830 Battery matters...

[kristalsoldier]

Hi all...

Having just got the 830 as an upgrade from my 720, I remain fascinated by the design principles of my new phone. In a single word, it is amazing!

My only concern is the battery life. Let me explain. First, it appears that the 830 takes quite a bit of time to charge up. My experience has been that it takes close to three hours or a bit more to charge from around 20% back to full charge. The other thing is that I seem to be losing about 5% charge per hour. This is with the phone not being used at all. Network connection locked to 3G (reception fluctuating between 3-4 bars), WIFI on and some apps running in the background (I'll come to this later). The other thing I noticed is that after having charged the phone to 100%, when I take the phone off the charger, it immediately loses 1%. This is happens when all of the above are in place but with me emailing and receiving mails in one account (I have three email accounts set up).

So, how do I have my 830 set up? Brightness is set to Auto. Three email accounts polling mail as it arrives (two Outlook accounts and one work mail). The following apps run in the background: Battery Saver, Nextgen Reader, Weather, Calendar, OneDrive, Skype. That's it. Ideally, I would have like to have some more apps running - like Flipboard, Cortana, and Health and Fitness. But I have noticed that keeping them on just drains the battery faster.

I find - in the Battery Saver section - that I seem to use the following the most: IE, the 3 email accounts and, naturally, Battery Saver!

Yesterday, I took the phone off the charger at Noon. I was then out and about for the next 7 hours. The phone was minimally used in the sense that I spent most of my time on IE, Nextgen Reader and Flipboard. By the time I got back home, the battery was down to about 70% (this is by 7PM) and by the time I went to bed (1AM), the battery was down to 30%. The usage at home was similar or less than what I was doing when out and about as I was continually on my Surface.

Now, on the face of it, it will seem that with the phone on for 13 hours, the battery level was down to 30%. But remember that this is with low usage. By low usage I mean - very few emails (I do a lot of emails!), zero phone calls, no Viber or Skype (which I also do quite a lot - the former more than the latter), no SMS (which I do occasionally).

All on all I find that Internet Explorer eats up much of the battery.

So, at the end of it all, I want to ask all you other 830 owners - do you share similar experiences? If not, what do you suggest I do about the battery life? Should I just drain the phone down to zero and recharge it? Maybe it is a battery calibration issue? What I find odd is that the usual solution is to turn off apps running in the background. I find this odd because then in many cases (for example with Cortana etc.) that would defeat the very purpose of the smartphone (of any smartphone). Obviously, there are choices to be made and I am willing to do so, but as an across the board solution, I don't think killing apps running in the background is optimal. Also, what's up with IE eating up battery? Is the browser not optimized for the smartphone?

Regardless, as I said I am very happy with the 830 in every other respect. And the whole point of this long post was to solicit your experience and suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

If it's a calibration problem, why not do a full charge, then do a soft reset?

I'd also recommend for you to just switch between brightness settings manually, and toggle how bright each setting is in brightness profile in display.

As a 630 owner, I will tell you that Internet Explorer will eat up your battery life (both the 630 and 830 have quad-core Qualcomm 400 processors.)

Also, how quick is your charger?

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks! About the charger...you now that could very well be a problem because I am currently charging it off my Surface's charger (which has a USB port). Perhaps I should just use the dedicated charger.

About the full charge and the soft reset. Since the 830 has a removable battery, would pulling the battery and putting it back count as a soft reset or does it have to be the volume+power button combo?

Good idea about the brightness. I'll try it out.

And, about IE, well, that's a shame really. I do wish it was optimized better but perhaps that is the nature of the beast.

 

[nallWhite]

I run IE with max data savings. Wonder if that makes a difference.

 

[Tellus82]

Here's a tip, in the battery saver just disable background running for IE and the likes, there is no reason to have IE running at all except when you actually use it. (and keep in mind you can still use apps in the background, just be selective of which ones you do let run in the back)

Positioning can draw alot if you have apps that constantly asks for location to be updated, combine with cortana and it will be even worse, don't Think thats limited to this phone though...

Today i have listened to spotify through the speakerphone for 5 hours, made 30 minutes of calls, browsed the web for an hour through 3g and 4g, took around 35 Pictures and with 9 hours just now since last charge im on 75% battery (location off, 4g on, light on auto, 2 mail acc's with sync etc.). If i use my 830 to a rediculous degree i might end up on 30% battery after 18h, but thats HEAVY usage. Mind you this is after initial setup & backups & syncs and so on already done, that took almost a day before most was done. As long as you don't have silly apps running in the background you will get good life from this phone.

 

[Arman Qureshi]

Same issue on my Lumia 830.. I just can't believe smartphone with 2200mah can perform like this!! Let me know if you find any solution for that..thanks for elaborate all the things in detail.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks. One question. You mention in Battery Saver to disable IE from running in the background. How do you do that. I can see no option to turn it off (or on for that matter). When I see under "Usage" (show apps that can run in the background), I don't see IE listed. Other apps are which is from where I have turned them off. But not IE. What am I missing?

Edit: Can't totally do without location services. Some apps like UK Trains and Bus Schedules need location and I need the info in those apps. As I must have mentioned above, I guess it is always a matter of tradeoffs.

 

[Tellus82]

In the batterysaving "app" you can choose to show apps that run in the background, once you see those you can press on one to show options for it, you can then select when this app is allowed to run, (Always, only during non batterysaving mode or never)

Can add that i have now had the screen continuously on for 2h during remote control of my onkyo amp & spotify and with everything in my last post and now 13h since last charge im on 64% left.

This will be a bit weird but i hope it can come to some use anyways, these are screengrabs from my 830 so language is swedish (to much fuss to change it to English) but the English version looks identical, just different language.

Here you can see the first page in the batterysaver, i have already selected to show apps that run in the background by pressing that textline & choosing the right one from the drop down menu, you also get a description under each app to show if its allowed or not

Here you can toggle if its allowed at all and if it should be allowed during batterysaving mode

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks. Yes, this is precisely what I have done. However, in this listing - at least on my phone - there is no option for Internet Explorer. Do you have it on your 830?

Edit: Sorry, it appears that IE does appear in your list, but it does not appear on mine. I wonder why????

 

[Chris_Germany]

Thanks. Yes, this is precisely what I have done. However, in this listing - at least on my phone - there is no option for Internet Explorer. Do you have it on your 830?

Edit: Sorry, it appears that IE does appear in your list, but it does not appear on mine. I wonder why????

I think he said it before... There is a button to switch between what is shown... Look for it!!
My 830 drains 3% in 8 hours when I am at sleep. Medium reception and WiFi.
So that means the battery/system is fine!
My advice: Don't listen to the guys that say turn off everything and brightness manual and whatnot...
I left IE enabled, because sometimes I want to play music on youtube and turn my screen off...
Turn off battery saver in battery saver settings! I heard that helps!!!!

 

[raycpl]

You guys shouldn't complain at all. That's superb battery performance when compared to my 920.

 

[pankaj981]

Thanks. Yes, this is precisely what I have done. However, in this listing - at least on my phone - there is no option for Internet Explorer. Do you have it on your 830?

Edit: Sorry, it appears that IE does appear in your list, but it does not appear on mine. I wonder why????

Disable IE from Sync my Settings under Settings, the background toggle should appear in some time (might take a few hours to a soft reset)

 

[RestLessElement]

Nokia Lumia 830 bettery backup is far better as i am not a heavy user a light user now it easily give me 24hrs+..but still i have to do some more battery test with heavy usage

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks very much!

 

[prasath1234]

For light user even lumia 820 is more than enough.expected much more from lumia 830.

 

[realwarder]

Sounds to me that the OS bug where a background task chews through the battery still exists. Show me one Lumia phone which doesn't have this issue reported.

 

[revfast]

Sounds to me that the OS bug where a background task chews through the battery still exists. Show me one Lumia phone which doesn't have this issue reported.

This battery bug has been an issue since wp 8, I would sometimes get close to 16 hrs of usage but something would happen and I would only get 8hrs.

This is on my Lumia 920. Us 920 users have been dealing with this issue since the phone was released.

 

[Chris_Germany]

i lost 3% this night, same as the night before, but today i slept about 8 hours! thats very good standby drain.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks guys. A few updates. First, I have turned off IE running in the background. Second, I found that the charging takes place at normal speed (that is, quickly) when I use the standard issued charger that came in the box. I was using the charger of my Surface Pro 3 to charge the 830 and it was slow. Don't know why because I used the same set up for my 720 when I was traveling recently and it worked just fine. I am now playing around with turning on and off apps working in the background to see the impact on the battery levels.

One thing though and I wonder if you folks could confirm this: When the phone is hooked onto the charger (the standard charger) and is charged up to 100% and it has been so for about 1 hour or so and take it off, then the battery charge level drops to 99% within minutes. I did not notice this happening on my 720 and was wondering if this is the case with you guys too. The only activity that I engage in those first few minutes (10 mins max) is to check for mails that are already sitting in the inbox of my accounts. I do not reply to the mails nor do I do anything.

Thanks.

 

[zack251]

It happened to me as well. But after that the battery holds pretty good. Can last about a day with moderate to heavy usage.

One thing though and I wonder if you folks could confirm this: When the phone is hooked onto the charger (the standard charger) and is charged up to 100% and it has been so for about 1 hour or so and take it off, then the battery charge level drops to 99% within minutes. I did not notice this happening on my 720 and was wondering if this is the case with you guys too. The only activity that I engage in those first few minutes (10 mins max) is to check for mails that are already sitting in the inbox of my accounts. I do not reply to the mails nor do I do anything.

Thanks.