New smart phone dilemma.

The last couple of months or so, my battery's charge has been draining quickly.  This is just a natural thing as your phone gets past its first year and the battery has gone through several hundred discharge / charge cycles.  To rectify the problem, I've limited the apps allowed to run in the background.

I'd been thinking about buying external battery / recharge devices.  But then it seemed kind of silly to carry around an external battery to charge an internal one, when the internal one had lost significant capacity to recharge in the first place -- a waste of electrons and money.  So, the other day I added this GS-II extra battery and external charger pack to my Amazon cart.

But now it just sits there while I contemplate my dilemma:

• Buy a new smart phone (Nexus 4) now, running Android 4.2.2, or...
• Buy just one extra battery and wait for the next Android 4.3 Nexus phone, or...
• Buy the dual extra battery and external charger pack and wait for Android 5.0 phone.

I've pretty much made up my mind that I'd prefer to get a Nexus phone (not a Google Play edition phone) as opposed to a phone via a carrier.  The reasons are:

• The Nexus 4's price is cheap, and hopefully future Nexus phones are in the same price range;
• I'd like to have my updates on the day they're available, not six months down the line;
• Those updates aren't limited to 18 +/- months as they are via carriers;
• I hate the bloatware added on by the carriers.

And of course, I realize that this is yet another reason why I do not want the iPhone: USER REPLACEABLE BATTERY!  Well, you can replace your own iPhone battery, but it's not so simple as popping off the back and pulling out the battery, plus you take on warranty risks when you do so.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards getting the dual battery and external charger pack. It's got 4.5 stars and everyone seems to love it, probably because it has more power (2200 mAh to 1850 mAh) so it'll last a lot longer than the OEM battery.  I love my GS-II phone, and it remains blemish-free, in perfect condition as the day I bought it.  I could hold onto it for another 1 1/2 years and it'd still be in solid condition, even if badly dated.