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Originally Posted by ScrapMaker
I hate this defense... it's more powerful, but so what? Just because it's more powerful, doesn't mean it should draw more power...
a 2009 Corvette Z06 has 600hp, and can get nearly 30MPG.
a 1970 Corvette has ~250hp, and gets <15MPG.
Same goes with laptops, phones, etc.
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I wasn't just specifically talking about the processor power. There are other things to account for, such as the larger screen, the higher resolution screen, and I also allow the Touch Pro screen to go brighter than the Treos (I kept my Treo's screen near the minimum, even outside, to save battery, but I let the TP auto-adjust). There is also more RAM, which may or may not cause an increase in power consumption, and the addition of WiFi and GPS (though I don't think those draw any extra power when not in use)
and to address this:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by saumaun
That's one of the points another member made before. With the rate that technology changes, the battery draw of a newer processor should be less than an older processor.
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That is true to an extent. You won't get leaps and bounds better, but there are typically efficiency increases. This is just for equally rated processors. A new generation 528 MHz processor should be more efficient than an older generation 528 MHz processor, however that doesn't mean that a newer generation 528 MHz processor will be more efficient than an older generation 400 MHz processor.
So anyway, onto some specifics on my battery drain evaluation, and comparing to my previous phone. I haven't run any battery logging programs on the old phone, so all that info is anecdotal, but I did have a pretty good feel for how often it would last between charges, since I did have it for 3 years.
First off, my Treo 700w had an (I think) 1800 mAh battery and would last me 4-5 days between charges on VERY LOW usage. Unfortunately the 700w was so gimped on memory I never used it for anything other than a phone, text messages, calendar and watch, with occasional game play, but never really any data usage, whereas the Touch Pro is significantly more functional and I stream video/audio and search the net much more frequently. Let's just say on the Treo my average was 4.5 days, and that equals ~400 mAh/day with minimal usage.
Under similar usage (though actually using it more than the 700w), my Touch Pro, which has a 1350 mA battery, has been lasting me, on average, 2 days, though each charge cycle lately seems to be increasing this, and right now I have been on the same charge for almost 3 full days (71 hours since I pulled it off the charger) and my battery reader still says I have 30% left (who knows how accurate that is, though).
Let's just say that 2 days is the norm, (hopefully it keeps increasing, though), and that works out to 675 mAh/day, or roughly a 70% increase in battery drain. If my new record of 3 days starts being the norm (I doubt it, but if it can do it once, then it should be able to do it again under similar usage patterns), then this number drops down to 450 mAh/day, which isn't that much higher than what I would see on my Treo.
Now onto some caveats: I have been trying to use the phone/data portion of the Touch Pro as little as possible the past week or so to get a better feel for how long the battery lasts, and how much of a hit the radios really add to the battery. Unfortunately these radios seem to be the biggest battery killer. Using Palladium's Batt Log program, just now I recorded a draw of ~475 mA when on the phone, 13 mA when in standby (screen off, phone on but not active), and 57 mA with the screen on (phone on, but not active).
Since my phone is in standby in my pocket for the majority of the time, this means that every minute of talking on the phone will consume the equivalent of ~36.5 minutes of the phone being in my pocket, or ~8.3 minutes of my device being on, but nothing really being used. Active data connections use about the same amount of power as the phone. At that rate, a 40 minute phone call will use the equivalent of a day's worth of "perfect" battery (if the phone was completely in standby, and never had any spikes, such as when searching for signal, waking up in pocket, or anything that would cause it to go above the typical 13 mA).
Under "perfect" conditions in standby, my phone should theoretically last ~100 hours (1350 mAh/13 mA) in standby, which is just over 4 days, or about 2.8 hours talk time (1350 mAh/475 mA) on the phone (with a perfect charge), or some combination thereof (like my typical 2 day standby [624 mAh], 30 minutes on the phone [237.5 mAh], 30 min surfing the net [237.5 mAh...though really it would be less since the data connection isn't usually active 100% unless streaming], and then another 250 mAh for "other" things [max 5 hours of screen "on" usage], such as searching for signal, or when I turn on the phone to check the time or appointments, or text messaging, etc).
By the way, I have NO idea where they get their claim of "up to 4 hours of continuous talk time", and that does annoy me a bit since I don't see how that is physically possible with the battery capacity and the power draw of the phone radio, but I've never believed (or achieved) rated talk times on any phone I've ever had. I also hope that they can do something to fix the radio draw, as that would significantly increase the life of the battery.
I also don't know what a typical draw for the radio is on other phones (I just assume it is lower, but I don't know real numbers), but at least in comparison to my Treo, I wonder if it has anything to do with not having an antenna that sticks out of the device at all (though other, more recent phones, such as the Touch/Tilt/etc haven't had an antenna nub, either)