Quick questions: Battery on Focus S and Notification on Mango

[EricCantona]

All,

I just switched from iPhone, I must say WP7 is very impressive. I don't know if I could ever switch back to iOS.

Anyway, I have 2 quick questions:
1. The battery on my Samsung Focus S only lasts about 10-14 hours is this normal? Sure I made a few phone calls, perhaps about an hour total. Minimal usage I'd say.
Yes, I turned off auto-adjust on brightness. I have bluetooth on for a few hours (hands free). Wireless on too. But as far as I remember my iPhone can endure the same situation far longer than 15 hours.

2. If I post a message (update status on facebook), how come I don't get a notification when someone makes a comment?

Thanks much guys

 

[Matthew Mazzenga]

I can't answer the first question, as I don't have the Focus S, but as for your second one:

If you're looking at the People tile for notifications, it won't happen. You have to pin your "Me" tile, and you'll see from there when you get Facebook comments, etc.

Open People tile -> Tap your picture above your contacts list -> tap the pin icon at the bottom of the screen.

And welcome to the wonderful world of WP.

 

[EricCantona]

Thanks for the quick respond
Yeah I have my Me tile pinned. But the notification isn't really consistent. Sometimes I'd get notified other times I don't. And do you know if this notification gets pushed immediately or there's a lag?

I think I'm going to return it tomorrow and get a new one, hopefully that will fix the battery.

 

[enahs555]

Welcome! I do not have a Focus S, but a few quick things.

One, give it a few days. The battery indication level is partly an algorithm in all smartphones to determine how much battery has actually been used. It needs to go through a few discharge and charge cycles to start getting it correct.


If you are using the light theme (white background) it will eat up battery a lot faster.
You can also try setting the screen to time off faster if it is set crazy high.

Also, if you are in a location where you have "4g", well, the price you pay for that faster "4g" connection is more battery usage.

 

[EricCantona]

Ah I see, I know I keep seeing 4G, does it mean that in a 3G only area it will display 3G instead of 4G? The reason I ask is because I know my area has no 4G coverage but it always shows 4G

 

[EricCantona]

Oh nevermind I have 4G

 

[Verkunder]

Turn on battery saving option when it gets low, helps out a ton. Set your email to arrive every 15+ minutes. Turn off Facebook/WLM chat. Turn off Feedback and Find my phone. Turn off auto upload to Skydrive. Turn off location. And obvisouly tuurn off Bluetooth/Wifi when not in use (download the Network Dashboard app to help with that).

My Focus S will last 30 hours with those settings.

 

[power5]

Turn off find my phone? Thats a bad idea. Cant really turn it back on if you lose it. Without location none of the search will work either. Turning off BT and Wifi is necessary? If its not connected to BT or wifi does it take power?

My iphone has everything on all the time with shortest push time of 15min for email. If my phone just sits on my desk all day I am over 75% when I get home. When I am emailing a lot I will get home with 50%. 50% brightness on all the time as well. I really hope I do not have to turn everything off all the time with WP. That is too much like android in my eyes and a great deterrent for me at this point.

 

[jimski]

You don't. Even with the puny 1230mAh battery on my Surround, with everything "on", plus WiFi (24/7) and 4 email accounts, if I start my day with a full charge and leave the phone on my desk, checking an occasional email or text, I can get home after 8-10 hours with 60-70% remaining.

Battery usage is based on screen-on and data usage time. If your phone is rated for 6 hours talk time, then that's about all the screen on time you should expect.


Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[power5]

Thats good to hear.

 

[enahs555]

Yes, if you have the "4g" logo you are on "4g". It will use more power in standby and talk time. Conversely though, when you actually transfer data it will transfer faster and could theoretically save you some power by completing those tasks faster.


Other things. I would leave Find my Phone on, but at least in NoDo there are 2 settings, and one uses less power. I would use the less power mode.

Also, onto your accounts. You have to have a Windows Live account to use the phone, but a lot of people use a Gmail or other account for their actual email. If this is your case and you want your email as they arrive, set them as they arrive. If you do not use your Windows Live email, then you do not need to sync your Windows Live account as Items Arrive interval, so that can save a lot of power.

If you use the Windows Live calendar and contacts, but gmail for email, then tell your gmail account to not sync contacts and calendar, this will save a good bit of battery. If you do use gmail for contacts and calendars then tell the Windows Live account to not waste time and battery checking for those. etc.

Wifi on/off.
WiFi is not required to turn on or off, it goes into sleep mode with regard to wifi when your phone sleeps anyway. But if you are in area where you have no wifi connection setup, it will waste battery looking for one (so will every other phone, fyi). So at home or work you can leave it on, but if you are out and about and plan on using your phone a lot, it can help you to turn off wifi.

Bluetooth I am not really sure, I do not use that crap. But there are "apps" that you can pin the toggle to the start screen if you wish, etc.

 

[EricCantona]

Thanks so much for the instruction enahs555.

Unfortunately I'm going to return the phone and get a new one instead. I hope they have them in stock.

Before I went to bed last night (around 1am) I unplugged the cable and the battery was still at 100%. This morning I woke up (at 7a) the battery was already at 76%. There is something wrong with it.

Here's the set up I have:
- Wifi: On
- Bluetooth: Off
- Battery Saver: On
- Receive as Email arrive (1 account, the rest (3) is set to 15 mins)
- Brightness: Medium (But my screen was off all night)

Hopefully this is not the case of this-is-what-you-get-with-focus-s type of situation. I hope the new one fixes it.

 

[enahs555]

That does seem a little extreme. Again, I only have the Focus, but Samsung says the battery life of the Focus S should last longer. So if you believe them, something is up.


Now, it might just be that you are in a poor reception area. If your phone is in a poor reception area, it uses more power to maintain a good connection. Yes, the phone antenna and design plays a role in this; but it is mostly the local carrier. Is your 4g signal really weak? If so, it is using a ton of power to try and hold onto that 4g and that is really just your local carriers fault, not the phone, etc.

 

[power5]

That can not be right. 6 hours in standby should not take 25% of your battery.

Turn 4g off tonight and see what happens with the same situation.

 

[EricCantona]

Thanks, I will definitely try that tonight.
4G reception in my area is pretty decent .. I got 3 bars.

 

[EricCantona]

I can officially say there is something wrong about the phone. 4 hours later my battery went down to 24%.

Also it gets very warm. I didn't even make a single phone call. Hopefully I'll get a good replacement.

Thanks all

 

[power5]

Hmm, so the love song of samsung quality is taking a hit it seems.

 

[EricCantona]

I'm going to find out if I can exchange this with Titan.

 

[theefman]

Have you tried a hard reset? Getting warm, sounds like something is actively downloading data, are you connected to facebook, twitter, chat? How many live tiles do you have pinned? A reset and then test could tell you if its some app or the phone battery at fault.

 

[EricCantona]

@theefman:
Yes I did the hard reset. It doesn't help. It was the first thing the guy at ATT told me to do.