[chuckwalla]

I worked for a major commutations company designing battery packs and charging circuits. Without going into the gory details, the description that Peter gave is accurate.

[KermEd]

It's simple.

When in your pocket, your screen is close enough to your skin to register constant "Touches" that it then needs to monitor and verify I'd a gesture.

Of course turning it off saves battery life.

I can't believe people are still arguing over it. And I'm not even going to bother with the main feature debate. If you want to leave it on, then leave it on and quit complaining lol. Y gen kids I tell ya.


Posted via CB10

[peter9477]

Here's the thing... for *some* people it may actually make a huge difference. It might depend on whether you have it in your pocket. For others it may be that they have defective hardware, or a firmware build with a bug. And for some people it will make no measurable difference.

There's no single answer to most of these issues, and the OP's test is a useful one for people to try. (Also don't draw firm conclusions from a single test... check again with the original conditions to make sure you're not tricking yourself.)

Please don't assume that what works (or does not work) for you will be the same for everyone else.

Posted via CB10

[ubizmo]

When in your pocket, your screen is close enough to your skin to register constant "Touches" that it then needs to monitor and verify I'd a gesture.

As I posted a few pages back, I don't see any reason at all why the entire screen should be in an active state when locked, since the only touch that would matter would be from the bottom bezel upward. For that, a narrow band of active screen would be sufficient. The only reason to keep the whole screen active would be if there is some "all or nothing" constraint in the screen hardware itself.

I'm going to test the OP's theory, however. In a way, I already have. When I got the Z10, I kept it set to "no gestures when locked" for several days, then activated gestures. I didn't notice any change in battery life, but the first days of owning a smartphone aren't typical anyway, so it's better to repeat the experiment now. My Z10, in transform case, lives in my shirt pocket most of the time.

[Mecca EL]

Why are these Z10 threads turning into "My information is better than yours" matches? The op discovered something, and shared this discovery. The next, and most significant of things to do, was verify this tip with ACTUAL testing and community results. Come on people, I don't want to read through 3pgs of nonsense, finger pointing, whining.

Op..."I did this and it works for me! "

Respondents... "works for me too...negative, no noticeable improvement "
I actually like reading feedback. Gives me the option of making adjustments to my device, or not. But I at least get to make a choice, without all the d*#m ridicule.

Thanks for the tip, zten. One more navigation tip is a plus, in my book.

Posted via CB10

[KermEd]

Touch screens that use capacitive touch can't turn off all but one region.

They ignore all but one region. The whole screen still handles current and when it fluctuates the software does its thing to determine the touch.

In a nut shell, ignoring all but an area probably does help (and it probably does do that) but false touches of any kind trigger a chain of events that makes the phone do extra processing.

Is be interested to know of un checking that option completely disables the screen or just the events. But either way it will save some life.


Posted via CB10

[ubizmo]

Going a bit OT, I miss the ability to unlock my password-locked 9900 with one hand, without having to look at it.

[canderson85]

I did this ages ago. It will save the battery.

Posted via CB10

[timett]

Going a bit OT, I miss the ability to unlock my password-locked 9900 with one hand, without having to look at it.

Also OT but for a gesture based device, why no gesture based lock screen? And I mean actual lock screen not just swipe up to unlock. Unless I missed a feature somewhere on that menu...

~ Timett, Son of Timett

Posted via CB10

[Whyareallthegoodnamestaken]

Old news. Very old news.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[illwill718]

Great tip! You rock DUDE!!

[skelleytech]

Two Thumbs Up on this post and the tip!

[DOCTOREVIL8]

The swipe on gesture of the Playbook gave that device a very poor standby time compared to other tablets. I can absolutely believe this tip WILL improve battery life on the Z10. The question is, by how much? The answer will vary user to user. I will try this tip myself and am dying to see other people's responses as well.

Thanks OP!!

Posted via CB10

[tinker2000]

@Peter,

Hi Peter,
"since the battery voltage drops as you drain it, from about 4.3V to 3.4V, the current consumption will actually climb steadily" How is this the case. It doesn't make sense. What magic is lurking inside the phone to break Mr Ohms law?

Unless there is some strange trickery, the current will drop as the voltage drops because I is directly proportional to V in I=V/R. Even in more complex systems, this rule stands firm, albeit with some imaginary frequency dependant parts.

What you're effectively saying is that internal magic is compensating by decreasing the effective resistance of the black box that is the Z10. Substituting I for V/R we get Power = V^2/R so if Vfull > Vempty then the resistance must drop to raise the current to compensate.

I suspect the operating voltage is much less than the battery voltage and there are regulator circuits in there to maintain a constant power consumption.

Just a question

[Blue Shift]

@Peter,
What you're effectively saying is that internal magic is compensating by decreasing the effective resistance of the black box that is the Z10. Substituting I for V/R we get Power = V^2/R so if Vfull > Vempty then the resistance must drop to raise the current to compensate.

It's not internal magic; it's Canadian Winter that does that.

[peter9477]

What you're effectively saying is that internal magic is compensating by decreasing the effective resistance of the black box that is the Z10. ...

I suspect the operating voltage is much less than the battery voltage and there are regulator circuits in there to maintain a constant power consumption.

I'm definitely saying it's "magic" like that ;-). Think of it like a magical, intelligent resistor that wants to maintain a particular heat loss, which it does by lowering its resistance as the voltage drops.

Or think of it (rather more accurately) as a system that uses voltage regulation to ensure that the electronics are driven by a very carefully controlled voltage (or often more than one, each regulated separately and often to tight tolerances). The current involved in the voltage-regulated part of the system would stay constant (for stable conditions), so that part isn't quite as "magic". Constant current, constant voltage, and therefore constant power. But as the input (battery) voltage drops, the current being drawn out of the battery has to increase (as your math suggests) to maintain that constant power. (For background, these things are usually some form of switched-mode power supply, sometimes called buck or boost converters depending on some specifics of what they're doing.)

If the OS were reporting the system voltage and system current consumption, then obviously the voltage would tend to be constant and the current would be stable for stable conditions. What's actually being monitored, however, is the current flow to or from the battery, and the voltage of the battery. That's why when the charger is plugged in and the battery fully charged, you're generally going to see zero current... yet obviously the device did not suddenly stop consuming energy.

Any clearer now? :-)

[BB12MX]

Settings
Display
Allow gestures when locked

Turn that off

My battery lasted at 80% after 6 hours compared to yesterday only 15%.

Can't hurt to try, if you don't agree then don't do it.

I'd be interested in seeing if there is a difference for anyone who had bad battery life.

I can offer a very rational explanation for this and why I think it works but I'd rather see if anyone else sees improvements first.

P.s this is the best device ever!

Really works ... I noticed that also charge time is faster, one funny thing was that keeping plug all night in the morning never got 100%, now I get why

[wolf_359]

Settings
Display
Allow gestures when locked

Turn that off

My battery lasted at 80% after 6 hours compared to yesterday only 15%.

Can't hurt to try, if you don't agree then don't do it.

I'd be interested in seeing if there is a difference for anyone who had bad battery life.

I can offer a very rational explanation for this and why I think it works but I'd rather see if anyone else sees improvements first.

P.s this is the best device ever!

My battery life has been great since week 2 of owning my z10 in february. I tried this back then and did not find a noticable difference. Thanks for tip though.

[tinker2000]

I'm definitely saying it's "magic" like that ;-). Think of it like a magical, intelligent resistor that wants to maintain a particular heat loss, which it does by lowering its resistance as the voltage drops.

Or think of it (rather more accurately) as a system that uses voltage regulation to ensure that the electronics are driven by a very carefully controlled voltage (or often more than one, each regulated separately and often to tight tolerances). The current involved in the voltage-regulated part of the system would stay constant (for stable conditions), so that part isn't quite as "magic". Constant current, constant voltage, and therefore constant power. But as the input (battery) voltage drops, the current being drawn out of the battery has to increase (as your math suggests) to maintain that constant power. (For background, these things are usually some form of switched-mode power supply, sometimes called buck or boost converters depending on some specifics of what they're doing.)

If the OS were reporting the system voltage and system current consumption, then obviously the voltage would tend to be constant and the current would be stable for stable conditions. What's actually being monitored, however, is the current flow to or from the battery, and the voltage of the battery. That's why when the charger is plugged in and the battery fully charged, you're generally going to see zero current... yet obviously the device did not suddenly stop consuming energy.

Any clearer now? :-)

Yep, Snazzy regulation
Thanks

[anon(5742598)]

Wow. Great tip.
This time yesterday, with gestures ON, I was at around 40% battery with mediocre use (20+ emails, 50+ IMs, CB10 and Internet browsing).
This morning, I turned gestures OFF, took it off the charger earlier and have purposely left 5 apps open, along with similar usage. I'm now at 70%.

Posted via CB10

[CBMem]

Ok, just thinking out loud here: so based on all this, with gesture unlock on, would applying a screen protector be even worse than keeping it in a pocket part of the time? Wouldn't there be contact with the screen registering ALL THE TIME? Could that be why some people have truly hideous battery life, while others, like me, seem to have it pretty good?

[peter9477]

Ok, just thinking out loud here: so based on all this, with gesture unlock on, would applying a screen protector be even worse than keeping it in a pocket part of the time? Wouldn't there be contact with the screen registering ALL THE TIME? Could that be why some people have truly hideous battery life, while others, like me, seem to have it pretty good?

It shouldn't impact it. Despite the name, these are not "touch" screens so much as "high capacitance very nearby" screens. The screen protectors don't provide any capacitance, so they don't get detected by the sensor. Your finger looks like a big juicy pile of capacitance to the sensor, so that (or potentially your ****, if the phone's in your pocket and you don't have thick enough pants) can trigger it.

You can experiment with one or more pieces of paper or cloth between your finger and the screen, to see how much it takes before it stops getting recognized. I just tried here and with anything less than a stack of 7 index cards, I can control the screen pretty well, but after seven it gets unreliable and after a couple more I get no noticeable effect. (That doesn't mean my I'm entirely undetectable though... just that I'm below the threshold at which it will consider the "signal" to be worth paying attention to.)

[ealvnv]

Just a quick tip if you put the phone in your pocket, make sure is the back of the device touching the skin and not the screen so it will avoid accidentally turning the screen on

Posted Via CB10 app on the Z10LE

[RubenDM]

I'll say this as gently as I can but turning off features to save battery life is disappointing. These are Android type problems that I thought would have been taken care of before release.

Just turn of the diagnoses it automaticly sends to bb...
Makes a 2 h difference for me

[Benjamin Black]

Battery guru rocks. Haters gonna hate. **** em

Posted via CB10