i know why battery life sucks so much!

[marcjen]

I hate to keep nagging about the battery.. but it helps me come to terms with the reality of it.

Biggest frustration: Having a phone that CAN do a lot, but requires constant charging or battery conservation.

So, instead of having this great device that allows me to use BT for phone calls, ActiveSync for AUTD email and Opera to check in on the latest sports or do a quick Google search, I have a device where I need to AVOID those things because it DRAINS the battery. God forbid I actually use Sprint NAV or listen to music on the device.

Does this make any sense?

Using my old phone, I'd never think twice about using my headset/BT ALL day. Never hesitate about loading up Opera. Didn't worry about screen brightness. Or taking calls. Or typing emails. Not to mention, my old 6700 could recharge the battery to full in about 30 minutes (or so, it did a pretty quick recharge, way faster than the current Diamond).

So did I move foward with this new phone or backward? It can do more, but really it can't. It does fit in my pocket a lot better.. :/

I would guess it's something that "might" get fixed down the road from Sprint, whether it's a real problem or by design remains to be seen I guess.

[cappy]

Originally Posted by marcjen

I hate to keep nagging about the battery.. but it helps me come to terms with the reality of it ... I would guess it's something that "might" get fixed down the road from Sprint, whether it's a real problem or by design remains to be seen I guess.

My experience with the Diamond battery tells me that the "reality" is 4.5 hours talk/data time with a strong signal - using Airave. That compares favorably with other phones that I have had. I would like it to be better, but I think that present technology limits it. I am not aware of any phones that get, say 8 hours of talk/data time.

Bluetooth is a problem. I see a battery discharge of 10% per hour now, if it is left on. I wish that HTC could get that down to 1%-2%. But even if it is possible to get it to 2% per hour, this will knock 32% off the battery in a 16 hour period. So if you start the day with Bluetooth on and leave it on, you are starting with a battery that has only 68% charge left for talk/data during the rest of the day. Using 2 hours of talk/data time, with a 2% draw per hour from Bluetooth, I would not make it through a 16 hour day (40% discharge from phone/data, 32% discharge from Bluetooth, and 32% from other non-intensive phone functions). These numbers tell me that even with greatly improved Bluetooth, my battery would be down to 0% in 15 hours. That is about the best that I can ever expect with Bluetooth always On. I wish that it were better, but it is what it is.

I will be turning off the Airave today to see how much additional drain is caused by a weaker phone signal. My Diamond does NOT get hot (not even noticeably warm), even during 15-20 minute phone calls. I think that the strong Airave signal keeps the phone from getting hot. I will test it today a report back.

[DHarvey]

Originally Posted by d94

YEP!
last night my phone was on the charger and i had nuetools running and it showed that the discharge was far lass then the usage and i was watching my phone die...as it was charging lol
now thats a well designed phone

LOL!!!!

(sorry, all I could really think to say to that)

[d94]

this is really ridiculous
sprint needs to fix this asap.
last night i p***** out at my friends house with 40% battery
no calls were made during the night, i have yet to use BT on this phone
and my alarm didnt go off this morning because the battery was dead. WTH!

a small side note is my usb car charger charges this as fast as the stock htc charger..but when it eates battery like this...ughh
i cant wait for the pro to get out, i just hope it fixes these problems

[marcjen]

Today I decided to get a baseline for minimal use of the phone.

Using Juicy's 2.2 for Sprint, I unplugged my phone from the Diamond Wall Plug at 7:20am this morning. Used phone, text, email only when needed. Didn't use anything else. No Bluetooth.

At 5:20pm my battery is at 15%. 10 Hours of minimal use, uses 85% of the battery.

Tomorrow I plan to use BT for the morning during drive times and maintain the minimal use. Probably 3 or 4 hours worth of BT being ON, probably only 10min of talk time.

We'll see.

[laestrella]

Originally Posted by marcjen

Today I decided to get a baseline for minimal use of the phone.

Using Juicy's 2.2 for Sprint, I unplugged my phone from the Diamond Wall Plug at 7:20am this morning. Used phone, text, email only when needed. Didn't use anything else. No Bluetooth.

At 5:20pm my battery is at 15%. 10 Hours of minimal use, uses 85% of the battery.

Tomorrow I plan to use BT for the morning during drive times and maintain the minimal use. Probably 3 or 4 hours worth of BT being ON, probably only 10min of talk time.

We'll see.

I thought people were still experiencing a serious battery drain using Juicy's rom even with 2.2.

[gsvnet]

I'm using Juicy 2.2. Today I left with full charge at 7am. Came back at 4pm with 65% remaining. I mainly use this for email/texting, I also have ActiveSync constantly running (for direct push).

[cappy]

Originally Posted by marcjen

Today I decided to get a baseline for minimal use of the phone.

Using Juicy's 2.2 for Sprint, I unplugged my phone from the Diamond Wall Plug at 7:20am this morning. Used phone, text, email only when needed. Didn't use anything else. No Bluetooth.

At 5:20pm my battery is at 15%. 10 Hours of minimal use, uses 85% of the battery.

Tomorrow I plan to use BT for the morning during drive times and maintain the minimal use. Probably 3 or 4 hours worth of BT being ON, probably only 10min of talk time.

We'll see.

I started at 100% at 6:40 am. Its now 6:47 pm and battery remains at 71%. No Bluetooth, 6 phone calls about an hour in total duration, a couple of checks to weather, and not much else. I did have the GPS locator on, though I did not use GPS today. And I turned off the Airave first thing this morning to see what effect signal strength would have on discharge.

The more that I read of other users experiences, the more it becomes clear that many variables are in play. I see 10% per hour discharge with Bluetooth on. A user on SU said that he saw no noticeable difference when he turned off Bluetooth.

My phone does not get hot, while many others appear to have a significant overheating problem. I turned off my Airave this morning, expecting that it was the reason why the device does not get hot and I also expected that a weaker signal (3 bars) would increase the discharge. There has been no noticeable increase in discharge caused by a weaker signal. And during the calls, the device did not get hot at all. If fact, I just picked it up and it is stone cold. Go figure.

I am ready to conclude that build quality varies from phone to phone. According to the NuePower software, my device draws between 75Ma to 85Ma when idle, whether connected to the Airave or not. As soon as Bluetooth is turned on, the draw goes up to between 160Ma and 211Ma at idle. I have seen others report much higher rates of discharge. It could be differences in the software that is running on different devices, but I am leaning towards hardware build differences or perhaps differences in battery quality or the quality of the battery connection.

I suppose that the only way to isolate the differences among devices is to have many identical devices side by side - same software, same signal, etc. Only Sprint or HTC can do that.

If I were seeing the poor battery life that you describe, I think I would make a single call and see how long it lasts before the battery goes dead. If it cannot go 4.5 hours as HTC and Sprint claim, I would take it back again and again until I get one that does. I have not had to try that, but based upon my battery experiences thus far, I think I would get 4.5 hours.

[gsvnet]

Originally Posted by cappy

If I were seeing the poor battery life that you describe, I think I would make a single call and see how long it lasts before the battery goes dead. If it cannot go 4.5 hours as HTC and Sprint claim, I would take it back again and again until I get one that does. I have not had to try that, but based upon my battery experiences thus far, I think I would get 4.5 hours.

That's an interesting idea, but do you think it will actually be possible to hold out a call for that long on the network? Also keep in mind this test would be need to be done with good coverage, as I'm sure that 4.5 hours figure is pretty much a best case scenario.

I should also mention that my Diamond really doesn't get that hot. Sometimes it does when using it while its charging, but not too often. My Mogul did about the same, so no change for me.

I see good battery life but this is only in a good coverage area throughout most of the day (if that matters).

[cappy]

Originally Posted by gsvnet

That's an interesting idea, but do you think it will actually be possible to hold out a call for that long on the network? Also keep in mind this test would be need to be done with good coverage, as I'm sure that 4.5 hours figure is pretty much a best case scenario.

I should also mention that my Diamond really doesn't get that hot. Sometimes it does when using it while its charging, but not too often. My Mogul did about the same, so no change for me.

I see good battery life but this is only in a good coverage area throughout most of the day (if that matters).

Fortunately, I have never had the pleasure of being on a phone call for 4.5 hours, so I can't be sure. But even if there is some arbitrary network time limit, several consecutive call would sufficiently prove the point. Signal strength would have some impact.