How?s the battery life?

SwimSwim

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So monitoring the last 2 days, I get 6-10% drain/hr (recorded by BatteryPro+) when I constantly using the phone for WPCentral browsing, 6sec/6tag, FB, etc. No streaming though. I've noticed Fhotoroom destroys the battery though. I'll try to monitor tonight when I'm at the gym, just playing music stored on my device. Curious if it is worse than just standby. I know it shouldn't really be, but I'm curious.

I know I use my phones more than most people. This type of battery life is really on target with my past 4 phones. I can easily kill a battery in 7hrs without streaming music/video if I wanted. Admittedly, I was singing praises for this phones battery performance the first day or two but now that I have more apps running and stuff, its just "meh, same as usual."

When I'm using this phone that much, it gets really warm. Warmer than any other phone I've used. I've read reviews saying it gets warm when you use the camera alot, but any app that pounds the processor causes this heat. Video games, streaming, Fhotoroom, Vine, etc... Frankly, when I'm charging this phone I kind of worry about using it alot cause it gets so hot.

Yeah, the heat worries me too sometimes, especially the camera sensor (made of aluminum) can get really hot. I've learned to not charge and do processor intensive tasks at the same time. And there have been a couple instances where I've turned my device off as a precautionary measure, to let it cool off (didn't automatically shut down or anything, I just turned it off because it was worrying me).
 

alpha beta gaga

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one thing to test the battery life (for those who think they got bad device) is to turn on AIRPLANE MODE and then turn on WIFI then try browsing using WIFI only and do activities using WIFI only (that rules out calling and SMS).. if you still experience extreme draining even when using WIFI and AIRPLANE MODE turned on then maybe you have a bad battery.
great advice thanks. what is considered 'extreme draining'?
 

Nick_1020

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I thought the battery life was a little poor initially but I've had the 1020 for a week now and it's performing as well as the 920 which in all honesty is slightly better than smartphone average.
 

nehmek

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My experience with the battery has been mixed so far. I picked up a 1020 a week ago and was so excited with having a new phone/OS that I began setting it up to get the most out of it. I quickly signed in to my email and social media accounts, downloaded a ton of apps and played around with all the settings and features (all while charging and connected to WiFi). The next day at work, it became clear that my battery was not quite right. I used the Battery Pro + app to track my usage and found that I was averaging around 9-10% drain an hour. My battery was down to 20% by lunch and I ended up charging it a total of 3 times in that one day (I did not let the battery drain completely, I would charge it once it reached around 30%).

Just to be clear, my usage was moderate to high throughout the day: I had one email account syncing every 30 minutes, made about 6 calls, sent a handful of texts, received around 200 messages in a Whatsapp thread, used the GPS for about 20 minutes, streamed music for about 30 minutes, shot three 30 second videos and snapped about 30 pictures at night with the flash on. With that said, I let the battery drain empty that night and charged it back to 100% overnight.

The next day, I used the phone much less: I streamed about 40 minutes of music, made 3 calls, and sent a couple of texts/Whatsapp messages. I noticed a slight improvement in the battery drain which was now between 7-8% an hour. I started reading this forum and found that there were a few things I could do to extend the battery's life like disconnecting from Xbox, switching off location services, and blocking background tasks. I followed all of the steps suggested, but kept the double tap to wake on and glance set to peek (these features were too convenient to switch off, and from my experience with the N9 they really don't affect the battery much). Even with minimal usage throughout the day, I was on battery saver by late afternoon and found myself having to charge just to get through the night. This seemed strange as users in the forums were raving about the 1020's battery life, stating that they got 2 days on a single charge and were averaging 1-2% drain an hour.

The next night, I charged my phone to 100%, unplugged it from the charger, and put it into flight mode. I made sure there were no apps running in the background and went to sleep at 1am. I woke up at 7 and found that my battery was at 70 %. In 6 hours it had drained 30% = 5% per hour doing absolutely nothing. Now I knew for certain that something was not right. Reading further into the issue, I learned that poorly coded applications were likely to blame. However, since I had installed about 20 apps at once, there was no easy way to find the culprit, so I reset my phone in order to start with a clean slate.

After resetting the phone, I set up one email account to sync every hour and downloaded the Battery Pro + app to monitor my battery. I also blocked Here+ from running in the background, disconnected from Xbox and switched off my location services. The battery improvement has been like day and night. I now average 1-2% drain per hour and for the first time since buying the 1020 Battery Pro+ shows that I have over 40 hours of battery life left. I am now certain that it was one or more applications that were causing the battery to drain. Moving forward, I am going to download an application a day and check to see what its affect of the battery life is.

With that said, I really think that Microsoft should improve the screening process of apps, as a couple of poorly coded applications are damaging the performance and image of their hardware. I had the willingness and patience to reset my phone and get to the bottom of the problem, but I imagine that many users out there will simply return their phones to the store, opt for a device from the competition and then complain of their negative experience with Nokia or Windows Phone to their family and friends. It's a shame because Nokia is churning out some remarkable devices and I suspect that many of the battery issues reported with the 920 and 925 also boil down to a handful of bad apps.

Anyways, that's my experience with the 1020's battery life so far. If I can manage to keep the drain at under 3% as I install more apps, this phone would have far exceeded my expectations in terms of battery performance.
 

tgr42

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If Microsoft could somehow improve the quality of apps so they don't wreck the battery, that would be great. That is a very difficult problem though. Who judges how much battery use is acceptable? Different apps are going to need different power consumption to do their different tasks. Maybe they could get more strict with hard limits on background activities, but that may have other unwanted results. The restrictions in place now are already hurting the platform compared to others that allow developers to do much more.

As a developer, I think as long as humans are coding apps there will always be poorly coded apps. Aside from education and testing, there's something Microsoft can do today to make a huge impact on this problem. Make it easy for users to pinpoint what specifically is draining the battery! Right now it's impossible unless you go through tedious testing one app or setting at a time. And what happens after you've achieved a stable setup and something changes? Some app gets updated, or just changes behavior based on some server-side change perhaps, and now you're back to square one, not knowing what's draining the battery without starting over with the process of elimination.

It's really shameful that there's no accounting available to the user of what's draining the battery. This should've been in the OS from day one. But Microsoft's strategy on this and other usability issues is to bury their head in the sand and pretend everything's ok. This is not a viable strategy for achieving meaningful growth in a competitive space.
 

nehmek

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Aside from education and testing, there's something Microsoft can do today to make a huge impact on this problem. Make it easy for users to pinpoint what specifically is draining the battery! Right now it's impossible unless you go through tedious testing one app or setting at a time.

Yes! I completely agree. This is a much needed feature and is probably easier to implement / less of a deterrent to developers than making app submissions stricter. Hopefully Microsoft will introduce it in some future update.
 

nehmek

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Just an update to my earlier post. The improved battery life I experienced after the reset didn't last long. With light use, the battery drain went back to 5-7% on standby. I sent the phone to Flextronics in Canada for repairs. After 2 weeks they sent the phone back with a slip saying that they re-installed the software. A rep from the service centre swears they replaced the battery, but even so, the phone is no better than before. I can't squeeze more than 14 hours on a single charge and the standby battery drain is still around 7% an hour. I reset the phone again, switched SIM cards and ran it for a day in flight mode. Nokia doesn't want to acknowledge that I may have a faulty unit and are simply asking me to send it back for repairs again. I'm at a point now where I'm considering selling the phone. I like my 1020, but its pretty useless when I have to keep it hooked to a charger.
 

thelostsoul

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I have honestly had enough Windows Phones (went through 3 or 4 920 and 2 1020s) to determine that the battery life issue is not a faulty hardware issue. Here's a compilation of things I've noticed, or tried on the web that appear to be true:

1. Background Tasks
From what I can tell, there is definitely a bug with how background tasks are handled. If you have even 1 application permitted to run in the background, no matter what it is (even just a battery app!), you will often (and likely inconsistently) lose up to half of your battery life (likely 25%). From what developers have told me, background agents might get stuck in the background pretty easily.

2. Installed apps
If you have installed a lot of apps that you do not use on a daily basis, you will find that you have significantly poorer battery life. Windows Phone appears to allow apps to run in the background immediately after they are installed or updated until you open the program, then go back to background tasks and explicitly block it. Generally speaking, if you don't use the app, uninstall it. Every week or so, you should also go down your list of apps and make sure you have opened each one at least once (since installation or upgrade). Ensure inside each app that you turn off Live Tile updating (if not needed) and disable any background tasks internally. Then check your list of background tasks in settings and ensure that they are all blocked (see point 1).

3. Turn off wireless services when not in use, or in low signal
GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and even 3G/4G data. If you aren't using it, turn it off. The important thing to remember is that it may not be in use, but the device is still trying to use it. It's searching for WiFi networks, searching for Bluetooth devices, trying to connect to an NFC device, etc. Additionally, if you are in a poor reception area for any of these services, battery will plummet. This seems especially true for LTE and cellular services. Starting with the Nokia 808, any Nokia device I've owned seems to have terrible battery life in low cell reception areas. This applies to WiFi and Bluetooth as well, so if you know you are far from the base, shut it off and use something closer if possible.

4. Always close apps
It seems odd that if you disable background tasks, then navigate away without backing out that a program might continue to use battery. However, this appears to be the case. If you leave a program running and just turn off the screen, battery will suffer. This seems especially true with apps such as Nokia Camera, Nokia Drive, Baconit, Readit, and a few other normally CPU intensive programs.

5. Battery save mode
Definitely leave it set to "When battery is low," which will automatically block anything from running in the background, limit syncing, dim brightness, and likely a bit more when your battery is below 20%. This is very helpful and highly recommended. Also, as a last resort, if you are noticing a rapid decline in battery and don't need up to the minute email notification, switch it to always on.

6. Glance, Double tap to wake, high sensitivity
Those nice little features of Nokia phones are great and all, and each one may only use a few milliamps, or even a few fractions of a milliamp per hour, but that all adds up. Disable these when you're trying to squeeze out every last bit of battery.
(note: there are likely equivalent, and similar tips for other manufacturers, but I have only used Nokia)

7. Xbox Game synchronization.
I don't know how many people are that into mobile games, but if you can, turn off all of the options in xbox games settings to disable the highly battery intensive syncing of your game information.

8. Email accounts and other syncing
Be very mindful of how many accounts you link to your device. It's nice to get all your email accounts on your phone, but if you really don't need to respond from that address, just forward it to one account and link only that account to your phone. I have only my Live account on my phone, and all of my other emails accounts forward to that account. I get all of my mail on my phone, and my device only has to sync one account (and as items arrive). If you have to have other accounts on your phone to send from, consider adding them as manual sync only, forward to your one account, then send from that email when you have to. Might be a little annoying to switch back and forth, but syncing definitely uses a lot of power. This also applies to Facebook accounts, Twitter, and anything else that needs to stay up to date. Remove them, or limit how often they sync to save battery.

9. Be mindful of your usage
If you let your phone sit idle and you're only dropping 1 percent an hour or less, chances are, there's absolutely nothing wrong with your device. If that changes rapidly on days that you use it, then you just use it a lot. Keep in mind that if you browse the internet a lot, keep checking your email, read reddit (big usage for a lot of WP users!), and especially play games or stream media, you will suck your battery dry. If you do any of these for about an hour, it will likely cost up to 25% of your battery (sometimes more with some games).
Generally speaking, if the screen is on constantly, you'll likely get between 5 and 10 hours, depending heavily on what you're doing. If you're playing a heavy 3D game continuously, it could be even less.

These are just some random tips that I've found. Some of them are very unfortunate, but it's really not better on Android. iOS I am uncertain about. Also, your mileage may, and will vary, mostly dependent on what apps you have installed, and how you apply the tips I mentioned. Following these tips, on my usage, I can easily get 15 hours. My usage is Reddit heavy, sms heavy, and usually includes a good amount of web browsing, and a call here and there.


EDIT: Grammar/spelling/added a couple things.
 
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Leonardo Eroico

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've done two tests on my 64GB 1020, with the first load up to 100% before bed, put on airplane mode and disconnect the charger, and the next morning it dawned with 100% battery. On the second night I repeated the test, only left with data and wifi connected (plugged into my home network) and all applications that currently use Sundo running on battery back-up and the sun rose 100%. Only during the day I think the consumption is very high. I have whatsapp, an email every 2 hours, a few hits to FB, 1:30 twiter and songs divided into 3 intervals of 30 min. With all this step not 12 hours after taking the decision. Is this normal? My reference is my last phone, N9 with a few more thing that connected a battery and 2 years of daily and lower than the 1020 refills, and lasted the same thing.
 

thelostsoul

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How can you forward emails to a live account? As in Linking?

You can either use linking by logging in at outlook.com and configuring the account to sync your other accounts, or by logging into your other account and looking for options to forward mail. For example, in GMail, there is a specific setting to forward mail to other accounts. Yahoo and AOL mail have similar settings. Most mail providers have options to forward all mail.
 

mmohn01

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Don't expect such good battery life on 1020, it's 2-3 times worse.
Also it's very unstable, reboots, Bluetooth is crappy.

It sounds like you got a faulty phone. I get up every morning at 5am and spend over an hour at the gym while streaming Nokia music over Bluetooth on my jaybird xbuds. My battery lasts all day, and I'm a heavy user.
The Bluetooth sounds great in my car and on my jaybird xbuds. I love this phone.
 

fieldbaker

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My experience was horrible. I live in Sweden aswell and bought it a few months ago.

Long story short, battery life was really bad. Ended up returning it.

My symptoms:
5+% battery drain/hour on idle with everything off. Even no sim-card in and flight mode activated.
10-20+% battery drain/hour on load.

I tried giving it several weeks of charging etc, nothing helped.
 

Leonardo Eroico

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wp_ss_20131126_0003.png

Can someone please explain why at the end of my lunch break, even after disconnecting all APPs, my battery continued to have a high consumption even in standby. Stopped only after a reboot.
 

WillemC

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first month or so very bad battery life.
Suddenly it started to go up and now it says 1 day 5 hours on full charge (with no use).
Current discharge is 2,93%

When not used for longer period it goes down to somewhere 1%, but it could get up to 20% an hour.
Since a reset of my battery-app data, it has an average discharge of 4,88%
 

nehmek

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Another update here. After sending my phone for repair and not seeing any improvements, Nokia sent me a replacement phone. The replacement 1020 is perfect! All my settings and apps are the same as before: wifi, glance, double tap, 4g data, bluetooth and nfc are all on. Xbox games, location and music services are off. I have skype and whatsapp installed, plus a weather app in the background and one email account syncing every hour. The battery drain is less that 1% an hour when in standby (only drained 4% over night). The drain rises up to 4% an hour when the screen is on for a prolonged time and I use the device heavily. It's now 7 hours since my last charge, the battery is at 93% and showing 4 days and 9 hours remaining. With moderate use I can easily go 2 days on a single charge. This proves my suspicion that my first 1020 was defective and I suspect that many of the people complaining about poor battery life have defective units as well.
 

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