[pxdolan]

Couple of things: the problem could also lie in the Snapdragon S4. If it's not switching back & forth the way it's supposed to ... And this chip is supposed to run very cool ... Seriously?
2. The airplane mode didn't work for me. My phone (after surfing in an LTE zone) is warm & draining fast.
3. This weekend in a 4G only zone, my battery, with light usage, lasted 48 hours.

It really does seem to be LTE. Surfing over WiFi or 4G is fine, no extra battery drain ... But on LTE... It's like it doesn't stop ...

[pxdolan]

Just activated the field test mode & am showing 4G. Tests today in an LTE zone show that I lost 40% from noon to 2:40 pm then I decided it was time to try something new. LTE is fast, but not worth it.

anyone know the difference between the snapdragon s4 in the Lumia and in other phones? Is it a chip/instruction set thing or an o/s thing?

[Yipcanjo]

Thanks for troubleshooting this with me, Pxdolan.  I feel like we're just talking to each other, but whatever....we're *ACTUALLY* figuring some things out here!

I've been putting my phone through the ringer today -- 40+ minutes of streaming Xbox Music over my data connection, 22+ minutes of streaming Netflix over my data connection, never backing out of applications, etc.. -- and so far it's handling it as it ought to.  The phone is not warm at all, the battery is draining while the application runs, and then returning to normal afterward.  It so far appears that disabling LTE is the "fix" here, per the earlier post.  For the time being, this is a solution that I can live with.

I'm going to test this further, but after this I plan on taking this up the chain and engaging Nokia Support directly.  This is either a(nother) bad phone, an issue with these LTE chips, an issue with WP8, or an issue with the Lumia 920 phones.  I don't know who/what the culprit is, but I'd like to find out.

[pxdolan]

Using the field test settings, I backed down opting out of the LTE to see what would happen.

On a quick test, while on 4G only, I did notice that when I left Internet Explorer open, the battery drained a 5% in 45 min. Could be that it was the MSN mobile site (better than the MSN news app by the way) and the mobile site has continuously "rotating" photos on the front page--not sure if the TYPE of web page has anything to do with it.

In the next couple of days, I'm going to try the Netflix test. If that goes well, I may even reinstall Skype and see how that goes. When I went to the Qualcom website, they raved about the Snapdragon S4 chip. GPU, CPU EDGE, 2G 3G, 4G and LTE all on one chip. Nice. Smart Radio too--looks to preserve power by only using the data on BURST when requested. Sounds good. BUT now, the test we're running is non-burst but streaming. I wonder if the chipset is an issue. On the website it has all sorts of S4 chips, but not the 225 that is supposed to be in the Lumia 920 ... interesting ... though there could be other reasons for it too ... I'm going to run tests over 4G (my Nokia E71 was 3.5G --what they now call4G-- in the 2008 build. Go figure

[Yipcanjo]

Frustrating...

So, my testing yesterday was mostly positive...until about 3PM.  I used (the newly-released) Photosynth app to make a 360-degree shot of a space we have at work.  Probably took less than 5 minutes.  Afterward, the phone was noticeably warm.  I went out of my way to keep the usage to a minimum so that I could track the battery drain, which had been 1 or 2% every two hours or so beforehand.  After using Photosynth (and getting "warm") it was draining at about 4% per hour without me doing anything.

I charged the phone overnight.

Between 8:15am and 10am this morning, the battery drained 5% while sitting on my desk doing nothing.  I restarted the phone, and then let it sit from 10am - 11:30am, during which time it drained 1%.  Same usage, same location (on my desk), same phone -- very different battery drain.  I honestly don't know what the deal is.

Question.....does anyone remember having these issues before Portico was installed?  I'm just about ready to grab an unlocked Lumia 822 and see if that phone has the same issues.

Time to open an official support case with Nokia.

[pxdolan]

In field test mode: NO LTE

100% @ 20:30pm --

82%   @ 08:30am -- fetched mail overnight/reading news & email (WiFi connected)

82%   @ 13:00 -- low usage emails & news

73%   @ 15:10 -- downloaded/installed PDF program to read docs

71%   @ 17:00

52%   @ 19:00 -- after watching 22 min Netflix on 4G (1-2 bars)

So, a low usage day--other than the Netflix and very respectible batterylife

So, here's a thought ... at least for me. Portico was released/sent about 12/19-12/22 ... and I'm not sure I noticed a battery problem then ... however, in my area LTE only became available on 12/26 - 12/27 so it's hard for me to pin down the issue--the o/s upgrade or the LTE ... but based upon my current tests .... LTE LOOKS like the problem.  if I remember, tomorrow I will use Nokia Drive on 4G only see how that impacts the battery.

[pxdolan]

Does the 822 have LTE?

[pxdolan]

50% @ 20:20 .... new updates from the app store ... one is extras & info and now I see a configuration ID: 114851 not sure what this means ... but it could be significant. Will reboot (after update) and charging ...

[Yipcanjo]

Thanks for the stats.  That type of feedback -- along with the correlating usage between times -- is pretty helpful to get this nailed down.  For the most part, it appears that your battery usage was within normal/acceptable levels.  With the exception of the more-than-expected battery drain that I was seeing earlier this morning, mine has been fine today -- although I really haven't used it much. 

Sadly, it seems clear to me that LTE is not the *only* issue -- it's merely a trigger for the high-heat/battery drain issue.  Otherwise, it still seems like (with my phone) that other things can cause higher temps which then leads to battery drain that does not recover without a reboot.  In the case of my Photosynth usage yesterday, I can't see at all how any data would have been involved with that....and my LTE was turned off.  Hmmm.

To answer your other question, the Lumia 822 is a Verizon phone and supports their fastest data.  I do *not* believe that it supports the LTE network on AT&T, though.  For that you'd need the Lumia 820, which is essentially the sister phone.  The (not yet released) Lumia 720 looks pretty awesome!

[pxdolan]

822 on Verizon won't support AT&T LTE... But the 820 will work on at&t ... Don't know about LTE support

[pxdolan]

Still in Field Test mode.
last night I installed photosynth to run a test today. Rebooted phone & charged
22:30 100%
08:45 65% - though yesterday it was about 85% with the same routine
09:05 62%. Began surfing & local music playing
10:05 50% ???? 4G connection is 2 bars.
15% in 1 hour? The only differences between today & yesterday: new photosynth app installed and more surfing & music-with ear buds. But that is a LOT of drain for fairly light processing. Note-battery does not feel warm.
considering that the battery drain is abnormal, my plan is to remove the photosynth app, restart and continue current usage pattern (corp network is down ... No different from a power outage really ...

[pxdolan]

Wait - not just photosynth ... There were system app updates last night too

[Yipcanjo]

Interesting stuff.  I still have Photosynth installed, but I haven't used it for a day+ (and I've since rebooted), so I can't say that it inherently "drains the battery" just by nature of being installed.  I'm not sure, but that's my gut feeling.

My battery today has been ok, I guess.  It's been a different-than-usual day at work.  Meanwhile, my battery is right around 60% right now, which means I've dropped ~40% in the past 10 hours -- although much of that was due to some wireless issues at work, and downloading the Asphalt 7 game (almost 900mb).  Just not a great day to judge typical battery life.

I would really, really like to grab either a Lumia 820 or 822.  I'm on AT&T, so an 820 makes more sense, since I could test full LTE, but the 822 are interesting phones as well -- fully unlocked for both CDMA and GSM use.  Pretty cool.

I'll chime in when I have more.

[pxdolan]

A heavy usage day for me...very atypical. However. I did use the Nokia Drive app (which is excellent) on 4G on the way home. 25 minutes and about an 18% no blips ... Meaning the app was perfectly smooth on 4G.
quite possible that photosynth was nit the problem, but the s/w updates I installed last night.

[Yipcanjo]

To be perfectly honest, I haven't found ANYTHING yet where the 4G isn't totally sufficient for me.  Yes, LTE is faster at starting a streaming song, watching Netflix, or downloading an app, but it's faster by seconds, not minutes.  If I knew that shutting off LTE on this phone solved all of my issues, I would really have no problem with that.  Sadly, it seems like there are still battery drain issues with this phone.

Yesterday evening I played the game Asphalt 7 for probably 5 to 7 minutes -- not very long -- and the phone (understandably) became fairly warm.  I captured the battery % after leaving the game, and then watched it for the next 4+ hours while I essentially did NOT use the phone at all.  It continued to drain at a rate of about 4.5% per hour.  I rebooted the phone, charged it overnight, and watched the battery drain for the first few hours this morning.  It was essentially less than 1% drain over the first 1.5 hours, and now down to 97% battery after nearly 3 hours -- including some music streaming over Rhapsody.

Once again...this phone gets into "battery drain" states that require a reboot to remedy.  Disabling LTE appears to help, but it does not fix the issue.

Sincerely,

Frustrated

(Update: I've since re-opened a case with Nokia Support.)

[Yipcanjo]

On a related note, my co-worker also has a launch Lumia 920.  I had him check his battery level, play an intensive game for 15 minutes (Dredd Vs. Zombies = fun!), check his battery level afterward, and then check it again an hour later.  Sure enough, it had drained about 8% after exiting the game (and with not touching the phone at all), and proceeded to drain another 5-6% over the following hour.  It's still draining, as far as I know.

Meanwhile.......I pickup up a Lumia 820 today -- full price, which I can return, if need be.  I actually really like the form-factor of this device.  Small, but not too small, clear black display, etc..  Nice!

Anyhow, it appears to have the initial WP8 OS release on it, so I'm going to test this out for the next few days -- doing the usual tests.  If all goes well, I'll update to Portico and try again.

[pxdolan]

(still in FIELD TEST mode with no LTE--and yeah, lack of LTE is no big deal--except I have to pay extra for LTE service which is a faster download and faster battery drain ...

Today my battery draw was greater and faster then normal ...  and I couldn't figure out why ... very frustrated until I happened to check the Location Services ... and found that it was on ... then the drain slowed. I kept wondering all day long what rogue processes were running in the background draining my battery.  Hosestly, power management is good on idle but there are just some things ... fire them up and then, in the background, they suck the life out of your phone ...

On a different note, my phone started freaking out this afternoon when I tried to make a phone call. When I pulled the phone away from my face to end the call, the end call screen flashed ... then went black ... and I could only REBOOT the phone!

I am so disappointed. I've read this has something to do with the sensor ... but krike! I NEVER had these problems with my Palm Pre & WebOS ... There are so MANY nice things about this phone, but it's breaking my heart .... I feel like a bought a grown-up phone ... something cool ... and now I'm just babysitting to make sure it doesn't die while I'm not looking.

Nokia: Microsoft is putting egg on your face ... hot egg ... time to step up the pressure and get MS to FIX some of this ... and announce the fixes.

[KennethC]

Hey Pxdolan,

I completely agree with you.  In my case, I've turned LTE off and i'm still feeling like something in the background is sapping my battery (and my phone feels slightly warm, even when idle).  Even after checking my background tasks and disabling everything the battery is still being depleted.  My only solution has been to turn my phone on and off.

This is my second lumia 920 with the same exact issue and I'm extremelly disappointed.  I bought into all the marketing hype for this phone and expected something awesome and now really regretting this decision.  I wish we would at least hear back from nokia/windows for at least a recognition of the problem and an attempt to fix it, but right now I feel left in the dark trying to figure out how to fix the problem myself.

Thanks to all the posters here that have put in the effort to solve this, the phone is wonderful and powerful but suffers from just a few crippling defects that will turn a lot of people away.

[pxdolan]

KennethC -- thanks for the reply "crippling defect" is an apt phrase. I too am on my 2nd 920. This one is better, I guess, but then I've fooled with it more. In my current settings: I have

• LTE: off (through field mode)
• location: off
• apps: blocked from automatic updating (system applications) Nokia City Lens, Weather app, Nokia drive, news apps ALL OFF
• Games: connect with xBox - off
  
• music: connect with xBox - off
  
• camera: auto upload to skydrive - ON (high quality so over wifi ONLY)
  
• bluetooth: off
• NFC: off
• Internet sharing: off
• brightness: automatic
• phone updates: check automatically
• backup: on
• lock screen time out: 1 min
  
• wifi: ON -- (auto connects to ONLY known networks like home wifi)
  
• wifi: Notify new networks OFF
• wifi: Auto connect to hotsposts OFF
• wifi: Send information OFF
• wifi: Keep Wifi on when screen times out ON   
  
• email: 2 accounts Acct 1: fetch every 15; acct 2 fetch every 30 min
  

These are the settings that give me the best battery life. If I charge to 100% before bed, overnight (about 7-8 hours) I can stay at 100% with 1 4G bar and the WiFi on. After my morning news of about half an hour of heavy surfing on WiFi ... about 80-85% ... light usage (couple of calls, couple of texts, emails, a bit of news on a 2-3 bar 4G connection), couple of hours of local (non streaming) music and I can still have 60% by the end of business (4-5 pm) and about 40-50% at 9-10pm.

These are the settings that help me get the most out of the phone. It seems like a lot of features are turned off to get"good" daily battery life. AND (this MAY be important) battery life appears extended when I go back to the HOME screen before the screen sleeps. This may have something to do with when the apps sleep or hibernate. (Any thoughts or feedback on this?)

Part of writing in this forum is to find the "culprit" app or setting that is causing the drain. LTE certainly seems to be a HUGE one .. no matter what Qualcomm claims.

I will give props to Nokia for replacing my 920 and good customer service.

At this point, I don't think that Nokia is the problem--even with the phone heating up--I think this is software making requests to battery draining operations. My theory once again is that there are processes that are either: not sleeping when they should or not terminating correctly. This leads me to believe that there is something in the o/s that is not handling apps correctly or something in the development framework that is flawed. Again, my theory--but I'm a professional developer using MS products for over 20 years ... and I've killed my share of rogue tasks on PCs and experienced things that, despite the documentation--ONLY work in a specific sequence.

Nokia: again, you may be getting a bad rap here and you need to step up your game and put pressure on MS to acknowledge the issue -- or at least push a FIX. Any time you guys(Nokia/MS) need field testing, I'm happy to help.

Okay--done (for now). I've spent WAY too much time on this.

[Yipcanjo]

Interesting find today...

As mentioned before, I picked up a Lumia 820 to test further.  This is a brand-new, non-Portico handset.  After an initial charge, install (everything), discharge, and re-charge overnight, I unplugged the phone at about 8am this morning.  With very light usage, I used approximately 4% of the battery over the next 4+ hours.  Just after lunch time, I played 10+ minutes of "Dredd vs Zombies" and another 10 minutes of Chimpact.  Both games are fairly intensive *and* can warm the phone up.  I noted the battery % after ending those games, waited an hour (little-to-no usage), and checked the battery again.  It dropped about 6% after closing the games.  Over the next hour (virtually no usage) it dropped only 1% -- so essentially NO BATTERY DRAIN.  I installed a program, configured it for awhile, and other light usage.  Checked the battery again after an hour, and it was down 5-6%, which isn't unusual.  Finally, I left the phone essentially untouched over the next hour and checked the battery again...which had only dropped 1%.  Very interesting....

At this point, there are a few theories I'm working on (and hope to test):

• The Lumia 820 does *not* have the battery drain issue
• The Portico update is the cause of the battery drain issue
• This issue is not necessarily true for all of the Lumia line of phones

I'm going to test again tomorrow -- hopefully with a large "LTE data only" drain -- to see if the battery retains itself after ending the activity.  If that test is positive, I'll update this phone with the Portico update and try these tests again.

Thanks for reading.