[breach]

Hi,

I ran some quick tests with my E71, and here are my findings:

- All off, screen active, no backlight - average 0.10W
- All off, backlight full power - average 0.26W

Biggest battery life hit (all measurements with active backlight, so deduct 0.26 at least)

- Wi-Fi - Over 1.4W (max signal level)
- 3G Calls - About 1.4W (max signal level)
- GSM Calls - Jumps heavily between 0.6 and 0.8W (approx)
- Passive Bluetooth (no scanning, just being on) - no visible effect on consumption (hah!)
- Active bluetooth - About 0.3-0.4W
- GPS - 0.5-0.6W

Conclusion - Wi-Fi and 3G calls win the day. For voice calls I really don't see the benefit of having 3G/UMTS at all. Unfortunately, disabling 3G disables it for good for everything, not just voice.

Hope this helps.

[mikechadwick]

Hi Breach
this was really helpful. where's the backlight control though? i can't see a setting for it
thanks
mike

[breach]

It's controlled by setting the sensitivity of the light sensor Settings -> Phone -> Display -> Light Sensor. The idea is that the phone would automatically detect the levels of ambient light and dim/lighten up the display accordingly. Personally, I find this menu interface very unintuitive, and also prefer to have max brightness at all times, so I just move the slider all the way to the right. HTH.

[mikechadwick]

that's what i thought - i still can't get anywhere newar your figures - in offline mode, nothing working i'm still looking at 0.6w usage!

[ian202]

I've got the phone back from the Nokia shop where they have reinstalled the software.

They have advised that it is not a problem with the battery and I'm currently charging the phone to see how long the charge will last. I'll leave it switched on, but offline, overnight and see what happens.

I'm not hopeful as I've loaded the energy profiler and it is showing 0.51W usage.

If the problem still exists then they have advised that it will have to be returned to Nokia for replacement.

[mikechadwick]

---

03-Sep-2008 02:23 PM
ian202 wrote:
I've got the phone back from the Nokia shop where they have reinstalled the software.

They have advised that it is not a problem with the battery and I'm currently charging the phone to see how long the charge will last. I'll leave it switched on, but offline, overnight and see what happens.

I'm not hopeful as I've loaded the energy profiler and it is showing 0.51W usage.

If the problem still exists then they have advised that it will have to be returned to Nokia for replacement.

---

Ian , did they make any comment about whether the phone "might" be faulty?

[silverbladef]

I returned mine,as long as the tmobile 3g compatible version will be out ill get my hands on it.

[ian202]

Mike

It's got to be the phone, something is draining the battery down.

The phone is dead as a do-do this morning.

It's going back either to the people I purchased it from or directly back to Nokia under the guarantee. I'm waiting to see what the Nokia repair centre recommend.

[sergey]

You need to try the following - switch off all installed management software like active call manager. Restart the phone (power off/on). See what profiler shows. Must be 0.05 in standby mode.

[ian202]

Sergey

With the the phone offline (switched on but without a SIM card in it) the profiler shows 0.55W

The phone is being returned to Nokia tomorrow. I had charged the phone again this morning, switched it off and put it back the box ready for returning. I just took the phone out again and noticed that the back of the phone is warm and the battery indicator has dropped one bar.

I can only assume that there is a physical fault with the phone that is draining the battery down regardless of it being used.

[sergey]

Ian,

In this case You're absolutely right - return it to the service. It's a real pity that You have to spend the time for their faulty device.

However I should say it is quite rare situation with nokia devices in my experience. I've had nokias for approx. 10 years now...

[mikechadwick]

i'm taking mine back to the store now - let's see if i can get a replacement rather than having to wait for this one to be repaired.

[ian202]

Mike

I've just returned mine and they confirmed that it is definately a problem with the phone rather than the battery or software.

It's going to take around 10 days before I get it (or a new one) back.

Back to the trusty E61

[mikechadwick]

Shop wouldn't replace the phone (b******s) so taking it in to a care centre tomorrow. Spoke to Nokia - can't say they were very helpful, basically if it's faulty take it to a care centre (i was hoping to send it back to them direct - thought it might be faster).
Moral of the story ...... ???

[breach]

Technically AFAIR, batteries are not under warranty, so at least you're getting it serviced ;-]. There are a lot of hardware possibilities here, the battery/phone could as well be causing a short circuit which would in turn cause the gradual battery drain.

Btw, regarding my previous measurements, though GSM consume 0.6-0.8W on the average this jumps to about 1.1W when the user speaks into the headset, rather than just listen :-) Not the case with 3G voice calls. Fun, isn't it?

[heinzharald]

Update:
I have traveled to that building where my Treo drained like crazy and I must say I was impressed. Not only did the E71 not drain it also had an excellent reception my Treo was not able to deliver. My E71 ran for 3+ days with moderate-high usage.

Mind that when using the Energy Profiler I am currently at 0.07W so the value for me to "hit" is 0.05-0.07W. Everything above is a "drainer". The Energy Profiler reaches this idle value only after a certain uninterrupted standyby time (the value moves from high->low over time). So, a load-unplug-check sequence is not enough. It needs to be load-unplug-wait-wait-wait-check.

@breach:
I'd suspect you have better 3G reception than GSM. Someone correct me - but the 3G is running over a newer/different antenna/infrastructur. I'm not sure about it's "building-penetration" abilitys though.

Message Edited by heinzharald on 05-Sep-2008 06:21 AM

Message Edited by heinzharald on 05-Sep-2008 06:22 AM

[fredaroony]

I found the cause of my battery life issue. I installed Seven email service as the powers that be at Nokia decided to end Blackberry support. What a stupid decision...

Seven puts a big strain on your battery so be careful.

[breach]

I haven't made exactly dB -> dB comparison, but at least according to the signal strength indicator where I tested I max at both 3G and GSM network coverage. So I do think I'm comparing apples with applies here. UMTS (3G) operates at different frequencies. I'm in Europe so it works at 2100Mhz which obviously requires a higher wattage than than the 800-900Mhz GSM network. In theory 3G 'makes better use of the radio spectrum' (whatever that means), but it's a well-known fact 3G consumes more battery power than plain old GSM networks. The figures I quoted were demonstrating exactly how much more (approximately of course).

[archzai]

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05-Sep-2008 06:18 AM
heinzharald wrote:
Update:
I have traveled to that building where my Treo drained like crazy and I must say I was impressed. Not only did the E71 not drain it also had an excellent reception my Treo was not able to deliver. My E71 ran for 3+ days with moderate-high usage.

Mind that when using the Energy Profiler I am currently at 0.07W so the value for me to "hit" is 0.05-0.07W. Everything above is a "drainer". The Energy Profiler reaches this idle value only after a certain uninterrupted standyby time (the value moves from high->low over time). So, a load-unplug-check sequence is not enough. It needs to be load-unplug-wait-wait-wait-check.

---

05-Sep-2008

@heinz,

Heinz, when you say you are at 0.05-0.07w exactly what is your phone doing, is that with it on standby with the screen off and no backlight on?

I recently downloaded the energy profiler and running Opera Mini viewing full webpages and energy profiler (only two programs on) my wattage can spike up to 1.8w or 1.9w using 3g (this is the live values and not average) but i imagine if i consistently surf the internet loading links to read, that the average would naturally rise after a certain amount of time to around 1.1-1.2w? Is this really high? Becuase compared to your 0.05-0.07W my values seem ridiculous. Thanks

Message Edited by archzai on 05-Sep-2008 01:19 PM

[mikechadwick]

i've just taken my phone to a care centre - they were pretty shocked at how warm the phone felt when it was on (feels warm toward the top of the phone, at the back) and are pretty sure that the phone is shorting out, hence the poor battery life.
Anyway it's going back to the repair centre today - hopefully it will come back working properly.