Dual-core vs. Your Battery Life

[beandon]

As a new and already, loyal android user, I was very excited to hear about future devices going to dual core processors, the days of lag and latency, it seems are limited.

But one thing I have noticed on my device, (as im sure everyone else has as well), is that the battery life on a lot of these new phones are getting slimmer and slimmer, since manufacturers are opting for dual core processors, and other hardware elements being incorporated into their handsets, I don't foresee them expanding the battery and getting a bigger better one in any new devices.

Which ponders the question as to whether or not these new processors and bigger/better displays will wreck more havoc on your battery life. There are a few articles about it in a few of the other forums but nothing concise. What is the general consensus on this?

(apologies for any grammar/spelling errors)

 

[eric6052]

The Atrix is coming with a 1950mh battery sothat shoould at least help. Its my understanding that dual core could actually be better on battery life because the workload is split instead of one core working at max speed. Time will tell.

 

[beandon]

But you can bet on UI's getting more complex, more intuitive and larger apps/widgets/games.

Inflation.

We shall see, id like to hear more opinions.

 

[irish22022]

I think it's interesting that battery life is such an after thought with manufactures. HTC doesn't even hide it, either. The incredible is a joke as far as battery life, but that didn't even stop it from selling like crazy. People hold a device for a minute, and decide they want it. And HTC is right, people will adjust to cool things if they want it bad enough. I think it's so weird.

Now, it's no question that the device will run cooler and work less. It's analogous to one really really strong guy lifting a boulder or 2 strong people sharing the load. They just don't get as tired as quickly because they can lean on one another. This, however, is generally optimized by the OS and it's built in intelligence (mac computers, for example, will essentially partition duties to certain different parts of the processor, so it will never have to think about sharing the load). Android's OS isn't optimized for this technology yet, and won't be for a long time, so the dual core processor won't be as battery effecient as it could be. It will still be more efficient, mainly in temperature, and it will of course be faster (though it won't be hugely noticeable, despite all of the hype).

As I've said in other posts in other forums, this round of updates is fairly small in the world of technologies. In my opinion, the OG droid to the Droid X was a HUGE advancement in technology, and really showed Android was a serious contender with the iPhone. This round of phone updates introduces some interesting things, the dual core chip being the biggest advancement, but if you have a droid x or dinc, I really wouldn't have an issue waiting til next year for something more advanced. Technologies like this really come up big every two years (look at the iphone for the perfect example). Also, let's not forget that the hardware only matters if the software is ready to handle it. Android fans need to be patient, as there are so many devices on so many different levels, I personally think a rooted droid x is better then anything stock coming out this year.


One guys opinion.

 

[onixblack]

I personally think that battery life is the most important thing to have on a smartphone. If we can have large capacity batteries that are smaller or the same size as standard batteries now. Then that is what we should have.

 

[Johnly]

Haven't read thread, but I am sure someone posted this, dual cores run at lower volts, much better battery life At least the Tegra does

 

[ottscay]

Battery life will get better with dual core. They are made on a smaller process, so they are inherently more efficient. SMP also has the possibility of improving battery life by decreasing the amount of time the CPU works, but that depends quite a bit on how well it's implemented in the software.

Big screens are killer though for sure.

 

[eain]

I personally think that battery life is the most important thing to have on a smartphone. If we can have large capacity batteries that are smaller or the same size as standard batteries now. Then that is what we should have.

Well, that's the problem. Heavy research for longer battery life from the same form factor has been going on for decades, but it's still only so good. The last big advance in the technology was lithium ion batteries, but that was more an advance in recharging than capacity.

 

[icebike]

Manufacturers will size the battery to give most users one day of run time.

Heavy users (games, streaming video, yakitty yakers) will have to charge after 8 or 10 hours, but most users, browsing, email, texts, calls, etc) will get about a day.

My Nexus One gives me 27 hours.

 

[gameplace123]

It's the Display

I believe it's the screen that eats battery the most.

 

[moosc]

And its been proven that X has the best battery life. And Motorola has a battery manger built in. And as dual core drops the tegra quad core is going to announced at mwc. And look MOTO has done put a larger battery in its high end phones. While HTC just keeps putting the same battery in every phone.

 

[beandon]

I believe it's the screen that eats battery the most.

But when you add on top of that, more complex UI's, more advanced and intuitive widgets as I stated before, Im wondering if because of the new hardware, the manufacturers will make the running software bigger and better, which might contribute to a 'slightly' better battery performance.

I own a t-mobile vibrant, and i've really had to adjust the way i use the phone based on the battery life, while mine is better than a few i've seen (Incredible), it still is quite interesting how manufacturers have deduced that we will change our usage of devices, for more facebook notifications. lol

 

[DroidGnome]

Actually the best thing companies can do for battery life isn't in the hardware of the phones at all.. it's the SIGNAL.

Your radios consume the most power in your device. Even more power is used when they have to search for a signal, constantly. My phone used to last about 6-10 hours of 'minimal' use in my home where I got between zero and 2 bars. I got sprint to pony up for an Airrave device which essentially puts a small tower in my house that my phone connects to, and it's always at 4-5 bars (only if i stray to the opposite side of the house does it go to 4).

I have a new EVO that I configured just like mine for my father... Fully charged it up on Friday night. Took it off the charger when it was full. We're going on 21 hours so far off charger, and it's still at 87% battery life. Granted it has been doing NOTHING but sitting there, but my own device on the weekends gets me at least 12-18 hours of standard use as well.

If companies would increase the number of towers, or basically boost the coverage signals , users would see a huge increase in battery life. I'm hoping these new 4G towers sprint puts up, will also contain 3G/phone signals to blanket the area even better.

 

[johnyguy#AC]

well maybe Motorola battery manegmant has something to do with it
in my defy im pleased with it 1500mah batt i think its a good balance with performance and the 3,7 in screen.

 

[eman5oh]

It is no mistake that they put in a 1950mAh battery in that beast. It not because the duel core uses less battery than a single core.

 

[kingcoop]

I'm waiting to see the battery life on the dual-core devices as well but I'm a Nexus fan so I'll probably wait till Google releases a new Nexus with dual-core before I upgrade.

The battery life on my Nexus S is fine as far as I can tell but not as good as what I got when I owned the iPhone 4. But I also had a 3G MicroCell so the signal strength definitely had something to do with it.

 

[jeffreykime]

The ability to buy an extended battery or second battery is what's really nice. That's why I like android so much better than an iPhone.

 

[davedsone]

I think it's interesting that battery life is such an after thought with manufactures. HTC doesn't even hide it, either. The incredible is a joke as far as battery life, but that didn't even stop it from selling like crazy. People hold a device for a minute, and decide they want it. And HTC is right, people will adjust to cool things if they want it bad enough. I think it's so weird.

Now, it's no question that the device will run cooler and work less. It's analogous to one really really strong guy lifting a boulder or 2 strong people sharing the load. They just don't get as tired as quickly because they can lean on one another. This, however, is generally optimized by the OS and it's built in intelligence (mac computers, for example, will essentially partition duties to certain different parts of the processor, so it will never have to think about sharing the load). Android's OS isn't optimized for this technology yet, and won't be for a long time, so the dual core processor won't be as battery effecient as it could be. It will still be more efficient, mainly in temperature, and it will of course be faster (though it won't be hugely noticeable, despite all of the hype).

As I've said in other posts in other forums, this round of updates is fairly small in the world of technologies. In my opinion, the OG droid to the Droid X was a HUGE advancement in technology, and really showed Android was a serious contender with the iPhone. This round of phone updates introduces some interesting things, the dual core chip being the biggest advancement, but if you have a droid x or dinc, I really wouldn't have an issue waiting til next year for something more advanced. Technologies like this really come up big every two years (look at the iphone for the perfect example). Also, let's not forget that the hardware only matters if the software is ready to handle it. Android fans need to be patient, as there are so many devices on so many different levels, I personally think a rooted droid x is better then anything stock coming out this year.


One guys opinion.

Yeah, what I don't understand with the Vibrant for instance, is that it is TOO light and TOO thin, having a monster battery would actually improve the feel of the phone. Pick one up in one hand and a Captivate in the other, and the difference is amazing. Love the phone, but it feels like its made of packing peanuts.

 

[font1975]

I wonder if Android would start offloading some of the UI to the GPU instead of the CPU if that would help with battery life? Google developers seem to say no, but others say yes?

 

[The Hustleman]

Manufacturers will size the battery to give most users one day of run time.

Heavy users (games, streaming video, yakitty yakers) will have to charge after 8 or 10 hours, but most users, browsing, email, texts, calls, etc) will get about a day.

My Nexus One gives me 27 hours.

if only it really worked this way lol.


I can't speak on the nexus one but with normal usage I can't get past 12 hours, with heavy usage I can't get past 5, and with constant usage can't get past 3 and a half.

and that's using all those battery tips