question about rate of battery drain while out walking around

[xstinkyx]

During most of the week, when I'm at work and I'm using my wireless charger, I'm satisfied with the battery life of my N4.

But one day a week I'll be out walking for 10+ miles and the battery seems to lose charge more than expected.

- during that time I'll have wifi off (and gps off)
- I'll occasionally do some txting and light web browsing and IMing (via trillian)
- every 10 minutes or so I'll turn on the screen to ensure I haven't missed any notifications (and then turn screen off instead of letting it time out after 2 minutes)
- from what I can tell I have a fine carrier data connection during the time

I swear the battery loses charge faster than it would if I was sitting in the same location and doing the four items listed above. I'll try to get a screenshot next time.

Is constantly turning the screen on/off what's mainly killing the battery? Is there any chance that due to constantly movement the sensors (i.e. accelerometer, etc.) have an effect on battery life?

 

[Rizy7]

Mobile data drains considerably more than WiFi. I would advise using juice defender which turns off your mobile data connection and only switches it on when you turn on your screen. Dont worry though it still checks every few minutes when your screen is off so you wont miss any of your notifications.

 

[wunderbar]

Define "faster than expected" We can't help you if we don't have an idea of exactly what kind of drain you're looking at, which could actually be perfectly normal behaviour.

Also you can look at settings-->battery and it will tell you what has been using the most battery power on your device.

 

[xstinkyx]

Define "faster than expected" We can't help you if we don't have an idea of exactly what kind of drain you're looking at, which could actually be perfectly normal behaviour. Also you can look at settings-->battery and it will tell you what has been using the most battery power on your device.

Yes, I know ideally I should be showing the phone stats; I mentioned in my OP that I'll try to get some screenshots next time.

It seems to lose about 10% of battery per hour when doing the above, which seems high to me. I realize that times will be better if on wifi, but there have days I've had wifi off and gotten better battery life. Likely it's from turning the screen on and off more than I realize. A small part of me though is convinced it has to do with the fact that the phone is constantly in motion.

 

[wunderbar]

10% per hour is not out of the realm of possibility. Not idea but not completely uncommon. Obviously your mileage may vary based on how much you use it. I drain the battery more when I'm out and about generally because I'm using the device more. When I'm at home or at work it usually sits idle, not being used at all.

That being said there is one thing you can look at. Google maps has the ability to automatically track your location. For many things this can be useful, but not everyone wants and/or needs it. I personally enjoy looking at my location history on Google Latitude and i leave it turned on, and Google now also benefits from having it on. However if that doesn't matter to you you can turn that off in maps setting and that should make a bit of difference with your battery.

Using Latitude 10% per hour translates to roughly 10 hours. With normal use during a day when I am actually using the device, which isn't unusual for me personally that sounds about normal for how I use it. Overnight if I don't plug it in and it is obviously not getting used it only drops by 7-8% in the 7 or so hours I'm asleep. Part of that is that it doesn't have to report location, but most of that is that I'm actually sleeping and the phone sees zero use.