Perhaps some of you have defective batteries? I bought my white G1 early this year and I'm happy with my battery life.
I use Power Manager to automatically put my phone at the 1/4 brightness (63/255) setting, and turn the GPS, wireless network, Bluetooth, and automatic data sync off when it's in battery mode. I keep 3G and wireless locations on. I send a few text messages a day and a talk maybe a couple times a day for 5 min or less, check my mail a couple times and/or use a few apps for ~10 mins/day. I get about 48 hours out of the standard/as-shipped battery this way (I'm at 61% now, and it's been more than 24 hrs since I last charged). If I go to the gym and workout with it (listen to music for an hour) then I usually charge it that night. I also have service in all the places I'm at, and my phone doesn't roam.
I think if you compare this phone to other in it's class (iPhone, etc) the battery life will be similar, and I don't think it's something unique to HTC.
Add up all the features of this pda/phone (phone, media player, GPS, wifi, a full-sized keyboard and large touchscreen, etc) and recognize that they are being powered by the equivalent of a single AA battery (one NiMh AA is roughly 1.5V at 2400mah, G1 battery is 3.7v at 1150mah)! Two years ago this was a fantasy (in the States anyway) and the HTC dev team wasn't working with today's tech then. I am assuming that the goals of the product were 1- a phone w/all the features 2-portability 3-battery life. You're free to switch between 2 and 3 if you want, even now, using an extended battery pack. But lets say HTC focused on 3-longer battery life and it was a brick. You can't fix that aftermarket, and sales would tank. It's not exactly slim now.
Perhaps I just have a different perspective, coming from the old school days of the Palm III, Sony Clie, Treo 600, and HTC Dash (I wear out and mod my PDAs until they die). The battery life on both phones was far worse. After the upgrade to WM6 the Dash became a mug warmer, constantly plugged in to any power source close by.
when it comes to brightness
Linear Mode
