950 & Battery Life

[Immortal Lobster]

Yeah. My continued observations still indicate that so long as the phone is only under light use it had phenomenal battery life, but, and this is a huge but, as soon as there is a lump of data transferred data, particularly in edge, battery drains fast!

 

[Con Georgiadis]

Has anyone measured the effect of heavy camera use on battery?

 

[n7slc]

I've officially gone back to my 640 and put the 950 on the shelf. I'll wait until MS comes out with an update of some sort before I'll go back. Already missing all of the features that I bought it for but I have to have a phone that will last all day with moderate use.

 

[collinTHEbrewer]

I'm experiencing similar issues. I think it's all about Edge consuming battery like crazy.

 

[collinTHEbrewer]

I've followed a lot of the recommendations here and pretty much prevented Edge from doing anything. Now I feel like it's the display eating up tons of juice. That makes sense except that it'll burn through quite a bit of battery just sitting in my pocket though Glance, Hello, and touch to unlock are disabled. Any ideas?

 

[n7slc]

I've followed a lot of the recommendations here and pretty much prevented Edge from doing anything. Now I feel like it's the display eating up tons of juice. That makes sense except that it'll burn through quite a bit of battery just sitting in my pocket though Glance, Hello, and touch to unlock are disabled. Any ideas?

Personally, I feel that the OS just isn't optimized as well as it could be for the hardware. MS had to get these phones released. MS would have been eaten alive by their fans if they waited to release the phones and when they finally did release them, the OS feels half-baked and they're getting eaten alive for that. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, I suppose.

 

[Mallguvner]

I used mine today as hard as I've ever used it. I really started using it around 8:30am and took lots of pictures today, viewed pics from yesterday, texted for quite a while back and forth with a contractor I was working with on a job and in general used the phone a lot. I listened to Pandora for maybe 2 hours today off and on and talked on the phone long enough to eat up my 4 hour Jawbone. It did run out around 8:45 PM tonight. as it dropped below 10% at 8:30 I was determined to actually run it out since I've only had it since Saturday when I picked it up at the AT&T store and wanted to cycle it like I've done for previous batteries. I kept my hand on the screen so it would not go to sleep and used it up. It has room for improvement for sure but if it gets any better after the break in time it will push my HTC One for Windows out of first place for being the longest lasting phone I've had. Right now it's at least ready for prime time. I do a lot of texting and sending pictures over texts. Mainstay of my day at times. Lunch today consisted of reading Flipboard for 30 minutes.

I did get the car charger today from Amazon and the time it takes this thing to charge is ridiculously short. Not sure this thing will ever have a real problem since I'm always near my work truck. Just my take on the phone. I really wonder if there are bad phones or bad batteries. I'm waiting for someone to offer the batteries. I haven't seen them yet but maybe I'll go look on Amazon after I post this.

MG

 

[AlexanderJJJ]

I can't even make it through a full day. Got up at 7AM and died at 8PM. Hope it improves.

 

[dfaris]

I turned off the lock screen setting in cortana and the helped. The setting was the one that let cortana open if you hit the search button while the screen was locked.

 

[mariusmuntean]

I've officially gone back to my 640 and put the 950 on the shelf. I'll wait until MS comes out with an update of some sort before I'll go back. Already missing all of the features that I bought it for but I have to have a phone that will last all day with moderate use.

Congrats on throwing your money out the window. You have spent a fair amount on that phone to keep it on a book shelf because it's buggy. I am not ranting at you, just curious how can you feel after getting the device you wanted, just then to not use it because it has issues and hope for MS to fix them

 

[majortom1981]

I posted a review on my att 950 on the microsoft store site. Said about my poor battery life. I got an email from the microsoft director of phone health. They want to diagnose my poor battery life. I will keep you guys posted.

 

[treeflip7]

I think a major part of this is cortana. Every time i look at background usage cortana in-use is very low but background use is very high. My hey cortana is on and i'm going to leave it on because i use it a lot. Didn't MS have an issue with cortana battery drain with an insider build? Sounds like they didn't fully resolve it.

 

[n7slc]

Congrats on throwing your money out the window. You have spent a fair amount on that phone to keep it on a book shelf because it's buggy. I am not ranting at you, just curious how can you feel after getting the device you wanted, just then to not use it because it has issues and hope for MS to fix them

Well, thank you very much!

To satisfy your curiosity, I feel disappointed and pissed off. I'm currently downloading the insider build to see if there is any improvement.

Dan

 

[n7slc]

I think a major part of this is cortana. Every time i look at background usage cortana in-use is very low but background use is very high. My hey cortana is on and i'm going to leave it on because i use it a lot. Didn't MS have an issue with cortana battery drain with an insider build? Sounds like they didn't fully resolve it.

I have "Hey Cortana" turned off and have since day one. My battery issues lay somewhere else.

I suspect that my issue is with the way the phone communicates to the towers. The little arrow above the signal bars rarely ever goes away. Is that not an indication that the device is constantly transferring data back and forth? Even on WiFi, that little arrow is always on.

 

[mariusmuntean]

Well, thank you very much!

To satisfy your curiosity, I feel disappointed and pissed off. I'm currently downloading the insider build to see if there is any improvement.

Dan

You have every right to feel like this...money do not come down from trees, people earn them. Shame on Microsoft again for such lack of quality control.

 

[Nubwy]

Have all of you run your batteries to below 10% a few times? I've done it once and I noticed vastly improved battery life. It lasts all day and gets to only 30% after twelve hours of continuous use. I'm a truck driver, so I stream, view web pages, Facebook and listen to audiobooks and music for a solid ten to twelve hours a day. The phone is rarely idle from 4am to three or four pm. I have outstanding performance and never have to charge the phone until nine or eight pm. Even then it is usually at thirty percent.

 

[plandyman]

I use my phone throughout the day, doing everything from Facebook to baconit, to instagram and maps. I have Cortana enabled, auto background changes, and 50% brightness before any auto adjusting. Windows hello is also on and working well. I also play music via Bluetooth in my car up to 30 min a day.

After all that my phone rarely gets hot and I usually head to bed with about 30-40% battery life left which is very acceptable. I have 50% left when I am busy at work and don't use it as much.

I have good service where I am too but not the best. This can lead to battery drain usually but not enough for me to care.

Love my 950!

 

[Hoku001]

I've not been entirely too happy with the battery life of the 950 in the few days that I've owned this phone. I find myself running out of juice around the end of my work day, and have to charge it to get through the night. My "old" 1020 had similar battery life, but that was with a nearly 3 year old phone!

I've turned off Hello and now Hey Cortana, to see if it helps...I'll have to try it out.

Also, I should mention that you can't find a USB type 3 cable in any retail locations in my area. It's nuts! I just ordered a bunch off Amazon, but wonder how much the cable will make a difference in how fast the phone will charge. But maybe this topic is for another thread.

 

[plandyman]

I've not been entirely too happy with the battery life of the 950 in the few days that I've owned this phone. I find myself running out of juice around the end of my work day, and have to charge it to get through the night. My "old" 1020 had similar battery life, but that was with a nearly 3 year old phone!

I've turned off Hello and now Hey Cortana, to see if it helps...I'll have to try it out.

Also, I should mention that you can't find a USB type 3 cable in any retail locations in my area. It's nuts! I just ordered a bunch off Amazon, but wonder how much the cable will make a difference in how fast the phone will charge. But maybe this topic is for another thread.

I found that battery life wasn't as good the first few days but it started getting way better after a week. See my previous post for more info.

Also, I had to get my Usb c cable from an MS kiosk at the mall. Amazon is good too. I don't think it's a Lumia prob tho, the tech is still new and not yet wide spread.

 

[Ben Triplett1]

The insider release seems to be better. The phone is noticeably cooler too.