Official response to battery problem

[fieldbaker]

Hey everyone..

As seen in here and on other parts of this forum many WP8/Nokias suffer from battery drain. My brand new 1020 also suffered from this. I ended up returning mine. Anyway, I got a response from an employee at Nokia.

"Hi,

We have planned some improvement to the "battery draining fast" issues with the upcoming SW release which is planned to be made available by the end of this year.

Still can I know how fast the battery is draining? Could you please try any one of the "battery monitor" applications available in Market place to get an idea how the battery performance is?

Br,"

Does anyone know anything more about this SW release?

 

[Blacklac]

Probably means when GDR3 + Black officially starts rolling out. The average person has no idea about the Dev Preview GDR3.

However, we already know GDR3 does nothing to improve battery life, to any noticeable degree.

 

[dznk]

I would say they mean the Black Update as well. As this is a Nokia update, they will provide improvements and fixes along with additional features. You'll likely get this update early 2014 though.

 

[dirk ossebaar]

These Nokia products are so terribly bad, from the user interface to the electronics, it is built in china so that explains much

 

[dinoBa]

These Nokia products are so terribly bad, from the user interface to the electronics, it is built in china so that explains much

As opposed to other manufacturers' phones being built in Germany?

 

[Derausgewanderte]

These Nokia products are so terribly bad, from the user interface to the electronics, it is built in china so that explains much

ROFL:winktongue:

 

[Armin Mhd]

My lumia 925 drains the whole battery from 100% to 0% in 3:30 hours with just texting! This is ridiculous! I have to charge it 3 times a day. I hope they fix it or im gonna switch, i love WP8 and really dont wanna leave but this is really annoying and its bothering me.

 

[gently]

These Nokia products are so terribly bad, from the user interface to the electronics, it is built in china so that explains much

Great that is the imput we are all waiting for. Really usefull !
Nokia makes with the Lumia line terrific phones, period.

 

[dinoBa]

...
We have planned some improvement to the "battery draining fast" issues with the upcoming SW release which is planned to be made available by the end of this year.

I think GDR3 just updates the OS, while the Black+GDR3 will also update the firmware (which should optimise battery life and imaging, amongst other things).

 

[Derausgewanderte]

My lumia 925 drains the whole battery from 100% to 0% in 3:30 hours with just texting! This is ridiculous! I have to charge it 3 times a day. I hope they fix it or im gonna switch, i love WP8 and really dont wanna leave but this is really annoying and its bothering me.

That is bad and likely hardware. I'd try to get a replacement. This is after you did a hard reset?

 

[Guytronic]

These Nokia products are so terribly bad, from the user interface to the electronics, it is built in china so that explains much

That doesn't explain much to me.
What isn't built in China?

*btw
Nokia makes one of the best low cost smartphones on the globe right now.

 

[Armin Mhd]

Ive switched 3 times. And yes everytime I hard reset the phone. But all 3 were the same, no difference!

 

[AndrewL920]

Here is my ultimate settings to improve battery.

Reset/reformat the phone
Uninstall all the bloatwares (Angry bird roost, Nokia drive, Nokia here lens, Nokia Maps, CNN, ESPN Hub, Nokia Smart Cam, Smart Shoot, App Highlights, Transfer my data, Nokia Care, Weather App, Facebook, Twitter) ETC. Until you cannot uninstall anymore apps
Then go to settings
Turned off vibrate, uncheck Key Press, and lock and unlock on Sound settings.
Choose dark theme
Set lock screen to 30 seconds
Uncheck "Notify me when new networks are found" in wifi settings
Turned off bluetooth
Turned off tap+send
Turned off Data connection and set the highest connection speed to 2G
Turned off Location
Turned off all the backup settings (auto upload)
Set brightness to Low
Set touch sensitivity to Normal
Tuned off Connect with Xbox
Now install only necessary apps that you will only use.
Then disable or blocked all the background task
Do not fully drain your battery by the way.

Enjoy!

 

[PB_H]

Probably means when GDR3 + Black officially starts rolling out. The average person has no idea about the Dev Preview GDR3.

However, we already know GDR3 does nothing to improve battery life, to any noticeable degree.

Since the note was from Nokia they mean Lumia Black

 

[PB_H]

Here is my ultimate settings to improve battery.

Reset/reformat the phone
Uninstall all the bloatwares (Angry bird roost, Nokia drive, Nokia here lens, Nokia Maps, CNN, ESPN Hub, Nokia Smart Cam, Smart Shoot, App Highlights, Transfer my data, Nokia Care, Weather App, Facebook, Twitter) ETC. Until you cannot uninstall anymore apps
Then go to settings
Turned off vibrate, uncheck Key Press, and lock and unlock on Sound settings.
Choose dark theme
Set lock screen to 30 seconds
Uncheck "Notify me when new networks are found" in wifi settings
Turned off bluetooth
Turned off tap+send
Turned off Data connection and set the highest connection speed to 2G
Turned off Location
Turned off all the backup settings (auto upload)
Set brightness to Low
Set touch sensitivity to Normal
Tuned off Connect with Xbox
Now install only necessary apps that you will only use.
Then disable or blocked all the background task
Do not fully drain your battery by the way.

Enjoy!

I have a better one:
Turn off phone until you need to call someone.
Battery lasts a month

 

[RJ Priest]

My brother has to charge his 920 all the time throughout the day.

I really want to switch to a future Nokia device for the camera benefits, but when we're talking about current generation (920, 925, 8X, ATIV S), I'm sure that the ATIV S is the king of battery life. My ATIV S routinely takes 20+ hours in order to drop to 30-50% remaining charge (depending on my use that day) without me having to limit the functionality of my device by disabling everything and blocking every background task. Gaming is the only thing that will suck down the battery very quickly.

ATIV S: 2300 mAh + 4.8" AMOLED
920: 2000 mAh + 4.5" LCD

Anyone who is unhappy with 920 battery life, don't leave WP, just pick up a relatively cheap ATIV S. Larger screen, awesome battery life, and camera as good as anything that isn't a Nokia Pureview module.

Disclaimer for photo-junkies like myself: You'll miss the manual control of Nokia camera, and ProShot doesn't work on ATIV S either.

 

[Armin Mhd]

Here is my ultimate settings to improve battery.

Reset/reformat the phone
Uninstall all the bloatwares (Angry bird roost, Nokia drive, Nokia here lens, Nokia Maps, CNN, ESPN Hub, Nokia Smart Cam, Smart Shoot, App Highlights, Transfer my data, Nokia Care, Weather App, Facebook, Twitter) ETC. Until you cannot uninstall anymore apps
Then go to settings
Turned off vibrate, uncheck Key Press, and lock and unlock on Sound settings.
Choose dark theme
Set lock screen to 30 seconds
Uncheck "Notify me when new networks are found" in wifi settings
Turned off bluetooth
Turned off tap+send
Turned off Data connection and set the highest connection speed to 2G
Turned off Location
Turned off all the backup settings (auto upload)
Set brightness to Low
Set touch sensitivity to Normal
Tuned off Connect with Xbox
Now install only necessary apps that you will only use.
Then disable or blocked all the background task
Do not fully drain your battery by the way.

Enjoy!

well if someone wants to do that, they might as well sell their smartphone! Whats the reason to buy a smartphone if you have to worry about your phone and dont use it?!

 

[jojoe42]

well if someone wants to do that, they might as well sell their smartphone! Whats the reason to buy a smartphone if you have to worry about your phone and dont use it?!

I have a more modest approach on my Lumia 1020, and it usually nets me about 15 hours of medium-high usage and 2 and a half days on light-medium usage:
Critical things:

• Uninstalled most of the Nokia/stock apps, except for Nokia Camera, Here Drive+, Here Maps; basically any apps I don't really use I uninstall
• Dark theme (personally I find the light theme too bright with an AMOLED screen, plus also it saves battery BIG time)
• All accounts set to update every 15 minutes (not push)
• Lock-screen timeout set to 1 minute, WiFi has the "notify me when new networks are found" setting off, and also "send information about WiFi connections to help discover nearby WiFi" - I'd assume this uses data, cellular and GPS
• Bluetooth and tap+send are off, I use ConnectivityShortcuts to turn them on when necessary
• LTE is always on (however it is known that LTE drains battery faster, so 3G is good in some cases if LTE coverage is spotty. Data is always on)
• Location on (seriously who can live without location)
• Battery saver set to turn on when battery is low
• Backup off - I usually turn it on to back every now and then but I leave the setting off most of the time, as this would also use data
• Brightness on low, automatic (personally anything above is too bright)
• Under 'applications' now, I've disabled all background tasks I wouldn't find useful (I've got 6snap, Battery Sense, Bing Weather, Facebook Beta, Lockmix, Twitter and Viber on for anyone interested)
• Under games I've turned off Connect With Xbox entirely as I don't have an Xbox/don't play many games on my phone often
• Under music+videos Xbox Music cloud collection is turned off as I don't use it
• In general, I've turned off all settings that basically send 'diagnostic information' or 'feedback to improve services' as these would use up data and therefore battery

Optional stuff, that I turned on after getting solid battery life for a bit; in my opinion not always necessary but useful:

• Automatic updates - all the settings are on
• For Lumia phones, under display I have sunlight readability and battery saver brightness on, as I find the sunlight readability to be quite useful)
• For Lumia phones, glance is set to 'peek', with the night-setting on. I also have Glance Backgrounds on too
• For Lumia phones, I have the touch sensitivity on 'high', and double tap on
• SkyDrive photo upload turned on, max quality

General stuff:

• If you live in a low-coverage area for LTE, turn it off as the phone will attempt to boost its' signal to gain better reception
• Any and all web browsing will drain battery the most

 

[wapoz]

I rarely have any issues with battery life on my 920. I typically have wifi on at all times, glance+tap to wake on, Bluetooth is always enabled, screen set to auto brightness, max touch sensitivity, location services on at all times, and dark theme- And that usually gets me to the 24 hour mark with 24% battery remaining with normal usuage habits. If I use my phone heavier than that (playing games throughout the day, watching videos, streaming music over LTE/wifi) I typically will get 12 to 16 hours of battery life.

The only battery drain I ever encounter is usually attributed to:
A.) crappy cellular signal causing the phone to constantly scan for signal
B.) badly coded apps (readit and waze are huge offenders- makes my phone run hot and drains the battery fast)

 

[Derausgewanderte]

I rarely have any issues with battery life on my 920.

same here, sometimes an app gets stuck and drains the battery, but most of the time I end up with 30-40% at the end of the day.