Battery Life

[BadTasteUK]

So, I haven't seen this topic talked about yet, apart from manufacturer claims of the usual hundreds of hours of standby.

Having now had the TC for almost a week, I'm not at all happy with the battery life, and hoping it's either a faulty battery or something I'm not doing right.

Today, I've made a 2 or 3 short phone calls and downloaded a few emails, and it's down to 30% at 5pm! Most other days have been the same.

I do have bluetooth and HSDPA on, but not Wi-Fi. Surely, this won't be another case of, "buy this great phone with all the fast connections, but stick to 2G GSM because of the battery life".

Any help gratefully received, as I love the TC apart from this problem.

[benzo8]

Data connections come from the "TalkTime" budget, not the "Standby" budget, so if you leave your HDSPA connection connected, or your Bluetooth on, it will drain the battery in about 7 hours.

My tests seem to indicate that HTC's estimates are reasonable within about 85%, if you understand what they're saying. If you leave your phone switched off, doing absolutely nothing in the background ("Standby"), then I've got about 200 hours out if it. But as soon as you start using the phone (which includes switching it on - the increased processor usage and backlight take more power than Standby) the overall battery budget is reduced.

An example - if you spend 1 hour online, you've used 1/7th of your TalkTime budget, but you've also used 1/7th of your Standby budget - the hour of talktime is equivalent to about 30 hours of standby...

It's marketing speak, sadly, but given USB recharging, etc., as long as the phone makes it to a laptop or socket each evening, I'm pretty happy with the battery life on my Touch Cruise - just remember to disconnect data connections when you're not using them, don't check for new mail every 5 minutes and only use IMAP IDLE when you really need it...

[Abbsta]

I too was first disappointed but I had almost everything that uses data switched on or on automatic like weather and emails.

So I set everything to manual and batt is good with some calls. Before when I tapped on the top bar there was always something connecting or showing connected for a x number of mins. But now it shows 'No data session active' and batt is holding up nicely for all my calls + what I need like GPS etc.

[nikiiv]

I do put TC on heavy use and I am quite satisfied with the fact that TC makes it through the day.. Most of the PDAs and phones I have used forced me to carry secondary battery with me..

[christonge]

I can only go on my heavy day to day business use with push mail 24h, 20+ calls, few hours of TomTom and bit of forum reading!! But it´s a very big improvement on my Kaiser which would be empty by 7pm. Whereas the Polaris is still around 50-45% :D

[aerokid240]

Can anyone tell me how much battery life can one expect for mp3 playback?

[BadTasteUK]

I can only go on my heavy day to day business use with push mail 24h, 20+ calls, few hours of TomTom and bit of forum reading!! But it´s a very big improvement on my Kaiser which would be empty by 7pm. Whereas the Polaris is still around 50-45% :D

Something's either wrong with my hardware, battery, or config.

Are you in a 3G HSPDA area? I am, and wondering whether or not that's killing the battery.

If it's the battery, I doubt I'll get an exchange, seeing as most places are sold out of TC's still.

Do you use Windows Live? I don't have MSN Messenger running, but I think it syncs all folders on my hotmail every 2 hours.

[christonge]

I don't use Windows Live or the messenger. I'm now using HTC Mail which gives you a free 3 months trial of their Microsoft Exchange Server account. It works really well and seems to use less battery than the Windows Live, which I had previously used.... and most of the time I use the basic "G" (GPRS) connection although when surfing the net I change the connection to 3G.

[bindesh0]

Hmmm

Thats interesting
Im having a similar problem.
So far, mainly used mine for browsing through wi-fi but the battery drains so quickly. It only lasts a day and a half.
Same usage on my old orbit would last close to a week.

ps - Ive swicthed off all other comm functions

[BadTasteUK]

I'd be delighted with a full day! It's such a pain to have to keep plugging it in!

I've now switched off HSPDA, and if that doesn't work, I'll have to switch off 3G. Kind of defeats the object of having a 3G device.

[JulianL]

I'd be delighted with a full day! It's such a pain to have to keep plugging it in!

I've now switched off HSPDA, and if that doesn't work, I'll have to switch off 3G. Kind of defeats the object of having a 3G device.

3G/HSPDA uses a lot more power than regular GSM. I keep my phone locked to GSM and only enable 3G when I want to go online, but then I primarily use my phone as a PDA so I don't access the network that often, even for voice.

I think there's a utility floating around these boards called something like BandSwitcher that does something to make it easier to toggle between 3G and GSM. As you can probably tell from my vague description (and I'm not even sure that I got the name right), I haven't got round to investigating this fully myself yet.

By the way, there is another thread here about battery life, started by me (what is it with us Brits and our obsession with battery life?), and called "Dissapointing battery life test" (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=356910&highlight=Julian+battery+life). The thread includes a link to a very useful tool written by Muyz and available here (http://www.vandenmuyzenberg.nl/PowerGuard/) that allows you to look at current drain on the device and I posted some data in that thread from my device so you could run the same tests and see if your current draw is comparable to mine. If you do this then please do post your data.

- Julian

[JulianL]

Can anyone tell me how much battery life can one expect for mp3 playback?

I'm afraid that's a very unhelpful "it depends". It really depends on (a) exactly how you've encoded your MP3 files (bit rate and CBR vs VBR) plus what player you are using to play them.

Having said the above though, I can give you two data points:

1) The Touch Cruise manual claims "Up to 8 hours (WMV). Up to 12 hours (WMA)." (This is on page 249 of the English manual under the power/battery specification.)

2) From measuring current consumption on my device while playing 64kbs AAC HE files I estimate that I'll get somewhere between 9 and 10 hours before I go from 100% charge down to the 10% warning level.

AAC HE is very CPU-intensive to decode. I'm not sure how WMA compares to MP3 regarding CPU intensity but I would expect your figures to be more comparable with the WMA figure quoted by HTC and, in light of my AAC HE real life experience, the HTC figure actually seems quite realistic (although nowhere near good enough in my opinion).

I hope that helps somewhat.

- Julian

[DXL007]

My average day.

Off the charger at 6:15AM
Make about 5 to 7 calls each about 5 to 10 minuets
3G HSPDA on with exchange server running always conected
Back light at MAX off after 30 seconds of non use
30 or so text messages
Agile Messanger on all the time conected to AIM and Yahoo. About 2 to 3 comversations each day.
Around 10 to 15 minuets of web surfing to read the news and what not
Bluetooth always on but only used in my car (BMW iDrive) about 1.5 hous of driving
About 20 to 30 minuets of playing S Tris 2 (Yeah I know but I can't help it I love that game)
About 30 to 45 minuets of MP3 playing while at the gym
Ringer set to Vib then ring
Back on the charger by 11:30PM

[cortez.i]

My average day.

Off the charger at 6:15AM
Make about 5 to 7 calls each about 5 to 10 minuets
3G HSPDA on with exchange server running always conected
Back light at MAX off after 30 seconds of non use
30 or so text messages
Agile Messanger on all the time conected to AIM and Yahoo. About 2 to 3 comversations each day.
Around 10 to 15 minuets of web surfing to read the news and what not
Bluetooth always on but only used in my car (BMW iDrive) about 1.5 hous of driving
About 20 to 30 minuets of playing S Tris 2 (Yeah I know but I can't help it I love that game)
About 30 to 45 minuets of MP3 playing while at the gym
Ringer set to Vib then ring
Back on the charger by 11:30

that's 11.30 pm, right?

[DXL007]

Fixed post.. And yes

[BadTasteUK]

My average day.

Off the charger at 6:15AM
Make about 5 to 7 calls each about 5 to 10 minuets
3G HSPDA on with exchange server running always conected
Back light at MAX off after 30 seconds of non use
30 or so text messages
Agile Messanger on all the time conected to AIM and Yahoo. About 2 to 3 comversations each day.
Around 10 to 15 minuets of web surfing to read the news and what not
Bluetooth always on but only used in my car (BMW iDrive) about 1.5 hous of driving
About 20 to 30 minuets of playing S Tris 2 (Yeah I know but I can't help it I love that game)
About 30 to 45 minuets of MP3 playing while at the gym
Ringer set to Vib then ring
Back on the charger by 11:30PM

That's fantastic, my battery MUST be faulty! Oh, and thanks very much for taking the time to write all that down!

I'll leave it another week or so playing with turning things on and off, and if I can't get a full day, I'll order another battery, and be hardcore about the 16 hour charge for the first three charges.

[DXL007]

When it comes to my batteries I am a stickler when it comes to conditioning them. I always do a full discharge and recharge for at least 3 cycles. It may be inconvenient the first few times because you can run out of power in the middle of the day when you really can’t wait for a recharge, but in the long run its worth it. On the weekend when I use my TC the least I get 2 full days out of it.

[BadTasteUK]

When it comes to my batteries I am a stickler when it comes to conditioning them.

Looks like it's paid off! :D

I've had my second day now where it's lasted a day! Last night it had 40% on it at 0100, and so far at 1700 it's still on 70%. The reason? I turned off HSDPA on Sat, and it really seems to have made the difference. The internet still runs very fast as well.

[speakerphone]

When it comes to my batteries I am a stickler when it comes to conditioning them.

Hi

Where did you get this info from? I've heard of ppl doing so for NiCd days, but never heard of doing it to LiOn or LiPoly batteries.
:confused:

[stt57]

Hi all

someone knows, if powering OFF the TC suspends the WIFI-connection
so that it will not discharge the battery?

On my elder HP, I let the WIFI on, switch off the device,
and I couldn't remark a greater change in the battery after one nighgt.
On TC, when switching OFF the unit with WIFI ON,
the battery is empty after one night.

Tanks
St

[benzo8]

Pressing the power button will disconnect the wifi connection - unless you're in the middle of a Skype call via WiFi, in which case it just turns off the screen.

If you leave something running that requires a network connection and press the power button, the software (email software requiring regular checks, for instance) will connect via GPRS/3G/HSPDA if it can, while the machine is off. So be aware!

[edan]

I've had the tc for two days and haven't figured out how to turn 3g off, only hspda. Can anyone help?

Thanks

[DXL007]

Hi

Where did you get this info from? I've heard of ppl doing so for NiCd days, but never heard of doing it to LiOn or LiPoly batteries.
:confused:

All batteries have some sort of memory, Lion's just have less. I have always done it that way and never had battiery problems.

[BadTasteUK]

I've had the tc for two days and haven't figured out how to turn 3g off, only hspda. Can anyone help?

Thanks

Go into the comm manager, settings, phone, band, network type, then select GSM.

Job done! :cool:

[DXL007]

Go into the comm manager, settings, phone, band, network type, then select GSM.

Job done! :cool:

If I did that I might get 3 days out of my battiery...lol

[BadTasteUK]

If I did that I might get 3 days out of my battiery...lol

Yeah, yeah, ok DXL! :rolleyes:

Lesson learnt.... "I must remember to condition my batteries correctly" :D

[Starwalker]

If you want to have direct access to 3G on/off in the CommManager and don´t need the Data Disconnect option, you can replace the Data Disconnect with 3G on/off:

Go to HKLM\Software\HTC\CommManager\5\ (5 is the Data Disconnect button)

Set "Default"-Value to "3G"

Now you can switch on/off 3G with one klick.

Works fine on my device (Orbit 2).

Best regards

Lars