Battery Life - what I did to improve
- Not sure if others have found this but the battery life for my Tour has been awful - to the tune of getting about a day out it with "normal" e-mail, web and phone usage. With the same type of usage I would get at least 3 days out of my old WE 8830. I tried a few things to improve but found the largest single gain was turning off the bluetooth. I rarely use it but always had it on with my 8830 so just followed suit with my Tour. Well after turning BT off I am now getting about the same life out of my battery as I did with the 8830.
Just thought others who have been disapointed with their fancy new Tour's battery life might like to know.
Thanks!08-05-09 09:32 AMLike 0 - I am having a terrible time with my battery. I need to charge it mid day. I only turn bt on when I synch with my laptop. I am going to remove some apps that auto update and see what is going on. Other than that I will have to buy a few more chargers. I may bring it back to the store and see if I can get another battery.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com08-05-09 09:42 AMLike 0 - Standard tips to improve battery life are:
- Bluetooth off if you aren't using it
- Screen Brightness as low as tolerable, anything below 100 helps (0 still looks ok to me, I set it to 50 first and it helped a bunch)
- Set GPS to e911 only unless using it for navigation or another Location Based Service
- Put it in the OEM holster so it goes to standby when not in use, or use a similar App to auto standby
- Coverage LED indicator off
- Break in the Battery, 5-6 fullcharges seems to be the break in period on batteries from what I have read.
- If all else fails...I love my Seidio extended batteryLast edited by mike42; 08-05-09 at 09:50 AM.
08-05-09 09:47 AMLike 0 - Standard tips to improve battery life are:
- Bluetooth off if you aren't using it
- Screen Brightness as low as tolerable, anything below 100 helps (0 still looks ok to me, I set it to 50 first and it helped a bunch)
- Set GPS to e911 only unless using it for navigation or another Location Based Service
- Put it in the OEM holster so it goes to standby when not in use, or use a similar App to auto standby
- Coverage LED indicator off
- Break in the Battery, 5-6 fullcharges seems to be the break in period on batteries from what I have read.
- If all else fails...I love my Seidio extended battery08-05-09 09:54 AMLike 0 - Bluetooth and GPS being turned off shouldn't make a difference, because they aren't using power unless something is actively using it. I have my bluetooth on all the time and it makes no difference, because I don't have anything paired with it most of the time unless I'm in the car. Same with the GPS.08-05-09 09:57 AMLike 0
- Bluetooth and GPS being turned off shouldn't make a difference, because they aren't using power unless something is actively using it. I have my bluetooth on all the time and it makes no difference, because I don't have anything paired with it most of the time unless I'm in the car. Same with the GPS.
You're right when you say utilization of the Bluetooth radio consumes more power, but the fact of the matter is that they are still 2 more radio connections that when turned on will consume battery, albeit, not as much. As for the GPS, its my understanding that when you set it to location on, its always on and always consuming power because your device will always be tracked by the system whether you're using a GPS application or not. When you're navigating the GPS doesn't consume more power, you're simply using more power to have the screen turned on for a longer duration and actually use the app.Last edited by mike42; 08-05-09 at 10:55 AM.
08-05-09 10:50 AMLike 0 - Bluetooth and GPS being turned off shouldn't make a difference, because they aren't using power unless something is actively using it. I have my bluetooth on all the time and it makes no difference, because I don't have anything paired with it most of the time unless I'm in the car. Same with the GPS.08-05-09 10:52 AMLike 0
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- That's like turning on your television without having your cable box turned on. You're not receiving a signal and USING the television, but the fact of the matter is that your television is turned on and consuming power.
You're right when you say utilization of the Bluetooth radio consumes more power, but the fact of the matter is that they are still 2 more radio connections that when turned on will consume battery, albeit, not as much. As for the GPS, its my understanding that when you set it to location on, its always on and always consuming power because your device will always be tracked by the system whether you're using a GPS application or not. When you're navigating the GPS doesn't consume more power, you're simply using more power to have the screen turned on for a longer duration and actually use the app.
As far as I know, from turning GPS to 911-only doesn't really mean you're turning it off - you're just limiting who can find you. 911-only lets emergency services find you, whereas "location on" lets any GPS program find you. It's not a question of power, but moreso of privacy. The GPS is not active until you use a program that actively looks for you. That's why anytime you use a GPS service on an app, it always has to take a few seconds to find you.Last edited by slinky317; 08-05-09 at 11:26 AM.
08-05-09 11:23 AMLike 0 - I've posted before that for me, I get two days out of a charge on my Tour. We all have different usage patterns, but my iPhone would go half that with the same usage (less, actually), so I'm actually thrilled with the battery life on the Tour.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com08-05-09 12:01 PMLike 0 - Ryomtov,
Yes. Switch from global to 1xEV will help save battery life. So will setting your phone to auto turn off and on at times of the night when you don't use it, like when sleeping. Streaming apps like Pandora also drain the battery pretty fast. I had horrible battery usage the first week, but now I am getting pretty good usage, so I think doing a few full charges does help, too.08-05-09 12:22 PMLike 0 - It's not rocket science really.
Although adjusting BT (Bluetooth) settings on your device helps greatly...there are a host of other options/settings/procedures/variables that tweak battery life (for better and worse alike) as well.
Leaving applications open (even when you think they were closed properly) can drain the battery; and if not drain the battery...leaving them open doesn't add to battery life that's for sure. Also; when the phone is switching to find the best reception for voice/data-signal in a poor reception area...this is by far the greatest battery drain variable that is kind-of/sort-of out of your control.08-05-09 12:57 PMLike 0 - I've had bad battery life and called Sprint and they put me through the Blackberry support. They had me reload the OS and that cleared up my battery issue. There were times where I only got 5 hours on a charge. Now I'm getting a charge all day with 50% left at the end.08-05-09 01:13 PMLike 0
- I should have added in my original post that I went to Verizon about the battery issue and they stated that about a day is "normal" with the Tour. They gave me a nice one-page write-up on things I can do to help - most of which I had done already; make sure not running more than 5 apps, turn off radio if cell signal is not existent, etc.
As I mentioned the one biggest gain I saw was by turning off the blue tooth. Thanks!08-05-09 02:54 PMLike 0
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Battery Life - what I did to improve
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