ATTN: Palm Pre Average Battery Life Study! - Page 2

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormD

I want to participate in this, but I've never been able to get my Pre to go a whole 12 hours without plugging it in.

If you're serious and you have webOS 1.2.1, you're either using your Prē a lot or you have a battery issue. If its just heavy usage post what numbers you have if you'd like.

APEowner · 10/05/2009, 10:12 PM

I've never got 12 hours out of the standard battery either. If I don't put it on the charger at some point during the day I'm down below 10% at the end of the day with Sedio 1350.

I think this study could be useful but only if it includes some kind of quantified usage data as well.

Weaser999 · 10/05/2009, 10:58 PM

ok i'm a noob in this area.. but how do you take a screen shot of the pre window?

StormD · 10/05/2009, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tcub

If you're serious and you have webOS 1.2.1, you're either using your Prē a lot or you have a battery issue. If its just heavy usage post what numbers you have if you'd like.

Today was an average day. I unplugged at ~8:30a, spent between 1-1.5h on the phone all day, half dozen texts, 3 dozen emails, a bit of web browsing, checked the app catalog and preware to see what was new. Plugged in while I was driving on two short trips (15 minutes each), and was at 18% when I got home at 7:30p. Would likely have been out if not for those car charges.

I'll install this app and try posting my results tomorrow to see what I get, but I don't know how to grab screen-shots off my Pre.

Makinola · 10/06/2009, 12:16 AM

orange key + sym key + P all at once for taking a screen shot

Tcub · 10/06/2009, 06:48 AM

Sorry about that! I should have included directions for taking a screen shot in the original post... With me included I still need at least 22 more people to post results. When I get a few more I should be able to tell if this is headed in a good direction. Thanks everyone!

aguitreau · 10/06/2009, 10:39 AM

12 Hours is impossible for me. I have no idea what is wrong with my phone but I have seen that in a 7 minute phone call my battery went from 100 to 93, and in 1.5 hours with only checking preware and the app catalog and 20 minutes of phone calls its down to 79. At this rate i can assume that my battery through normal usage may last only half of the day. Is this normal?

StormD · 10/06/2009, 11:02 AM

FYI, I unplugged at 9a this morning, I'm down to 87% after my first two phone calls. My BatMon runtime @ 42min is showing 19.43%/hr. I'll be lucky to make until lunch today!

Tcub · 10/06/2009, 12:44 PM

that's really bizarre. I'd honostly take the phone back ask for a new one or at least a new battery. I'm at 4.5% per hour with moderate web browsing and 2 calls on EvDO...

you may have something wrong.

aguitreau · 10/06/2009, 01:42 PM

I have only had this phone since last Thursday and I had to buy two extra batteries just to be able to make it through the day without having to keep the phone connected to a cable all day. I am thinking about asking for a swap but I have Patches and homebrew apps on my phone. Will sprint still accept my return even though i have modified the phone in this way?

DSPKweb · 10/06/2009, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aguitreau

I have only had this phone since last Thursday and I had to buy two extra batteries just to be able to make it through the day without having to keep the phone connected to a cable all day. I am thinking about asking for a swap but I have Patches and homebrew apps on my phone. Will sprint still accept my return even though i have modified the phone in this way?

You really need to break in the batteries and let the phone get calibrated to it...they do get better after a week or two. Since you do have patches and homebrew apps on it, you might remove them and see what your battery life is to get a base line, then add them back in one at a time and see how the battery life is.

DSPKweb · 10/06/2009, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormD

FYI, I unplugged at 9a this morning, I'm down to 87% after my first two phone calls. My BatMon runtime @ 42min is showing 19.43%/hr. I'll be lucky to make until lunch today!

I would probably take it back and get a new battery...the other question I would have is how is your signal strength at home/car/work? That really can affect the life of your battery. Also, do you have homebrew or patches on your phone? Have you tried removing them and seeing how the life is?

Brain Mantis · 10/06/2009, 02:30 PM

Remember the more push applications you have the "worst" your battery will be.

I turned off most of my Twitter notifications for that reason.

meandmypre · 10/06/2009, 02:46 PM

I'm also in the "no way I can go 12 hours without a charge" camp. I'm always stunned when I see people who can go a day or more without recharging. I read in another thread recently that there were some defective batteries in earlier Pre's that could significantly impact battery life. Apparently the cells made in Japan are bad and the ones made in Korea are good. I have a cell made in Japan.

I can't post a link yet but the title of the thread is "Battery Life-Sprint Repair Rep said difference was Japanese vs Chinese made battery" if you want to search for it.

It would be interesting as part of this study to know if there is any correlation between the really bad battery life that I experience and where the cell was manufactured.

StormD · 10/06/2009, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSPKweb

I would probably take it back and get a new battery...the other question I would have is how is your signal strength at home/car/work? That really can affect the life of your battery. Also, do you have homebrew or patches on your phone? Have you tried removing them and seeing how the life is?

I've got a bunch of homebrew and a few patches, but nothing that should be too power-intensive:

None of my homebrew apps are really push-apps, or even running for that matter. I've got GPS off, and wi-fi on. Signal is a mixed bag, fluctuating from 1-4 bars at my house (mostly 2), and I was talking in my home office for almost 40 minutes on speakerphone, so that's probably the big drain. At 4.5h now, I'm down to 48%, churning 11.23%/hr. Haven't had any more phone calls really this morning, but did a bit of reading on Feeds, updated a couple apps on preware, and browsed updates on FriendsFlow (all on a strong WiFi signal). Received a dozen emails so far today. Being at or under 50% by lunch is pretty typical for me. I'm definitely going to have to plug in for the last hour or so of work, or I'll never make it through my commute-home errands. I'll post my results then.

P.S. I know FF is a push-app, but I close it when I'm not using it.

biggamer3 · 10/06/2009, 03:03 PM

stormy what is that thing with all the tweaks?

preware?

i gotta get that thing!

StormD · 10/06/2009, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by biggamer3

stormy what is that thing with all the tweaks?

preware?

i gotta get that thing!

WebOS Quick Install.

DHart · 10/06/2009, 04:18 PM

The key number in all of these is the % drain per hour. So a 100% charged phone should get 20 hrs at 5% drain. The average drain % is the number you should be looking at I think. Contributors would need to post only that number.

awrnsmn · 10/06/2009, 04:32 PM

Ya...same here on battery life. I drain about 8-10% per hour. I know I have a good battery, it's just the nature of my phone.....I guess. I use all of the battery saving tips and this is it.

Tcub · 10/06/2009, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DHart

The key number in all of these is the % drain per hour. So a 100% charged phone should get 20 hrs at 5% drain. The average drain % is the number you should be looking at I think. Contributors would need to post only that number.

Yes, this is the most important number. The spreadsheet I've created takes all those numbers just we can get an average for EACH one. The drain per hour average will be highlighted and that's what we'll look at the closest.

Of course this way we'll be able to see (ON AVERAGE) how long a Pre will last. Taking into consideration of course that there are MANY factors that contribute to battery life such as but not limited too; signal strength, wifi on/off, GPS on/off, Apps running, calls made, et cetera. Again this is just a ROUGH estimate.

I'm getting my numbers right now but with what I'm seeing the average will be around 5% drain per hour. What the final conclusion should say is this, Generally Palm Pre users will get X amount of battery life based on average drain per hour.

From own personal experience and the numbers from 2 others so far, not being able to get more than 12 hours of battery life could be a sign of a faulty battery. If you don't leave too many apps running, do light surfing, make a few calls here and there, and maybe even throw in some "battery saving" tweaks and you still can't reach at least 12 hours, it wouldn't hurt to take your phone to Sprint and request a new battery.

I'll have my numbers by the end of the day to add to the spreadsheet and I hope to see more in the coming days!

I can't stress enough how this is just an average! Take this with a grain of salt or more! Thanks everyone and good luck to those with less than stellar battery performance!