ATTN: Palm Pre Average Battery Life Study! - Page 3

Tcub · 10/06/2009, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by awrnsmn

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.

If you know you're battery is good (ie your drain is less than 8-10% when your phone is inactive) and if you wouldn't mind, submit numbers for one of your average days! Thanks!

I understand some people's battery will just drain faster due to them using their phones more. This will help make the "average" all the more "average".

pullbangdead · 10/06/2009, 07:29 PM

Even with super heavy users and super light users, the data will still come out to a Gaussian or bell curve, I would think it's still worthwhile.

And really people, if you're losing over 10% per hour, I believe there's something wrong, even with pretty heavy usage. I was getting 10% drain per hour when idling, and went through a whole process on my phone, and now with all the same things enabled, I'm losing <5% per hour. Heck, I only lose 10% per hour while streaming Pandora. With all the same stuff (wifi off, GPS on, 3 push e-mail accounts) on as before, I was able to get the battery life up higher than it was before.

StormD · 10/07/2009, 12:59 AM

Okay, so here's my results. 20% after 7.5 hours. I had about 1 hour of phone usage total today, light data usage, as described in an earlier post. Nothing too absurd I think, mostly on wi-fi, but probably a little on Ev-Do. I don't think I'm doing anything outrageous, except I was using the speaker phone for 40 minutes worth of phone calls at my home office in the morning, and my signal isn't that great here (avg 2 bars, fluctuating 1-3).

Daemon · 10/07/2009, 03:47 AM

I don't think any single number (such as %/hour) can tell the story.
And no, I'm not one of those saying this project is worthless. What I think
is that the shape of the battery graph is what matters and by
studying yours and other people's it can give you and idea of what's
normal and what's abnormal.

Especially in 1.2.x the standby current seems to be quite low,
while normal usage pulls it down noticeably quicker
and streaming apps pull it down *fast*.
The battery monitor graph tells the story.

Here's my "average day"

Graph doesn't start at 99% but should have.
Took the phone off charge at 2:48am, streamed some music for half an hour
to go to sleep.
Airplane mode from 3:50 to 6:30am (I use Battery saver app schedule
to automatically shut off the stream, so it doesn't suck the battery down
dry. I don't have to keep it in Airplane mode this long but no reason not to.)
Activity mid/late morning, sms, web, standby most of the afternoon
and evening.
GPS turned on (off rest of the time) and used for a half hour around 10pm
on the road.
Standby from then till now.

Only 59% used over nearly 22 hours of light usage.
Definitely better than pre-1.2.x but took a couple days to stabilize
the battery graph (it could not be trusted at all for a day or two
after the update).

Basically, if you look at the graph and see lots of little dips, then
it's indicating activity. If you're seeing smooth but dramatic drop
then it's probably indicative of poor signal and the phone is struggling
to communicate with the Sprint towers.

ian

Daemon · 10/07/2009, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormD

and my signal isn't that great here (avg 2 bars, fluctuating 1-3).

Given your description of usage and the graph, the only thing that can be
pulling the battery down this fast, is a poor signal.
A streaming music app (whether playing or idling) will pull it down
a little faster than that. Your speakerphone call is just one of
the steeper dips in the graph.

Could see what kind of signal you get with Roam-Only turned on for a while.

ian

StormD · 10/07/2009, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daemon

Could see what kind of signal you get with Roam-Only turned on for a while.

I live in this crazy neighborhood in the Orlando area that is somehow a deadzone for every wireless carrier. Verizon has an even weaker signal than Sprint, so Roam-Only is WORSE. AT&T was a giant pain too, until I got a BlackBerry, but the antenna on that phone really made a big difference from my previous Nokia (and the Battery was heroic enough to not care about the extra drain)

cosmoworks · 10/07/2009, 01:19 PM

I've had similar results as StormD. This is WebOS 1.2.1, wifi off, BT off, in a good signal strength area, and under very light use (no phone calls, just light data use and texting).

batterymonitor_2009-06-10_162236 copy.jpg

HOWEVER, that said I reset my phone last night and this morning it seems to be doing MUCH better. Yesterday even at idle with all applications closed (except battery monitor), I was at around 10% drain, and now after the reset it's sitting around 2%.

Daemon · 10/07/2009, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmoworks

HOWEVER, that said I reset my phone last night and this morning it seems to be doing MUCH better. Yesterday even at idle with all applications closed (except battery monitor), I was at around 10% drain, and now after the reset it's sitting around 2%.

Most likely explanation is that something in the background was
keeping a data connection open to something so the radio was
in use constantly.

ian

Tcub · 10/07/2009, 06:07 PM

Thanks for the numbers everyone! Keep em coming! While I only have a small handful of numbers right now it's still interesting to see some of the averages. Once we hit 25 I'll post the excel spreadsheet and a summary of what we've got.

Thanks again everyone!

It's hard to tell whether 10% is good or not in your case. On one hand you've got WiFi enabled which should be saving you a little bit of battery. On the other hand, poor signal strength coupled with making 40 minutes worth of phone calls on top of using the speakerphone may cause your battery to drain faster. I have noticed that phone calls REALLY seem to deplete the battery faster than other activities.

cosmoworks · 10/08/2009, 03:05 AM

Daemon, I think you're exactly right. Today, after 15 hours of use, I still have 35% battery left (even after two 20 min calls). Drain started between 2-3% and is currently around 4.5%. Even though I had all apps/cards closed, something must have still been running background or possibly a memory leak somewhere, since usage today was pretty much the same as yesterday for most of the day.

Tcub, I was going to post a new updated battery monitor from today, but accidently back swiped and exited the graph chart. I'll do another one tomorrow and post back up.

kodae · 10/08/2009, 05:15 AM

Here's mine. I've only had the phone for four days. Today I did some light calling (MAYBE an hour's worth), looked up one website and did a lot of texting.

Tcub · 10/08/2009, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmoworks

Daemon, I think you're exactly right. Today, after 15 hours of use, I still have 35% battery left (even after two 20 min calls). Drain started between 2-3% and is currently around 4.5%. Even though I had all apps/cards closed, something must have still been running background or possibly a memory leak somewhere, since usage today was pretty much the same as yesterday for most of the day.

Tcub, I was going to post a new updated battery monitor from today, but accidently back swiped and exited the graph chart. I'll do another one tomorrow and post back up.

Okay thanks! I'll reenter the data as soon as you post it. Thanks again to everyone so far as well!

meandmypre · 10/08/2009, 09:35 PM

Here are a couple of screen shots. The one with the lower battery life was from leaving the phone on battery overnight with Wifi on (presumably off most of the time since the screen was off) so there was no use at all and would be what I consider best case scenario. The one with the higher battery life was during my work day. The coverage at my work is not as good as it is at home and I check e-mails periodically and receive a fair amount. The brief increase in that graph was due to putting it on the charger briefly after a phone call.

I sync EAS, Yahoo, and another IMAP mail account as well as several google calendar accounts and facebook for contacts. My e-mail accounts are all set to poll every 15 minutes since "push" was brutal on my battery life.

Daemon · 10/09/2009, 12:31 AM

Wow, 8+ % overnight. That's pretty heavy drain. I never run more
than 3% at night. Sync to 3 email accounts, every 30 minutes.
GPS off.

ian

biggamer3 · 10/09/2009, 12:54 AM

if I get 10% an hour with my 2600 seido afte using web for an hour that's great for me. With stock battery I would get between 20-25 an hour with web usage.

Let me ask you guys to try something out, use video for an hour and report back.

stock battery drained 27% an hour, 2600 drained at 12%

Ms_Kady · 10/09/2009, 01:45 AM

Ooh...this thread just reminded me that I need to charge my battery!

cosmoworks · 10/09/2009, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tcub

Okay thanks! I'll reenter the data as soon as you post it. Thanks again to everyone so far as well!

Here you go.
batterymonitor_2009-09-10_004927.jpg

Details: Wifi off, BT off, GPS on, WebOS 1.2.1. Four email accounts checked (2 pushed). Graph is of light usage throughout my day (one 30-min call, light data usage/web/text).

Tcub · 10/09/2009, 06:13 PM

Cool! Thanks guys! I'll add these to the spreadsheet! Keep em coming!

RUJake · 10/09/2009, 08:22 PM

Unfortunately my Pre has battery issues and will not last more than 6 hours on Airplane Mode, NO USE. I would post the image, but I lack 10 posts...

Daemon · 10/09/2009, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RUJake

Unfortunately my Pre has battery issues and will not last more than 6 hours on Airplane Mode, NO USE. I would post the image, but I lack 10 posts...

My phone burns less than 2% per hour in Airplane mode. If you're seeing
worse than that with nothing else running, then it's broken. Get at
least the battery replaced, if not the whole phone.

ian