DIG

There is obviously a range of people visiting this site, some with really bad battery life (making them very vocal about the inherent problems with the 680) and some who are pretty happy with the battery life. It is very hard to tell what the typical experience is, and I think this could be quite useful information for people to work out if they have an unusual problem with battery life. Can I ask that people post their own experience with 680 battery life? I think the only way to really compare this is when the 680 is in standby mode (phone on, but no active use) because when in use, there will be too much variation depending on how heavy the use. I reckon higher drain in standby mode is probably the main cause of people's dissatisfaction anyway - it certainly was the cause of mine when I first got my 680. My reason for doing this is that I know (from my own experience and many other posts over the last couple of months) that the 680 can achieve a standby drain rate of better than 0.5% per hour (approaching its specified performance of 300 hours on standby), but I would like to see how many people have experienced this level of performance.

So, for anyone who is interested in participating, please try this (if you dont already know your standby drain rate).
Leave phone radio on. Turn off BT and IR beam receive (these are active functions, that drain power as would be expected, so not really part of standby mode, and typically they dont need to be on constantly). Measure the battery drain over a period of hours where there is no active use(overnight should do it) by calculating the drop in percentage over time. It is probably also useful to note your typical signal strength as this will probably be a significant variable. Then, just post your findings. Hopefully, we can get some useful and constructive information out of this. Serial knockers need not post (but I am sure they will anyway).

My results (tested many times) are 0.3-0.5% per hour on standby. Signal strength = 3 bars.

mdavis

I will post this elsewhere, but I don't believe the issue is the "idle" time. I don't think anyone here ever had a serious issue with idle time. The problem is non-idle, task, time. With non-idle time, as I have previously posted, I received my phone while away. My wife had it at home for a week before bringing it to me (and this was before the camera patch!). I called her each night and she said, "this phone just won't turn off!" So I don't believe there has ever been an issue about idle time, and this is kind of a red herring. The issue is how it performs when it has to do operations with a battery that is half the size of the 650, but with demands equal or greater than the 650. No wonder that its performance is worse than poor. I have a machine that won't last more than 6-8 hours with GPS, or maybe 12-14 with Chatter. That's pretty bad. But it will run for months (well, I exaggerate, but you get my point) with everything turned off. Who needs it then?

DIG

I disagree and I dont know where you get that impression from. Most of the evidence I have seen is that people dispute the standby time of 300 hours, NOT the active talk time of 4 hours or the drain associated with actual active use. I think a major cause of poor performance due to extra power burnt up when the 680 is not active. I get the impression that many/most people who are unhappy are disappointed because they want to have a phone that can last more than half a day with moderate use. Obviously, if it is heavily used all day with lots of calls/data time, it wont last more than a day, regardless of whether it is a 680, 650 or whatever. I think that the issue is more that some 680s continue to burn through battery when they should not be (like when the camera problem was a problem). But anyway, lets wait and see what the reports reveal, if anyone feels like reporting. Betcha Im right.

mdavis

I'm sure you're right. Just about the wrong thing. I can tell you now: I get AT LEAST .3% on standby, with absolutely nothing. I'm sure everybody else does too as long as they pull the SIM out so there are no discrepancies with signal strength. I'm sure, in fact, that I get better than 0.1% at that level. In fact, far better than that, and I've had two 680s so far.

LiveFaith

After reading countless posts about ups or downs of battery life, and using mine for > 2 months, I've found the following. It basically seems to get about 1/2 the usage that I did with my excellent 650 life. Seems about right considering the battery is 1/2 and the specs are nearly identical.
It just needs about a 50% increase for my use to be enough. Waiting patiently for an aftermarket to deliver without the rumpshaker.
On another note, even with this shortcoming, the 680 is sooo far to the 650 that I could never ever go back.

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Patrick Horne

mdavis

Amen...sort of!

DIG

Come on! SIM out is irrelevant. I clearly defined Standby as having the phone on. Crikey!

mdavis

But with the SIM out, there are no different signal strength factors. It's the only way to get truly equivalent results. And, what do you want, I agree with you! The maximum time is probably what Palm says--although I don't give a hoot what Palm says, only in actual performance on the ground--or even greater! That's why what you are proposing is not very useful information because it's not transferrable between people with different signal strengths (and, let's face it...who's going to leave their 680 on for a week or ten days to see when the battery dies?).

DIG

Are you actually reading my posts? Doesnt look like it to me If we ever meet, remind me to mess up your hair and give you a wedgy. Where did I suggest people leave the 680 on for a week or ten days? Anyway, you have made your opinion clear - you think everyone can get near 300 hours of standby time (with phone on) and that is not what they are concerned about. Thanks! Now, lets see if anyone else has the same or a different view. If I am alone in my view, that is fine, I think I can cope.

As an afterthought, I should add that when I first got my 680, I had very rapid battery drain on standby, which correlated with very poor overall performance (it didnt make it through the day before hitting 0%). ie. For me (and I think for many others), poor performance in standby was the major factor underlying poor performance overall.

DIG

This is a fair comment (with some qualification). Firstly, the 680 standard battery has 67% of the 650's standard battery capacity (1200/1800 x100). So, lets say your average 650 would last 3-6 days or so between charges with moderate use. Therefore, we should expect the 680 to last 2-4 days under similar conditions. From reading many posts over recent months, I think many people get this sort of (expected) performance and are not disappointed with their 680 (after the camera patch). However, there are still some who dont get anything like 2/3rds the performance of a 650, and I think this is related to their basal level of battery drain (ie. the drain rate on standby (with phone radio ON!)) OR, they have not calibrated the battery meter properly (and I dont mean the silly battery out, SIM out trick). I may be wrong, but it would be useful to know and I think this is a good test for people to work out if their 680 is simply performing as well as it can, OR, that there is an underlying problem that is draining the battery.

davistld01

Not sure about standby time...or drain percentage...and really don't have the time or inclination to actively measure either, but from full-charge (OK...phone shows 94-97% off the charger) in the morning I am still at 50-55% charge at the end of a 16-hour day. This has been consistant after doing three drain/reset/charge routines and simply plugging the phone in to charge overnight...and doing the battery patch from Palm. Not bad at all considering this battery is smaller and that this is a smartphone after all. I suppose my use is low compared to some, but lots of talk time with family/friends/clients, checking email with Versamail every 15-minutes, and responding to emails regularly. No 3rd party software loaded yet, and no pure web surfing (no time for that), and no gaming at all (ditto).

I'm pretty satisfied. If I was in a situation where I had no access to a charger for a day or so...I would just opt for the Seidio extended battery. No big deal...

davistld01

OK, DIG...how would you say is the proper (non-silly) way to calibrate ones battery meter correctly if one had only done it in the silly battery out, SIM out trick way?

DIG

The basic idea is to calibrate the battery meter. This means that the battery meter only registers 0% when the battery is as low as it can go (beyond which point the phone will no longer function). So, you simply need to run it right down, ignore the warnings and requests to recharge it, until it shuts down and cant be restarted. Then, fully charge it. That's it! Many have observed that they get to 0%, only to find the 680 keeps functioning for a surprising amount of time. This is because the battery meter was not properly calibrated to begin with, and if it happens to you, then you know your meter wasnt calibrated properly. This will also mean the meter was running down faster than it should, and you will think you are getting worse performance than you really are. On the other hand, if your meter gets to 0 and your 680 promptly dies, then your meter was probably fine. It made a huge difference for my 680, and I have seen lots of others report similar improvements. Some people may have done this inadvertently if their 680 completely ran down before they could recharge, but ONLY if it ran down to the point where it wouldnt function (which is different from running down to 0% then recharging). Note, you should not do this repeatedly, because fully draining the battery is not good for its overall lifespan (but every month or less is unlikely to make much of a difference). The basic idea is derived from various websites about LiIon battery performance, such as:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm,
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
Try it and let me know if it makes a difference.

khaytsus

My wife has Butler installed and that's about it.. Verichat is there, but not set to connect at reset, so it's generally not running. She goes 2-3 days without charging, and she text messages and talks a fair amount.

I have Chatter and Verichat in online mode all day, talk around 30 minutes, send a few SMS, and generally play around with the phone at least 45-60 minutes a day. I have 15% left over at midnight when I go to bed, which is around 17 hours generally.

There's not much room at the end of the day for unexpected calls, but it's not that bad. After letting the device calibrate itself over a few weeks and turning off stuff like Battery Graph, the battery runtime is very usable for me.

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Christinac130

FWIW to anyone who hasn't tried this...

I've done this twice since you first suggested it and my battery life has been great. But I also did the Camera Update, the "silly" SIM and battery out trick and the chicken dance...so I have no idea which one did the job

rayfield

got this phone last Saturday, didn't get the SIM card until Tuesday. put the phone in the charger w/out the SIM for almost 2 days I guess. 'cause of everything I've read here, since I started using it yesterday, I haven't recharged it since yesterday morning, figuring to run it down all the way.

after light usage yesterday 4-5 calls, all under 5/10 minutes, a fair amount of data, reading via Plucker on the subway -- I haven't really used it today, except to check out how TomTom would work (fine except the voice didn't download). when I got back home this afternoon at about 2, it the meter was at 2%, and in half an hour got to 0%. it's now two and a half hours later and the meter's still at 0% and the phone's still on. that suggests some seriously out-of-calibration metering going on.

btw, for people using the 680 with Chattermail and complaining (and complaining), gotta think maybe you'd really be better off with a Blackberry.

tck

My results : ~0.5% per hour on standby. Signal strength = 4 bars.

DIG

Yes, it's not really possible to determine which one worked under those circumstances, but the good news is that something obviously did, so it doesnt really matter I guess. I have a disease where I am compelled to get to the root of problems (goes with my profession) but I understand that not everyone has the same affliction.

mdavis

If the blackberry could do what the 680 could do, I would consider a switch. But it doesn't come close. Unfortunately, neither does the 680 when it runs out of power before the end of the day.

DIG

That's pretty good. Is that what you typically see? or is that what you observed after the soft reset?