Usually when I get the weekend off, I maximize my time outside. I often start my long trip at Friday night and come as late as Monday morning; back to my boring and robotic life.
I suffered too much hassle from losing battery life very quickly with my former smart phone, HTC Desire HD. I tinkered with it a lot and done a lot of things that could make the battery last a bit longer. But most of the times, upon plugging it out from the charger, it lasts for only 3 hours. I thought of buying 2 extra batteries but then I lost the phone before I finalized my payment.
Enter Galaxy S3 with its very nice battery life. The time I tested, it lasts for about 6 hours outdoors. That includes quite a hefty usage with it constantly having WIFI/Data enabled. It is a huge improvement from my lost HTC. But I'm still not satisfied with its length of service. As I mentioned, I mostly use it 48 hours or more, unplugged. So I decided to buy extra batteries instead of tweaking it again and again. I think it's just a smarter move. Besides, carrying the charger just defeats the purpose of its mobility.
In every smartphone shop I asked, none of them sells batteries only. I asked 10 random smartphone shops, to no avail. Then I checked out some phone accessories stores and still got nothing. 2 smartphone store owners demanded to check my phone and records and my spare battery. I think they suspected I stole my unit, that's why I was asking for another battery. Some of them can't believe I needed extra batteries. To me, I'm a potential customer. My purpose shouldn't be their concern. Meh.
My last option was to go to Yongsan. It is the electronic store of Korea. They must be selling extra batteries, right? 3 buildings, 3 floors each, about 5 or 6 shops from each floor. None of them sells batteries. I do wonder why they just dismissed me without some excuses. They just say, "we got none of those." So at the last store, I asked where could I avail such items.
"Samsung service center." he said.
None of them sell even a third-party battery for this. I guess, it's a new item so Samsung didn't make spare batteries for sale. I can't be bothered to personally go to Samsung. But this is really frustrating.
Until then, there's GS25 store. At least they're scattered around. I don't know if 7-Eleven or Family Mart or the rest of them chain stores, do the same. But GS25 could charge phone batteries at a small fee (as of today, it's 1,000 won or $1). They've been doing this even before the age of smartphones. I think I'll settle for that until I can get spare batteries. It's not as convenient, but good enough for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment