Which drains more battery? (about emailing)

[androidisforporn]

Hi,

I wonder which drains more battery:

Auto-syncing Gmail so I can get push mail

or

Use the default email app and setting it to 30 minutes interval

The reason I ask this is because when using auto-sync (only Gmail e-mail) my battery seems to burst to 20-100 mA sometimes. (is this normal?)

Thanks.

 

[Frisco]

I've found that autosyncing anything, Gmail, Facebook, etc, and configuring apps such as Weather etc for background updating takes a huge toll on resources and battery life.

If you must autosync, the 30 minute interval seems reasonable, as long as you don't have other apps set for the exact same interval; a "sync loop" can occur, causing nearly disabling battery drain in those cases. Be sure to have syncing set at different intervals.

I do all of my syncing and updating manually, on-demand, as a battery saving measure.

I don't think there is much difference in which email app is used. Perhaps others will chime in about that.

 

[androidisforporn]

I've found that autosyncing anything, Gmail, Facebook, etc, and configuring apps such as Weather etc for background updating takes a huge toll on resources and battery life.

If you must autosync, the 30 minute interval seems reasonable, as long as you don't have other apps set for the exact same interval; a "sync loop" can occur, causing nearly disabling battery drain in those cases. Be sure to have syncing set at different intervals.

I do all of my syncing and updating manually, on-demand, as a battery saving measure.

I don't think there is much difference in which email app is used. Perhaps others will chime in about that.

So I guess I can't use push mail without sacrificing battery life then? I thought push mail is like sms.

 

[Frisco]

So I guess I can't use push mail without sacrificing battery life then? I thought push mail is like sms.

Well, the whole "push" concept is a bit blurred now, with its pure form in the RIM operating system, and a "sort of push" being used by others.

RIM has its limitations, but its handling of email, etc is still the best, in my opinion.

New Android users coming from Blackberries are a bit dismayed about the differences.

 

[takeshi]

Impact on battery life with ActiveSync push in my experience is minimal and it's better IMO than even BES on the BB.

Push is push. What people may call push might or might not be push. There's a difference and many average Joe users assume push just means "fast delivery". Even BB push isn't "pure" push if a user has a non-push account (POP, etc). BIS can emulate push with pull accounts and mail is push between BIS and the BB itself but I wouldn't call that sort of setup "pure push" as it's a mix. BIS with a push account and BES are definitely pure push though. It's just like the old saying about a chain being only as strong as its weakest link. You're only pure push if all the pieces in the chain are push.

Push should consume less power than pull since email is only transferred as needed. Polling when there's no new email is a waste of power. It's possible that the OP may have more going on than just email delivery even though he mentions disabling all sync except email.

New Android users coming from Blackberries are a bit dismayed about the differences.

Well, there's no equivalent to BIS in the Android world. The gmail mail fetcher is similar but not the same. Having BIS and not having BIS are both double-edged swords. BIS, like I said, can help with timely delivery of email from non-push accounts. However, ask BB users about RIM outages. Without BIS, such outages are a non-issue.

So I guess I can't use push mail without sacrificing battery life then?

Why haven't you tested with a pull setup to compare? Disable gmail, set yourself up with the mail client with a pull setup and see what happens. If you can monitor your battery with gmail push I'm assuming you can monitor it with pull.

 

[lordofthereef]

I can honestly say that I have seen little (and I actually mean none) difference between my battery on push vs fetch emails. I don't get a whole ton of emails daily, maybe about 10-15 max, that are generally scattered throughout the day.

 

[Stuntman]

The battery info on my phone always lists the display as the biggest drain on my battery. The screen uses 70% of the power or more. Anything else seems to use maybe 3-4% max except for maybe voice calls and GPS. If the battery info is correct, then reducing the polling interval would have a minimal affect on increasing your battery life.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Yep, Gmail push is neglible on battery life.

 

[chawski]

I have my gmail coming to my phone as they are sent (i assume thats push?) and my im regularly doing 16 hour days off the charger. in most cases, my phone shows the email before my computer does