Judging by the alarming number of threads related to battery life with DP 8.1 or Cyan, I decided to create this thread to try to get better understanding of battery management issues with WP 8.1.
Of course, I want everyone to realize that not everybody has battery life issues with his/her Windows phone. As usual, those who are satisfied have no reason to post about it and so, people with battery life concerns are over-represented. Personally, I recently got a used Lumia 925 and updated to DP 8.1 immediately and I am totally satisfied with my battery life. However, I am holding up on Update 1 since bugs have been reported. Don't need Update 1 features anyway. I charge my phone via usb cable or more recently via a Nokia Qi wireless charging station and switch it to airplane mode at night because Windows phones cannot be turned off while charging (Q1). In the morning, it indicates 100% state of charge. Many users have reported non 100% reading in the morning, which I consider a major issue (Q2).
Nevertheless, I have genuine interest in battery technology and decided it would be useful to try to gather every piece of information about battery management in WP OS.
Tips
People with battery life issues running any version of WP 8.1 should pay close attention to the OEM Battery Saver app. This app shows you which apps are draining the more energy from your battery and allows you to remove permissions for background processes on an app-by-app basis. Under the "usage" tab, you'll see a list of all apps that drained energy since your last charge (I believe) and what part of it came from the background processes of the app. This foreground Vs. background break out can be very useful. For instance, I can see that the game "Total Conquest" drained some juice even though I never played with it. It was the background processes associated with this game. Unfortunately, Battery Saver only displays a bar which, I guess, refers to the points (%) of the battery capacity that were consumed but there is no numeric display. I imagine a full horizontal bar means that this particular app drained 100% of the battery capacity? Anybody wants to play some 3D game in airplane mode from full charge to fully depleted for confirmation?
Stay tuned!
Of course, I want everyone to realize that not everybody has battery life issues with his/her Windows phone. As usual, those who are satisfied have no reason to post about it and so, people with battery life concerns are over-represented. Personally, I recently got a used Lumia 925 and updated to DP 8.1 immediately and I am totally satisfied with my battery life. However, I am holding up on Update 1 since bugs have been reported. Don't need Update 1 features anyway. I charge my phone via usb cable or more recently via a Nokia Qi wireless charging station and switch it to airplane mode at night because Windows phones cannot be turned off while charging (Q1). In the morning, it indicates 100% state of charge. Many users have reported non 100% reading in the morning, which I consider a major issue (Q2).
Nevertheless, I have genuine interest in battery technology and decided it would be useful to try to gather every piece of information about battery management in WP OS.
Tips
People with battery life issues running any version of WP 8.1 should pay close attention to the OEM Battery Saver app. This app shows you which apps are draining the more energy from your battery and allows you to remove permissions for background processes on an app-by-app basis. Under the "usage" tab, you'll see a list of all apps that drained energy since your last charge (I believe) and what part of it came from the background processes of the app. This foreground Vs. background break out can be very useful. For instance, I can see that the game "Total Conquest" drained some juice even though I never played with it. It was the background processes associated with this game. Unfortunately, Battery Saver only displays a bar which, I guess, refers to the points (%) of the battery capacity that were consumed but there is no numeric display. I imagine a full horizontal bar means that this particular app drained 100% of the battery capacity? Anybody wants to play some 3D game in airplane mode from full charge to fully depleted for confirmation?
Stay tuned!