Battery Life

[Kimzii]

I just went back to the Three store i bought my 800 from and got it changed to a new one. On my old one i never got the Estimated time remaining of the battery life over 11 hours, when unplugging it directly after a full charge (with all radios off, brightness to low). On this new one, when unplugging after a full charge. It estimates an remaining time of 1 Day and 13 hours.

This really confirms that there actually has been an bad batch of Lumias.. I bought the first one 16.11, which was the launch day of the Lumia here in London.

 

[mkr10001]

I just went back to the Three store i bought my 800 from and got it changed to a new one. On my old one i never got the Estimated time remaining of the battery life over 11 hours, when unplugging it directly after a full charge (with all radios off, brightness to low). On this new one, when unplugging after a full charge. It estimates an remaining time of 1 Day and 13 hours.

This really confirms that there actually has been an bad batch of Lumias.. I bought the first one 16.11, which was the launch day of the Lumia here in London.

Good news mate. My replacement should be coming tomorrow so hopefully mine will go that high, I don't think my old one ever did.

Keep us updated

 

[Rallicat]

Here are my theories so far:

I beleive a combination of issues is causing some of these battery issues, rather than one specific issue. The following are my observations and theories I ahve formed after having spent time using the Lumia 800:

+ I think there is a bug where the phone gets caught up in some kind of loop and starts to consume processor capacity - this results in a rapid drop of battery power over a short space of time. This coincides with the handset becoming warm or hot, even if left away from a heatsource.
+ I think there is a bug where background tasks are allowed to carry out too much activity, even when not connected to WiFi - this results in the phone being quite busy, and battery power suffers. This would explain why users who say they have 'backed out' of all their applications see less of a problem.
+ There is a bug where WiFi fails. This manifests as the handset not connecting to a known WiFi network, and when you access the 'settings' - you cannot go into the WiFi section. At the same time battery life plunges. This could be the phone repeatedly trying to reset it's WiFi stack.
+ I think there is an issue with the way the phone monitors the battery power, which affects both regulation of charging and discharging of the battery.
+ I think there is an issue with the way Live Tiles are handled - some users have reported improvements when they have reduced the number of live tiles pinned ... including removing the 'People' hub Tile.

These are just my observations, and there are other theories out there too.
One thing is clear - even if you can improve the situation by turning off this or that, you certainly should not have to - and some of the issues that are affecting the handset are clearly bugs or faults, and Nokia need to come clean about that, particularly if it's a physical issue that can't be addressed with a simple update.

 

[ombadboy]

Here are my theories so far:

I beleive a combination of issues is causing some of these battery issues, rather than one specific issue. The following are my observations and theories I ahve formed after having spent time using the Lumia 800:

+ I think there is a bug where the phone gets caught up in some kind of loop and starts to consume processor capacity - this results in a rapid drop of battery power over a short space of time. This coincides with the handset becoming warm or hot, even if left away from a heatsource.
+ I think there is a bug where background tasks are allowed to carry out too much activity, even when not connected to WiFi - this results in the phone being quite busy, and battery power suffers. This would explain why users who say they have 'backed out' of all their applications see less of a problem.
+ There is a bug where WiFi fails. This manifests as the handset not connecting to a known WiFi network, and when you access the 'settings' - you cannot go into the WiFi section. At the same time battery life plunges. This could be the phone repeatedly trying to reset it's WiFi stack.
+ I think there is an issue with the way the phone monitors the battery power, which affects both regulation of charging and discharging of the battery.
+ I think there is an issue with the way Live Tiles are handled - some users have reported improvements when they have reduced the number of live tiles pinned ... including removing the 'People' hub Tile.

These are just my observations, and there are other theories out there too.
One thing is clear - even if you can improve the situation by turning off this or that, you certainly should not have to - and some of the issues that are affecting the handset are clearly bugs or faults, and Nokia need to come clean about that, particularly if it's a physical issue that can't be addressed with a simple update.

Great post. I think you should e-mail Nokia this, and hopefully they'll have a look into each and every point made.

 

[mkr10001]

Just got my replacement from my network. Hopefully this will be better than the other one

 

[Rallicat]

Have to say, my battery life seems to be getting better and better everyday.

Perhaps those initially discredited ideas that they handset 'needed a few cycles' weren't so crazy after all?

Normally the official message usually reads something along the lines of 'batteries are already pre-conditioned', but maybe in Nokia's haste to get the product out the door, the battery wasn't so well conditioned?

Who knows - we may never fully find out, but with an update potentially coming tomorrow (according to my sources), hopefully everything will all come good in the end

 

[tissotti]

Nobody has quoted this yet? Lumia 800 not using the battery to it?s fullest, update coming January | nokiagadgets.com

We understand that some people have expressed concerns about battery life on the Nokia Lumia 800. Early investigations show that most people are enjoying the full Nokia Lumia experience without any problems and we have not been able to identify a single root cause that would lead to erratic battery behavior at this stage. A software update in early December will make some improvements to power efficiency, while a second update in early January introduces high voltage charging, increasing the Nokia Lumia 800?s battery power from 1300mAh to 1450mAh. These are scheduled improvements and will enhance the overall experience, but are not designed to address any issues that may be occurring with individual products. We recommend that anyone who has concerns contact local Nokia care representatives at their earliest convenience. - Nokia

 

[Rallicat]

Nobody has quoted this yet? Lumia 800 not using the battery to it?s fullest, update coming January | nokiagadgets.com

When using Nokia Diagnostics, I'm able to see that my battery charges to 1344mAh and no more, but the 'maximum' capacity is displayed as 1511mAh.

Some have told me that leaving a bit of 'overhead' is by design .. to offset degradation of the battery during the anticipated life of the product. Increasing the charge level therefore gives you more battery now, but reduces the capability of the product to offset degradation later on. It should be noted that 'degradation' is something that will occur either sooner or later depending on how you use the phone, and how the product is charged.

I don't know how true all this is - just what I've heard from others, and i've also heard that it's no different on other products from other manufacturers, regardless of them running WP7, iOS, Android or anything else.

That quote from Nokia is also a little different from the one I saw on the forums, and answers a question I had. Nokia are saying updates are on the way, but are in no way acknowledging that there is a genuine problem with the handset. This is dissapointing. I can understand why during this 'launch period' (and it's a VERY important launch for Nokia) that they might be reluctant to acknowledge any problems, but at the same time NOT handling problems like this in the right way can do far more serious damage to a company in the long run.

I hope this all works out for the best - I like the Lumia and Windows Phone. Both are overdue for some success!

 

[cgk]

I just went back to the Three store i bought my 800 from and got it changed to a new one. On my old one i never got the Estimated time remaining of the battery life over 11 hours, when unplugging it directly after a full charge (with all radios off, brightness to low). On this new one, when unplugging after a full charge. It estimates an remaining time of 1 Day and 13 hours.

This really confirms that there actually has been an bad batch of Lumias.. I bought the first one 16.11, which was the launch day of the Lumia here in London.

My phone is direct from Nokia - I took it out for the first time today, took it off the charge at 10am, it went off completed flat at 2.30pm. :straight:

 

[cgk]

today seems a bit better and I've tweaked and turned off a lot of things - anyone got any idea when this battery update is coming?

 

[welsbloke]

I intend to continue using the Lumia as I did the Omnia 7 which I found to have excellent battery life. I have already noticed that the Battery life on the Lumia is shocking in comparison but like a muppet today I plugged it into my Laptop to put some Zune music on and have not disconnected.

I do however think that updates from Nokia look like they are really needed.

 

[sloppy standard]

For the past few days I've been leaving it on battery saver once fully charged.
At 100% it shows about one day left. A few hours later, after using it a bit for texting, picture taking, sending pics using WhatsApp, web browsing and light GPS use, it normally still shows one day day left. 10 hours later, at the end of the day, it shows about 40% and 15 hours left. Leaving it uncharged and on over night, the following morning it shows about 35% left.

If you go to the 1st page of this thread you'll see my initial complaints. I sure am not complaining now!
I think leaving it on battery saver and manually checking emails etc really saves the battery and as I'm nearly always connected to either 3G or wifi, retrieving emails and updating notifications manually doesn't lose me any time.

Anyway, my phone has JUST finished the Nokia update, so we'll see how that goes....