9900 Battery Problem Solved
Hello Blackberry Users,
I have solved blackberry 9900's battery problem, if you think there was one in the first place. I recently switched from my 9700 to 9900 and knocked every door to complain about its battery problem, how I thought it was better than 9700 and it did not turn out to be...... blah...blah...blah. To be frank what I realized is, there is no problem at all to 9900 or its battery. Not even a single problem. It is an amazing phone. I used to charge my 9900 thrice or more in a day to keep up. At max it would last five hours. But now it lasts for 40 hours or little more for my average usage. I can have up to 6.5 hours of continuous GSM(2G or GPRS) talk time as advertise by RIM. What did I do with my 9900? Absolutely nothing. Just that my ignorance took back seat and I became smart and learned few facts about modern day technology and how dumb it is.
Smart Phone Companies advertise their product life, their specs, performance, etc.. based upon the ideal conditions and average user scenarios.
Now when I say ideal conditions and average scenarios, believe me it is important and it has a meaning. Normally these mobile companies draft out some ideal conditions and gather some average user inputs during the development and testing stage of their products. With the statistics they gather during this testing stage, they put forward to us the specifications and performance aspects of their products. We all have different usage scenarios while using our mobile phones because we are different to each other. Right? Now we also need to understand and acknowledge the fact that for most average users, these usage scenarios and ideal conditions are almost similar.
I will tell you my average and ideal usage conditions for my smart phone.
- For me my blackberry is primarily a phone, then an organizer, then a business tool and very rarely goes on to become an entertainer.
- I don't talk on it all the time just because I have phone in my pocket.
- I don't wander in app store and download apps to kill my boredom.
- I don't watch movies and videos on my phone. I have a big plasma screen at home and a huge monitor at work place.
- I don't download huge files on my blackberry. Again I do that at home or work place.
- I listen to music on my blackberry for relaxation while commuting and on work breaks.
- If necessary I browse for some information on the go
- I use BBM and other instant messengers to be socially connected and be active in the community as and when necessary.
- etc...etc...etc
Now if your mobile phone usage scenarios are similar to mine, continue reading and if not, I am sorry to say there is no smart phone in the market that can quench your thirst for battery power.
I will explain the solution for battery drain of your 9900 or any other smart phone, starting in order of most serious of the issues to the less serious of issues.
Very Serious Issues:
3G: It is the master killer of your battery. Switch to 3G or 4G only when it is absolutely required. Always choose or set your network mode manually to 2G(GPRS). It doesn't make an ounce of difference in call quality or instant messaging when in 2G(GPRS) mode. 3G or 4G only help you in faster file transfers and faster web browsing and in turn eats away your battery easily. In fact 3G or 4G help network providers most than the actually user. Because 3G & 4G are more powerful radio frequencies when compared to 2G(GPRS), they help network providers in maintaining more users traffic because these frequencies can encode and decode user data at faster speeds compared to 2G(GPRS). If you want more detailed info on this subject, I am posting a detailed explanation in a day or two and provide link here.
GPS: Please switch on GPS only when you need help in navigation. Why do you want your mobile phone to communicate with satellite every time you move an inch. It is eating away your battery every time it is communicating with those positioning satellites because you are moving constantly with your mobile's GPS switched on. Blackberry users, please understand closing the maps does not mean you have switched off GPS. It has to be done in location settings in options menu.
RSS Feeds App: I don't know what you want to do with it. I have deleted mine. Switch it off or delete it to stop it from eating away your battery. Because of so many social apps in your mobile, the RSS Feeder is constantly keeping you background data running which in turn is eating your battery rapidly.
WiFi: It will just suck up your battery. So don't use your mobile's wifi connection if it is not absolutely necessary. If at home or work place just use desktop or laptop or may be try to sync your phone with usb cable, which in turn will help your phone's battery rather than suck it up.
Bluetooth: Again a big time battery killer. Your phone has to generate low frequency signals specially to communicate with your wireless headset, which will just go heavy on your battery. Last time I checked, not using bluetooth ear piece makes you look less of a moron than actually using one. Instead use your wired earphones that come with your phone. They are more battery friendly. If not go buy expensive ones like Bose or Beats and then get noticed in fashion community.
Moderate Issues:
Applications: Always close your apps properly when you are done with them. If you don't, they keep running in the background consuming your battery. Blackberry users, please just don't press power button to exit from apps. Use your options or menu button with blackberry logo to properly close applications. Most RIM made apps are clean and productive. But some third party apps are with bugs and they are always fiddly with your background data and go heavy on battery. My experience tells me that most third party applications are unfinished in their design and so come with bugs in them. You can straight away identify them if you pay attention.
Vibration Mode: Use it as less as possible. Whenever your phone vibrates to notify you be it the calls, reminders, emails or that buzzing in instant messaging, it is eating away your battery more than the regular sound alerts. You can always modify and set ringtones and alerts in sound profiles as per your preferences.
Screen Brightness: Always set your screen brightness as low as possible. And don't worry today's smart phones are smart enough to dim and brighten screens by themselves as per the surrounding lighting conditions. But in general try to set your screen brightness to low to go light on battery consumption.
Background Data: Again try to switch off back ground data transfer when not required. Background data and 3G are killer combination. Your battery will literally die in few hours. So if at all you want background data all the time, try to be in 2G(GPRS) network mode. It does not make any difference to your call quality or instant messaging and emailing speed.
Less Serious Issues:
Wallpapers: Use the default ones that come built into your phone. They are designed to go light on your battery consumption. Most of the time we prefer to apply brighter, bigger and more vibrant custom wallpapers to our phones. So the screens tend brighten themselves to accommodate your custom wallpapers. And one more thing, when you apply your loved ones picture as wallpaper which is way bigger in resolution compared to your mobile's screen, the processor is trying to fit it to its screen in the background all the time whenever you are on home screen.
Holster: It is very friendly to your phone and its battery. When you are not using your phone, let it sit snug in holster. Holster is your blackberry's home. As simple as that.
At last a little piece of advice from me. Take it or leave it, I will not have a hard feeling. Your smart Blackberry or Iphone or Android will definitely come with smart features and specs the technology has to offer, but that does not mean or make feasible for them to keep working all day with all the features running at a single battery charge. These batteries are so tiny and still work like dynamite only if you are reasonable to them. You don't spend all of your paycheck at the end of the month right? You save some for your future needs. You switch off your heating or lights at home when not using to save money on bills. When you are out of home and on the run or traveling or commuting for livelihood, your mobile phone's battery is your money. So use it wisely. When you use your blackberry's smart features in tandem with your absolute requirements, it will definitely make you look smarter than you are.
Your blackberry 9900 is genius of a phone. Thank RIM for it. Don't complain, instead understand the limitations.
Thanks for your patience. Pay attention to the above mentioned issues and will definitely see your Blackberry 9900 last two days on a single charge of battery.