[pxdolan]

Despite my settings there is something that I do, some sequence of events, that triggers "the drain." yesterday, all was good until about 10am then until 2:30 - when I rebooted - draining was consistent at 6% / hr while idling. Post restart all good

[pxdolan]

Yip: regarding the 820 good observations. It would appear that the 820 doesn't have the same issues. I wonder if there is a difference in h/w specs that comes into play. Has anyone on Nokia discussions complained about 820 battery drain? I'm not certain that Portico is the power thief, though it didn't make things better. I think there were people complaining before the update too - maybe just not as loudly. I'm interested to see the results of your next test.

[Yipcanjo]

So, my time with the Lumia 820 thus far has been interesting.  I'm trying to figure out if these "battery drain issues" are Lumia-specific, WP8-specific, Portico-specific, or just 920-specific.  I think the *guess* has been that these issues are relegated to the Lumia 920, since this handset has had a history of battery drain problems -- both before and after the Portico update.  You would also think that if EVERY WP8 handset had these same issues, you would be hearing it shouted loudly from the rooftops of angry consumers!  That doesn't seem to be the case.

For the record, I'm trying to ascertain if my test Lumia 820 handset can successfully GET OUT of a high battery drain situation, which the Lumia 920 phone does not seem able to do. 

Here's what I've done with the Lumia 820 so far:

• Discharged fully
• Rechared overnight
• Have not rebooted since last Thursday evening (today is Sunday)
• Measured a typical 1% (or less) per hour battery drain when sitting and doing almost nothing
• Streamed music over LTE (no wifi) for 45+ minutes.  Battery drain was very small.
• Played 25+ minutes of "get the phone warm" gaming, which the Lumia 820 was able to return back to 1% per hour battery drain
• Streamed Netflix over LTE (no wifi) for 25 minutes, and return back to 1% per hour battery drain

In contrast, the "high drain" situations would cause my Lumia 920 battery to drain quickly, and then remain at a 4-8% battery drain level until the phone is rebooted.  I know of no other solution for returning the battery drain to a normal (1%-ish per hour) level.

Quick summary: the non-Portico Lumia 820 does *not* appear to have the battery drain issue.

Next steps:  update the Lumia 820 to Portico and re-run the same tests.

[pxdolan]

Excellent work! If it turns out that Portico appears to be the issue, I wonder if a hard reset can get me back to pre-portico? All of a sudden the 820 looks awesome. And I was thinking about the 820 because of the slightly smaller form & rounded corners. But I had to have the flagship.

[93tid]

Nothing can bring you back to pre-Portico I'm afraid, a hard reset cannot change software, just restore default settings.

[stgemmy]

Thanks Yipcanjo & pxdolan for sharing your experience about this issue. I hope Microsoft & Nokia should address this issue quickly. Many asia users have report the same issue after portico update, the phone becomes warm or overheats (in my video http://youtu.be/XkXZbeTH8IQ) and battery draining very quickly.

[Yipcanjo]

I believe that my Lumia 820 testing is complete.

• Phone was restarted last night after installing the Portico update
• Charged overnight
• Removed from charger @ 7am this morning
• Drained less than 1% per hour until 11:30am
• Worked out at the gym from 11:30am - 12:15pm
• Streamed music from Xbox Music (over LTE, no wifi) for 15+ minutes
• Streamed Netflix (over LTE, no wifi) for 25+ minutes
• Battery drained approx. 4% in the hour after my workout (essentially no phone use)
• Battery drained approx. 1% in the 2nd hour after my workout (essentially no phone use)

Yes, there is an initial drain for the first 30-60 minutes after using the phone heavily -- LTE streaming, 3D gaming, etc. -- but the battery drain returns to 1% per hour (or less) shortly afterward.

MY CONCLUSION: the "battery drain issue" appears to be specific to the Lumia 920.  The same issue does not appear to affect the Lumia 820 handset, and by nature is not necessarily a WP8 and/or Portico update bug.

Nokia......this is your issue to resolve.  Please let us know that you're working on this.

(Note: I've since opened a new support ticket with Nokia)

[pxdolan]

Yip ... You da man! That's an excellent test! So, now, this whole thread shout be mailed to the man at the top. Question: what is the support ticket for? Fix the battery drain? I hope so. With LTE off,.my idle is excellent, until I browse then the big drains & post use drains begin.

[Yipcanjo]

"Man at the top" has already received a fairly detailed email -- including a link to this thread   I've since received a reply and an official Nokia Support ticket number, which means I'll receive a call within a day or so.  I'm going to be sure that the "battery drain issue on the Lumia 920" is the central topic, and I will push for a resolution.

In one sense, I'm actually relieved to know that this is limited to the Lumia 920, and not WP8 as a whole.  On the other hand, I'm bummed that my "flagship phone" has to be babied and rebooted regularly to be truly useful to me.

Here's hoping that an upcoming firmware fix resolves this.

[pxdolan]

Here's hoping. I feel the same way. I love phone & function & screen etc. But I hate feeling like a chump for buying the flagship product out of the gate and - like you said- have to baby it with reboots and monitoring. Honestly, if no firmware fix is forthcoming and Nokia offered, I might downgrade to the 820. I don't think I've ever liked a phone as much as I do this one .. But worried about it too. BTW the Dread v. Zombies is a great game
reminds me of Doom

[pxdolan]

Yip: question about the 820 ... Is the ear hole at the top of the phone just as much of a dust trap as it is on the 920? Mine gets dust which the blocks the front camera and finally impaired the sensor ....

[Yipcanjo]

I can't say I've had the Lumia 820 long enough to report on the "dust trap" issues.  It seems like it could collect dust just as easily, but it also appears to be easier to clean out.  I've had some of those earpiece/dust issues on my 920, and I've usually used a very soft toothbrush to wipe it out every now and then.  Other phones seem to have similar issues...it's not just the Lumia line.

A few thoughts about the Lumia 820 (as an aside):

+/-  It's more square-ish than other phones I've used

+    I actually REALLY like the size and weight

+   The build quality feels great, especially considering that the case is removable

+   I like the screen (even the lo-res) and it makes me miss the Clear Black technology from the Lumia 900

+   The case material has a nice, non-slip feel to it

+   Earpiece and loudspeaker sound very good

-    The screen is a fingerprint/oil magnet

-    The side buttons feel "squishy" and don't give great "I just pushed that" feedback

-    Camera is just "ok"

-    Lower resolution screen occasionally makes small text difficult to read

All in all, I actually like the form-factor of the Lumia 820 more than the 920.  It's made me realize that the 920 is actually larger and heavier than what I prefer.  Not TOO much, but just a bit.  Otherwise, the screen coating, camera, and button of the Lumia 920 are definitely nicer. 

Long story short...this experiment has made me more excited for the Lumia 720, which is slightly taller than the 820, but less wide and less deep.  It's also lighter and still features a great low-light camera.  The downsides of the 720?  No LTE network (not an issue for me), lower-res screen, and no image stabilization.

http://www.nokia.com/global/products/phone/lumia720/

Hmmm.....

[Yipcanjo]

Wow....what a nuisance.

So, I've been using the Lumia 820 for the past several days while testing it out.  I plan on returning that phone, so I'm trying to NOT use any longer and (hopefully) NOT break it or something!  Back to the Lumia 920 I go....

Anyhow, powered it up this morning, streamed some music during my morning commute, and watched a video during my workout -- local copy, not streaming in any way.  My phone has been "warm and draining" ever since 1pm.  In fact, it was to the point where charging it was barely more productive than the drain rate.  I finally had to reboot at 3:30pm to cool the phone down.

This is getting old

[felartu]

my 2cents:

my lumia 920 seems to behave normal when I'm in good coverage, but in low signal areas, this phones gets really hot and battery drains quickly.

If anyone has contact with nokia tell them to "check the power control of the RF Module" which is the responsible to drain more power from the battery in low signal situations, but normal phones don't get that hot in low signal areas.

For those who wants to make some more tests of the power control, go and grab a piece of aluminium foil (or a metal box) an wrap the phone with it, make sure the phone is totally wrapped, this will isolate the phone and will force the power control to go as high as possible.

Do this for at least 10 minutes on two different phones in order to compare the power control drainage on each and then compare how well the lumia 920 behaves in low signal scenarios.

[Yipcanjo]

I'm in a high-signal area (full bars on LTE) and have performed the same testing with LTE disabled (4G only).  The results were the same....although disabling LTE seemed to help a bit.

There is more going on here.  I can play an intensive game, or do almost anything that makes the phone "warm up" -- and then the battery drain begins at roughly 4-8% per hour.  Once it gets to that state, it appears unable to recover until the phone is rebooted.

[Air_Asault]

I hate to say this because the Nokia from the early 2000's was an amazing phone backed by an amazing company but with no official release about this issue I gave up hope on this company. I'm in the military and my soldiers need to be able to get ahold of me. I am not issued a government phone however I never had to worry about it with any other phones. Today was the last straw, I missed an extremely important phone call because this company will not admit that they have sold us a defective product and apparently have little intententions of fixing it. I know this post wasn't productive towards the community trying to get this fixed, I am just so damn irritated I had to vent. Lumia 920 will be returned in the morning, well worth the $35 restocking fee I will be charged. 

[Innocent_Bstdr]

I got a $20 that says it's the video driver on the 920. The screen seems to be the biggest difference between the 820 and 920 and reports suggest that the battery starts draining after graphically intensive tasks are started. the two drivers would have to be different for the two screens so it figures that the 820 is not suffering from the same problem.

Sounds to me like the graphics driver puts the phone into overdrive and refuses to relent after the application is closed. Seems consistent with warming up after games / videos / Nokia Drive etc.

If it was my phone (I'm getting my 920 in a few days), I'd reboot it after getting the first battery drain message while the phone is idle, just to save the battery.

It would also explain why no other Windows 8 device is suffering from the same problem.

If this is the case, then both Nokia and MS are responsible for fixing the problem. Nokia has to fix their drivers and MS has to carry their task manager over from the desktop version of Windows to Windows Phone. It would be easy then to see what's eating the processor and kill/restart it.

Anyway, just my $.02

IB

[KennethC]

Has anybody heard anything back yet from Nokia or Microsoft on this issue?  I would really appreciate at least a "hey guys we are well aware of this issue and are working on a fix at this very moment!"  I just feel completely left in the dark. 

[stgemmy]

Too bad, after battery draining and warm issue, my 920's screen has frozen today, sometimes the start screen is gone, I have to soft-reset my phone. I decided to contact local Nokia care for replacement, just buy the phone for 3 month.

[Yipcanjo]

The issue is NOT a video driver...or at least NOT JUST a video driver, as per some of my earlier testing.  Phone rebooted, charged overnight, and then I streamed audio from Xbox Music (over LTE) during my commute home.  That alone was enough to warm up the phone and trigger the "battery drain" event.  Essentially NO SCREEN during that time, and thus not a video driver/screen issue.

YES, Nokia is aware of this issue, and they claim that not all 920 handsets have this problem.  I've personally not seen a 920 *without* this problem, but I suppose my product sampling is fairly small.  I hope to hear back from Nokia Support today.