Android battery life

[Shankar Viswanathan]

I got a Droid on Verizon recently. I tried an experiment last week
where I turned off GPS, Wifi and background sync using the power
control widget right after a full charge. With a few phone calls
(maybe about 45 minutes of total talk time), and the occasional email
and calendar syncing (manually of course) and a bit of browser usage,
I was able to go almost 4.5 days before the battery level fell below
10%. I don't think I ever turned on the Wifi or GPS during this
period. So, if I use it as a *phone*, the battery life isn't bad.

With more frequent 3G and Wifi use, obviously the battery life drops
such that I need to recharge everyday or every other day. In my
experience, the GPS is the worst culprit -- I turned it on a few days
ago to find my way around various flooded roads, and the battery level
started going down very quickly. It is not just the GPS circuitry by
itself, but also the data connection needed to download the Google map
tiles.

Jerry: perhaps we should have another open mike night about things
people have done with their smartphones. Both cool apps people have
used and any experiences with Android/WebOS/iPhone development.

-Shankar

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 11:30 AM, Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Additionally, as I mentioned, my Backflip was used intermittently last
> night during the meeting, after the meeting, and a few times this
> morning, and with Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, and 3G all on, my battery is
> still pretty strong at 36%, and that is without any battery
> conservation. So, it really depends on the activity. It is also grabbing
> news feeds as well as syncing mail, calendar, contacts and the other
> stuff.  I have the screen blanking set for 1 minute. So, in contrast to
> the BlackBerry, it uses more battery because it does more stuff, but you
> can control some if not all of that.
>
> --
> Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
> Boston Linux and Unix
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>
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