Will Multitasking affect battery life?

[TeeOwnzU]

I was curious if the new multitasking feature in Mango will have any affect on my phones battery life. I noticed that when I hold the back button, there are a lot of apps that I haven't used in awhile still open.
The battery life on these smart phones are bad enough, I don't want 5 programs running at once if that's going to make it worse.
Is there any way I can close all currently active apps?

 

[scottitude]

Tap the back button once for however many apps you want to close, or until you're at the home screen and can't go "back" any farther. Hope this helps.

I dont think there's a "close all" function.

ETA:
Haven't had Mango long enough to get a sense of whether the battery drain is worse, equal, or better with multi-tasking.

 

[TeeOwnzU]

I've been doing the tap back button trick but if I have to do that every single time I'm done using my phone that would be quite annoying.
Likewise, if the apps in the background are only save states and not simultaneously running, then I don't mind.

 

[techjunkieforlife]

I awoke to a flat battery this morning, so i'm thinking yes there maybe issues.

I would like a more certain way of closing apps also. I ran into an issue today with the BBC Radio Player app after I "closed" it out by backing out, well it never really closes. I could not see it in the multitasking tabs as open yet the music was still playing. I actually had to re-open the app, hit the stop button and back out again. I suspect poorly coded apps will never close out, you will not know it and your battery will drain.

 

[TeeOwnzU]

Oh boy, sounds like a nightmare already. I'm hoping there's a way to close all apps we just aren't aware of yet because I can't imagine nobody complained about battery draining during the beta Mango testing period...

 

[RumpRoast]

I don't mind hitting the back button several times to ensure that my apps are fully closed. It's only limited to 5 unlike my palm pre+ that can open as many as I please.

I do wish that the fast app"multitasking was executed better though, either by having an "x" in the corner like tabs in IE or the ability to swipe it away. Either way, I'm glad Mango was released and so far exceeded my expectations with little to no gripes.

 

[TeeOwnzU]

Agreed, hitting "x" in the corner would be a welcome addition, hitting the back button is just annoying. I did not know it was limited to 5 screens at a time though, that definitely is a positive.

 

[tsaunders80]

Agreed, hitting "x" in the corner would be a welcome addition, hitting the back button is just annoying. I did not know it was limited to 5 screens at a time though, that definitely is a positive.

I was shocked that there is no "x" to close out apps.

 

[scottcraft]

I think if the apps are written correctly they shouldn't affect battery life.

Sent from my Windows 7 phone using Board Express

 

[canesfan625]

This question has been answered a zillion times. When you pop out of an app it saves the state and closes. Except for certain apps that will still continue (like radio and such)

 

[TeeOwnzU]

Oh that's good to know then, thanks for the clarification

 

[canesfan625]

The new metro UI in windows 8 has the exact same behavior. its pretty neat. It makes me feel like im using a giant windows phone

 

[tiny]

Very little - Apps are allowed to wake-up and run some quick calculations/check in with a server, and then shut back down. So if you had a few of those apps running concurrently, your phone would experience faster drain.

Windows Phone handles multi-tasking in a way to minimize battery drain the most - better than any other mobile OS on the market.

 

[ninjaap]

I know it's not a very efficient way, but I have got accustomed to backing out every app until I get to the homescreen, if I want to use another app. I actually have to learn how to multi-task.

 

[hardrock1a]

Multi tasking in Mango is not really multi tasking. Its fast App switching, which to us appears to be multi-tasking. The app goes into basically a freeze dried state, every so often, depending on what background task it needs to perform, it gets a few milliseconds of time to do whatever it has to do. Of course an app like Pandora or whatever is actually going to continue to play, but that is not a major concern to battery life.

You have to think of Multitasking differently, when you get more than about 5 apps going in the background, the system closes the one that has been dehyrated the longest. Research has shown that 3 is about the furthest back somone goes to get a recently used app.

True multitasking is going to require multiple cores, and the performance gain from a dual core processor does not justify the additional drain on the battery. You can monitor (adjust) what background tasks you allow in settings, applications, background tasks.