How long does your battery survive?

[r00n]

I bought the tattoo last monday. Great device with a bad standby time is my opinion. Where my Nokia took a week before it was empty my Tattoo takes 24 hours. I don't know if I can compare the battery life of this phone with the other android devices which made me decide to create this thread.

I have disabled everything except GSM network ofcourse. I am always connected to the internet. There is no messenger running in the background or anything. I charged this afternoon and after 3 hours I lost 13%. In my opinion to much. How long will it take before your phone is drained and what did you do on your Tattoo to save energy? Maybe you just accept the bad battery life... but I have some difficulties to do so...

 

[jporch316]

It s longer than my previous phone - htc diamond winmo - There is no comparison between any htc phone battery and the nokias. All the HTC's will last two days max on average use.

I use a nokia as my works phone and that lasts a week.

Top tips are change the screen timeout/backlight to 30sec (lowest) turn off al mobile data/network unless needed. keep the wifi use to a minimum.

I do the above and my tattoo (had for two weeks) lasts well into the third day.

For the record after 7 years of HTC handset use im kinda used to plugging it in to charge every time i use my laptop or am in work. Unfortunatley this has been the same with all htc handsets during the recent past. Its the price you pay for a superior smartphone!!!!!

 

[Terry1100]

I'm really not at all unhappy with a "charge daily" routine.

If the answer is "turn off wifi, update e-mail etc infrequently, reduce data usage, turn off screen in seconds etc" then you might as well buy a dumbphone.

 

[WilfMoralee]

Agreed Terry. I have my data on all the time, use wifi twice a day, check facebook hourly, get all my emails, along with texts and phone calls, and check RSS hourly too, and yet it's still at 30-40% when i go to bed - fantastic compared to previous HTC models!! But still I plug it in for a charge each night, and it just keeps it right for the next day. (I also have a mini USB cable at work for charging off my laptop in case of 'excessive use')

 

[r00n]

that's a disadvantage I was not aware of on forehand. The Tattoo is great in everything else so I can't do anything else than getting used to it. And I will keep 24 - 48 hours in mind.

 

[OldFogey]

So how long does it last on standby with everything turned off?
I want something to replace my ancient Psion organiser, and mobile phone.
I use the organiser for my calendar. It is turned off most of the time and sounds an alarm when I have an appointment. Runs on two AA batteries for months.
I use my mobile phone about once every 3 months. Turned off when I don't want it. Lasts several weeks before it needs charging.

Now I realise that if I get something which does more than this I may use it more, although on a day to day basis I can't see me needing to. I have a computer and phone at work and one at home, in between I am driving a car, so most of the time I don't need to access the internet on my phone or anything else.

So the question is how close will this ( or any other phone on the market ) come to matching what I've got already. One reason for changing is that my phone does not work in Japan, which I visit a few times per year. Having Google maps on a phone when I am in Japan is something I can see being really useful!

 

[Terry1100]

Based on your requirments, I'd say you already have the solution you need (especially if it's a Psion Siena - my first PDA - oh happy days).

The problem is (as has been alluded to above) that a modern smartphone is designed to be "always on" (and to have a permanent data connection) -anything else is like using a Range Rover to pop to the corner shop.

If you only use a mobile to make calls (presumably if it's off the rest of the time nobody can call you) then the simplest basic phone will suffice combined with a basic digital diary/organiser from Argos.

Of course what we need and what we want are always two different things - that's why I have a completely unnecessary collection of phones, cameras, pdas, watches, motorcycles etc

Are you trying to convice yourself that you "need" a smartphone - or trying to talk yourself out of it.

 

[OldFogey]

Terry,
Thanks for your reply. My psion is a 3mx. Thing is, I don't see any standard mobile phones with a proper keyboard. PDA's have disappeard from the market, everything is a phone so far as I can tell. I'm trying not to predetermine my decision either way. I have been given some money by my employer for 25 years service, and thought this would be a good way to spend it. Surely there must be something available that is better than what I have at present I thought to myself. I have been looking round reviews and forums etc. and getting thoroughly confused. What really brings me up short is these comments about charging phones every day! However, like the original poster on a similar topic " What is Tattoo's standby time?", I have read documentation from the manufactures which describes standby time of several weeks, which would be ok - but does anyone ever achieve these numbers?
Compared to what I have now charging every day would be a major step backwards. On the other hand having the power of one of these new gizmos in my pocket for the occasions when I do actually need it would be great.

By the way the other applications I occasionally use on my Psion are a simple notepad, and the spreadsheet. Sometimes I will play a game of Scrabble if I am stuck in a train station/airport somewhere.

Maybe I will just spend the money on something else!

 

[Terry1100]

Or upgrade your 3MX to a 5MX (if you can find one - I cna't believe what I got for mine on eBay a while back)

That's still the "reference" for a keyboard on a pocket device.

I do not beleive that a standby time of "several weeks" is realistic in any kind of "real world" situation.

 

[sdriscoll999]

I have found the same problem, battery last 24 hours max.

I have also found that this time can be extended dramatically if you kill the Download Manager via the Settings > Applications > Manage Applications and then select the Download Manager and choose 'Force Stop'. I have raised another thread to see if anyone knows any more on this but it does make a massive difference. I can go 3 days before needing to charge - as long as I remember to kill the Download Manager every time I restart the phone!

 

[3lance]

I bought the tattoo last monday. Great device with a bad standby time is my opinion. Where my Nokia took a week before it was empty my Tattoo takes 24 hours. I don't know if I can compare the battery life of this phone with the other android devices which made me decide to create this thread.

I have disabled everything except GSM network ofcourse. I am always connected to the internet. There is no messenger running in the background or anything. I charged this afternoon and after 3 hours I lost 13%. In my opinion to much. How long will it take before your phone is drained and what did you do on your Tattoo to save energy? Maybe you just accept the bad battery life... but I have some difficulties to do so...

have to say this is the one thing that has disappointed me about the tattoo - have installed 'toggle search' to monitor running tasks and disabled items where necessary but i barely get through a normal day without it dying on me

on a day of heavy usage i.e calls and web surfing then im lucky to go from 8am to 11pm before the battery is totally gone

i think i must have a dud - thinking of contacting vodafone or HTC as unless i keep it on charge at home and work then it invariably dies on me when im out late etc

 

[Huw]

Yep, I charge mine every evening too. As someone else said in this thread, it's the price of having a smartphone. If I didn't want a permanent internet connection and the use of the internet apps, I wouldn't have bought a smartphone; I'd still be using my previous phone, an LG KP500 "Cookie" which would last almost a week without being charged.

Really, charging each evening when I get home is not a big deal for me. I'd be plugging my phone in to upload/download songs and photos to my PC anyway.

 

[r00n]

It's not the price for having a smartphone as BlackBerry can last for several days with a working internet connection. I know that it is working with a different technology, but it is still a smartphone. Maybe switching of the downloadmanager will help. A pity that we have to do that manually and that it takes a while before the system is patched/updated.

 

[missizicks]

I was having the same transition from dumb to smart worries about my Tattoo battery when I upgraded. This thread was really helpful, thanks guys.

My battery now lasts for up to 4 days. I did the standard thing of turning down the brightness, but the main thing that saved my battery life was switching off the weather app, which seemed to be draining the life out the battery because it didn't just update when you went into it, it also updated when you whizzed past it on your way to another screen. I also put the power control app that came installed on the phone on my home screen so I can switch things like wi-fi, bluetooth and gps on and off as I need them.

Admittedly, now that I've got over the initial "Oh my god, this is genius!" phase of having a smartphone, I've gone back to my normal pattern of phone use plus a few benefits of having a smartphone - so mostly texting, with some checking facebook, searching for info online, and the odd phonecall. I don't think I'm what you'd call an average user!