i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
For what this device has and what it can do the battery life is pretty good, if you just use it for a few random pics, bit of browsing, bit of music and a few calls you should get a days use, if you sit there for ages messing with it its gonna drain.
Im pleased with it myself, apart from the bugs, but waiting......
It's killing you literally? Step away man!
I find the battery life on-par with other smart phones I've owned. I use a desktop cradle (well should soon be using a desktop cradle) and an active holder in the car, so I find the battery keeps up OK with a typical day's use for me. The biggest battery killer is when the screen is on full brightness so I find essential to have the phone on power when I'm using the satnav.
I had really high hopes for this thread when I read the title. Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed.
Where's the death I was promised?
Die and prove it.
mox123 said:
i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be fair most smartphones drain their batteries pretty damned quickly. Disconnect your data connection when you're not using it and bluetooth too. OK so you won't get weather updates but you'll save battery life. Just charge it nightly and buy a car charger if you really drain that sucker!
Wow, I think battery life is good considering the screen, better than I expected.
Currently, with screen set to 70% brightness, push email on 0800-1800 with hourly retrieval outside those hours, hourly weather/Twitter update, automatic Quick-GPS almanac data update, I last all day (~0700 to 2300), and still with about 20-30% headroom with the following use:
Push email as per above settings
50 minutes GPS tracking
50 minutes bluetooth on (heart rate monitor)
1-2 hours listening to music
Around 1-2 hours high-drain use (screen on, using cellular data/WiFi/GPS - for example browsing/app use/gaming/watching video)
30-40 SMS
15 minutes calls
One simple little trick that I learnt some time ago to preserve battery life is ..........turn down the brightness of the screen display. The brighter it is the more juice gets used.
Get the screen to turn itself off after, say, 30 secs of use. That also helps.
The rest, such as killing off data connections when not in use, etc, you already know.
It never ceases to surprise me at the number of negative comments re battery life. The impression I am left with is that if the battery does not last at least 2 months between charges, even though it is being hammered to within an inch of it's life, then that makes the battery performance rubbish. Anyone ever heard of a battery charger?
It's a really easy to use piece of kit that comes with your device that can be plugged in at night when you are asleep, leaving your device fresh for the morning.
Amazing.
WB
What the heck do you expect from such a phone? The energy management is kinda good and it's the display that kills battery life. You have to get use to it. At least my Touch HD seems to last much longer, but I would never change back.
If you watch a video your battery capacity drops quickly. I estimated 4,3-4,5h of HW-acc WVGA video and 3,5h with a non-HW-acc VGA video. Not that much but it really looks fantastic.
My Solution for this problem is: second battery, extended battery and/or load the battery whereever u can. My normal usage drains 30% of the battery a day, so I get 3 days of normal usage (I'm not an excessive handy user). The standby duration is with 300h not that good, but yeah that means still 12,5 days of standby if I calculated correctly.
The point is, that the phone is that good that I'm attracted to play with it and then the battery life tends to last just a day or less.
I bought a second battery (~22€) just for longer rides. I think it's ok.
mox123 said:
i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EEK!, don't come on this forum and complain about the HD2! not allowed. this is now the official HD2 Appreciation society, don't ya know.
I recommend instead you buy some lube oil, massage it into the device, light some candles, play a bit of Barry White, and all will be well.
Then come on this site and reassure all the sensitive souls here that it is indeed the Holy Grail of mobiles and admit you are a Troll for finding a fault with it, and daring to ask about why it does not preform as it says on the tin.
And final advice...In the words of legendary Basil Fawlty... Don't mention the War !..or in this case, the Keyboard!!, I mentioned it once...and thought I got away with it..but no.
hawrai68 said:
EEK!, don't come on this forum and complain about the HD2! not allowed. this is now the official HD2 Appreciation society, don't ya know.
I recommend instead you buy some lube oil, massage it into the device, light some candles, play a bit of Barry White, and all will be well.
Then come on this site and reassure all the sensitive souls here that it is indeed the Holy Grail of mobiles and admit you are a Troll for finding a fault with it, and daring to ask about why it does not preform as it says on the tin.
And final advice...In the words of legendary Basil Fawlty... Don't mention the War !..or in this case, the Keyboard!!, I mentioned it once...and thought I got away with it..but no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice one.
NetDwarf said:
What the heck do you expect from such a phone? The energy management is kinda good and it's the display that kills battery life. You have to get use to it. At least my Touch HD seems to last much longer, but I would never change back.
If you watch a video your battery capacity drops quickly. I estimated 4,3-4,5h of HW-acc WVGA video and 3,5h with a non-HW-acc VGA video. Not that much but it really looks fantastic.
My Solution for this problem is: second battery, extended battery and/or load the battery whereever u can. My normal usage drains 30% of the battery a day, so I get 3 days of normal usage (I'm not an excessive handy user). The standby duration is with 300h not that good, but yeah that means still 12,5 days of standby if I calculated correctly.
The point is, that the phone is that good that I'm attracted to play with it and then the battery life tends to last just a day or less.
I bought a second battery (~22€) just for longer rides. I think it's ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly !!
1000 Mhz this bugger does.
And really its more then just a phone. with the battery cunsumption like wise.
But they told me one thing,,. something that Noone does
When you get the HD2. Its battery got 20% juice init.
Thats not for fun of the company (prolly sanyo) was laizy and dint bother to fill em 100%.
You have to charge the battery 6 to 12 hours and to peeking at your new jewel.
And i know Noone ever does that. But it ensures batterylife and eficiency
Here is the article >>
Initialize a new battery. New batteries should be fully charged before their first use to obtain maximum capacity.
Nickel-based batteries should be charged for 16 hours initially and run through 2-4 full charge/full discharge cycles, while lithium ion batteries should be charged for about 5-6 hours.
Ignore the phone telling you that the battery is full--this is normal but is not accurate if the battery is not initialized.
#DO NOT fully discharge a lithium-ion battery!
Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, lithium-ion batteries' life is shortened every time you fully discharge them.
Instead, charge them when the battery meter shows one bar left.
Lithium-ion batteries, like most rechargeable batteries have a set amount of chargers in them.[1]
2Keep the battery cool.
Your battery will last longest if used near room temperature, and nothing wears on a battery like extended exposure to high temperatures. While you can’t control the weather, you can avoid leaving your phone in a hot car or in direct sunlight, and you don’t have to carry your phone in your pocket, where your body heat will raise its temperature.
In addition, check the battery while it’s charging. If it seems excessively hot, your charger may be malfunctioning.
3Charge your battery correctly, in accordance with its type. Most newer cell phones have lithium-ion batteries, while older ones generally have nickel-based batteries. Read the label on the back of the battery or in the technical specifications in the manual to determine which yours is.
Nickel-based batteries (either NiCd or NiMH) DO NOT generally suffer from a misunderstood phenomenon known as the "memory effect." As described in Wikipedia and many expert sources,[2] the term "memory effect" has been widely mythologized to describe any and all deterioration of NiCd (and other battery chemistries), in many cases misleading consumers into further shortening the lives of the batteries through over-discharging to "recondition" them.[3]
[This section formerly read: If you charge the battery partially enough times, eventually the battery "forgets" that it can charge fully. A nickel-based battery suffering from memory effect can be reconditioned, which requires the battery to be completely discharged, then completely recharged (sometimes several times). The appropriate length of time between reconditionings varies. A good rule to follow for nickel-battery cell-phones is to discharge them completely once every two to three weeks, and only when you have a charger available. [4] ]
Lithium ion batteries can be preserved by careful charging and avoiding storing them at full charge.[5] They do not require "reconditioning."
Regardless of the battery type, use only a charger rated for your battery, and discontinue use of a charger that causes the battery to heat up excessively.
Enonoid said:
Exactly !!
1000 Mhz this bugger does.
And really its more then just a phone. with the battery cunsumption like wise.
But they told me one thing,,. something that Noone does
When you get the HD2. Its battery got 20% juice init.
Thats not for fun of the company (prolly sanyo) was laizy and dint bother to fill em 100%.
You have to charge the battery 6 to 12 hours and to peeking at your new jewel.
And i know Noone ever does that. But it ensures batterylife and eficiency
Here is the article >>
Initialize a new battery. New batteries should be fully charged before their first use to obtain maximum capacity.
Nickel-based batteries should be charged for 16 hours initially and run through 2-4 full charge/full discharge cycles, while lithium ion batteries should be charged for about 5-6 hours.
Ignore the phone telling you that the battery is full--this is normal but is not accurate if the battery is not initialized.
#DO NOT fully discharge a lithium-ion battery!
Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, lithium-ion batteries' life is shortened every time you fully discharge them.
Instead, charge them when the battery meter shows one bar left.
Lithium-ion batteries, like most rechargeable batteries have a set amount of chargers in them.[1]
2Keep the battery cool.
Your battery will last longest if used near room temperature, and nothing wears on a battery like extended exposure to high temperatures. While you can’t control the weather, you can avoid leaving your phone in a hot car or in direct sunlight, and you don’t have to carry your phone in your pocket, where your body heat will raise its temperature.
In addition, check the battery while it’s charging. If it seems excessively hot, your charger may be malfunctioning.
3Charge your battery correctly, in accordance with its type. Most newer cell phones have lithium-ion batteries, while older ones generally have nickel-based batteries. Read the label on the back of the battery or in the technical specifications in the manual to determine which yours is.
Nickel-based batteries (either NiCd or NiMH) DO NOT generally suffer from a misunderstood phenomenon known as the "memory effect." As described in Wikipedia and many expert sources,[2] the term "memory effect" has been widely mythologized to describe any and all deterioration of NiCd (and other battery chemistries), in many cases misleading consumers into further shortening the lives of the batteries through over-discharging to "recondition" them.[3]
[This section formerly read: If you charge the battery partially enough times, eventually the battery "forgets" that it can charge fully. A nickel-based battery suffering from memory effect can be reconditioned, which requires the battery to be completely discharged, then completely recharged (sometimes several times). The appropriate length of time between reconditionings varies. A good rule to follow for nickel-battery cell-phones is to discharge them completely once every two to three weeks, and only when you have a charger available. [4] ]
Lithium ion batteries can be preserved by careful charging and avoiding storing them at full charge.[5] They do not require "reconditioning."
Regardless of the battery type, use only a charger rated for your battery, and discontinue use of a charger that causes the battery to heat up excessively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a shame most powerful mobiles heat up like nobody's business whilst on full chat these days.....there's no chance of keeping the batteries cool! Still, it's an expendable item and at least you can buy a replacement.....none of this iPhone 'sealed' tin rubbish.
while i find the battery life reasonable with the features this phone has (read screen size, processor speed), it will be nice to get the CPU throttling app another thread is discussing. don't need that 1000MHz running everytime i pick the phone.
On the same notes, how can i check if automatic screen brightness is kicking in?
here4info said:
how can i check if automatic screen brightness is kicking in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stick the phone under a bright light such as a desk lamp and cover the light sensor with a piece of paper.
here4info said:
while i find the battery life reasonable with the features this phone has (read screen size, processor speed), it will be nice to get the CPU throttling app another thread is discussing. don't need that 1000MHz running everytime i pick the phone.
On the same notes, how can i check if automatic screen brightness is kicking in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It certainly isn't running when I boot my phone up....hardly gives an impression of speed.
mox123 said:
i spoke to htc about the abysmal battery life, they say that there could be extended batteries in the near future, with a new back cover (with the back sticking out)
i dont mind charging it every day but
everytime i do something basic, for couple of minutes, it goes down by 1 percent, everything is turned off, gsm 2g mode, etc.
anyway the guy at htc said its due to the massive screen, this is what drains majority of the juice,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you the first wm phone user? Do you have good experience with phones that has so much specs? Do you use wifi and browse with phone very heavily? If you do, it is really normal that the battery will drain. My Touch HD does the same, it can last a day or 2 or drain like water not more than half a day, it depends on your usage. Try to get a second battery, or even the third one like I do, what is a big deal? It is completely normal.
I don't have a lot complaints on this phone as it meets most of my requirements.about the battery, I seriously don't think it is that bad. for example if you have a car with 1500 horse power and expect it to have or rather 30-40 mpg, don't think it is possible. try to use your local gas station (in this case your friendly charger) more often.move on with your life please.
c4Lvin said:
I don't have a lot complaints on this phone as it meets most of my requirements.about the battery, I seriously don't think it is that bad. for example if you have a car with 1500 horse power and expect it to have or rather 30-40 mpg, don't think it is possible. try to use your local gas station (in this case your friendly charger) more often.move on with your life please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be a little difficult because this battery problem is killing him, LITERALLY
Hey everyone,
I'm kind of a noob when it comes to all things XDA (but I'm learning.) Anyways, I was wondering what kind of battery life you all get from the different ROMs you've flashed.
So far I've only flashed Nero, Bionix, and Flagship. I had pretty good battery life from Nero, but I was wondering what kind of battery life that you've experienced with other ROMs like Axura and Trigger (because with Bionix and Flagship, my battery life has been fugazi.)
Thanks in advance, y'all.
Sorry if this topic comes up often.
With axura my battery lasts 16 hours with possibly 600+ texts and youtube alot music about 1 hour a few phone calls alot of web.
I only need it to last 12 hours because I charge overnight so I'm good.
I reconditioned too btw
Does reconditioning actually improve battery life or does it simply make the battery indicator more accurate?
It makes it more accurate. Which in terms helps battery because it reads it perfect so ull last longer
Axura is widely considered to have the best battery life. After flashing a new rom you should let your phone charge to 100% and then wipe battery stats in CWM recovery. It can take several days for reading to be taken from the battery so your battery life will usually improve over time.
Hey, I just wanted to thank you all for your input. I decided to go with the latest version of Axura, and so far I've been loving it. I'm not even a day in and I've noticed a difference.
Thanks once again.
+1 On Axura best battery life........
soltheman said:
Hey everyone,
I'm kind of a noob when it comes to all things XDA (but I'm learning.) Anyways, I was wondering what kind of battery life you all get from the different ROMs you've flashed.
So far I've only flashed Nero, Bionix, and Flagship. I had pretty good battery life from Nero, but I was wondering what kind of battery life that you've experienced with other ROMs like Axura and Trigger (because with Bionix and Flagship, my battery life has been fugazi.)
Thanks in advance, y'all.
Sorry if this topic comes up often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first thing to do is
Charge Until 100%
choose rom
Run The Phone All Day, Let It Die
Charge Until 100%
Reboot Into Recovery
Select Reinstall Packages (Do it again if needed)
Select Advanced
Select Wipe Battery Stats
Laazyboy said:
Does reconditioning actually improve battery life or does it simply make the battery indicator more accurate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither. "Conditioning" skews the discharge curve from which the battery indicator indexes it percentages. As a result, the battery appears to discharge at slower rate ("better battery life") over the first two-thirds or so of the discharge cycle and then craters like a lead balloon at the end of the discharge cycle. (You really need to have a battery indicator that shows discharge in 1% increments, such as "blue segmented battery mod" to see this.)
To understand this requires a light understanding of the so-called "battery stat tables." There is an entry in the battery stat tables for each percentage of remaining battery charge, in increments of 1%. So, the table contains entries 100%, 99%,... down to 1%. Associated with each percent of remaining charge entry in the table is a battery terminal voltage and a timestamp. Unfortunately, the smart phone cannot measure actual remaining battery charge. All the system knows is a series of battery terminal voltage measurement taken at even periodic intervals. The algorithm builds the battery stat table to relate each measured voltage to a corresponding “percentage of remaining charge” entry in the table. In normal operation, the system accumulates these measurements over several charge/discharge cycles and analyzes the rates of changes of voltages to refine the discharge curve. After several charge/discharge cycles the percentages, which are displayed on the screen as a battery indicator, become more refined and accurate.
At some point someone apparently thought that it would be a good idea to attempt to manipulate the process of building the battery stat tables. This resulted in the so-called "conditioning procedure." The conditioning procedure consists of fully charging the battery, then deleting the battery stats, and then draining the battery quickly and completely using heavy loads, perhaps in 1 to 2 hours.
What this accomplishes is that the battery stat mechanism builds a new, steep discharge curve based upon the rapid discharge operation. This crude, initial discharge curve has "learned" that the battery should discharge quickly, because it did so during its "training” discharge. More specifically, each "percentage discharge" entry for the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the discharge curve (corresponding to the first 50-75 table entries) will be associated with an abnormally lower voltage (due to the faster rate of decrease in voltage during the "training" discharge cycle) than would be the case if the table had been built normally, over time.
Now, let us think about what happens during the subsequent discharge cycle. We charge the battery to full. Now we begin to use the phone normally, discharging the unit over a period of 12-18 hours, for example. Now the phone experiences a slower rate of change of battery voltage over time, because the load is much lower than that of the forced "training" discharge. Now the algorithm measures a voltage and then attempts to map that voltage to a corresponding percentage discharge table entry. The result is that the battery indicator on the phone shows a very low rate of discharge over many hours. This leads people to erroneously conclude that the "battery conditioning" procedure results in improved battery life. However, this is merely an illusion. The battery indicator is, at this point, simply displaying an incorrect number for the remaining battery life. As a consequence, the battery indicator must "catch up with reality" later in the discharge cycle. This is manifested toward the end of the discharge cycle as the battery indicator drops precipitously from perhaps 35% to zero in a very small amount of time. In any case, fortunately, the weirdness done by "battery conditioning" goes away within a few days as the battery stat algorithm tunes the discharge curve each discharge cycle to bring it ever further in line with the actual average usage of the phone owner. It is a myth that the battery stats become inaccurate over time. To the contrary, the algorithm continuously tunes the tables based upon usage patterns so that the battery indicator becomes more and more accurate.
I do not know where this practice originated, but I do have a cynical hypothesis. The ROM cookers typically mix-and-match code elements from different software releases and otherwise change up the timing, sequencing, etc. of various processes. Doing so may have battery life consequences, because the resulting mish-mash of components may hinder or prevent sleep mode operation, cause processes to run for more time than they should, etc. You can see how "battery conditioning" could mask an acute battery performance problem during the first few hours after a person has flashed a ROM and is watching performance characteristics especially closely. ‘Nuf said on this subject.
Sample battery discharge chart and accompanying notes attached below.
soltheman said:
Hey everyone,
I'm kind of a noob when it comes to all things XDA (but I'm learning.) Anyways, I was wondering what kind of battery life you all get from the different ROMs you've flashed.
So far I've only flashed Nero, Bionix, and Flagship. I had pretty good battery life from Nero, but I was wondering what kind of battery life that you've experienced with other ROMs like Axura and Trigger (because with Bionix and Flagship, my battery life has been fugazi.)
Thanks in advance, y'all.
Sorry if this topic comes up often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tutorial for tuning system to increase battery life here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=823025&page=4
xriderx66 said:
With axura my battery lasts 16 hours with possibly 600+ texts and youtube alot music about 1 hour a few phone calls alot of web.
I only need it to last 12 hours because I charge overnight so I'm good.
I reconditioned too btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
600 texts in 16 hours is nearly 38 texts an hour, 4,200 texts a week, 18,000 texts every month. WTFBBQ?
I've read this thread started by JamesBarnes and it got me thinking. The setup he has done is good, but we actually have all those things in our phones. We've got a multimeter (current widget), we've got a power draining load (the phone itself) and the major drawback in his setup is eliminated. He is actually measuring the capacity of the battery to be compared with other batteries, but our phones protect the batteries by switching off with some charge left in the battery because LiIon batteries should not be drained completely. This means a/ you can't damage your battery by full cycling and b/ the phone does not use all the battery capacity. So HTC says 1230mAh, but what is the actual usable capacity of the battery? The most precise measurement should be with a constant minimal drain, but this will take too much time. The next best thing is the charge cycle. So I drained my battery untill shutdown. Then I powered on (I have fastboot enabled, so the phone turns off at 1% to have some energy left to power the memory while "off"), set the current widged to update at 30 sec, cleared the log and plugged in the charger. Then I turned off the screen and left the phone to fully charge overnight. In the morning I downloaded the log and calculated the energy that was pumped in the battery. The result is 1121 mAh. You can calculate yours too. You just have to sum the results of the charge current and then multiply the result to the time interval measured in hours (for 30 sec interval you should actually divide by 120). There is a small bug with current widget and it doesn't really log every period. Sometimes it's a bit more and sometimes it skips. So I wrote a small matlab program to calculate the exact capacity and if you want, you can send me your log of a full charge, or you can calculate it yourselves - just set a higher interval because this way the error will be smaller.
If anyone has a spare DHD (not likely) can leave the phone at airplane mode with 300 sec log interval and in a few days we'll have an exact value of the battery capacity.
tkolev said:
If anyone has a spare DHD (not likely) can leave the phone at airplane mode with 300 sec log interval and in a few days we'll have an exact value of the battery capacity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, what you will have is the exact capacity of one particular battery. LI-ion batteries vary in the charge they hold depending on how they have been used and for how long they have been used, so IMHO the above data would not be applicable to the community at large, also don't forget it's the DHD that decides when the battery is fully charged so that would add another uncertainty to the pot.
ghostofcain said:
No, what you will have is the exact capacity of one particular battery. LI-ion batteries vary in the charge they hold depending on how they have been used and for how long they have been used, so IMHO the above data would not be applicable to the community at large, also don't forget it's the DHD that decides when the battery is fully charged so that would add another uncertainty to the pot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The purpose of my post was to explain how can anyone measure their own batteries. I don't care about yours, you don't care about mine - that's for sure. But how can you know when buying a replacement battery that the xxxx mAh written on the back is true (and it usualy isn't)? "Lasting longer" is subjective and my method gives you an objective measurement. My battery is five month's old. 1121mAh is a plausable value proving that the method works. If you don't want to bother to do the math yourself, you can send me the log, so I'll do it for you. If you want to know about the current capacity of your battery - fine. If you don't want to know - it's also fine. Also if we can gather some precise measurements (minimizing the error by using constant drain over a longer period) on the capacity we can eliminate the error introduced by the different units and we'll know what to expect from stock batteries and thus we can compare the non-OEM ones to them.
plus, Li-ions usable capacitys change with the batterys temperature and current. How is knowing that my battery could give me 1100mAh @ 5mA/300K of any value to me if I usually need my phone @200mA/280K? Measuring while charging ain't the best idea either, because heat dissipated by the battery during the process will show up in your reading. (and dissipated heat is not the kind of energy that you'd call 'usable')
Also, I am not really sure, how bumping the interval up, thus generating less discrete measurements, is going to increase accuracy...
llama-power said:
plus, Li-ions usable capacitys change with the batterys temperature and current. How is knowing that my battery could give me 1100mAh @ 5mA/300K of any value to me if I usually need my phone @200mA/280K? Measuring while charging ain't the best idea either, because heat dissipated by the battery during the process will show up in your reading. (and dissipated heat is not the kind of energy that you'd call 'usable')
Also, I am not really sure, how bumping the interval up, thus generating less discrete measurements, is going to increase accuracy...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I have said in the first post, it's best to measure the drain, not the charge, but unfortunately I can't spare the time needed without using my phone to take that measurement. The fact is that I don't know how current widget logs the current. Is it measured at the beggining of the interval, the end, is it a mean value over the whole interval, the max, the min? So we should have as constant drain as possible. That way we will eliminate the effect of different measuring methods.
The longer period is just for ease of use. Have you seen a current widget log with interval of 30 seconds? There are many missing intervals, others are 40 sec, 50 sec and the simpler method (summing up the values and multiplying by the time) doesn't work, so it won't be suitable for everyone to calculate the capacity by their own. And with a constant drain the longer period won't introduce that much of an error in the calculation.
You can't have a precise measurement for all the situations you might think of. Some days I talk over the phone for 30 minutes, some days I talk for over an hour. Some days I read e-books, other days I watch videos. The different drain causes different usable capacity as you know. The only thing that's common with the phone day-to-day usage is the stand-by periods. This might have a negative impact on the accuracy because with digital reading you have quantization which introduces bigger error on small values, but this remains to be seen. If you can have constant drain at say... 50 mAh (roughly 1:2 usage pattern), it will introduce max 2% error (depending on the value reading method by the phone). And I don't know about you, but I think 2% is nothing when dealing with something so variable like the battery capacity.