N8 Power Saving — Symbian^3 phones (N8, C7, C6-01, E7-00)

Stephen337 21 Oct 2010, 19:20

Hi,

I want to know a bit more about the home screens, widgets and email for my N8. So Im here to ask the experts 😊

I had an iPhone 3G and upgraded last week to the N8. My battery life has not been great, but then I have been useing it quite heavily. (Sat nav and FM transmitter loads!, always on email)

Now I want to know more about the following:

1 - Email through OVI

I have had my exchange email on all the time. I belive this is via OVI, does that mean the phone will use a different method to get emails pushed to it, like the Apple push mechanism? So its always connected to the net?

I have turned this off to save power, going for an hourly fetch.

2 - Facebook via OVI social

I have my facebook account on a widget, does this use the OVI push mechnism too? So if this is on will turning off exchange push save power?

It doesnt seem configurable, I really only need it updating itself a few times a day.

If the widget is on the home page does it hold open a 3g connection?

3 - Offline widgets

What does the 'offline widgets' option do on the homescreens? I turnes it off and the facebook app still seems to update, as does the email (also on the homescreen).

4 - Power saving mode

What does this do and under what circumstances will it come on automatically? When active it seems to:

Stop scanning wifi networks
turn off 3g in favour of GPRS (2G)
Disable the clock screen saver when locked

Im used to charging every day, but I would like to know more about what the thing is doing so I have a choice! The userguide on the phone is a bit weak on detail.

Thanks

Stephen

Stephen337 22 Oct 2010, 06:54

Shameless bump!

jerm 24 Oct 2010, 15:43

hi, will try to answer some of this

1. MfE - direct connection to your exchange server, no middle-man connections. The other mail accounts you put in are routed through OVI servers first. Push depends on your settings, which are your retrieval settings and frequency. basically easier to leave the connection connected, rather than keep connecting-disconnecting in that cycle.

2. not sure, sorry

3. offline widgets should not be accessing the internet when they're set to that

4. power saving comes on when the battery is low, < 10%. what you listed is correct, it also removes the eye candy like wallpaper fade-change when you switch screens

Stephen337 25 Oct 2010, 07:28

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I have done some experimentation, I turned off widgets and email updating. Just leaving the social widget on my homescreens. The phone connection log shows that something (facebook) is connecting every half an hour to update.

Thanks

Stephen

yade 25 Oct 2010, 20:13

Coming from the i8910, I cannot believe how good the N8's battery is. I am charging it overnight but I am a heavy user. Lots of pics, vids, web and GPS.
It is superb considering that it is just a 1200mAh battery!

kontraband 26 Oct 2010, 10:44

Ditto... am liking the battery efforts too..

Theres also the 'activate power saving' option under the power button which came in use.