Here's the rundown.
I have had a 6230i for about 11 days now. The battery has been recharged and discharged several times however on average the battery is only lasting 2-3 hrs max and that is even on standby. Could the battery be faulty or has the battery still not got it's "memory"?

Oh also, is there a way to get the SMS text from 170 to 459 characters?

I'm assuming the phone and battery are new. If you're only getting 2-3 hours then there's def sometning not right. The spec for that phone states "Up to 150-300" hours on standby. You should be able to get a replacement as this falls well short.

Yeah, I contacted Nokia and I have to bring the phone to a service centre. You would think that they would just send out a replacement battery and save all the hassel.

how old is the phone if it is under 28 days old which it should be. Take it back to the shop and get it changed with a new one. Or if it was on the net ring the firm and ask them to do a replecement. As it could be the phone causing the problem. by any chance it was not the dsg group you got it from was it.

I got it from mobilefun.co.uk

had a similar prob with my 6230 last year, when i placed a picture i had taken with the phone as either the screen saver or background picture it ate the battery. is this your problem?

No it's not that.
It's just that the battery I dont think has it's memory yet. I phoned Nokia and they said that it is a common issue with new batteries it could take up to a month for the battery to get a memory. But they asked me to give it one more week and if it has not been fixed then I am to bring it to a service centre and they will replace the phone and/or battery.