Nokia = better battery?

[patricksmangan]

Would nokia phones running windows phone os get better battery life than the other windows phones?

 

[Luisraul924]

Would nokia phones running windows phone os get better battery life than the other windows phones?

This is hard to answer definitively, but my speculation is, no. The OS for the most part will remain the same apart from a few added services, so, same OS same battery usage. The battery drain will rely on what every other Windows Phone relies on; hardware. Size and type of screen, brightness settings, size of battery in terms of mAh etc.

 

[dtboos]

Nokia does have some of the best battery life in the business though, and a lot of that is from decades of engineering and experimenting. I would say that a high end Nokia Windows Phone will be more efficient than you see in manufacturers like HTC & Samsung using the same screen size & battery, as there is also the quality of engineering which has an effect on battery efficiency.

How well it utilizes the battery & how little waste it has can be different depending on the design & specifications. Just like a car or anything else. It can have the same horsepower & size engine, the same size frame, and one will be more gas efficient. One of the reasons I was excited about Nokia coming on board was their battery efficiency in addition to the build quality and cameras on their upper end devices.

 

[Luisraul924]

Nokia does have some of the best battery life in the business though, and a lot of that is from decades of engineering and experimenting. I would say that a high end Nokia Windows Phone will be more efficient than you see in manufacturers like HTC & Samsung using the same screen size & battery, as there is also the quality of engineering which has an effect on battery efficiency.

How well it utilizes the battery & how little waste it has can be different depending on the design & specifications. Just like a car or anything else. It can have the same horsepower & size engine, the same size frame, and one will be more gas efficient. One of the reasons I was excited about Nokia coming on board was their battery efficiency in addition to the build quality and cameras on their upper end devices.

True, however that's when Nokia makes them... I have a selling that the quality we've come to expect from Nokia will not make it into Windows Phone: http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2011/06/24/compal-becomes-windows-phone-7-odm-will-fulfill-nokia-and-acer-orders/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mobiletechworld+%28MobileTechWorld%29

 

[jimski]

Compal will have nothing to do with battery life. They are simply the assembler. Like a Toyota plant building a GM car. Actually I think something like that is already happening somewhere. Sharing resources to reduce costs. It's simple economics.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[Luisraul924]

Compal will have nothing to do with battery life. They are simply the assembler. Like a Toyota plant building a GM car. Actually I think something like that is already happening somewhere. Sharing resources to reduce costs. It's simple economics.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

Yeah I gathered that from my other thread lol. Regardless though manufacturers like HTC and Samsung aren't complete idiots, of course they strive for battery life as well when testing the OS on their devices, and these OEMs have had more time with Windows Phone than Nokia in general, so I don't believe Nokia will be pulling miracles here. I can understand why their battery life was so great with their own operating system, that's because they wrote it themselves and have had such a long time coding for it. Windows Phone is a new endeavor and even if Microsoft gave them more info than they gave regular OEMs, word doesn't beat experience. So when Nokia launches chances are it'll have a similar battery life as these HTC and Samsung second wave devices coming out, or only ever so slightly better that most people won't notice it. Wave 3 of devices running Apollo sometime in late 2012 yes I might believe better battery life but not with mango.

 

[jimski]

Don't know how much Nokia can tweak on the WP OS to optimize the battery, but I suppose battery drain can be attributed to to following:
-Screen
-Processor
-GSM/CDMA Radio
-WiFi Radio
-BT Radio
-GPS Chip
-Memory Access
-Heat Dissipation
I think there are things here they can do here to improve battery performance.


Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[dtboos]

Yah its not OS optimization they will do, its engineering in the electronics. And the difference may only be a 15-20% difference from manufacturers like HTC/Samsung, but Nokia does put a lot more emphasis on good battery life.

Similar to their use of high quality lenses as opposed to just enough to get the job done. Nokia prides itself in a few areas, and being good business phones with good battery life is one of them. So I guess we will wait and see, but I am excited for multiple reasons with Nokia coming on board.

 

[Luisraul924]

I agree with both of you jimski and dtboos I'm really excited about Nokia devices and I understand Nokia can tweak a lot more than the original launch partners. Do I think that'll happen? No Nokia is a bit busy trying work as quickly as they can to get their first device on the market, does that mean it'll be a crappy device? Most certainly not, but I'm more than positive that once they have more time and less pressure on them, then they'll get things running a lot better than HTC, Samsung, LG and others. It is, however only my opinion, and in a world where one man's opinion is worth nothing, I guess it doesn't matter.

 

[Rico]

Wave 3 of devices running Apollo sometime in late 2012 yes I might believe better battery life but not with mango.

Better battery life at that point may be a cumulative effect of apps being written for Mango/Apollo which have natively more aggressive power conservation and the processors being a bit lower specced than Android. It'll be interesting to see instances of where Mango's power management becomes a hindrance for us power users. I think Microsoft's set some excellent goals but I do think it's inevitable that the compromises they've made will be more apparent to those of us who really demand our devices do a lot. It'll also be interesting to see what hacks work around these methods, and the actual versus perceived benefits they provide.

Frankly, I'd just be happy if someone made a great phone with a BIG FREAKING BATTERY. I don't care if it's user accessible or not. Go the iPhone 4 route, reduce the internals, as much as possible, and use a bigger battery. Kudos to Microsoft for making a smarter mobile OS that watches power consumption. But there's only so much that that, and more efficient components can do, and batteries aren't going to increase in power any time soon.

 

[Luisraul924]

and batteries aren't going to increase in power any time soon.

This is the biggest pain in my *** about smartphone manufacturers. Is that they don't do anything about the batteries they use, whether they build them themselves or have someone else build them either way they should play an active role in trying to get battery tech to advance.

 

[Rico]

This is the biggest pain in my *** about smartphone manufacturers. Is that they don't do anything about the batteries they use, whether they build them themselves or have someone else build them either way they should play an active role in trying to get battery tech to advance.

Current battery tech is an electrochemical process. There's only so much power they can output while still using a process with easily-disposable materials. For the forseable future, it's much easier to make components small and more energy efficient, and of course to do things in software as MS is doing.

I imagine R&D in battery tech is very expensive; something most phone manufacturers would rather not spend the money in. There's always some new battery tech being discovered, but for one reason or another (economics, safety, etc.) it's not feasible on a large scale.

And sure, manufacturers could always use bigger batteries in their devices, but first they have to believe there's a demand for it, or that one could be created to make it worthwhile. Then it has to be engineered to fit into a space that can fit multiple models, so it can be massed-produced and reused across devices, reducing costs. Of course there's also concerns for heat dissappation, potential crosstalk with the various radios, and whatnot.

I think we'll see something like clear solar cells, kinetic chargers or some other method of green "microcharging" (my term) in devices before we see major advancements in battery life. On that note, Nokia discovered a way of turning ambient energy from radio towers and WiFi into a charging solution for phones. Last time I read about it, they were only able to generate something like 5 of the 50 milliwatts from the process they had hoped; with 20 milliwatts being necessary to actually charge a device. I was about a year ago that I read about it, and at the time they planned to bring it to market within five years. I can't imagine that it would hit smartphones first; probably their less power hungry S40 dumbphones, but it's a start.

None of this changes the fact that I'm sick of my daily (at best) charging. Twenty years from now, I imagine phones will have more than one way of charging, with the cord being the "quick" way to do it, and the other method(s) being more of an trickle charge solution. My phone is wireless in every other respect. Having to plug it in to charge is so... nineties.

 

[Useraid]

There are Nokia phones, especially N series phones like the N80, 95 etc which had useless battery life, so who knows.

 

[1jaxstate1]

What type of battery life are you all expecting. With doing so much on my cellphone constantly, I'm happy to make it 8 hours.

 

[Luisraul924]

What type of battery life are you all expecting. With doing so much on my cellphone constantly, I'm happy to make it 8 hours.

That's exactly what I'm saying! I mean yeah Nokia kicks *** and everything but they ain't miracle workers lol I don't expect much more in the battery department.

 

[Duvi]

What type of battery life are you all expecting. With doing so much on my cellphone constantly, I'm happy to make it 8 hours.

My Atrix did 10 hours, easily with poor service at my workplace. 14 hours at home and about when having good service. Both of which I'd have about 30% battery life left.

So I am hoping and wanting the same or better. My iPhone 4 eats all for dinner when it comes to battery life (minus Nokia devices as I haven't used a smartphone from them recently and can't comment). I can get a day and half with my iPhone.

Also note, I'm a heavy user. Get tons of email from CrackBerry, my work, personal (notifications from all my social networks), twittering, SMS (had 10K two months ago, haven't checked last month yet) and tons of other stuff. Also thing I don't use on iPhone that would probably make a difference (worse) would be navigation like I do on Android devices.

 

[Rico]

There are Nokia phones, especially N series phones like the N80, 95 etc which had useless battery life, so who knows.

The N95 was a game changer in its day. I forgave the crappy battery life given all the technology packed into that thing.

 

[1jaxstate1]

Right, I actually made it about 10 - 12 hours the other day, but I had a iPhone I was using to play with and listen to music. If people want 15 - 20 hours of non idle battery life, they should go get a old Nokia green screen phone and do nothing but talk on it when needed.

That's exactly what I'm saying! I mean yeah Nokia kicks *** and everything but they ain't miracle workers lol I don't expect much more in the battery department.

 

[1jaxstate1]

My iPhone is a little better. But I'm pretty sure it's battery has seen better days. The one thing I do notice with the iPhone, is that it charges much much faster than my Focus.

My Atrix did 10 hours, easily with poor service at my workplace. 14 hours at home and about when having good service. Both of which I'd have about 30% battery life left.

So I am hoping and wanting the same or better. My iPhone 4 eats all for dinner when it comes to battery life (minus Nokia devices as I haven't used a smartphone from them recently and can't comment). I can get a day and half with my iPhone.

Also note, I'm a heavy user. Get tons of email from CrackBerry, my work, personal (notifications from all my social networks), twittering, SMS (had 10K two months ago, haven't checked last month yet) and tons of other stuff. Also thing I don't use on iPhone that would probably make a difference (worse) would be navigation like I do on Android devices.

 

[patricksmangan]

For my next phone, id like to find one that i can get atleast 8 hrs of continuous podcast listening for my job [on bluetooth headphones], so idk what that translates to for idle time...