How many shots can you take on a single charge for lumia 950XL

[PGrey]

I took a bunch of pics of my daughter and her friends at the park the other day, approx 150, and went down about 15%, but I was doing a few emails/texts too, during the same time period, even sent a few MMS pics texts to kids' parents.
This seems inline with what most others are seeing, about 1%=10 shots.
I bet if you went to 500 or something though, that the drain would be higher; I don't think the battery measurement is as linear as it should be. Those weird jumps in .420 are part of my suspicion, plus it seems pretty common that 100%->90% is very slow, and then the drain accelerates some.

 

[PGrey]

Update, as I got a (slightly) bigger sample-size, last night. Went to the Boston (band) concert here in Seattle, and shot 96 pics, and almost 10 minutes of HD video, plus texted a bunch of pics to friends (mostly whom I used to party with a LOT and go to other concerts, back in the day).
All of this was 32% of my battery start-finish, but did include those texts, which IME, are VERY battery intensive, particularly MMS with big pics.

It's a bit tricky to extrapolate from here to max battery, but I'd guess you'd easily get 400-500 shots, if fully-charged (and you weren't texting them around, like I was). I find the 1000 shots hard to believe too, based on this. Maybe, if you turned *everything* else off, all data sources, any background processes, but my estimated guess would be more like 6-700 then, clearly a guess though.

I was really pleased with my no-flash photos though, the camera aperature really excels here, I had very few pics that weren't decent quality, maybe 10-15%.
That's shooting in mostly dark, with some crazy-bring flashes of light, as those of you concert-goers (I was quite the partier/attender back at some point, I've seen Boston twice, Scorpions 4 times, I could go on...) know, FAR from ideal conditions for any camera, much less a phone... Good stuff, I continue to be impressed and pleased with my 950XL.

Edit: just realized I also texted a 45-second HD video to one buddy too, oops, that probably seriously ate some battery...

 

[PGrey]

Update:
Yes! It only took two crashes (and recovery) of Windows 10 Explorer to actually copy the files, via USB-C (actual, quality USB-C cable), instead of the frequent 5-10 crashes to copy a series of pics or other files, from the phone (mostly SD, 80-90 read-speed mbps card).
Windows 10 Desktop and/or Mobile fixed some stuff here, maybe the desktop added a longer timeout or retry logic, but either way, it's much better than the 200's and 300's builds, or it's the desktop. Tricky to figure out, without wading through changelogs and/or reverting a bunch of stuff.
Obviously, zero crashes would be ideal, but this is MUCH better.

In case anyone cares, first crash was enumerating the files (only maybe 15-20), second was starting copy, after a couple of files (that never made it to the target disk/SSD), third one went straight-through, copy complete.
I tried to diff afterwards, but that wasn't happening, crashed again, twice, gave up.

Anyway, Chintan G., hopefully this gives your some more data, and impetus to move towards a new 950/XL!

 

[PGrey]

One more thought, on this topic.

It would be fairly easy, if you had the SDK, and a development environment set up for mobile (I haven't, since 8.0 days, not even sure my tools would work with the newer SDK), to script or similar, to test the actual number of pics.
You'd just need to:
1. disable all radios and background stuff, except the camera
2. take pic sets, say 25 at a time
3. check the battery
4. save the total number of shots (could be done later though, to avoid this cycle, just count via USB or similar)
5. if battery >=10% (seems like a safe margin) then loop back to 2

Easy-peasy stuff, maybe someone with a current dev branch could scribble this up, given the simple pseudo-code?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

One more thought, on this topic.

It would be fairly easy, if you had the SDK, and a development environment set up for mobile (I haven't, since 8.0 days, not even sure my tools would work with the newer SDK), to script or similar, to test the actual number of pics.
You'd just need to:
1. disable all radios and background stuff, except the camera
2. take pic sets, say 25 at a time
3. check the battery
4. save the total number of shots (could be done later though, to avoid this cycle, just count via USB or similar)
5. if battery >=10% (seems like a safe margin) then loop back to 2

Easy-peasy stuff, maybe someone with a current dev branch could scribble this up, given the simple pseudo-code?

this is way beyond me :grincry:. I would test some things out but I don't have a phone now. I'm actually considering getting a dslr - the Nikon D5300 looks good

 

[PGrey]

Yeah, that's a sweet DSLR. I've got quite a bit older one myself, but it still does the job for most stuff, 16mp is enough, usually, unless you're blowing it up to large poster size or something.

I can probably write the script or managed code, fairly quickly, but I don't have the mobile SDK, or any way to compile or test it.
Something sort of went "click" last night, literally and figuratively I suppose, when I realized a quick app/utility for this should be pretty simple. There might even be one out there already, I haven't looked...

 

[SL2]

I'm actually considering getting a dslr - the Nikon D5300 looks good

Just a heads up. My friend bought a D90 when it was new and quite expensive. She later regretted it, sold it, and got a Canon instead because of the UI.
She didn't do it because of specs or picture quality, and Nikon is a solid brand. She actually got the cheapest Canon and liked it a lot more.

The UI may not work like you want it to do. Well unless you're used to Nikon. I would try some different brands before buying.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Just a heads up. My friend bought a D90 when it was new and quite expensive. She later regretted it, sold it, and got a Canon instead because of the UI.
She didn't do it because of specs or picture quality, and Nikon is a solid brand. She actually got the cheapest Canon and liked it a lot more.

The UI may not work like you want it to do. Well unless you're used to Nikon. I would try some different brands before buying.

I've never used a dslr so I can't know until I try one out. You're the second person to recommend a canon (out of many who have recommended a Nikon). I'll have to reconsider.
What's the nearest in a Canon to the D5300?

 

[SL2]

I've never used a dslr so I can't know until I try one out. You're the second person to recommend a canon (out of many who have recommended a Nikon). I'll have to reconsider.
What's the nearest in a Canon to the D5300?

I think I need to clarify. I am not recommending Canon here, just telling you what happened to my friend. She lost a lot of money by switching brands. Bying a DSLR is not like buying a phone. For instance, it's easy to get an idea of how Android works compared to Windows, but how does the UI work in a specific DSLR brand? I have no idea..

The closest models in terms of price should be 750D and 760D.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I think I need to clarify. I am not recommending Canon here, just telling you what happened to my friend. She lost a lot of money by switching brands. Bying a DSLR is not like buying a phone. For instance, it's easy to get an idea of how Android works compared to Windows, but how does the UI work in a specific DSLR brand? I have no idea..

The closest models in terms of price should be 750D and 760D.

Changing brands is not easy since the equipment is not interchangeable. I can't expect the lens for Nikon to work on the Canon

But thank you for the info

 

[PGrey]

Yep, I had Canon, for many years, back to the old SLR (non-D) days. I switched about 6 years ago though, and really like my Nikon; I don't see myself going back anytime soon.
It's just overall more consistent, probably the best word to describe it, I can rely on consistency far more than with my Canon models. Maybe not always the absolutely same quality, but close enough for me. I like the way the custom modes work on the Nikon too, a bit better.
I've shot some with a friends' 5d (maybe 150-200), and it was PLENTY consistent, and high-quality too, but that's a whole different deal, by far, his investment in lenses alone makes my photography look a bit "silly". I'm okay with that though, I still remember developing my own film, and fooling around with stuff in the darkroom, so I think my current setup is plenty spiffy...
I still have my best Canon lens though, it's sort of tough to part with for some reason, but I really should ditch it, and get a wide-range zoom; I could really use a lens that would push 300mm or so, taking more pics of my daughter's sports and the like.

Oh yeah, not to "rub salt", but I was taking pics of a few fireworks (on our July 4th holiday, yesterday), and my waterproof , pretty decent point-and-shoot, got eclipsed, by my daughter and my old 1020. It took far better shots in the dark, even though aperature-wise they were pretty evenly matched. That old 1020 is one great camera, inside a phone ;-]

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Oh yeah, not to "rub salt", but I was taking pics of a few fireworks (on our July 4th holiday, yesterday), and my waterproof , pretty decent point-and-shoot, got eclipsed, by my daughter and my old 1020. It took far better shots in the dark, even though aperature-wise they were pretty evenly matched. That old 1020 is one great camera, inside a phone ;-]

I got some pretty decent shots of fireworks when I did it as long exposures, that was handheld too

 

[Grodelj]

What OS are you on? I was trying to record my kids performance a couple weeks ago and the phone stopped after about 3 mins saying it was overheating too much!! This was while on 10586.420

Sorry OP, I don't have answers for you, it's interesting question but it's not something I know much about. Maybe when I'm on vacation next week I'll take more pictures to see

I don't know which build it was, but it was production release. I never had an overheating issue on my phone.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Guys, check for firmware updates, new ones have been released for the 950s - claims of better camera performance and battery management