 3 point text.

  2. Snowy Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Battery life span on standby is largely irrelevant, for a smart phone they should quote various "use times" like talk, internet and application. Afterall who gets a smart phone just for it to sit in your pocket.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Benchmark in a loop

      Same as with laptops - benchmark in a loop until the battery is dead.

      I bet that most will be under 2h.

  3. Steven Jones

    Bad news week

    What with flooded factories in Thailand, combustible Bravia TVs, mass hackings and now this, it's not exactly good news week for Sony.

    (Although AP have given the A77 a glowing review).

  4. Andy Fletcher

    Punter?

    Implying someone who usually buys Sony Ericsson products. As opposed to a fanboy or employee of a rival brand which is what my money would be on.

    Not to say there's anything wrong with helping the ASA keep adverisers on the straight & narrow. But nobody likes a grass either.

  5. Fuzz

    standard

    There needs to be a standard measure for phone battery life. There is one for digital camera usage, generally you expect to get more pictures out of your battery than the standard measurement suggests but the important thing is that it's standard so it's possible to compare two different makes/models of camera.

    As far as I can tell, the "standard" way to list smartphone battery life is to turn it on, possibly in flight mode, and then leave it to see how long the battery lasts.

    I have smartphones on my desk that I use for testing. I'm amazed by how long they last when you don't use them. I can get over a week out of a battery that is gone in less than 24 hours of normal use.

  6. LarsG

    ARE WE.....

    Really surprised but this?

    How many times have we been conned, talk time, standby etc. I have owned 22 mobile phones, Nokia, HTC, Phillips, Seimens, Motorola, Sony, Samsung, NEC etc and they have all never lived up to expectations. Yet they all still claim what they cannot deliver. (Note that I have never owned and will never own an iPhone)

    The claims are about as honest as claimed broadband speeds of 'up to'!

    We know the claims crap, they know we know the claims crap and now we are being told officially the claims are crap.

    So what's new?

  7. DJV Silver badge
    Devil

    Sony caught doing something bad?

    How unusual!

    </sarcasm>

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