How Does Live Tile Updates Affect Data Usage and Battery?

[anond]

Mango people, need your word here - have you seen any significant change in the way you consume data and battery with the Live tile interface? While this seems to be cooler than what iOS or Android offers, I was wondering if this constant updating of the tiles could bring down the battery or drain my data limits...

/not a WP7 customer yet/

 

[TheWeeBear]

Hi anond, while this doesn't apply to me as I have unlimited data, the more tiles you pin to your home screen the more the apps will be pulling down data naturally.

It's not much at all really, I wouldn't be concerned.

Regarding the battery, it's about the same as other phone's I've had, around a day's battery life, less if used a lot.

 

[Pronk]

It does also depend on the tiles in question. Some very clearly pull down more data than others, and so use more battery. For example on two different phones I've tried it with, the People tile uses battery more than the Me tile.

Why? Not sure. But it'd be nice to know.

 

[palandri]

Pronk is probably right, it depends on the application. I have a Pay As You Go SIM card in my Trophy and I only buy 100mb of data a month for it and I haven't went over that. I do use all of it over the entire month. It's my work phone, so it's on wireless data for 10 hours a day. At home I am on WiFi with it

 

[TheWeeBear]

Very true, the WPC app has 500 million toast alerts per day, so uses that little bit more data. (They can be turned off, of course)

 

[martin_strahilovski]

It does also depend on the tiles in question. Some very clearly pull down more data than others, and so use more battery. For example on two different phones I've tried it with, the People tile uses battery more than the Me tile.

Why? Not sure. But it'd be nice to know.

It would be nice to have application that is checking your battery life with the live tiles and background apps you are using, but i don't know if that option is open. I think that only developers phone can use this.

 

[podsnap]

Am I right in thinking that none of these tiles are active with the phone in standby (screen off)?

When I touch the power button and slide up the homescreen the people tile is always in the same state as when I switched off the screen (it obviously then immediately starts to animate).

As for data usage, I have a 1GB allowance and have never used even a 3rd of that.

 

[jimski]

Am I right in thinking that none of these tiles are active with the phone in standby (screen off)?

.

Exactly. Tiles are not using any resources (battery or data) while your phone is asleep. I have been doing testing each night, with radios off, to see what kind of drain I am getting from active background tasks. Found a couple battery thieves but others are negligible. Something to keep an eye on though. Found one app that drained 15% of my battery in 7.5 hours of sleep mode.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[kg4icg]

I get a full days use out of my Arrive, but I'm a trucker so I have use of mobile adapter. As for data with web surfing, emails, some youtube videos, I use on average between 1gb and 1.25 gb of data a month

 

[palandri]

... Found one app that drained 15% of my battery in 7.5 hours of sleep mode.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

What application was draining that much battery in sleep mode?

 

[aubreyq]

What application was draining that much battery in sleep mode?

LOL yeah, jimski, care to share?

 

[Pronk]

Exactly. Tiles are not using any resources (battery or data) while your phone is asleep.

This surely isn't true? I've left my phone for a while, come back, and on unlocking it found updates on some tiles on the start screen.

Otherwise, how would they ever update to show you new things when you come back to your phone?

 

[Blacklac]

Exactly. Tiles are not using any resources (battery or data) while your phone is asleep. I have been doing testing each night, with radios off, to see what kind of drain I am getting from active background tasks. Found a couple battery thieves but others are negligible. Something to keep an eye on though. Found one app that drained 15% of my battery in 7.5 hours of sleep mode.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

Is there an App to monitor this? (Sorry, Im a WP noob.)

 

[TaliZorah]

Hi anond, while this doesn't apply to me as I have unlimited data, the more tiles you pin to your home screen the more the apps will be pulling down data naturally.

It's not much at all really, I wouldn't be concerned.

Regarding the battery, it's about the same as other phone's I've had, around a day's battery life, less if used a lot.

I get at least 2 days out of my Arrive and Radar. Both are known to have great battery life, I think the Radar has the best battery life ratings for any WP7 device.

I sync my email (manually) about 5 times a day, I just got done downloaded the two new Xbox Live games over 4G. I check weather and my stocks regularly.... check my bank account, surf the web... etc. And I text like crazy lol. I have all data connections turned off except cellular, and I turn off all background tasks. I have my weather, news, and stocks set to only update manually.

My phone has been on for 1 day 2 hours and I got 36%battery life left. Projected to get 18 more hours of battery life.

 

[jfa1]

It would be nice to have application that is checking your battery life with the live tiles and background apps you are using, but i don't know if that option is open. I think that only developers phone can use this.

Most carriers (i.e the Big 4) have apps or web sites that you can check your minutes used as well as data used ATT just rolled out the my ATT app for WP and I downloaded it its pretty nice. If you are on ATT check it out!

 

[anond]

Thanks all..So the consensus appears to be that while live tiles do consume data on an ongoing basis because of constant updates, it is negligible. Can't wait to buy my own soon.

 

[webosisalive!]

Mango people, need your word here - have you seen any significant change in the way you consume data and battery with the Live tile interface? While this seems to be cooler than what iOS or Android offers, I was wondering if this constant updating of the tiles could bring down the battery or drain my data limits...

/not a WP7 customer yet/

When I was setting up my flash i didnt care about battery life and figured if i need to, i can change stuff later. Currently i get about a days use, with 10 or 15% left when i put it on the charger. All my apps that are live tiles and pinned to my home screen i have automatically update and give me notifications, my email account automatically updates when i get one(literally i get emails seconds after someones sends it, i have tested it, it's amazing), brightness on high no auto adjust. So basically my phone is on the highest battery/data usage i can use and i always have batter at the end of the night and my data ive used so far this billing cycle(5days) is 214 mb, i usually use a gig and a half and im never on wifi unless i need to for downloading apps.

 

[sloppy standard]

My Lumia 800 was pretty good at first, in terms of battery, then once I started using it and downloading apps, I would be lucky if the battery lasted 7-8 hours. I did all the tricks, namely turning off automatic updates and keeping them off, and now I have around 18-24 hours of battery, with calling, texting, surfing, checking email several a times a day, and 30 minutes of GPS.

I'd say Live updates are battery hogs. Plus I've found that once I tap the tile, it updates VERY quickly, so I don't need live updates on. The hungriest app on my phone was AccuWeather.