Battery life is awesome now with beams disabled

fooo · #1 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 12:39 PM

So I only saw this posted once, buried in another thread about battery usage, but I think this should be sticky, because I've gone from needing to recharge every 20-30 hours to only losing 10% battery per 24 hours with light usage (ie check email a few times, 20 minutes of calls a day, use for alarm and todo lists).

The solution seems to be to disable incoming beams (settings/connections.beam/Receive all incoming beams).

I've been on here for a while since the Mogul first came out, but I only saw one person mention in a few days ago. It's provided the most drastic battery savings for me beyond anything else. And who uses beams, now that everyone has bluetooth anyway?

I also have the normal stuff off like WIFI/Bluetooth/no push mail, but that did nothing compared to disabling beams.

It was annoying coming from a Nokia smart-phone that only needed to charge every 4 days to one that demanded my attention constantly. Last regret is now gone.

Oh wait, if they could fix that alarm thing not working when the phone is plugged in, that'd be great too!

Mustang46L · #2 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 12:51 PM

I do believe that disabling beams also disables incoming OBEX bluetooth transfers which is why some have chosen not to disable incoming beams.

papped · #3 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 01:10 PM

It doesn't fix whatever is causing this battery inconsistency.

I have beams turned off. Today my battery went from 100% to 60% in 3 hours doing NOTHING on the phone. I even manually disconnected from EVDO from time to time.

Other days I can go 6+ hours before it drops to 60%...

dabug911 · #4 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 01:14 PM

I have the same issue, I turned off beam and its draining a little slower but I have to charge my phone at least twice a day right now.

fooo · #5 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 03:52 PM

Ahh. Sounds like there are other problems then. Mine was always consitent in my 20-30 hour recharge cycle. Now it seems to be stable at the 10% per day, so I'm guessing I could get 6 days minimum at the current rate of use based on the current draining rate.

Certainly seems like it's finicky. Makes me appreciate the Iphone a bit more in how closed it is - closed platforms are more predictable.

However, I wouldn't have 5 major features I love on my Mogul if I couldn't customize it (new today screen replacement, any codec support for videos/streaming music, full google/youtube access, replacement browser (opera), and MMS). We pay a hefty price sometimes for this flexibility.

**willysp** · #6 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 10:26 PM

No - beams are a minor power drain. I've always turned them off on all my PPC devices. Doesn't make a lot difference.

Turned them off on day 1 with Mogul, and sometimes the battery life amazes me after a lot of use, and sometimes it's hot and dead by noon with no use.

**stroths** · #7 (**permalink**) 08-18-2007, 12:59 AM

On my Treo 700wx, turning off beaming would give about 10-20% more power at the end of the day. I've disabled it on my 6800 for over a month and get about the same savings from what I can tell.

bamrock · #8 (**permalink**) 08-18-2007, 09:58 AM

Disabling the beams definitely will not hurt, but I agree the battery is still a little weak on these phones. The solution that I have come up with (may not work for everyone) is just to have a charger with me most of the time. At home, in my car, and at work I have chargers. At least these mini-usb chargers are common.

TrainSafe · #9 (**permalink**) 08-18-2007, 10:17 AM

I disabled beams a week ago (secretly hoping that I'd found the Holy Grail of battery life.) I haven't noticed a difference. Yesterday I had the phone go to 'red light status' then shut off while I was at lunch. Some days I make it until bed time. It is so erratic.

I'm in a metal office building and all day my phone jumps between roam & Sprint service. I think the battery is killed in this search mode.

Anyone else notice that the Mogul seems to get very warm from the battery while in sleep/standby mode? Just having it in the stock belt carrier, it seems much warmer than my 6700 ever was.

DYGIT · #10 (**permalink**) 08-18-2007, 10:24 AM

I have tried all the tips to preserve batterylife - I am not a heavy phone user, but I do use slingplayer occasionally and surf the web - one thing I definitely noticed: my battery life has improved dramatically since I did these things - turn off the ir and recharge the battery at the end of the day with the phone off (I am finding that I am only losing 10 - 30% during the day) and recharging while the battery still has a hefty charge in it (like 70%). Don't know why, but it seemed that if I let the battery get down to 40% or less, that the recharge did not seem to last as long. Don't know if this makes sense, but the battery is lasting much longer than in the beginning and my usage has not changed......