Did your battery life get better?

[blehblehbleh]

I was just replying to jimski's comment on how there aren't many phones with large batteries, but I think that's beginning to change.

It's about time it is. I'm surprised no one addressed this within the past 2 years. Is it really that large of an economic cost for either/both parties?

 

[anon(5335877)]

Seeing as how I'm on my first smartphone after coming from a feature phone, I fully expected that smartphones would be able to do a minimum of a day and a half light to moderate usage, which is what my phone has been doing since I got it.

If I'm lucky I can calibrate it for 2 days and a little extra, but that's kind of rare with my normal use.

Yeah, a lot of people who get their first smartphone are surprised to learn that they have to charge it everyday.

It's about time it is. I'm surprised no one addressed this within the past 2 years. Is it really that large of an economic cost for either/both parties?

I think the problem is that people have been wanting thinner and thinner phones, so they've been able to make the phones thinner, but as a result, they've been unable to make the batteries much larger.

Galaxy S II - 8.49mm, 1650mAh
Galaxy S II Skyrocket (LTE) - 9mm, 1850mAh
Galaxy Note LTE - 10mm, 2500mAh
Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) - 9.47mm, 1850mAh
Galaxy S III - 8.6mm, 2100mAh
Droid Razr - 7.1mm, 1780mAh
Droid Razr Maxx - 8.99mm, 3300mAh
HTC One X - 8.9mm, 1800mAh
HTC EVO 4G LTE - 8.9mm, 2000mAh

Finally, though, I think we've hit the point where devices won't get significantly thinner. Phones seem to be hovering around that 8-10mm range now, so hopefully manufacturers will now try to work on fitting larger batteries in these tiny frames.

 

[AngryNil]

I wonder if living in a strong LTE area helps? I know it contradicts what I've heard about from Android, about how LTE is a battery killer. But I think WP (or more specifically, Nokia WP) may be more optimized for LTE.

If the phone has to constantly search for a connection, then the battery will drain. Holding a steady connection is much better on the battery.

If you're looking for the benchmark in mobile battery life, perhaps check out the Droid RAZR Maxx. Insane battery inside it, 3300mAh if I remember right.

 

[ninjaap]

Seeing as how I'm on my first smartphone after coming from a feature phone, I fully expected that smartphones would be able to do a minimum of a day and a half light to moderate usage, which is what my phone has been doing since I got it.

If I'm lucky I can calibrate it for 2 days and a little extra, but that's kind of rare with my normal use.

You're already lucky! In the past decade, I've owned 3 Windows Mobile, 3 Androids and 3 Windows Phones (including this 900). None of them ever came close to the 900's battery life. None of them ever lasted a day. But all of them had relatively smaller batteries than the 900's. So I'm going to believe that to be the main reason.

 

[anon(5335877)]

If the phone has to constantly search for a connection, then the battery will drain. Holding a steady connection is much better on the battery.

If you're looking for the benchmark in mobile battery life, perhaps check out the Droid RAZR Maxx. Insane battery inside it, 3300mAh if I remember right.

Probably the only problem with having a battery that large is when it's almost empty and you need to recharge, it'll probably take almost twice as long as other phones.

 

[blehblehbleh]

Yeah, a lot of people who get their first smartphone are surprised to learn that they have to charge it everyday.

No arguments there. Definitely a disconnect with how far the tech was and how far it really is.

I think the problem is that people have been wanting thinner and thinner phones, so they've been able to make the phones thinner, but as a result, they've been unable to make the batteries much larger.

Galaxy S II - 8.49mm, 1650mAh
Galaxy S II Skyrocket (LTE) - 9mm, 1850mAh
Galaxy Note LTE - 10mm, 2500mAh
Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) - 9.47mm, 1850mAh
Galaxy S III - 8.6mm, 2100mAh
Droid Razr - 7.1mm, 1780mAh
Droid Razr Maxx - 8.99mm, 3300mAh
HTC One X - 8.9mm, 1800mAh
HTC EVO 4G LTE - 8.9mm, 2000mAh

Finally, though, I think we've hit the point where devices won't get significantly thinner. Phones seem to be hovering around that 8-10mm range now, so hopefully manufacturers will now try to work on fitting larger batteries in these tiny frames.

Yeah I can see that. I guess it took a while for the fab process of the SoC's to shrink and I suppose there's only so much room you can pack. Then again, thinking about it now, seems more like a culmination of OEM's cheaping out on costs overall. I can't remember but 4" devices made there debut 2 years ago right? And yet weren't OEM's still only putting in batteries somewhere between 1000mAh-1500mAh? It seems like if they really wanted to they could've found a way to put at least 1800mAh batteries by default.

Man they really gotta step up in battery tech.

 

[anon(5335877)]

Man they really gotta step up in battery tech.

Definitely. I think a lot of research and money is going towards that. Aside from mobile phones, there are hybrid cars and plug-in electric cars that can benefit from higher capacity batteries.

 

[pavvento]

My battery has gotten significantly worse. Before the update I made it through a full day (7am-11pm) before hitting the 20% mark. Now I barely make it to 7pm with 10% less with the same usage. I've noticed weird cellular conditions where my phone icon will display 'emergency only' for 5 seconds and then go back to normal.

I can't tell what the problem is and can't really recall making any changes after the update. Some details:

-Background tasks: All are 'off'
-Gmail is and always has been set to push
- Xbox is not connected
-Facebook messaging is off and not set to push
- Camera is set to auto upload to Skydrive
- Brightness is on auto
- Wifi usually off
- LTE full coverage almost everywhere

I've turned almost all of the things I like off, such as the ESPN and MLB app auto updating the live tile which I didn't have to do before the update.

Does anyone have any advice?

 

[ninjaap]

My battery has gotten significantly worse. Before the update I made it through a full day (7am-11pm) before hitting the 20% mark. Now I barely make it to 7pm with 10% less with the same usage. I've noticed weird cellular conditions where my phone icon will display 'emergency only' for 5 seconds and then go back to normal.

I can't tell what the problem is and can't really recall making any changes after the update. Some details:

-Background tasks: All are 'off'
-Gmail is and always has been set to push
- Xbox is not connected
-Facebook messaging is off and not set to push
- Camera is set to auto upload to Skydrive
- Brightness is on auto
- Wifi usually off
- LTE full coverage almost everywhere

I've turned almost all of the things I like off, such as the ESPN and MLB app auto updating the live tile which I didn't have to do before the update.

Does anyone have any advice?

Sounds like you may still be experiencing the network problems the update is supposed to fix. I would either try a hard reset or exchange your phone.

 

[anon(5335877)]

My battery has gotten significantly worse. Before the update I made it through a full day (7am-11pm) before hitting the 20% mark. Now I barely make it to 7pm with 10% less with the same usage. I've noticed weird cellular conditions where my phone icon will display 'emergency only' for 5 seconds and then go back to normal.

I can't tell what the problem is and can't really recall making any changes after the update. Some details:

-Background tasks: All are 'off'
-Gmail is and always has been set to push
- Xbox is not connected
-Facebook messaging is off and not set to push
- Camera is set to auto upload to Skydrive
- Brightness is on auto
- Wifi usually off
- LTE full coverage almost everywhere

I've turned almost all of the things I like off, such as the ESPN and MLB app auto updating the live tile which I didn't have to do before the update.

Does anyone have any advice?

Use the diagnostic tool and check the current discharge rate?

 

[pavvento]

Use the diagnostic tool and check the current discharge rate?

Currently it is fluctuating between 115 mA and 395 mA.

Also, I was at 35% at about 9:30 and with no use (it was sitting on my bed screen off) it dropped to 20% by 10:30. Earlier, I kept an eye on my dashboard of my VW and in 40 minutes it went from 'AT&T' to 'No Network' about 6 times, each for only 2-3 seconds. Is there anyway to undo the update?

 

[sdreamer]

Currently it is fluctuating between 115 mA and 395 mA.

Also, I was at 35% at about 9:30 and with no use (it was sitting on my bed screen off) it dropped to 20% by 10:30. Earlier, I kept an eye on my dashboard of my VW and in 40 minutes it went from 'AT&T' to 'No Network' about 6 times, each for only 2-3 seconds. Is there anyway to undo the update?

It's hard to find out what exactly is causing it. The easiest (but not the best) is to hard reset and see what your drain is then. If you aren't doing much on your phone, it should idle to 90-115 mA, not 115-395 mA. Sounds like your phone is pretty busy. From personal experience I've seen mine go up as high as 600 mA and that's only when I'm in select locations, using wifi when I have no signal, i.e. our local hospital (may be attributed to all the different EM radiation equipment they use.).

 

[bikerce687]

Yes, battery life gets better. I can make it through a full day with strong LTE. After working all day, I am down to at worst 40%. I use it pretty heavy at work with data. Now I use the data toggle on the data settings to put my phone on Edge when data is not needed. Most days I do not drop below 80%.

 

[pjs37]

Sadly mine has only gotten worse I went from like 24-28 hours of life to about 15 hours and this is with everything turned off in the background. I am past the 30 day window but Nokia told me to talk to AT&T anyways so I guess I will see if I could still exchange it.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[thescotsman1701]

I did read somewhere that the battery performance of new devices will improve over the coming weeks. Since I've only had my Lumia 900 since Tuesday I can't really confirm or deny this fact. I will post back in a couple of weeks to see if this fact is true or not.

 

[pavvento]

Ok, I've done a full reset. I'm pretty amazed at how complicated Microsoft makes this. It will probably take me a few hours before the phone is back to where it was (settings updated, accounts logged into, apps re-downloaded, etc.) so hopefully over the weekend I'll be able to test if the battery is better.

One change I know I made was selecting the camera 'auto upload' to skydrive. I can't see that being a battery waster as it only happens when I take a photo but does anyone have any information about that?

Thanks again!

 

[EddyKilowatt]

Better battery life? Funny you should ask... yes. In fact I was thinking to myself that there was a quantum improvement just this week (last week of May), and idly wondering if they'd snuck some kind of software update in on us. Doubtful, though!

My observation is that poor cell signal seems to be the #1 cause of fast battery drain on my 900, so Occam's Razor suggests that either AT&T put up a stronger radio near my home or work... or I'm getting better about not keeping the phone in my pocket, where I notice it seems to do a lot more thrashing around, looking for signal. Like: in my pocket, 5% drain per hour... lying on my desk, 1-2% drain per hour.

Anyway, my 900 pretty easily makes it through the day, starting around 90% in the morning and down to 30-40% by evening. I try not to either charge it to 100% nor discharge it below 20%, unless I really need max run time.

 

[smechman]

I've finally gotten over two days with mine now. Since I don't bother with email or anything like that on my phone I started enabling battery saver right after charging fully. I have yet to run it down to 20% and I've been getting two and a half days. That is much better than the 16-20 hours I was getting previously.

 

[Thuoudo]

Battery saver is only for when you reach 20% left--you can leave that enabled all the time

 

[pjs37]

Ok, I've done a full reset. I'm pretty amazed at how complicated Microsoft makes this. It will probably take me a few hours before the phone is back to where it was (settings updated, accounts logged into, apps re-downloaded, etc.) so hopefully over the weekend I'll be able to test if the battery is better.

One change I know I made was selecting the camera 'auto upload' to skydrive. I can't see that being a battery waster as it only happens when I take a photo but does anyone have any information about that?

Thanks again!

I did likewise this weekend so far its been lasting a lot longer. The only thing I changed for sure was my AmazingWeather app to the MS Weather App and I haven't subscribed to my podcasts again yet...so far for two days now its been saying 1 day of battery and battery life is about 70% when I got to bed and plug it in.