And the Legend Lives On: The Nokia Battery

[ananve]

Thanks for acknowledging me. I was intended to share something but was in a hurry. I have 2 L640s. My was 1 year old, I used to game a lot (Gameloft AAA graphic 3D games) so the battery is now not as good as it used to be. I can still go through a day of moderate use without gaming (but as a daily driver).

My wife's new L640 can go through 2 days with moderate use. Open mobile data and WIFI settings all day but turn off overnight. She is pretty happy with this.

Posted from my Surface 3 running W10

 

[unuzerounu]

This was excellent. Funny, smart, informative... simply a pleasure to read.

 

[qbrick]

Sorry to spoil the myth about Android being a battery sucker. My Galaxy S5 Neo has a battery use time of about 4 to 5 days of medium use (telephony, sms, browsing with Firefox, camera and several other apps like DWD Warnwetter, TinyScanner and Medigong. And this is on the latest terrible (performance and batterywise) APA2 built (5.1.1), while Marshmallow (highly praised in this regard by flashers) is being rolled out in Europe atm.
In contrast, with Lumia 640 on Win 10 *.318 I barely get two days which is about 70% of the time I got with Denim.

This observation is underpinned by public battery benchmarks in the tech media.
I really would like to get my hands on a Lumia 950 which is quite cheap now over here (EUR 350), but a good battery runtime is the dealbreaker for a mobile device IMO.

 

[Werentuckl]

Thank you for the additional input Ananve, its always great to hear more positive stories from fellow windows phone users, especially those awesome enough to have their spouses on the same bandwagon as the rest of us. :3 And Unuzerounu, hats off to your username brother. I had to copy paste that down because I couldnt remember how to spell it and type it down on my own. But thank you, as well. For the great feedback.

And QBrick, thats a very interesting observation because alot of us have different experiences, with both camps of the platform competition that you're talking about. I'd like to hear more about your usecases about with both the phones because 2800 mAh is not alot for android to eat through, even people with the newest flagships dont get that sort of numbers out of their batteries, and the batteries tend to be bigger nowadays than they were a couple of years ago too. Not that the S5 didnt get stellar battery numbers on its reviews back in the day. Also, did you try your Lumia 640 on the .338 and .420 build numbers? Things are getting better progressively with time. And yessss, go for the 950, or the 950XLif you can afford. They're the best WM devices out in the market right now, for the next few months at least. And for the forseeable future, until something better comes along and we dont have any dates for that in yet. Plus, these are both affordable phones right now! ^_^

-- W

 

[aybarrap1]

Android is not bad but over multiple versions and phone models, windows phones have typically done better on battery life (I switch back and forth between platforms). Well enough to day the difference was notable and not just a placebo. However this is not to say that will always be the case with individual users or even future versions of either windows or Android.

There are other factors involved of course. For me, the Facebook app on Windows phones is more battery friendly than the Android version. However, Facebook messenger does well on Android but kills battery on my windows phones.

 

[Werentuckl]

All those things are definitely true Aybarrap. And on that note.

I have an update for all you guys. Any of you who're still following this thread anyways, and the new ones who'll stumble across this anyways.

So, Ive been travelling for these last many days. And because of the race, color, religion, background, ethnicity, and region/country based discrimination, prejudice, partialism and harassment that is so rife at American airports. And many European airports for that matter. People of color, or marginalised minorities here would understand, or not. I wouldnt know. But anyways, my rant about the open mistreatment metted out aside. I have had to carry blank wiped phones on me since, for the last ten days or so. After my first three hour detention at the JFK, where my phones were taken from me for further 'inspection'. So my phones are mostly blank, sim free, and in Airplane mode, with all the radios turned off. For better or worse, in case of future happy experiences. While I use a temporary phone, with the bare minimum I need on it, and easily wipeable without much heartbreak or loss on my part.

Now heres where the fun part starts. With all the radios turned off, and the phone seeing no use, basically reduced to a true standby phone, here are my battery stats with it. At this point, these are, what you call, true endurance testing numbers for the phone's standby abilities. So I charged my phone to a full battery on the night of the 29th. And the phone had its cellular radio working for the next six hours or so. After which the radios went out as the Airplane went up. It was turned off for a duration of about six to seven hours thereafter. And then turned on again at the point of confiscation and interrogation, read 'humiliation', by the Customs Border Patrol inspectors. From then on, the phone has remained powered on, battery saver and all working its magic in the background, and in the Airplane mode, SIM free, with all the radios turned off. Today is the 10th here, in NY, and officially just turned the 11th of July back home in Islamabad, and the battery is still at 47%. So technically, its been a good decent almost 12 days, of just pure standby time. These numbers are ofcourse, just purely academic at this point, and for those interested in basically just a standby device, as this doesnt really constitute a usecase at all. But I found it an interesting fact to report anyways. So there you have it y'all good folks here of WC.

On this note, an update on my mothers phone and battery usage and statistics too, since she's my other direct point of reference here on light phone usage and battery numbers in this thread. She has been charging her phone every other day since I have left, and the only changes to her usage patterns have been 15-30 minute Skype video calls over cellular data, with occasionally spotty 3G signals, every day. So yes, I can attest to how much of a terrible battery hog Skype is/has become for our platform now, and especially over Cellular data.

And that is my update for the day to you all. Over and out now. To all you beautiful WC people.

-- W

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I have a 540 sitting in the drawer at home with wifi on and it lost 5% over 5 days, Can you believe that? This is on WP8.1

 

[Werentuckl]

Holy, is that a 100 day standby time by those merits Chintan? Do please keep following on that and updating us all over here, yes please?

And so on the 21st of July, officially 23 days after that first charge, I finally put the old dog to rest, on a charging station, with 6% battery's worth of life still left on it and hit upgrade. Mind you, this was on .318, and not the last Threshold release of .494. I havent yet had the chance to run .494 over my battery un-abuse. I'm guessing the next hyper miling test I'll be able to run is going to end up being after the official Redstone Release. So no .494 tests, though I'm going to go out on a limb and say that its going to be marginally better than these numbers that I was getting on .318, so rest assured.

-- W

 

[aybarrap1]

Watching people hyper mile a phone is fun to watch. I can't bring myself to do it personally. While I have an android and this phone, I enjoy playing on them too much. I find myself switching been phones as a daily driver often. I actually own the Moto X Pure Edition which is much more powerful, but as time has gone on, and the release of W10M, I have found myself really loving windows phones. Just wish developers could get onboard. Hoping MS continues their improvements to the OS at a faster pace and release more variety of devices.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

@Werentuckl, I use the phone now and then so I can't let it sit continuously. But it does have a god battery life, the other day I took about 500 photos and battery dropped about 40%. So it could easily do 1000 photos

 

[Werentuckl]

So, kind of sorry that I let my only thread die off. But I'm going to necro it for all the people who followed/still follow it with updates from the AU. ^_^

Okay, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet. The last battery test I recorded on the phone, with the same usage pattern as ascribed to in the first post of this thread, was on AU, build no .189. Now while this build is dated by now - superseded by two subsequent production builds as of 10/15/2016, .221 and .321 - these newer builds have only added to the stability of the phone and the device itself and have by no means and in no way negatively impacted either my use or the duration of use I get out of it. ^~^

With all of this said, the most recent recent test yielded favorable results. I put the phone on charge after my update to .189, either on 09/09, or 09/10. I do not fully, or completely remember. The next charge that the phone was plugged into was on 09/21, or 09/20, respectively. I connected the phone to charge on exactly the 11th day from the last charge, give or take. And I would say that is a very handsomely performant device and battery life still. Even after the August/Anniversay Update to RedStone1. :3 ^_^

Cheers y'all. I've been meaning to put this down in writing for you all ever since.

-- W

 

[D21K]

cant say I feel the hype :unhappy: the times of the old nokia are gone now, I have a zte maven and many times that little phone did outlast my lumia 640 (not by much though) , and I use it to watch youtube at least once a day too, didn't have to turn that weird power saver mode either, also it came with a quickcharge from the store unlike the lumia (the lumia support quickcharging but didn't bring one in the box) the maven easily last me the entire week without problem, it impress me how much the haters can say about androids phones without even trying one, and man how much I dislike the UI of the OS and many more things (haven't see a single update in over a year) but the truth is, it work.

 

[Werentuckl]

Well, thats true alright. Sadly, MS, other OEMs, and most of all, us users as well, we've all let the hype die down around our own platform. It is kind of cannibalistic, and especially with the way its all spiralling downwards. And you're right. We have, sadly, reached the point where well nigh all platforms have reached the threshold of good enough. At most price points. But hey, thats no reason not to celebrate what little vestiges we have my dear friend! ^_^

This Nokia is a throw back to what many of us used to call better days, and a more familiar world. So its always good to keep a good piece of history that is still so relevant to us today, around. And well looked after D21K. And yeah, wish I had better chargers too. But on that note, the slow charge means my batteries last longer over their lifetime too. :3 ^_^ I know, I had to hunt for that sad little silver lining.

And Chintan, my good mate. What news and updates on your precious 540 and how it fares my friend. :3 ^~^

-- W