Help: trying to duplicate SE's claim of 400hrs battery time

I agree. My other cell phones at least get reasonably close to their claimed times, but the P800 is nowhere near close to 13/400 hrs.

I support thee, those "claims" are getting overboard.

You guys are right, those claims are overboard.

I didn't expect that 400 hrs anyway, and I don't care either. I put it in my cradle every night and let it recharge. That's actually pretty nice, now I can turn off all power saving options and even can have the backlight on all the time.

And CoffeeKid. Option A would work probably, although you have to make sure that no-body calles you or send you a SMS...

[quote="Delta737"]You guys are right, those claims are overboard.

I didn't expect that 400 hrs anyway, and I don't care either. I put it in my cradle every night and let it recharge. That's actually pretty nice, now I can turn off all power saving options and even can have the backlight on all the time.

And CoffeeKid. Option A would work probably, although you have to make sure that no-body calles you or send you a SMS...[/quote]

Just to clarify, I don't expect or want 400 hours of standby either, and I don't even expect 13 hours of talk time. In fact, I'm reasonably happy with the battery performance of the P800 - coming from an iPaq where I'd have to charge it twice a day, going 1.5 days with the P800 with reasonbly heavy usage is nice.

I'm just miffed at the way overboard marketing splooge that the SE Marketing Dweebs (tm) cranked out on this phone. It's patently false advertising, and I fear for a year or more we'll be deluged with the "why don't I get 16 days standby with this phone" posts in various symbian forums. I'm also equally miffed with other electronics companies that give wildly outlandish claims for battery life.

Here's what I'd suggest: when a company develops a new product, the 'geers in the company usually get the products first in preproduction and "gold" versions. Let them use the device for a month or two to get the battery "conditioned". Then do some real world talking on the phone - using BT, using speaker phone, using wired headset. Do this five times per engineer (5 full charges to depleted), and call that your "talk time".

Next, do five tests between charges, real world use (ie, making phone calls, using pda, screen on, gprs, mp3 playing, etc etc) mark the times, and quote that as the "real time use" number. Then leave the phones on, poling GSM networks, functions occasionally working (like monitoring an email account, etc), then call that your "standby time".

My guess if they did this:

- Talk time: 4 hours (which isn't too shabby)
- Real Use time: 30 to 40 hours (which is amazing when you compare it to many PPC platforms)
- Standby time maybe 80 hours with very limited maintenance access (email checking, tower changing as you move around, sms msg once per day, etc).

What do you guys think?

Mark

You do know what "standby" means right? That means that you should be able to get up to 400 hours without using the phone at all in ultimate conditions. I haven't actually tried that myself, but I think that leaving the phone untouched, in powersave mode, with no running apps, where network conditions are optimal, 400 hours is not at all impossible.

[quote="Raven"]You do know what "standby" means right? That means that you should be able to get up to 400 hours without using the phone at all in ultimate conditions. I haven't actually tried that myself, but I think that leaving the phone untouched, in powersave mode, with no running apps, where network conditions are optimal, 400 hours is not at all impossible.[/quote]

Agreed. Car manufacturers do this all the time with Miles per Gallon, and performance stats.

It is entirely possible to achieve the 400 hours, but in reality people will be doing things that dont class as "stndby". I.e. Running applications, moving between cells.

I know these are all part of the point of having a phone, and indeed essential, but there you go!

I am also very happy with the performance of my battery, better than my 7650, and to be honest I still charge it every night... Force of habit.

[quote="Raven"]You do know what "standby" means right? That means that you should be able to get up to 400 hours without using the phone at all in ultimate conditions. I haven't actually tried that myself, but I think that leaving the phone untouched, in powersave mode, with no running apps, where network conditions are optimal, 400 hours is not at all impossible.[/quote]

I challenge you to approach even half that in standby mode.

I've actually gone about 68 hours (just under 3 days) without a call - used the P800 for all of five minutes in that time (checking my schedule) but otherwise, it sat on the desk, no incoming calls, and the battery was at critical (>7%) when I picked up the phone and recharged it.

Mark

Well,

I can average 100 hours standby time on mine.

You have to remember that the phone uses more battery when it is searching for a network or has a weak signal. All phones do that.

Z.

[quote="CoffeeKid"][quote="Raven"]You do know what "standby" means right? That means that you should be able to get up to 400 hours without using the phone at all in ultimate conditions. I haven't actually tried that myself, but I think that leaving the phone untouched, in powersave mode, with no running apps, where network conditions are optimal, 400 hours is not at all impossible.[/quote]

I challenge you to approach even half that in standby mode.

Mark[/quote]

I am tempted to try it out, but not being able to use my P800 for two whole weeks....-NO WAY! :P

Anyways, using the P800 as a PDA one should compare it's battery life to the one of a PDA. Where I'm sure you all know who wins.

Using it strictly for calling and SMSing you should be able to get 100 hours with "normal" use. But the thing is that even if you leave it in flip closed mode and just use the phone functions, the entire screen will be lit when using these functions, and the big screen is the major battery-drainer here. So having the screen turned off and just using it as a phone, 200 hours is not at all impossible, which compares well to any new cell phone these days.

Best way to conserve energy is to not have a screensaver and put it powersave mode after 1 min or whichever is less....best i've managed is 4 1/2 days without a charge and not really using it at all. Which suprised me somewhat.

[quote="Jordan"]Best way to conserve energy is to not have a screensaver and put it powersave mode after 1 min or whichever is less....best i've managed is 4 1/2 days without a charge and not really using it at all. Which suprised me somewhat.[/quote]

Jordan, that's what I'd call amazing standby time. I've never gotten that myself, and to be fair, my 68 hour drain was in my home over a weekend where my phone only gets 2 or 3 bars.

I want to reiterate I'm not complaining about the real-life battery times of the phone - I just want SE to put realistic battery numbers in their promo literature.

Mark

Yeah, they all do it, just a sales figure I suppose

OK, I never believed 400 hour claim and I didn't even care about it since I do use my phone daily. But I'd really put SE marketing department on some kind of trial and let them prove 13 hours of talk time. Get serious.
My first P800 was sucking battery like mad - 50% in 4 1/2 hours without BT etc. I returned it and got another one. With this one I can get 1 1/2 days. Not as good as my previous phone/Palm combination but still I wouldn't want that back.

Jimbo

So did you ever get a response to that letter???

Also is there a higher capacity battery available from Ericsson for the p800??

Does the firmware have an influence on standby times?

[quote="marcnyc"]
Also is there a higher capacity battery available from Ericsson for the p800?? [/quote]

Not that I know off

Does the firmware have an influence on standby times?

Some people claim R2x have a better standy-by time as R1x

I don't think that battery life is too bad considering what the phone can do, but 400 hours is just rubbish.

Car manufacurers may quote mpg figures that are higher than you would ever achieve in practice but (in the UK at least) there are standard reproducible tests for consumption that are agreed across the industry - they are not free just to make up a number.

When I first got my phone, I was lucky to get 12 hours out of it. Now that the battery is conditioned and I am not using it continuously, I get about 36 hours of reasonable usage.

I am quite satisfied with it's battery life. For those who are not, I dare you to find a similar device with such a big screen and powerfull processor to achieve the same amount of usage or standby on one charge.

I get 1 day of battery life with extremely heavy use, 2 days with heavy use, 3 days with average use, 4 days with moderate use, and 5 days with minimal use.

But I do wish that SE would release a higher capacity battery soon. There must be a reason why the battery cover is so damn big. If it's not to hold a bigger battery, then what?! :evil:

I've had my p800 going about 8 days without rechargin when I was away. Fully loaded it could prol have made it to 10. Standby means what it says NO calls, NO usage. Once you make a call, check the calendar or what ever standbytime claims are invalid as the battery goes from low steady consumtion to fast spikes.. its the same as with laptops.. starting the puter takes more power then running it.

I totally agree with Raven. At least, if they don't want to release a bigger battery they shoud release a smaller cover. 😃 😃 😃

Well the battery cover may be too big and it squeaks, but at least I can put the space to good use - that's where I keep my second 128MB Duo.

I've noticed that Voice Commands and BlueTooth both make a huge difference in battery life. No big surprise there, I suppose, but worth mentioning.

[quote="lotus49"]but at least I can put the space to good use - that's where I keep my second 128MB Duo.[/quote]

Thanks for the tip!!! Didn't thought of that myself yet 😃

The newer cases come with reinforced back covers that dont squeak. there may not be room for the duo in those.

[quote="lotus49"]Well the battery cover may be too big and it squeaks, but at least I can put the space to good use - that's where I keep my second 128MB Duo.[/quote]

Doesn't the P800 have the same charger plug as other Ericsson phones? If yes I might have found a solution for emergencies.... Has anyone tried one of these:

http://tkny.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=T&Product_Code=SW101&Category_Code=EMER01

http://tkny.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=T&Product_Code=Key001&Category_Code=NEWS

Phone
CXC162002 R2F

Bluetooth
CXC12529 R5A

Organiser
CXC162001 R2B03

CDA
CDA162002/1 R4A02

I have gotten my firmware upgraded to the above mentioned.

However I am still experiencing various problems such as CRAP battery life (in 2 hours it dropped 5% whilst sitting there doing nothing - yes all proggies closed & screensaver off/power save on).

I am especially annoyed with the apps not working in flip-closed mode. When I use the jog dial in flip closed mode to select one of the shortcuts such as contacts, the screen will start expanding - seemingly to open up the contacts (or whatever) application, open to approx 90% (like an opening bubble) and then hang. The contacts application (or whatever app I tried to open) will not open but if I fiddle around then the screen will go back to flip-closed or flip-open mode, depending on where I tap the screen.

Can I ask, is anyone else experiencing any strange problems like this? This is my 3rd P800 (the previous two returned due to faulty things similar to above).

I am getting pretty annoyed with this and the bad battery life!

Incidentally, how many times do I need to fully 14-16hr charge (while phone is off) the phone, then drain, then repeat, before the battery reaches "full" charge? Is it normal to have 16 hour battery life, then it expands to ~400 hours???

What to do???!!!

I Agree, I am waiting for the DUO 128MB and waiting for the Video Capturing.

My guess, the real problem with Video capturing will be with battery. I think with the current battery capacity video capturing of around 10 min. will kill the battery? So if you want to use the 128MB for Video capturing, the Battery will be dead before the 128MB is full.