smartphone battery life question
20 January 2011, 08:40 AM
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smartphone battery life question
I'm getting a new smartphone next week, probably a HTC desire HD.
I know that battery life is an issue with these as it has a 1230mAh battery.
What will happen if I fit a higer capacity 16000mAh battery in it? Am I likely to get a bit longer use between charging? Can this cause any damage?
cheers!
I know that battery life is an issue with these as it has a 1230mAh battery.
What will happen if I fit a higer capacity 16000mAh battery in it? Am I likely to get a bit longer use between charging? Can this cause any damage?
cheers!
20 January 2011, 10:05 AM
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I'm getting a new smartphone next week, probably a HTC desire HD.
I know that battery life is an issue with these as it has a 1230mAh battery.
What will happen if I fit a higer capacity 16000mAh battery in it? Am I likely to get a bit longer use between charging? Can this cause any damage?
cheers!
I know that battery life is an issue with these as it has a 1230mAh battery.
What will happen if I fit a higer capacity 16000mAh battery in it? Am I likely to get a bit longer use between charging? Can this cause any damage?
cheers!
There are plenty of them out there that say 1600mAh, or whatever, but they last no longer than the standard one. Go over to ... http://androidforums.com/ ... and ... http://forum.xda-developers.com/ ... and take a look through the battery threads!
I charge mine every night and also stick it on charge if I'm in the car. (I also switch it OFF at night as I do with any mobile!). I probably will get one of these *cheaper* batteries at some stage just in case.
Oh, and a battery with more 'mAh' will not cause any damage on its own. There'd have to be something else wrong, like dodgy terminal connections inside the battery or something.
HTH
Dave
20 January 2011, 11:15 AM
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There are plenty of them out there that say 1600mAh, or whatever, but they last no longer than the standard one. Go over to ... http://androidforums.com/ ... and ... http://forum.xda-developers.com/ ... and take a look through the battery threads!
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20 January 2011, 12:18 PM
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Dave
20 January 2011, 12:32 PM
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20 January 2011, 01:07 PM
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That's because he has an iBerrysireDroid4G .... 
The charger connection is microUSB so easy to get cables. The only time you'd have problems is if you were backpacking in the wilds with no power for days on end. But if you were doing that then you'd probably not care about taking your mobile in the first place!
Dave
Dave
20 January 2011, 01:31 PM
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20 January 2011, 01:33 PM
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As said, no smartphones really last that long, depending on usage. Just have a spare charger at work, or a spare battery, or even one of those mobile battery charger things.
20 January 2011, 01:54 PM
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I have a HTC Desire Z........... battery lasts about 3 days or so. I leave it on all night as I use it for an alarm.
WiFi is off, the only updates it does is the weather every few hours, e-mails update when I ask it to.
Send a dozen or so texts a day probably, some days I don't make any calls other days I could be on there for nearly an hour (call time in a month is under 200 mins).
I was thinking of getting a dock for it so I can plug it into that when I get home to always keep it topped up.
WiFi is off, the only updates it does is the weather every few hours, e-mails update when I ask it to.
Send a dozen or so texts a day probably, some days I don't make any calls other days I could be on there for nearly an hour (call time in a month is under 200 mins).
I was thinking of getting a dock for it so I can plug it into that when I get home to always keep it topped up.
Last edited by stiscooby; 20 January 2011 at 01:55 PM.
thats with lots of fiddleing though and email always on sync
21 January 2011, 07:59 AM
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If you do get the Desire HD, if it's on Orange then root it and flash another ROM as Orange's is crap. My new one seemed a little sluggish and when I checked my Linpack score I only got 3.7. Battery didn't last long either. I've rooted and flashed a different ROM, still with HTC Sense and all the features I had before, but without the Orange bloat. Phone is much smoother and Linpack score is now 44. I'll let you know what difference it makes to battery life.
21 January 2011, 08:58 AM
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If you do get the Desire HD, if it's on Orange then root it and flash another ROM as Orange's is crap. My new one seemed a little sluggish and when I checked my Linpack score I only got 3.7. Battery didn't last long either. I've rooted and flashed a different ROM, still with HTC Sense and all the features I had before, but without the Orange bloat. Phone is much smoother and Linpack score is now 44. I'll let you know what difference it makes to battery life.
I was with you till you suggested rooting the phone
I think I'll probably go with t-mobile or vodaphone, will I need to do anything? I just want to call people, do a bit of surfing and play angry birds.
21 January 2011, 10:04 AM
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The problem with mAh ratings is they are not always equal.
One battery manufacturer may give its "typical" or "average" mAh ratings. Whilst another will give its absolute peak mAh rating in ideal test conditions. The latter will always give a higher rating.
Not only that, the mAh is how many milliamp you can draw in an hour before it is flat. "How" flat is open to interpretation. Being Li-ion batteries; they should not be deep discharged and so often have a cut-out circuits to prevent them being drained past a below a set point. An unscrupulous battery manufacturer may rate the battery without this safety circuit active. Or they may use the ratings of each individual cell before they are assembled to make a battery. Naturally this will give a higher mAh value than the end user will get to experience.
Additionally, mAh does not take into account the non-linear characteristics of the battery's voltage over the complete discharge cycle. Now, typically, Li-ions are very good because they can maintain their rated voltage right up until they are virtually flat, but a lesser quality Li-ion battery may suffer voltage drop sooner than a high quality one. So whilst it mAh rating maybe the same or higher, you could indeed find the phone shuts down sooner due to the excessive voltage drop.
Finally, self-discharge: This again reduces the usable capacity of the battery and isn't reflected in the mAh rating. Typically a good Li-ion battery will have very little self-discharge. But a poor quality one may well do (possibly due to the parasitic drain caused by the incorporated safety/monitoring circuitry).
In short: When comparing mAh ratings, you may not always be comparing like for like as there are more factors to how a battery performs in real world use: Can't beat user reviews IMO.
One battery manufacturer may give its "typical" or "average" mAh ratings. Whilst another will give its absolute peak mAh rating in ideal test conditions. The latter will always give a higher rating.
Not only that, the mAh is how many milliamp you can draw in an hour before it is flat. "How" flat is open to interpretation. Being Li-ion batteries; they should not be deep discharged and so often have a cut-out circuits to prevent them being drained past a below a set point. An unscrupulous battery manufacturer may rate the battery without this safety circuit active. Or they may use the ratings of each individual cell before they are assembled to make a battery. Naturally this will give a higher mAh value than the end user will get to experience.
Additionally, mAh does not take into account the non-linear characteristics of the battery's voltage over the complete discharge cycle. Now, typically, Li-ions are very good because they can maintain their rated voltage right up until they are virtually flat, but a lesser quality Li-ion battery may suffer voltage drop sooner than a high quality one. So whilst it mAh rating maybe the same or higher, you could indeed find the phone shuts down sooner due to the excessive voltage drop.
Finally, self-discharge: This again reduces the usable capacity of the battery and isn't reflected in the mAh rating. Typically a good Li-ion battery will have very little self-discharge. But a poor quality one may well do (possibly due to the parasitic drain caused by the incorporated safety/monitoring circuitry).
In short: When comparing mAh ratings, you may not always be comparing like for like as there are more factors to how a battery performs in real world use: Can't beat user reviews IMO.
Last edited by ALi-B; 21 January 2011 at 10:08 AM.
21 January 2011, 10:15 AM
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If I could find a smilie with something whooshing over the top of it's head I would post it here.
I was with you till you suggested rooting the phone
I think I'll probably go with t-mobile or vodaphone, will I need to do anything? I just want to call people, do a bit of surfing and play angry birds.
I was with you till you suggested rooting the phone
I think I'll probably go with t-mobile or vodaphone, will I need to do anything? I just want to call people, do a bit of surfing and play angry birds.
Get the phone from Carphone Warehouse (I believe Phones4U are the same) as they do unbranded/unlocked phones. I'm with Vodafone and got my Desire HD as an upgrade but through CPW. No service provider bloatware on mine.
I haven't bothered to *root* mine either - haven't had the need yet as all my requirements are met by existing apps or stuff from the market. There's a thread on here regarding Android apps which may help ....
Dave
21 January 2011, 02:45 PM
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I have a desire HD and put it on charge every night, touch wood it hasn't gone flat yet, I also have an in car charger but I have probably only used it once or twice, when I use the sat-nav which is on the phone
21 January 2011, 07:56 PM
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I mentioned on another thread somewhere, battery life in Smartphones is shocking. My samsung galaxy S lasts the day just. It syncs email all the time (I get a lot of email), has WiFi on most of the time.
What seems to kill it is the screen, so leavining it on all night collecting emails doesn't drain the battery that much, but as soon as I start to repond or I check each email that comes in the battery starts to drain quite rapidly. The battery monitor on the screen also says that 97% went to the screen ...
Steve
What seems to kill it is the screen, so leavining it on all night collecting emails doesn't drain the battery that much, but as soon as I start to repond or I check each email that comes in the battery starts to drain quite rapidly. The battery monitor on the screen also says that 97% went to the screen ...
Steve
21 January 2011, 09:55 PM
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Root the device, flash a decent rom.
Setup a profile (overclock widget is good) to UNDERCLOCK the phone when the screen is off, and scale the performance once the screen is on (mine fluctuates between stock speeds and overclocked speeds when required)
Save battery = simples
I think i got 36 hours from mine when testing (with wifi on constantly) and around 8 hours of that was with the screen on, playing the odd game, browsing the net, etc etc.
This is from an older HTC Hero that struggled to last a day when i first got it (switch on at 7am, dead by 7pm)
Setup a profile (overclock widget is good) to UNDERCLOCK the phone when the screen is off, and scale the performance once the screen is on (mine fluctuates between stock speeds and overclocked speeds when required)
Save battery = simples
I think i got 36 hours from mine when testing (with wifi on constantly) and around 8 hours of that was with the screen on, playing the odd game, browsing the net, etc etc.
This is from an older HTC Hero that struggled to last a day when i first got it (switch on at 7am, dead by 7pm)
22 January 2011, 06:16 AM
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yes the Desire battery is crap. charged at night at home, i have an in car charger and a usb cable in work. i am lucky if i see 1 day from a charge. then again i do have everything in wifi, gps yada yada.
22 January 2011, 08:11 AM
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I mentioned on another thread somewhere, battery life in Smartphones is shocking. My samsung galaxy S lasts the day just. It syncs email all the time (I get a lot of email), has WiFi on most of the time.
What seems to kill it is the screen, so leavining it on all night collecting emails doesn't drain the battery that much, but as soon as I start to repond or I check each email that comes in the battery starts to drain quite rapidly. The battery monitor on the screen also says that 97% went to the screen ...
Steve
What seems to kill it is the screen, so leavining it on all night collecting emails doesn't drain the battery that much, but as soon as I start to repond or I check each email that comes in the battery starts to drain quite rapidly. The battery monitor on the screen also says that 97% went to the screen ...
Steve
Unless needed, change from 3G to 2G, the phone will otherwise constantly seek a 3G signal over 2G, it kills the battery.
Turn off background data,
all those apps change this setting frequently 
then you have the world and its app, syncing data every 2 secondsI went from 16hrs battery life to 8 days
Mart
22 January 2011, 11:48 AM
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I got my desire z from phones for you. Orange didn't even do it and wanted to charge me £90 for the old desire.
Got the z for free in phones for you still with Orange and no crap orange software on the phone either.
Got the z for free in phones for you still with Orange and no crap orange software on the phone either.
22 January 2011, 07:38 PM
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Dave
23 January 2011, 05:36 PM
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