With smart phones you need to think in terms of recharging daily. I plug mine in when I go to bed.

I have recently changed from Blackberry to Android and I find my Android phone (HTC) definitely gives me better battery life most days it has about 40 - 50% charge left but I don't make heavy use of the internet, mostly just checking email and looking at news sites. I don't stream music or video - screen too small. I do use the camera fairly regularly but don't have any apps with it.

Tips I was given include reduce screen brightness, turn off automatic sync. I have a Widget* on my desktop which I just tap to sync and I usually do it once or twice a day. Get the "Juice Defender" app, that definitely helps as it turns things off when you are not using them. The main one for me is wifi as I use it for online access at home - faster and, afaik, is not included in my data usage.

I have a few apps, mainly news but also I missed the notebook I had in Blackberry (and in Palm before it) I have tried one or two. I found Evernote to be pretty good and it stores your data online so you can access and edit on your PC as well if you download the PC "app". (There is also a Mac version and the PC app will install in Linux under Wine). I also have an instrument tuner (Da tune).

One hint with apps is to check carefully what access to your phone's system they want and if their requirements seem unwarranted by the nature of the app, then don't download it. I have rejected a few because they seem to want to access parts of the core system without good reason.