Bold Battery Life - Real World

So I have had the BlackBerry Bold for a while now and have had an opportunity to test real world battery life. First let me say that this thing sucks down the juice. Not unlike the iPhone 3G which needed a software update to improve battery life - so to could the Bold use a software update that improves battery life.

I was able to get 4 hours of talk time during a recent conference call I had to make. In this screenshot

You can see I was on a 4:05 min call. This was in less than ideal conditions. I was using the my bluetooth (Jawbone 1st Gen) headset and I was in the server room which cuts down the signal a fair amount. Wireless was turned off.

I have since upgraded my battery to a 1750 mah type in an effort to gain more time. The battery is still the same size as the unit that comes with the bold so no need for the extra thick cover. My informal testing so far has been to just observe how much battery life is left when I get home from work. I plug my blackberry in every night and I'm away from the house for a minimum of 13 hours at work before returning. I've been keeping WiFi off for now as it really sucks down my battery switching from WiFi to 3G as I move around at work. I've also disabled my PeekaWho application as it was really draining my battery life as well (shame really because this is a great app). I do not take many phone calls on my BlackBerry but do get a steady stream of email all day long. I already have my device tweaked for battery savings (brightness, backlight, etc.).

I really just want to be able to use it the whole day (I have to check it constantly - nature of being in IT and responding to customers) without having to plug it in at work. I can say that I'm able to do it with the Bold but just barely and after upgrading my battery to a larger capacity. My iPhone 3G is getting better battery life but I think the reason is I've set it to manual fetch of emails. I enjoy both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I carry both on me at all times during the day; the Bold for work and the iPhone for home. If I had to choose just one it would have to be the iPhone but fortunately I don't have to choose and can carry both and have the best of both worlds.