Not another battery thread

Couldn't resist the title - sorry.

After reading many, many threads and posts on battery life, I decided to be a bit more scientific about it. Now this is very early on, but I have some interesting results. Now, I may not be somebody who has been surgically fused to my phone, but I do use it a fair bit. Here is what I have on at the moment.

Always close apps that aren't needed
3 email accounts all on push - mobile data enabled (not wifi) many email messages per day
No social stuff (facebook etc)
Silent notification for email, beep for messages
3G only (no 4G on my carrier yet - but its cheap...)
app downloads
bluetooth on in the car
lunchtime browsing, music etc.
photos through the day
many texts/calls
games when I get home etc
screen at about 20% brightness

For the last month or so, I have consistently got about 16 hours before needing to charge.

Today, I switched off mobile data and enabled wifi at work. Same usage pattern, it is now 3:30 and I took it off the charger at 6:30. I am down to 73%. So, when you do the maths, that works out to about 30+hours (depends on when you charge - 10% -> 20%).

I'll do some more testing, but maybe that is the number one factor. Its a huge difference between the mobile data enabled, and disabled. For people in a low signal area, it is even worse. I know it has always been a tip to do this, but I never actually saw anybody mention *how* much better it is.

Anyone else want to try the experiment? Maybe we can characterise the battery "problems", so we get a better idea of what exactly is causing it. Hopefully, that might lead to some better battery saving procedures for people with low battery lives.

One thing I suggest everyone do:
Do a test. You need two days for this.
First day, keep your radio on while you sleep. For me, a 8 hour period.
Second day with mobile data turned off.
Compare. My results:
Data on: 35% drain. Data off, 9% drain. With this in mind there's some battery hogging data related services. Turn off push and set it to 4H+ syncs if they're not necessary or early used emails.
If you're drain more than say 20% on idle with all apps closed, there might be something wrong with your phone.
I have a feeling push isn't as efficient as I though. From 2 charges to 1 at night.

I found that active frames really don't have any significant battery drain. They're developed quite well and update only when you wake the phone or if you've set other parameters for them. I tend to leave an weather frame and battery frame overnight and on always.

Not sure why I'm even responding to another battery thread! Haha. For me, it's usually 5-6 hours heavy use, 12+ light use.

Heavy Use: (5-6 hrs)- 10+texts, 5 emails and 20+ bbm messages , a few videos, 30,40 pages of web browsing and 10-20 mins gaming, download a few apps etc...
Medium Use: 7-8 hours
Light Use:10-12+hrs , A few texts, check the weather, make a couple calls, a few web pages.



Posted via BlackBerry Z10

I did prefer the old OS' AUTO off and on. You could set a time for the phone to turn "completely" off and then back on. I quoted "completely" since obviously the phone was able to check those times and respond and also, important, the ALARM would still function even if it occurred during the off period.