I have always wondered why? As the battery issue has constantly become the one embarrasing issue for my Xda II.
Let's compare Xda II and Sony Ericsson P900 ...
Xda II uses LiPolymer 1200mAh, 64k color with 240x320pixels.
Whereas SE P900 uses LiPolymer 1260mAh, 64k color with 208x320pixels.
So, SE P900 has the extra 60mAh, and a wee bitty smaller screen ... but the myth remains that Xda II (or othe Pocket PCs) consumes much more power?? Why is that? Can someone throw some lights why is this so? I would really like to know.
well this is unfair.. comparing xdaII's battery time with something like p900.. hardware specifications are billion years apart :lol:
xdaII has 400mhz processor while p900 has 150mhz(in fact less than that)
I think the official Sony Ericsson score is 156mhz.
Ive owned both a P900 and XDA2, and i think the reason why the XDA consumes more power is because of it being a more powerful unit clockspeed and memory wise, it has a larger better quality screen with a more powerful backlight. The Bluetooth strength is much more powerful reliable ( even though its still 10m ), the speaker is louder, it has a better quality camera and can run more CPU intensive apps which in turn require more battery power.
The XDA2 is always on too, it has no startup like the P900 which is a phone. It has to warm up each time you switch it on. The XDA2 doesnt, it simply flicks on instantly the moment you hit the power button.
dimming the back light setting while on battery to close to the dimmest setting, your battery life will dramatically improve, and the backlight is bright enough in this setting not to make you squint.
I do this all of the time, as I think it is by default too bright anyhow....
One reason why the Pocket PC consumes more power than a regular cell phone is that Pocket PC owners usually use their Pocket PCs more often than regular cell phone owners use their phone. This is because the Pocket PC has a lot more uses than a regular cell phone. We constantly switch on our Pocket PCs to look at our schedule, to check our lists, to listen to music, to watch videos, to read e-books, to play games, to write notes, to surf web sites, to use the calculator, to record voice messages, or simply to look cool. In contrast, regular cell phone owners usually just use their phones to make or answer phone calls and send text messages.
Jargon said:
One reason why the Pocket PC consumes more power than a regular cell phone is that Pocket PC owners usually use their Pocket PCs more often than regular cell phone owners use their phone. This is because the Pocket PC has a lot more uses than a regular cell phone. We constantly switch on our Pocket PCs to look at our schedule, to check our lists, to listen to music, to watch videos, to read e-books, to play games, to write notes, to surf web sites, to use the calculator, to record voice messages, or simply to look cool. In contrast, regular cell phone owners usually just use their phones to make or answer phone calls and send text messages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got a point :wink:
No, I'm comparing Xda II with P900 & Treo 600 (PDA + Phone) whose batteries last much longer than Xda II, not normal phones.
It makes sense that the CPU clockspeed cause the unit to be power hungry. Any indication there will be any battery with higher capacity for the Xda II?
..
The P900 is _not_ a PDA phone, it's a phone 19 year olds buy to look techy. It's a phone first, PDA (if at all) second. XDAs and the like are PDAs first, phone's second. In my opinion, anyway
Yeah, the P900 is a phone with some basic PDA features. The XDA II is a PDA with phone features. Actually, the XDA II is a general-purpose pocket-sized computer. It's even much more powerful and has more total memory and storage space than my first desktop PC (a 33-MHz i486 PC with 4-MB RAM and 130-MB hard disk).
The reason i sold my P900 and got a XDA2 was because i realised it really wasnt a PDA at all - i wanted a PDA. Sorry to all P900 owners, but the P900 is in no way a PDA, its simply a powerful phone with PDA like features - but that doesnt make it a PDA.
Another reason why the XDA2 would use more power than phones is the RAM, more RAM means more power - especially with the XDA2's storage being volatile memory.
I wonder if the new ROM has any new battery management features where it will clock down the processor speed when the device goes to sleep, and clock back up when it's in use ?
I've seen some posts about certain third-party programs (Battery Pack, etc.) that might be draining the battery quickly.
XDA II Battery Life
I have just upgraded to the O2 Asia 1.60WWE ROM, and have found a deterioration in the already short battery life of the XDA II. However, I have a second battery and can live with that limitation. It is a PDA after all.
More significant is the drastic shortening of the battery life of my Bluetooth Headset, a Sony Ericsson HBH-20. I used to get 2 - 3 days of life from it, but after the upgrade I get about 6 hours!! :x
It suspect the Bluetooth in the new ROM is much more active than the earlier 1.52 version and this constant querying of the headset by the phone shortens its life. I can't have a spare battery for the headset, so it is a right proper pain.
I have tried the headset with another BT phone, and I still get 3 days so it is not a dead headset battery.
Anyone else find this problem??
PS Towa's latest BT Tools can't help as in the auto power down mode the headset refuses to wake up when a call is received.
XDA II Battery Life
I have just upgraded to the O2 Asia 1.60WWE ROM, and have found a deterioration in the already short battery life of the XDA II. However, I have a second battery and can live with that limitation. It is a PDA after all.
More significant is the drastic shortening of the battery life of my Bluetooth Headset, a Sony Ericsson HBH-20. I used to get 2 - 3 days of life from it, but after the upgrade I get about 6 hours!! :x
It suspect the Bluetooth in the new ROM is much more active than the earlier 1.52 version and this constant querying of the headset by the phone shortens its life. I can't have a spare battery for the headset, so it is a right proper pain.
I have tried the headset with another BT phone, and I still get 3 days so it is not a dead headset battery.
Anyone else find this problem??
PS Towa's latest BT Tools can't help as in the auto power down mode the headset refuses to wake up when a call is received.
Related
Hi,
I have a very recently purchased XDA II.
I was under the impression that the battery time was considerably improved.
Although I have turned down the backlight brightness when on battery power, it still starts to loose power when I receive or send a SMS for example.
Is this normal or do I have a duff battery ?
Steve
try turning off bluetooth when you dont use it
it's suppose to be a batt hog
Yup,
done that. I only have BT on when I am actually using my headset.
Any other idea's
Steve
when does it auto turn off ?
when does the backlight turn off ?
are there any SD cards connected seem to recall that they eat batt aswell
I've had mine a week, have the same power drain problem. After charging it all last night I managed to use it as a PDA for a total of 40 mins over a 6 hour period today before the battery drained. No phone calls were made, Bluetooth disconnected (I do have a 256 MB card installed, but I don't know if this has anything to do with it), furthermore the backlight is set to the default setting and the auto power off set to 1 min. In any case I would expect to get more than 40 mins use of the PDA, the specification states upto 15 hours.
I took the unit back to the store, they say that this is a rare problem (yeah right :roll: ), they gave me a new battery which I am now recharging, hopefully this will work.
mmmm, it's very strange.
I am doing a test now. I have a imate with the official imate upgrade. I have a gps sysonchip bt. One and half hours ago i connected the imate with the gps and i started a demo of 500 km. Now the battery is at 75%.....Maybe de last upgrade solved this problem.... :shock:
You should get far better performance than this.
Three things that can drain the power:
Communications/Peripherals - IR, bluetooth, SDIO wireless LAN etc. Disable all of them unless you're actually using them.
Processor hungry programs - check if you have anything running in the background that could prevent the device switching to full sleep mode.
Lack of radio signal - if you're out of contact with a base station, the device tries to connect at full power every 30s - a big battery drain, so if you know you're out of contact, turn off the radio.
However, even with everything running, I'd expect a running time way above 40mins, so it sounds like you have a hardware problem with your device. I easily get 3h full brightness, full processing (ie watching a movie or playing a game) with radio on.
Turn IR off?
Is there anyway to actually turn the IR off on the XDA II?
Just the Start-Settings-Connections-Beam-Receive all incoming beams checkbox.
tried the new battery today, same procedure as yesterday (no bluetooth etc), had a slightly better performance today from the new battery, managed to get roughly an hours actual use out of the PDA (games etc) over a period of... 10 hours, ooh atleast it lasted the working day so must be better... however still no way near the 15 hours PDA work time as stated on the box!
However something I have noticed is that every now and then (after switching off the unit and just leaving it on the desk) the screen comes to life displaying a running program, (just how do you turn off the media player? I now realise it isnt with the "X"). Anyway why does it "power" back up? I wonder if this has anything to do with my power problem, that perhaps it has switched back on whilst in my pocket (BTW I have set the buttons so that they do not switch the PDA on accidently)
So, I'm recharging again, (I think I might take the MMC card out see if tht makes a difference). I expect something better for my EUR 500, what is the point of being able to go online anywhere if you have to be plugged into the mains! If I can't get the damn thing to work satisfactoraily by next week then it is going back to the shop, despite it being a Gucci shiny piece of kit!
@MoistVelvet: Actually, it;s not so much the device itself but the operating systems that is the cause of a few quirks. Luckily, a lot has been written on this forum and other forums on websites such as www.ppcw.net. A lot can been improved by limiting the number of programs that can be found in the \windows\startup folder of the XDA II. I'd suggest you have a look around in the various topics. I ended up honing my XDA II to a point where I am actually very very satisfied with it's performance ...
Can someone repost the items in the windows start up folder than can be deleted and what they do on the XDA II.
I was surprised at the amount of apps in there, but dont know what I can safely delete.
Steve
Wiz,
thanks for the tip, I'll have a look around.
Well the batery did last longer yesterday, managed to get through a whole workig day before it ran out, so the jury is still out!
Realised perhaps one of the reasons why the unit would switch itself on, whilst at work I have a very low signal, so every minute or two the signal strength would go up and switch the screen on. I have set to auto switch off after 1 min, but I wonder if there is there a way to stop it from switching on?
Hm, my experience is quite different. I use it throughout the day with around 15 phone calls, at least 2 GPRS synchronisations, some other usage of contacts, calendar and email and when I get home it's still around 60 percent - the most drain appears to happen on the way back home when I use the BT headset...
When your uses so much more power you may like to check what kind of programs you use. First idea is to have a critical look at fancy today plugins... my worst experience was with Battery Pack, the best way to empty your battery :lol:
Maybe you like to use UpTime plugin (http://ae.inc.ru/uptime_t.html) which really tells you how much you actually use the PocketPC and which doesn't do anythings while it's switched off...
MoistVelvet said:
Wiz,
Realised perhaps one of the reasons why the unit would switch itself on, whilst at work I have a very low signal, so every minute or two the signal strength would go up and switch the screen on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the reason it periodically switches on is the O2 Homezone application. Whenever your phone changes to a new base station (which can happen even if you don't move), the stupid Homezone app turns the phone on. This is a known issue, and the only known remedy is to disable the app completely (remove from Autostart folder, soft reset phone).
Cheers
Daniel
Hi
I have an xdaII, which i load loads and loads of things onto. I did find that the battery was draining quite quickly. eg. charge it all night, just leaving it running in the day with hardly any use would drain the battery by about 90 percent! Bluetooth was off etc.
One time, the thing drained completely, and it needed a hardboot. Im going to send it back shortly for investigation/repairs.
However, since it hardbooted, i have not installed a thing. And i am finding that the battery is lasting a lot longer. I managed to go 3 days, of average usage, (few incoming/outgoing calls), without charging the battery!
This makes me think some apps must cause the battery to drain. I had battery app installed (that runs in today screen). I had fonix voicedial installed. I had quite a few games installed.
I think some software was causing the battery consumption,.. possibly battery pack.
re
I have previously had problems with battery drain, due to apps running in the background.
I also found specific apps like the battery pack, LAN sdio, bluetooth and the camera app, would drain the battery quickly.
Although you can manage closing apps down through settings/system/memory/running programmes I found the app Gigatask http://gigatask.com/ a simpler way to manage tasks.
There are others, but I found this suitable for my needs.
Now when I close an app I know it's closed and not running in the background draining the battery.
I still charge daily, habit now when I get home from work, but I have no worries about battery drain, and it rarely goes lower than 65% for a normal days use.
Cheers, Shire
turning infrared beam recieve off will help a little
:wink:
I've read a few posts on HTC Wizard battery life and I'm trying to quantify what I'm seeing (which is hard given varying conditions under which the device can be used and what features are active but I'll attempt that here). I'd really like to hear what other pepole are experiencing under similar conditoins.
I’m getting about two days worth of battery life before the unit is warning that the device needs to be recharged. Here’s what I’ve done with it over the past 2 days:
· 47 minutes time spent using the phone. I get the full 4 signal bars just about everywhere I go, including and the office and at home. I have not used the speakerphone at all.
· About 1 hour of PDA use
· Bluetooth and WiFi have been off. There was no GPRS use during this time.
· The screen brightness is set to the lowest level possible, one setting above the backlight being completely off.
· When on battery power, the backlight automatically shuts itself off after 30 seconds and the device turns itself off completely after one minute.
· I’m running Windows Mobile 5.0
The battery currently reads 18% after 2 days.
Is this in line with what other people are seeing?
I used to drain my wizard to about 50-60% in one day (from morning to evening), when I still let it go to standby, so that seems about right. It goes down a bit faster now because I always leave it on (just let the backlight go off of course) so agile messenger will stay online...
I'm pretty sure this battery life is pretty good for a pda phone though, you can't compare this to a regular phone.
I always connect it to the charger at night so it's no problem for me, and I bring a very small usb cable (like 15 cm) when I don't sleep at home. Usually there's an opportunity to connect the wizard to a computer somewhere so it'll charge, the computer doesn't need to recognize the wizard for that.
I need to charge my Wizard evry night, if it's friday with party etc alot of calls i need to have my samsung d600 with me becuase the qtek goes empty around 23.oo :/
Just done a typical "intensive" day, and I'm really pleased of that thing. Here's what I've done:
~50 min on the phone
~2h30 MP3 playing with TCPMP, LCD off of course
~30min e-mail and internet through wireless
obviously a bit more PDA use, cause uptime meter says 4h39 :wink:
I still have 54% battery at the moment.
Useful to mention, forgot to turn off wireless after browsing, so it stayed on for like 1hr with device off, and that still drains juice.
Backlight is set at the middle.
Once again, my BA would be dead by now. I had ~4h PDA use at standard clock settings, 2hr with wireless on. The Wizard just doubles both these figures. I definitely understand why they've dropped that guzzling XScale... wish there could be an optimised version of TCPMP soon though, video playback is the only thing where i see a real difference in speed, haven't managed to have a video playing smooth without hangups yet.
Skype doesn't run well, but it didn't either with the BA without overclocking it at the maximum it would hold, giving a stunning 1h30 battery life (with wireless on obviously). The device was really hot while doing this, and the standard charger would not give enough current even to power the device, battery was still going down when connected. Had to use a 2A Axim adapter to charge while skyping :shock:
So definitively a GREAT improvement.
I used my MDA Vario the other day and it went down to 18% in approx 4 1/2 hours.
Screen was at max brightness and on for the whole time,
Tom Tom running.
Bluetooth on
About what I'd expect. I don't think my Treo 650 would be much better in similar circumstances.
I just updated the other thread about the battery that up till now its been fine but two days ago the dreaded issue started with me too
I've just lost 20% in 3 hours without doing anything (its been off since)
AKU2 rom gives a definite improvement, I can have 85% left after a day of normal use.
meschle said:
AKU2 rom gives a definite improvement, I can have 85% left after a day of normal use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which AKU2 rom. T mobile hasn't released one for my phone yet, to my knowledge.
The qtek rom, many vario users are using this rom out of frustration for t-mobile not releasing theirs.
meschle said:
The qtek rom, many vario users are using this rom out of frustration for t-mobile not releasing theirs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Hey if you upgrade the ROM you should run some tests before installing any applications. It would be a definite advantage to make sure it's not some buggy app that's causing your battery drain.
agreed... I think that is my issue too that it could be a memory leak somewhere in one of the programs
can only put it down to registrywizard, uptime, or resco, the latter i doubt very much though
I upgraded my vario to the newest imate rom and would totally recommend doing so.. my battery life is about double what it used to be now (may have installed something dodgy that was draining it though)
Its also much faster in operation and seems to be a lot more stable too (I suffered a lot from the random reboot problem previously)
what did you upgrade from?
and what rom version are you running? the ones on the ftp for kjam are numbered a bit strange and can be confusing
The numbers are confusing for me as a noob to WM5/wizard.
What is the difference between the Qtek & the Imate roms?
kilrah said:
... Useful to mention, forgot to turn off wireless after browsing, so it stayed on for like 1hr with device off, and that still drains juice.
Backlight is set at the middle. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi doesn't drain battery when the device is turned off, cause the WiFi module will also be turned off automatically - just test it: leave WiFi on and press the power button - after a few hours look at the effect on the battery... :wink:
I usually recharge my Vario every 3-4 days. Although I don't use WiFi and I also don't make many long calls I usually use GPRS always on to receive my mails. I also use BT quite often to listen to music over my A2DP headset - maybe one hour per day on average...
So there must be something wrong with the devices of some of the people posting here... :!:
Hey guys, I'm satisfied with almost every aspect of the prophet, except battery time...
I mean in suspend the battery is great. But what if you want to do any real work on the prophet? This is what I get:
Screen off, Wifi on (useful for skype, IMs etc.)
3.45 hrs from full charge
Screen on, all else off (word processing, games etc.)
3.50 hrs from full charge
Screen on, Wifi on (email, internet)
3.40 hrs from full charge
Now tell me if this is not too little?
This is off course with normal battery.
You could set your screen to the lowest brightness that you can use also set the wifi to its lowest power setting these 2 functiions are the biggest users of power in my view
Radio ON, Wifi OFF, Screen backlight at level 2 or 3 (when outside). Some data connections, few Wifi cnx too (then turned OFF), 1 or 2 syncs using Bluetooth and my SPV M600 battery runs about 5Hrs according to my "upmeter" ( free at http://ae.inc.ru )
You can buy on Ebay a 1800mah bat. (50% more power than the original bat.)
just curious,
do u have phm traylaunch enabled ?
mine sux the juice out of my prophet whenever I enabled the traylaunch..
Is that 1800 mAh battery with extended thickness? if not it might be worth it.
I dont use phm tray launcher. But wifi and display are on quite frequently.
farbird said:
just curious,
do u have phm traylaunch enabled ?
mine sux the juice out of my prophet whenever I enabled the traylaunch..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have PHM TrayLaunch installed but did not notice faster battery drain. Is this something you just experienced or did anyone else comment about this problem?
Battery is way shorter in the Prophet than in any other device i've had before. Same usage of course.
I could live with this limit, but can not stand with some other wm5 imposse on us, such as max size on contact notes field, or the inability to sync via BT.
Am I the only one missing my trusted JAM?
I am not sure its shorter than in other devices of similar features, but I do know for me its not enough. I think the Jam would actually be way shorter with Xscale over omap processor. So no, i would not say you've made the wrong choice.
Not sure what you mean about no synching over BT? It should work fine!
BTW, anyone know about this 1800mAh battery on ebay that apparently does not increase thickness?
try this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9720781998
krale said:
I am not sure its shorter than in other devices of similar features, but I do know for me its not enough. I think the Jam would actually be way shorter with Xscale over omap processor. So no, i would not say you've made the wrong choice.
Not sure what you mean about no synching over BT? It should work fine!
BTW, anyone know about this 1800mAh battery on ebay that apparently does not increase thickness?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comment.
IMHO battery life IS shorter, as a matter of fact. I know about the OMAP, but it takes two of them, so.....
BT syncing simply does not work. Maybe it's a matter of XP-WM5 combination, but fact is that my prophet "does not find a PC with the active Sync service" Any help on that?
I've been able to get TomTom 5 to work, pair with several headsets and handsfree devices, but no way around the Active Sync issue, no matter what the COM ports or tricks I've tried. I even changed BT drivers from Widcomm to MS in my notebook, same result.
I haven't read about the large capacity battery, but if this is going to be "oversized" or make it heavier, I'd rather would take an extra USB cable around the office or my notebook.
krale said:
I am not sure its shorter than in other devices of similar features, but I do know for me its not enough. I think the Jam would actually be way shorter with Xscale over omap processor. So no, i would not say you've made the wrong choice.
Not sure what you mean about no synching over BT? It should work fine!
BTW, anyone know about this 1800mAh battery on ebay that apparently does not increase thickness?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comment.
IMHO battery life IS shorter, as a matter of fact. I know about the OMAP, but it takes two of them, so.....
BT syncing simply does not work. Maybe it's a matter of XP-WM5 combination, but fact is that my prophet "does not find a PC with the active Sync service" Any help on that?
I've been able to get TomTom 5 to work, pair with several headsets and handsfree devices, but no way around the Active Sync issue, no matter what the COM ports or tricks I've tried. I even changed BT drivers from Widcomm to MS in my notebook, same result.
I haven't read about the large capacity battery, but if this is going to be "oversized" or make it heavier, I rather would take an extra USB cable around the office or my notebook.
Well just to let the curious know, I received the 1800 mah battery, the one also priced on ebay, with NO thickness increase, and I cannot believe it...
It just keeps going and going and going. I did the same tests as above, and could not get it to run out.
Wifi on (all else off) lasted for about five hours and was still arround 68%
Screen on all else off lasted for about 6 hours from an 85% charge and it was still on 39%...
I mean I know the math 1800 is 50% more than 1200, but I seem to be getting A LOT more than 50%. Any explanations?
Sync via Bluetooth is perfectly working for me.
You have to create a BlueTooth Com Port from your PC. Just follow instructions in ActiveSync Help File.
I can listen to mp3 for more than 4hours with screen off... and with a BlueTooth Headset... Maybe it's draining less power coz it just sends the signal and doesn't have to use external speakers...
hum... the 1800mh battery seems great... is it really good quality ?
I will keep you posted as I keep testing it in the next few days, but so far I'm impressed.
The maker is the same as the original battery (DynaPack) so quality is the same.
The battery is shorter because the phone is always registering on the GSM network.
It has some kind of bug in it.
You can check this by going to Settings > Phone > Network and check that the current network is sometimes flashing "home service" instead of the name of the operator.
rjtd said:
The battery is shorter because the phone is always registering on the GSM network.
It has some kind of bug in it.
You can check this by going to Settings > Phone > Network and check that the current network is sometimes flashing "home service" instead of the name of the operator.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As in manual not automatic.
CookieKid said:
As in manual not automatic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Manual or automatic, it gives the same "****".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKO1xaY1z7Q
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....092516258&fromMakeTrack=true#ebayphotohosting
anyone seen 2500mah ? I'm trying to find out if it bigger.
2500mah? seems kinda fake to me if it is the same size and thickness as a 1200mah or 1800mah battery.
The 1800mah extended battery is possible because they removed the hard plastic cover on top of the battery so they can fit a slight bigger capacity battery.
these 1800mah batteries (says not dynopack on ad, just chinese copy!) are they much heavier, i have just ordered one, bit concerned they may actually be lithium ion (not lithium polymer)
New power consumption tests (Dell x51v, HP hx4700, PLoox720,HTC Universal and Wizard)
I’ve constantly been receiving requests (see for example this thread) to publish more and more power consumption measurements of current Pocket PC devices. Here you are
First, please read at least this article (if you haven’t already done so) to understand what this article is all about. I also highly recommend the other articles I’ve linked in from the Recommended links section.
HTC Wizard (a.k.a. imate K-Jam, T-Mobile MDA Vario, Qtek 9100, MDA Vario, XDA mini S, SPV M3000, VPA Compact II, Dopod 838) radio power consumption
As promised, I’ve run some long-lasting tests to find out more about the power consumption of the radio unit itself. It’s about 7.5% a day (I’ve measured it for two days; not counting in the ~2.5%/day battery life depletion needed to refresh the dynamic RAM memory) in inactive (no SIM is inserted but the radio is online and is ready to initiate emergency calls) mode. Again and again, these figures, along with the ~9% (there, not counting in the ~2%/day RAM refreshing-related depletion either) of Universal, are relative (show how the power consumption of these devices’ radio compares) and only show how they fare at a given geographical location. That is, they can ONLY be used to compare each device’s being power-hungry, NOT as an absolute result as “your device will consume that much power a day in YOUR home”.
Wizard’s 7.5% a day is an excellent result and is slightly better than the ~9% of Universal, particularly taken into account the bigger battery size of the latter.
Standard power consumption test suite: now, for the Universal and the hx4700!
I’ve also re-run my standard test suite including the HTC Universal (a.k.a. i-mate JasJar, Qtek 9000, O2 XDA Exec, SPV M5000, MDA IV/Pro) and the HP iPAQ hx4700 (with WM5 version 2.01 – see FAQ here on this particular ROM version) now to find out how they behave.
The test suite I’ve tested:
Backlight tests: (all with no wireless units (GSM radio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, IrDA) switched on, no CPU usage. This finds out the absolute minimum power your device at least will consume when it’s switched on, runs at the default (automatic) CPU speed.)
No backlight at all (Note that in this scenario these devices are far from being usable, particularly the Axim x51v, which has an, in my opinion, slightly less visible screen in external light than the other three devices (which all have a screen using the same Sony technology and, therefore, behaving in a very similar fashion)
(Absolutely) minimal backlight
Maximal backlight (may be useful to know for example when watching videos on Sony screens because of the very high contrast and saturation of these screens (the x51v's not-really-saturated, not-contrasty screen has a definite advantage here) or in outdoor circumstances when you need to use the maximal backlight level available to see anything)
Wi-Fi searching for networks (also testing possible power saving modes to find out whether they’re of any help)
CPU usage vs. power consumption tests with Resco Audio Recorder (recording in q:3 32 kHz 19 kbps Speex mode (my favourite one with the best size/quality ratio but, unfortunately, with pretty high, about 60% CPU usage) - please see Everything you may need to know about sound recording on the Pocket PC for more information.)
Note that, this time, I’m also stating the original charge level at the start of the test. As is also stated for example in this pretty nice article by Brighthand forum member tanbam, there may be slight (not much) differences in power usage depending on the charge level of the battery because of the proportional Voltage level decrease as the battery is discharged. (Note that the Voltage decrease with Li-Ion batteries is in no way as visible as with other kinds of batteries. That is, a Li-Ion battery that only holds little charge will still have only a bit less Voltage than a battery full of charge. This is why there aren’t major differences in the low-charge and the fully-charged cases, Amperage-wise).
As can clearly be seen, what I’ve stated in my first battery consumption-related articles and tests is still topical:
when there is some remarkable CPU usage (see the Resco test), the power consumption figures skyrocket, particularly with the iPAQ and the x51v, particularly because both are 624 MHz devices, as opposed to the 520 MHz Universal and the PL720 (the latter consume decidedly less power in these cases). It’s, therefore, essential that you use some kind of CPU underclocking, especially on 624 MHz devices, when you run an application that constantly uses the CPU.
Fortunately, CPU underclocking is already supported by the x51v (in the Processor tab in the Settings/System/Power applet) but, unfortunately, not in the hx4700. Note that the Resco results are almost the same in the 624 and the 520 MHz modes; it’s only in a heavily (on the verge of usability underclocked) 208 MHz case that it’s visible decreasing. The case is a bit different with games – please see my former articles on the power consumption of the x51v and on my remark on what applications / games run OK when you (radically) underclock the device.
the Pocket Loox 720 is by far the best device, power consumption-wise
the lowest backlight level (with the – this is very important! – automatic backlight mode enabled as can be seen in here – it’s not enabled by default!) with the hx4700 consumes very little, as opposed to the other devices
when idling (without backlight – again, the hx4700’s backlight is far more battery-friendly than that of the other devices when used sparingly), the PL720 consumes the less; then comes the Universal, the x51v and, finally, the worst-behaving hx4700.
the various Wi-Fi power saving modes aren’t worth anything (at least when the device is actively searching for networks). In Wi-Fi, it’s again the PL720 that turns out the most power-saving (in my personal tests, it consumes about 25% an hour with BT enabled – connected to a StowAway BT keyboard -, in Web browsing mode, with the lowest backlight and connected to a Wi-Fi network).
BT and IrDA: Note that the chart doesn’t contain Bluetooth and IrDA beam activation power consumption data because I’ve already published them all. In a nutshell: you can freely activate and, with Bluetooth, actively use them (it’ll only result in an additional 1-2 mA power consumption, except on the PL720 in BT PAN mode, where you have taken into account what I’ve stated here), except for the hx4700, where it adds another 80-90 mA power consumption.)
finally, the Universal has turned out to be pretty good surprise: I’ve expected far worse, based on real-life usage. (Read: I need to recharge it on a daily basis with even moderate Web browsing – no hard-core gaming or stuff at all! – and mail reading while, using it in entirely the same way, the HTC Wizard doesn’t need recharging for days. Compared to the Wizard, it really sucks battery life-wise; compared to other VGA devices, it fares pretty well.) It fares decidedly better than the x51v and the hx4700 in almost every respect, particularly in the CPU usage and the Wi-Fi tests.
The comparison / result chart is available here (CLICK THE LINK!)
(All values are given in milliAmpers (mA).)
Recommended links
Maximize Battery Life by Minimizing Power Consumption!
Extend your battery life – never before published tips and comparative benchmarks!
Power consumption measurements of the HTC Universal (a.k.a. i-mate JasJar, Qtek 9000, O2 XDA Exec, SPV M5000, MDA IV/Pro)
Further power consumption tests on the HTC Wizard
Ever wanted to know how much power your HP iPAQ hx4700’s wireless units consume? Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. Also, a VERY BAD BUG discovered in the WM5 2.01 hx4700 BT module!
Updates to the “Windows Mobile Team on the Power Consumption issues of Pocket PC's; new power consumption measurements published!” articles – first long-lasting power consumption measurement results on the HTC Wizard
Windows Mobile Team on the Power Consumption issues of Pocket PC's; new power consumption measurements published!
This is very cool.
Thank you for posting!
Does abcPowerMeter work on a 8125??
BTW, nice report. Thanx
freeyayo50 said:
Does abcPowerMeter work on a 8125??
BTW, nice report. Thanx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, unfortunately - at least not on my Wizard. (The 8125 may be different, but I don't think it'll work)
Yea i jus tried it on my 8125 and it doesnt work. It reads the same power output no matter what.
We need a fix!!!!
Hi guys, please bear with us on this one.
This is my 2nd Android phone, I used to have an Hero about 6 months ago. i really liked the front end but the screen was small so I upgraded to an HD2 which I still have. On the HD2 the screen is huge but Win Mobile lets it down a bit. The marketplace is expensive and very limited and the amount of apps for Win Mobile seem to be getting less and less, especially supproting the 800x480 WVGA screen on the HD2.
Anyway I was due an upgrade and Orange offered me the X10 for £20 which i couldn't refuse. I am trying to like the phone but the biggest issue for me is the battery. I did the usual of leaving it plugged in for 16 hours as recommended by orange etc. If the phone is on standby I seem to get around 8 hours and the battery will be down to about 40% remaining charge. That is on standby with the top button pressed and the phone on a black screen. This is really poor considering the HD2 can run almost 2 days on standby before loosing 60% of its charge.
Anybody got any suggestions on how to improve this? Would it be wise for me to do the debrand as mentioned in other threads? It is currently on build R1FA014.
Thanks for the help.
The battery will improve in time, after a few weeks of use the X10 will loose 1-2% of battery each 2 hours (at least my X10 R1FA016 and two of my friends X10 R1FA014 do). This is with 3G on, wifi sometimes on, GPS sometimes on. Just give it some time. I think the X10 is one of the best smartphones out there. There is an extensive thread on Power Usage which can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=657265
In the end it comes down to:
-Give it some time
-Disable auto search for software updates (settings>about phone>update)
-Wifi seems to drain sometimes
-Streaming drains.
Thanks for the pointers Vin87, I have got wifi turned off now but I am at work for the next 7 hours and I only have about 28% charge remaining
I'm going to have a good read through the thread you mentioned all 50+ pages LOL.
I do like the phone and for the cost I am going to keep it and hopefully we will get some new updates soon?
It gets better...way better. 13 hours since my last charge, and it's at 71%. I've been using it every now and then, Facebook, sending emails ect.
Great battery life now!
From a work perspective, I miss the X10 having a dock.
With my G900 each time I returned to my desk,I would throw it the dock and so it was receiving a charge throughout the day, the X10 is more fiddly as you need to play around the the flap and then figure out which way to plug in the mini-USB cable...
I wish they had chosen a better connector than the mini-USB as the standard, as it's not that easy to quickly connect it....
I could almost throw my G900 at the charging cable and it would connect.
Basically (if you want to use the smartphone):
1. In the beginning you will use the phone a lot. Installing apps, trying apps, games, music etc. so the battery drains faster. When you will stop pushing the phone to the limit will be better
2. Wait for a week, the batter will get better.
3. Get a task killer/boot manager and set it to autokill moxier. Don't kill other apps
4. Set facebook/twitter sync at 1h (or more) if you are not a hardcore fan of this social platforms.
5. Email: if you need instant notification there is not much you can do. If you don't need it, disable background sync and sync manually.
6. Disable location using wireless networks.
7. Wifi/3G: if you need instant notifications, wifi will drain your battery pretty fast but if you don't have 3G data plan like me, there is no other choice. If you have a good 3G plan, you can set wifi sleep policy to turn off wifi when phone goes to "sleep". Also, you can use this together with Juice defender free to turn 3G on 2 min every 3min to get notifications so, you will save even more battery.
8. Enable bluetoot/gps only when you use them and keep them disabled when not.
9. Set brightness to manual and around 25% when you are indoor and "sleep time" (screen timeout) to 30sec
10. Oh, i forgot, disable search for software updates and if you didn't install too many things, try a factory defaults. Some people did a SD card format (be sure you save everything first) and reported battery improvement.
If you want to use the dumbphone inside then turn everything off (BT, GPS, 3G, WIFI, Twitter/Facebook, email, background sync, etc.) and your dumbphone will last way longer