drtrmiller
Newbie
EDIT: The title may be misleading, but I can't change it now.
The purpose of this discussion is to talk about how applications and usage settings have an impact on standby time. I think we can *all* agree that our Incredible spends more time in idle mode as opposed to actual screen-mashing, voice jabbering, finger pinching usage time.
So if one person's battery drops 6% in an hour of standby, and another's only drops 1%, what is the problem? And more importantly, what is the solution?
I'll start out by posting my observations, below.
--
Definitions:
Standby/Idle: The state of the phone when the screen is off. Pressing the power button brings the device out of standby and all functions are immediately accessible. Phone calls and notifications are possible in standby/idle.
Off: The state of the phone when all radios and electrical systems are turned off. Pressing the power button initiates the boot sequence, where one must wait for some time before using the handset.
This thread discusses Standby/Idle time and how that corresponds to battery life ONLY.
--
Just an independent observation, didn't want to mingle with the dozens of other tangled threads on this topic, but here is how I got my battery life from about 12 hours to well over 90 hours:
Mobile Network Setting is Always On
Screen Brightness is set to Auto
No Task-killers
GPS is Enabled only when needed
Wi-Fi is Not Enabled
Bluetooth is Not Enabled
Now for the fun part. . .
I use only a few applications that always need internet access: Gmail and Google Voice.
When I was getting 12-14 hour battery life, I was also using Meebo, an instant messaging application. This application doesn't just leave the internet connection open, it constantly sends "check" packets back and forth from Meebo's servers to see if there are any new IM's. This is what was eating up the battery life.
After trying a different application, Nimbuzz, to handle my IM's, I was able to get around 24 hours of standby time, double the amount I was getting when using Meebo, with no other changes to the system.
This tells us that an open 3G data connection does not kill battery life by its lonesome, as Gmail and Google Voice applications are designed not to have to check back with the server every few seconds to see if there is a new message, instead the connection remains open, and the server "pushes" the data through the open connection.
The two IM applications, Meebo and Nimbuzz, are not like this, however. In addition to maintaining and open data connection, they require the handset to initiate a series of checks with the server over the course of use, to see if there are any new IMs. So the difference in 90 hours of standby and 12 hours of standby was the result of a *single* software application.
I'm at 1 day, 7 hours, 30 minutes of usage right now, mostly standby time as I don't use my phone very much, and I have 66% battery life remaining.
IMHO, all the users complaining about poor battery life should recognize the laws of conservation of energy--the juice doesn't just disappear--it actually goes into the functions of the device and is converted into heat, sound (including EMI), or light. Perhaps the sub-systems of other devices (wifi radio, bluetooth radio, gps radio, etc.) are more energy-efficient than those of the Incredible--that is subject to debate.
What is not debatable, however, is that users utilizing applications that constantly talk to servers (IM applications, IMAP/POP email, location services such as Google Latitude), voice applications (talking on the phone), wifi (the cell radio runs in addition to the wifi radio when enabled), bluetooth plus cell radio, gps receiver plus cell radio, CPU intensive functions such as gaming, video, or flash content; music playback that reads from internal memory or sd card--all of these things use up to 30 times more energy--that's right--30 times--than simply turning the device on and receiving push Gmail.
If one must utilize these different functions, then the *only* remedy would be to get another battery, or one with a higher capacity. If that is not an option, then experiment with different background applications, as I did to determine that different IM apps utilize different polling techniques which have an obvious impact on battery life, or change your hardware settings when you are not using a specific sub-system like wifi, bluetooth, or gps.
There is no secret to battery life--it's a closed electrical system, not magic.
The purpose of this discussion is to talk about how applications and usage settings have an impact on standby time. I think we can *all* agree that our Incredible spends more time in idle mode as opposed to actual screen-mashing, voice jabbering, finger pinching usage time.
So if one person's battery drops 6% in an hour of standby, and another's only drops 1%, what is the problem? And more importantly, what is the solution?
I'll start out by posting my observations, below.
--
Definitions:
Standby/Idle: The state of the phone when the screen is off. Pressing the power button brings the device out of standby and all functions are immediately accessible. Phone calls and notifications are possible in standby/idle.
Off: The state of the phone when all radios and electrical systems are turned off. Pressing the power button initiates the boot sequence, where one must wait for some time before using the handset.
This thread discusses Standby/Idle time and how that corresponds to battery life ONLY.
--
Just an independent observation, didn't want to mingle with the dozens of other tangled threads on this topic, but here is how I got my battery life from about 12 hours to well over 90 hours:
Mobile Network Setting is Always On
Screen Brightness is set to Auto
No Task-killers
GPS is Enabled only when needed
Wi-Fi is Not Enabled
Bluetooth is Not Enabled
Now for the fun part. . .
I use only a few applications that always need internet access: Gmail and Google Voice.
When I was getting 12-14 hour battery life, I was also using Meebo, an instant messaging application. This application doesn't just leave the internet connection open, it constantly sends "check" packets back and forth from Meebo's servers to see if there are any new IM's. This is what was eating up the battery life.
After trying a different application, Nimbuzz, to handle my IM's, I was able to get around 24 hours of standby time, double the amount I was getting when using Meebo, with no other changes to the system.
This tells us that an open 3G data connection does not kill battery life by its lonesome, as Gmail and Google Voice applications are designed not to have to check back with the server every few seconds to see if there is a new message, instead the connection remains open, and the server "pushes" the data through the open connection.
The two IM applications, Meebo and Nimbuzz, are not like this, however. In addition to maintaining and open data connection, they require the handset to initiate a series of checks with the server over the course of use, to see if there are any new IMs. So the difference in 90 hours of standby and 12 hours of standby was the result of a *single* software application.
I'm at 1 day, 7 hours, 30 minutes of usage right now, mostly standby time as I don't use my phone very much, and I have 66% battery life remaining.
IMHO, all the users complaining about poor battery life should recognize the laws of conservation of energy--the juice doesn't just disappear--it actually goes into the functions of the device and is converted into heat, sound (including EMI), or light. Perhaps the sub-systems of other devices (wifi radio, bluetooth radio, gps radio, etc.) are more energy-efficient than those of the Incredible--that is subject to debate.
What is not debatable, however, is that users utilizing applications that constantly talk to servers (IM applications, IMAP/POP email, location services such as Google Latitude), voice applications (talking on the phone), wifi (the cell radio runs in addition to the wifi radio when enabled), bluetooth plus cell radio, gps receiver plus cell radio, CPU intensive functions such as gaming, video, or flash content; music playback that reads from internal memory or sd card--all of these things use up to 30 times more energy--that's right--30 times--than simply turning the device on and receiving push Gmail.
If one must utilize these different functions, then the *only* remedy would be to get another battery, or one with a higher capacity. If that is not an option, then experiment with different background applications, as I did to determine that different IM apps utilize different polling techniques which have an obvious impact on battery life, or change your hardware settings when you are not using a specific sub-system like wifi, bluetooth, or gps.
There is no secret to battery life--it's a closed electrical system, not magic.
