Re: Lumia 800 poor battery life

Swampie · ‎2011-11-24

Further to my "back out of all apps" test, I've not charged my phone at all since 8am yesterday and my stats are now:

8am on 23/11/2011 - 100%

11:15am - 92%

2:24pm - 87%

4:25pm - 77%

5:14pm - 74%

10:38pm - 50%

7:27am on 24/11/2011 - 40%

9:02am - 36% (reporting 10 hours remaining)

So it does seem that backing out of all apps (thereby ensuring nothing running in background, apart from System apps/push email/push notifications etc) makes a big difference on battery life. Once it's fully flat, I'll charge and do it again, but without backing out and see what the difference is.

Based on these figures, I should get about 1.3 days of charge (32 hours) of use out of a full charge which I think is reasonable. 25 hours of use has taken up 64% of battery (2.5% per hour).

DarthNaga · ‎2011-11-24

Swampie wrote:
Further to my "back out of all apps" test, I've not charged my phone at all since 8am yesterday and my stats are now:

8am on 23/11/2011 - 100%
11:15am - 92%
2:24pm - 87%
4:25pm - 77%
5:14pm - 74%
10:38pm - 50%
7:27am on 24/11/2011 - 40%
9:02am - 36% (reporting 10 hours remaining)

So it does seem that backing out of all apps (thereby ensuring nothing running in background, apart from System apps/push email/push notifications etc) makes a big difference on battery life. Once it's fully flat, I'll charge and do it again, but without backing out and see what the difference is.

Based on these figures, I should get about 1.3 days of charge (32 hours) of use out of a full charge which I think is reasonable. 25 hours of use has taken up 64% of battery (2.5% per hour).

I unplugged my replacement Lumia 800 1 hour ago and the battery life is down to 94%, i set it up and then put it on standby, its lost 4% since i got to work HALF AN HOUR ago...based on current battery usage (6% an hour on standby) a full charge should last 16-17 hours...this is unnaceptable for a phone that touts "335 hrs standby time" and "55 hours music playback" Honestly? my iPhone 3G lasts ALOT longer than this and that phone is 3 years old!!!

I will only replace this phone once more, then i will switch to android or back to iPhone 4S as i can't have a phone that won't even last me a day. As for "backing out of all apps" i did that first thing this morning after unplugging, i backed out of the apps, turned off the background stuff AND deleted unnecessary ones, so i'm afraid that test isn't conclusive.

I know it seems like i'm bashing Nokia alot, but after 2 phones is it too much to ask to have one that lasts longer than a day??

Arkiliknam · ‎2011-11-24

With both my hand sets, I ensured that I never left any apps running (by hitting back until all were gone), so I don't think the issue is related to leaving tasks running (though of course this will help improve life). I wonder if there is something in the build short circuiting the battery, I'm no EE though, so its just a wild guess.

Either that or like people have been saying, a bad battery batch, as there are definitely people out there getting very good battery life.

I got an email back from Nokia support with the stock standard advice of turn off blutooth, wifi, 3g, everything.... looking forward to a real solution.

teh0wner · ‎2011-11-24

Same here, standard e-mail from Nokia..

Anyways, I've been doing some tests for my Lumia.

I've disabled EVERYTHING. Airplane mode, location off, find me phone off, you name it. Turned it into more or less a brick.

Fully charged it to 100%, and unplugged it. 14 hours later, it dropped to 97% which isn't too shabby, which leads me to believe there is no actual 'bad batch' of batteries, but its more of a software problem.

Now, which software, I am clueless, as other WP7 phones don't seem to have battery problems, so I guess it's something Nokia has tampered with, or a firmware bug somewhere which causes the battery to drain so quickly.

I'll be testing with Location ON, everything else turned off and report back, see if that's causing the issue.

p.s am not using the phone AT ALL. Just turn on the screen on for a second to check battery and lock it again.

Keep watching this space, will report back soon

lumpaywk · ‎2011-11-24

This is nothing to do with apps or backing out of apps (bar some music apps they only get put in a held state not running) I have a HD7 and a Mozart and a Lumia the HD7 and Lumia are set up identical and i get almost exactly twice the life from the HD7 my wife uses her Mozart more than I use the Lumia and has full push notifications on and it lasts a lot longer. This is something to do with the firmware or the physical batterys are duff and Nokia needs to replace asap.

Swampie · ‎2011-11-24

BTW - "335 hrs standby time" - this is likely to be "best case", ie. base setup (no additional apps installed, no email accounts etc), with perfect mobile signal. Likely there would be little, if any, mobile traffic in the scenario (as no apps running, no mail etc).

Swampie · ‎2011-11-24

lumpaywk wrote:
This is nothing to do with apps or backing out of apps (bar some music apps they only get put in a held state not running) I have a HD7 and a Mozart and a Lumia the HD7 and Lumia are set up identical and i get almost exactly twice the life from the HD7 my wife uses her Mozart more than I use the Lumia and has full push notifications on and it lasts a lot longer. This is something to do with the firmware or the physical batterys are duff and Nokia needs to replace asap.

Well, until I backed out of apps, it was flat before the end of my normal day. Now, since backing out of apps, I'm seeing about 40% remaining after 24 hours. I need to revert to not backing out of apps to see whether I get back to my "goes flat quickly" situation.

teh0wner · ‎2011-11-24

[quote]This is nothing to do with apps or backing out of apps (bar some music apps they only get put in a held state not running) I have a HD7 and a Mozart and a Lumia the HD7 and Lumia are set up identical and i get almost exactly twice the life from the HD7 my wife uses her Mozart more than I use the Lumia and has full push notifications on and it lasts a lot longer. This is something to do with the firmware or the physical batterys are duff and Nokia needs to replace asap.[/quote]

If the physical batteries were 'duff' wouldn't that mean they would drain out regardless of how you use them?

As I mentioned before, left my phone on standby (with everything turned off, including 3g, wifi, etc.) for 14 hours and it dropped 3%. That sounds reasonable to me, however when everything is turned back on, the battery is drained like crazy.

This leads me to believe that its more of a firmware issue than a battery issue, unless 'faulty' batteries have same idle usage than non-faulty ones but drain quicker at usage than non-faulty ones? AM no expert at batteries by any means.

skyee · ‎2011-11-24

Hi all,

we have just received the following update from Nokia:

----------------

“ We understand that some people have expressed concerns about battery life on the Nokia Lumia 800. Early investigations show that the majority of people are enjoying the full Nokia Lumia experience without any problems. A software update in early December will include improvements to power efficiency, while a second update in early January introduces further enhancements to battery life and battery charging. Both are planned updates and will be made available via Zune. We recommend that anyone who still has concerns contact local Nokia care representatives at their earliest convenience.”

----------------

BR,

yvonne

teh0wner · ‎2011-11-24

skyee wrote:

Hi all,

we have just received the following update from Nokia:

----------------

“ We understand that some people have expressed concerns about battery life on the Nokia Lumia 800. Early investigations show that the majority of people are enjoying the full Nokia Lumia experience without any problems. A software update in early December will include improvements to power efficiency, while a second update in early January introduces further enhancements to battery life and battery charging. Both are planned updates and will be made available via Zune. We recommend that anyone who still has concerns contact local Nokia care representatives at their earliest convenience.”

----------------

BR,

yvonne

So what you are saying is that we probably have received a faulty device and ask for an exchange?

skyee · ‎2011-11-24

What I'm saying is exactly this: We recommend that anyone who has concerns contact local Nokia care representatives at their earliest convenience.

So, if you have problem contact your local Nokia Careline or Care Point and they will help you.

BR,

yvonne

nurium · ‎2011-11-24

Yvonne, thanks for the reply. Will either of these two upgrades be addressing (i) the wi-fi issue crash which leads to the inability of the phone to be turned back on temporarily or (ii) the white/static noise issue when using headphones?

corwin · ‎2011-11-24

Hi Skyee,

thanks a lot for your response, that is at least something.

On the other side it is a little shocking that the issues seem not to be known ones. Can you please give us advice regarding this:

- how long should a Lumia 800 keep up in normal use? I know that this might be extremely hard to answer, but as I said earlier, I am not using push (only 1 hour updates for 2 inboxes) and not using any other background services.

- what is a 'no-do' in WP?

- is there a way of determining the culprits? The guessing we are doing here is not really helping. A diagnostic tool showing processes power consumption (like on android and even Symbian) would likely solve the issues.

This whole issue is really hampering the product experience, as people (at least I do) keep disabling features (background updating, e.g..), which is defeating the whole purpose of using WP.

Thanks and best regards,

Corwin

PS: Yes, I opened a case with Nokia care some days ago, no reply, as of now. I think, this is a good sign, as they might be cooking up a helpful answer. Yes, naive, I know

mkr10001 · ‎2011-11-24

Apps being installed but not running won't affect battery life. Is data and WiFi is off then no email accounts would affect it either. With all that off and being sat there locked, that would count as standby mode....so should provide 335 hours

Even with battery saver on it wont

GlenThomas · ‎2011-11-24

Actually, I'm pretty sure that 'standby mode' is defined as the phone being powered off. It doesn't count as standby mode if you're just not using it at the time.

sdemedts · ‎2011-11-24

For me its one of the apps I suggested before, or the battery just needed some learning. I now charged him the 3th time (all night in the charger while sleeping). Today my lumia 800 is on for 10 hours, 3g and wifi are on, mail sync ok, still no background apps. I made two normal calls, 15 min surfing, couple of sms and idle for the rest. And my battery is now on 74%. which is ok for me, certainly if you Know that after the first charge my battery depleted in less then 12 hours while almost idle all the time. Fyi, I still have the SW version as when I bought the phone in thephonehouse in Lille, France. My sim was exchanged by my Belgian operator. So no cutting but brand new sim. I have no problems with wifi and white noise (well, just one time but that could also be due to my wifi router at home). Though, my best battery experience still is my 10 years old classic nokia and ipad2. Conclusion, fingers crossed my battery stays ok. I love my new toy.

lumpaywk · ‎2011-11-24

My phone today is a bit better though not great. Its been off charge now for 8 hours in that time i synced my 1 email account 4 times, played ilomilo for 20 mins checked my people hub about 6 times and checked the time about 10 times. The battery shows 74%.

This is a marked improvment got from turning all background tasks off settingmail to manual sync and stopping a googletalk app sending push notifications. This is still not great as my HD7 was getting this battery life with everything turned on including push email. and checking the internet regularly.

I am going to take an exact usage chart after the next charge.

Arkiliknam · ‎2011-11-24

sdemedts, thats good news!

Mine still not looks great... I received 2 or three calls that lasted no longer that 1 or 2 minutes each, less than 10 mins of surfing, 3g on, wifi on (but not in use), mail sync on, no background apps... and after 7 hours (most of which it was idle) its down to 43%.

Maybe you should give us a run down of what apps you actually have installed on your phone so we can try and nail down which one might be the issue. Did you uninstall any of the Nokia provided apps, like Music and Drive? I dont really want to get rid of these :/

Swampie · ‎2011-11-24

As of 4:15pm this afternoon I was down to 15% (claiming 3 hours remaining) that's from a full (100%) charge yesterday at 8am. So about 32 hours. Charging now to be safe in case I need to use phone on way home.

Will stop backing out of apps now and see if makes a difference, after all, it could be battery just settling in?

teh0wner · ‎2011-11-24

Update on my battery usage project..

Location : ON
Airplane Mode ON:
Background Tasks: OFF
Minimal Usage (only to check battery % 3 times)
Time elapsed: 6 hours
Battery from 97% to 93%

Next test: WIFI ONLY ON. (constantly connected).

Will report back soon.
Not too bad