[Nonimus]

Along with the fast-draining battery issues some are experiencing (even with all apps properly closed/killed and everything else off: wifi/bluetooth/location/nfc/anything that makes a smartphone useful), I am having an issue with charging the Lumia 920 in my car.

I am using a universal USB adapter rated at 1A, more than some of the chargers I have seen advertised for the 920 which included several rated at 750mA, and the cable included with the phone. When plugged in, the battery indicator shows the phone is charging, but I only gain about 2-3% on a 30 minute ride. If I attempt to stream music to my car via bluetooth and use Nokia Drive or just plain Nokia Maps, the drain is roughly 5% every 10-15 mins. It appears the phone cannot take in power from the USB charger as fast as it uses it up. Can this possibly be normal? I understand using more features requires higher energy consumption, but logically shouldnt a device be able to at least keep the battery at the same level when plugged into a power source? My vehicle's output is a standard 12V and works flawlessly and quickly increased battery percentage with various friends' iPhones, any Android model, the Lumia 900, and a Blackberry I tried. And these were all set up to fairly similar circumstances (BT on, playing music, and using a gps/map app with location services on).

I have read countless posts concerning battery life issues and attempted every fix I have read about including a hard reset and have gotten nowhere. I just want to know if the car charger situation is the norm or if I have a defective unit. I regularly have long commutes and unfortunately cant keep this beautiful phone if I can't use it/charge it in the car. Thanks.

[aspergerguy]

@Nonimus

This has always been the sceanrio when using Navigation for upon Symbian devices with car charger apart from those with 1000mA output or even from dedicated 2mm charging outlet upon Nokia CK-300 carkit, where effectively there was no net charging taking place.

With wireless charging plate in home/office there is probably less reason for device being in low state of charge before journey, but this is no excuse.

[Nonimus]

So, just to be clear, are you saying that this is the normal and expected behaviour for this phone/OS? 

[adrianhughes]

That is correct Nonimus.

[tkchan007]

Went on a trip last week after just receiving my new Lumia 920.  Even though I have my Lumia plug in to a charger (was a charger for my Motorola Atrix), I was using Nokia Drive+ Beta ONLY and the charging just cannot keep up at all.

So, what rated charging amp do I need to get so that I can use Nokia Drive+ while driving again in the future?  [That is assuming that I decided to stick with Lumia/WP8 even with a lot of the missing features when comparing to Android].

[cjlim]

From my own experience 1A just about keeps up. Get 1.5A or 2A if possible.  

[WalterPlinge]

Same issue here.  I started off with a cheap 1A car charger.  That didn't work -- the battery continued to discharge at a rapid rate -- so I got a quality 1A charger.  No better -- battery continued to drain fast when navigating.  So I got a quality 2A charger -- no dice.  Battery continues to drain.  This evening on a one hour drive it dropped from 40% to 26%. This is unacceptable.  On a long drive - say interstate -- I'd have a flat battery before crossing the border.  Clearly there's an electronic design fault.  This is not normal behaviour.

[michail71]

I ordered an interesting charger, "over9000 Compact 2.1 Amp USB Car Power Adapter", from thinkgeek.com.  It should be here soon.  I'll report back my luck with it.

I'd never use a 750mA charger with this phone but I wouldn't be surprised if many of the 1 amp chargers are of questionalbe quality. 

[KennyKB]

Just for comparison I have a Nokia N9 and my 0.55A Nokia car charger is able to charge it while using it for navigation.

if you can't find a car charger which can at least keep up its going to be useless for navigation on long distance trips even if you start off at 100%. I've not come across a smartphone which can last for more than 3 hours using GPS.

[michail71]

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KennyKB wrote:

Just for comparison I have a Nokia N9 and my 0.55A Nokia car charger is able to charge it while using it for navigation.

if you can't find a car charger which can at least keep up its going to be useless for navigation on long distance trips even if you start off at 100%. I've not come across a smartphone which can last for more than 3 hours using GPS.

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Charging or on battery?

I know an iPhone can do 3D turn by turn and charge the battery.  It won't on a cheap charger but does on anything rated for an iPhone.

[vishp]

It should be not acceptable that a Nokia phoe's battery discharges while using GPS/BT etc while being charged. One of Nokia's USP is Navigation. Now if that cannot work, its a major failiure. 

I have a lumia 920 and for years I have bought nokia just for their awesome navigation. This saddens me and thinking logically, I do not expect any fix for this. This seems to be a hardware problem and maybe in a newer model they can (not that they will) fix it. As for me, I am stuck with this. I almost feel like returning my phone

[KennyKB]

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michail71 wrote:

    Charging or on battery?

I know an iPhone can do 3D turn by turn and charge the battery.  It won't on a cheap charger but does on anything rated for an iPhone.

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On battery without charging, 3 hrs is the average time a smartphone will last using GPS navigation from a fully charged state. On the 920 this will be shorter. The problem appears to be Nokia Drive beta not optimized for battery usage. So it may be just a software fix.

[nbaganem]

have similar problem with my new lumia 920 phone not at all charging in my new Nissan juke car even though my old iPhone does charge. I love this phone but can't keep it if not charging in car

[tralphs]

Same problem here. Nokia 920 will not charge in car with 2.1amp charger when using drive + beta.
so effectively not usable on long journeys which is really bad!
any one found a solution?

[cjlim]

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tralphs wrote:
Same problem here. Nokia 920 will not charge in car with 2.1amp charger when using drive + beta.
so effectively not usable on long journeys which is really bad!
any one found a solution?

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Have you check the actual output of your charger. I have come across quite a few which do not perform as per their specs. Personally, I have used my 2.1a charger with my 920 while navigating on various occasions without charging problems.