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Help Unplugged for 151 Hours !! (very VERY low usage)

chronodekar

Well-Known Member
Mar 16, 2010
246
14
I'm using the "Battery Indicator" widget to measure the time since I last charged the phone. From what I can tell, the battery on the phone MUST be temperature sensitive. There is just no other way to explain it.

Some time ago, I had posted (on these forums) about the terrible battery life I was having (drops to <40% after about 15 hours or so). Back then, there was a heat wave in my area (I was sweating bullets by just standing for 2 mins without a fan over my head!). Recently, we had some heavy rains and the weather is a LOT more bearable (the nights are cool for a change). Since the first 2 rains, I began to notice that my phone didn't discharge quite as much as it used to.

I have no idea why I did it, but I moved my regular SIM card to another phone and began using a new SIM in my i7500. The result, is that I have hardly used the i7500 for the past week (other than carrying it around on my belt). I only got about 2 spam calls a day and at best 3 SMSs every 2 days. Right now, the phone says I have 17% charge left since I last charged it 151 hours ago!! Seriously incredible :eek: !!

In fact, the battery life is now beginning to rival that of my old Nokia E71 !! However, realistically, once I move my SIMs around and get back to regular usage, I expect battery life to go down as well.

One thing I am certain of now, is that on the i7500, the battery life is HEAVILY influenced by the surrounding temperature. The hotter it is, the worse battery life and the cooler things are, the longer the battery lasts.

Anyone else here noticed similar relations between temperature and battery?

Oh, and before I forget, I'm running "I7500XEJC4" firmware with Android 1.6

-chronodekar
 
I'm very sure that battery life has nothing to do with temperature but with overall usage.

Here's an example of my (now nearly 1 year old) phone:

If I have 3g+Data on, and set it to auto-sync; I will get about a day and a half of battery life (that's with normal usage, i.e. a couple of calls, a couple of texts, about half an hour of browsing and about an hour or two of listening to music).

At the moment I'm in a different country so I don't have a data plan, thus I have 3g and data turned off (and auto-sync too, as it doesn't make any sense):

The phone is at 92% with an uptime of 65 hours since last charging. The weather outside is pretty hot. I'm expecting the battery to last about as long as yours.

I'm using the old modaco1.2 ROM based on I5 btw.
 
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You guys really think I have my results wrong ? :( I just don't know any other way to explain it. I mean, this is the SAME phone I was complaining about having barely 18-23 hours of battery life, and well, the only major change I notice is the temperature.

About that chemical reactions are faster in higher temperature - won't that also mean the battery could leak faster? At least, that's the way I see it. (could be wrong though)

During this miracle run, I had autosync OFF, no 3G (but I used a bit of EDGE sparingly), the display was at about 20% I think and the only widget I had was a clock widget.

Actually, now that I mention all that, when the weather was hotter, I think I had autosync ON with brightness at 70 or 80%. Hmm.. so , I guess, it could be that too and not the temperature.

But still, I just can't seem to let go of the notion that lower the temperature, the better the battery performance.

-chronodekar
 
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About that chemical reactions are faster in higher temperature - won't that also mean the battery could leak faster? At least, that's the way I see it. (could be wrong though)
No, it shouldn't. While the battery may be able to produce more current, and for longer, the phone's hardware should only use as much as it needs and therefore leaking as such should not happen. So in a hot environment it will produce current for longer than in a cold environment, where the chemical reaction would be unsustainable.
 
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Higher temperature -> higher rate of chemical reactions and therefore you will get more current out of your battery.

Ever noticed how all battery dependant devices run out much faster and/or become sluggish during winter?

:)

True, but I doubt it would make a difference of 120 hours would it? Then again, I'm no expert on electrochemicals.

Auto-sync is the most plausible reason and it has been proven to a be a real battery-life sucker. Although the outside temperature might affect the phone slightly.
 
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hmm, we could just du sone "lab" testing, one charge your phonebefore you go to bed, and check battery in the morning, next day charge phone before you go to bed and put it in the fridge... but check if it still has network connection in there, otherwise it woud drain battery faster since it tires to connect to a network all the time...
 
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Therefore, to continue on to what everyone else said. The reason why you think that the hot weather is effecting the phone, is because if the phone is running multiple applications you will see a rise in the temperature of the battery. Today on the road I had my phone plugged in the whole way for four hours. GPS was running constantly, autosync was on - a couple of phone calls and sms along the way - and when i got home - my widget told me that the batter was at 9 degrees (c), and i was at 25% charge which to me i didnt understand since i was charging the whole way. When I turned off the gps and finally turned the screen off -> when the battery cooled back to the average of 3 degrees (c). My battery life jumped up to 92%.
So I think its like many of the modern car (which predict your gas level based upon consumption).

BTW: has anyone noticed the battery life change the first couple of days when they bought their Galaxy? When I first got it - charged to 100% - and battery life was terrible. But after the first week - its actually quite impressive now
 
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hey guys, just think, 9 degrees celsius, thats actually freazing cold (just for info for people who are not used to celsius human body temp is 37 degrees)... there is no temp sensor built neither in galaxy nor in the battery itselves, i dont know where the os takes those temp values from, must be thermal interferences on the chip or something.
 
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