How likely that battery life in next-gen smartphones will be improved?

[arrfep]

Significantly, at least.

I've been holding off on getting a smartphone because I'm waiting for "the right one" to come out and I haven't wanted to drop $200 for something decent. I'm happy with my dumbphone but my decision's getting kind of forced. My current phone is on its last legs, I've been out of contract for months, and a job promotion has moved me to an isolated part of the office where I'll need my phone to be an entertainment/web device, lest I go insane from the solitude.

I'm TMO now, but will switch to Sprint to avoid the ATT debacle that is in progress. Sprint's running a $125 bill credit promotion if you port a number over, so I don't mind forking the dough over for the EVO or Epic, but I don't want to deal with the bad battery life. I don't care about 3D, streaming 1080p, 60fps frame rates in games. I don't care about 200 mhz faster cpus or dual-cores. So I don't think anything on the horizon is something worth waiting for. Unless it means I can go an entire day w/o worrying about a charge.

So, any likely advancements in this regard? Any murmurings about the upcoming phones? I'd like to make the decision ASAP, I think the $125 promo ends in a week or so. Thanks for any suggestions.

tl;dr:

-Want smartphone.
-Lust after EVO/etc.
-Can't deal with sh!tty battery life.
-Wondering if battery life will improve in coming crop of phones.
-Looking for suggestions on phone.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

So you want a smartphone that will last at least (8 hours) with video or surfing the day?

 

[cheezy321]

With android, its seems pretty doubtful. Seems like it has taken a back burner and google hasnt been doing much to attack the problem.

The iphone has stellar battery life right out of the box. No need to turn off any of the features to have it last 1 - 3 days without a charge. It sounds like you are on sprint however and are unable to get the iPhone.

Bottom line: If you care about battery life, stay far away from the EVO.

In before the android crew comes in and says 'just root it and turn off every feature on your phone, the battery life is right in line with the iPhone 4 after that!'

Edit: I would recommend the Droid X, but it looks like you cant get that one either.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Stick with something with 1400mAh or more.

The problem lies with software and it's Android. Here's the problem with when things are syncing left and right.... you start wasting battery life.

There's several things you can do.

1) Toggle 2G/3G mod with CM6/7. It will autoswitch you to 2G when your screen is off. Do you really need a 6mbit connection to sync your gmail?

2) If you use corporate exchange mail, get an app like Touchdown. Set your syncing quiet hours to like 12am-6am. Or hell, if you're like me and don't care about corporate email after 7pm then stop syncing then. I used to only sync 8am-630pm.

3) The unfortunate part is gmail syncs all day long. If you could tell it to stop during the middle of the night that would be cool. Push email really drains your battery.

4) The reason why iPhone has stellar battery life is because the Gmail doesn't push and because so many people use Gmail, their iPhone isn't pushing all day long. Duh battery life is much better

 

[kamikazekyle]

Stick with something with 1400mAh or more.

The problem lies with software and it's Android. Here's the problem with when things are syncing left and right.... you start wasting battery life.

There's several things you can do.

1) Toggle 2G/3G mod with CM6/7. It will autoswitch you to 2G when your screen is off. Do you really need a 6mbit connection to sync your gmail?

Does that work on CDMA phones? Just curious since I have an Evo, and everything I've seen has indicated it's impossible on a CDMA radio on Android to manually restrict to 1x. Though I haven't really looked too hard into it.

2) If you use corporate exchange mail, get an app like Touchdown. Set your syncing quiet hours to like 12am-6am. Or hell, if you're like me and don't care about corporate email after 7pm then stop syncing then. I used to only sync 8am-630pm.

3) The unfortunate part is gmail syncs all day long. If you could tell it to stop during the middle of the night that would be cool. Push email really drains your battery.

4) The reason why iPhone has stellar battery life is because the Gmail doesn't push and because so many people use Gmail, their iPhone isn't pushing all day long. Duh battery life is much better

You can turn off all auto-sync on Android with a single widget, including Gmail. I've only had a need to do it once, but seemed to work fine. Gmail will Push to the iPhone as well, or can be set to fetch. Push is generally much better at battery life unless you get many emails in a short time, in which case a single fetch operation would be better. That way, the phone isn't constantly querying the servers even when you don't have email. Your phone only connects when it needs to rather than every X number of minutes.



To the OP: without rooting, undervolting and/or underclocking, and using a custom ROM, the Evo probably won't last you a day at with heavier use without charging or an extended battery pack. Wifi browsing stock is only about 7.7 hours, so if you factor in someting heavier like talking or use 3G streaming, then it's gonna be a lot worse. The Evo's battery is pretty small, so you can pick up a 2nd one and that should work. My Evo with about 30 minutes of *heavy, heavy* use (3G streaming, 100% brightness screen always on, bluetooth constantly streaming data, and near 100% processor use) takes about, oh, 10% of the battery.

According to Anandtech, the Epic has pretty medicore Wifi browsing battery life (about 5 hours). Right now, one of the best phones for Wifi browsing stock is the Atrix at nearly 10 hours, but that's AT&T. The iPhone 4 also has some good battery life when sticking to wifi stuff (nearly 10 hours wifi browsing).

So, yes battery life is certainly improving, but Sprint doesn't have anything currently (or in the pipeline as far as I know) that will meet an all-day heavy use without charging. If you start easing up on the use bit, then things can begin to open up.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4163/verizon-iphone-4-review/7
That's the Verizon iPhone 4 review, but has a good summary of different Android and W7 phones and their various tested battery lifetimes.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Does that work on CDMA phones? Just curious since I have an Evo, and everything I've seen has indicated it's impossible on a CDMA radio on Android to manually restrict to 1x. Though I haven't really looked too hard into it.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=739530 not sure about cdma. probably not huh?

You can turn off all auto-sync on Android with a single widget, including Gmail. I've only had a need to do it once, but seemed to work fine. Gmail will Push to the iPhone as well, or can be set to fetch. Push is generally much better at battery life unless you get many emails in a short time, in which case a single fetch operation would be better. That way, the phone isn't constantly querying the servers even when you don't have email. Your phone only connects when it needs to rather than every X number of minutes.

Wait you can? My iPod Touch doesn't push gmail. Oh wait nevermind. If you set up your email via hitting Gmail when you add a new account it's typical IMAP. I don't think it supports IMAP IDLE on iOS, but if you add it as an exchange server where Gmail uses the ActiveSync protocol to push, then you will get push email. Har. I answered my own question.

Push vs Fetch is a good question. If you're fetching every 5 minutes, yeah push will win. But I think at a certain point fetch might be ok. Like once an hour? I can't tell. I don't fetch much on my iPod anyway because my Android phone will push email.

It'd just be nice if I could stop pushing automatically after say... 11pm where I will most likely be home and at a computer. Maybe I should play with Tasker. That might work well.

BTW the Evo 4G should be nice right? It's S-LCD screen? Should be decent for power consumption. Let's see how well that lasts. I think some of those custom kernels might help with power usage a lot. Especially the ones that force your CPU down to 350mhz when your screen is off. I think the most battery savings I've gotten is by adjusting the idle voltages and having a toggle 2g. If you only use your phone for 20% of the day in terms of having the screen off, if you can cut power consumption of the 80% idle time in half, you might crank out an extra 15-20% of overall battery life. That's easily 30 minutes of use.

 

[Bateluer]

job promotion has moved me to an isolated part of the office

Do you have a PC or an AC outlet in Storage B?

 

[Fire&Blood]

Assuming that there are no battery capacity innovations coming soon, following changes are scheduled to take place Q4 2011- Q1/Q2 2012:

1. Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas instruments are all reportedly switching to the 28nm fab process for the upcoming dual core and quad core Soc's. Same chip on a 28nm vs. 45nm fab reportedly uses ~20% less power.

2. RAM OEM's are switching to the 30nm LPDDR2 fab process. 25% less battery drain over current offerings.

3. Display OEM's are making some progress in efficiency. Even the smallest improvements should be noticeable as a turned on display is the biggest power drain.

A combo of the above sounds very promising. However, I expect these battery life gains to be used towards more performance to a point where battery life should still be similar to existing phones.

Texas Instruments (OMAP5) & Nvidia (Tegra3) have both talked up their quad core SoC's efficiencies. It does make sense that one active core with other 3 sleeping, combined with the latest architecture should improve the stand by drain. Again, most of the battery life overhead/savings will likely be redirected towards performance.

Long story short, hope for the best but carry USB cable to work.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Battery life is likely to improve over the coming years but dont expect dramatic jumps. The problem is that most consumers dont value battery life as much as they value big screens and fast processors. Fast processors and big screens sell phones, big batteries dont. CPUs and screens get more power efficient, but this efficiency is used to allow them to run faster and brighter.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Stay away from the EVO. I just leave the damn thing on the charger all day if I can.

 

[shortylickens]

The industry has had multiple opportunities to improve battery life and it seems the only time they bother is when they scale up processing power exponentially and then they NEED more power cuz otherwise the device dies in an hour.

But as with all businesses they sell the customer what they want. And customers are perfectly happy buying products that can only be used casually for a 12 hour period. Since the consumer base is not boycotting such devices, they will continue to be produced. Much like overpriced OS's and software suites, and video games, and on and on. People keep buying the shit, why shouldn't the industry keep making it?

 

[IntelUser2000]

It's like this.

1. Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas instruments are all reportedly switching to the 28nm fab process for the upcoming dual core and quad core Soc's. Same chip on a 28nm vs. 45nm fab reportedly uses ~20% less power.

25% higher clock speeds = same power

2. RAM OEM's are switching to the 30nm LPDDR2 fab process. 25% less battery drain over current offerings.

Dual channel memory or higher frequency = same power

3. Display OEM's are making some progress in efficiency. Even the smallest improvements should be noticeable as a turned on display is the biggest power drain.

3D or higher resolution/contrast displays=same power

Overall we'll probably stay the same.

 

[Trader05]

I have the HTC Arrive on Sprint and the battery life is awesome, no rooting, no homebrew, no turning off features required. The downfall for some is just switching to Phone 7. I had a Pre before which i had 2 chargers in my house and 1 at work, im done with that!

Everyone told me the EVO and Epic eat battery life like crazy (stock of course). So they were out of the question for me.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

http://reviews.cnet.com/2719-11288_7-290-1.html?tag=

Good place to start.

 

[Strk]

I have the HTC Arrive on Sprint and the battery life is awesome, no rooting, no homebrew, no turning off features required. The downfall for some is just switching to Phone 7. I had a Pre before which i had 2 chargers in my house and 1 at work, im done with that!

Everyone told me the EVO and Epic eat battery life like crazy (stock of course). So they were out of the question for me.

The Arrive is nice, but I don't know if I could put up with that hinge.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

get an extra charger and leave it at work.
problem solved.

 

[Trader05]

The Arrive is nice, but I don't know if I could put up with that hinge.

Its really not bad, but its obviously personal preference. I was really against touchscreen keyboards, but im actually getting used to this one in landscape mode. I really use it more than the physical now.

 

[Bateluer]

The industry has had multiple opportunities to improve battery life and it seems the only time they bother is when they scale up processing power exponentially and then they NEED more power cuz otherwise the device dies in an hour.

But as with all businesses they sell the customer what they want. And customers are perfectly happy buying products that can only be used casually for a 12 hour period. Since the consumer base is not boycotting such devices, they will continue to be produced. Much like overpriced OS's and software suites, and video games, and on and on. People keep buying the shit, why shouldn't the industry keep making it?

For once we agree. So long as people buy a company's products, doesn't matter what the product is, the company has no reason to change the product in a meaningful way.

For the OP, I repeat my question, you don't have a PC that you can plug the phone in to charge? Or an AC outlet nearby? A micro USB cable, even several feet long, is only a few dollars.

On a random side note, when my Droid 1 was OC'd to 1Ghz, had its screen brightness on max, and was streaming Flash videos over 3G, the USB power from the front port of a Dell Optiplex wasn't enough to keep it fully charged. The battery still drained slowly. It also hit 180F, if you trust the SetCPU temp readings. I have not done the same thing with my TB yet.

 

[rcpratt]

On a random side note, when my Droid 1 was OC'd to 1Ghz, had its screen brightness on max, and was streaming Flash videos over 3G, the USB power from the front port of a Dell Optiplex wasn't enough to keep it fully charged. The battery still drained slowly. It also hit 180F, if you trust the SetCPU temp readings. I have not done the same thing with my TB yet.

My TB does the same thing while streaming video over 4G. At least with my crappy work computer.

 

[dguy6789]

The problem is manufacturers are content with current levels of battery life. Future phones will use more efficient architectures to achieve higher levels of performance while maintaining a battery life status quo, they won't use the new technology to achieve higher levels of battery life.

 

[shortylickens]

As soon as I go out of contract I'm gonna over-clock my Droid after rooting. Already have a couple spare batteries and chargers around the house, so I think I'll be OK.


On an unrelated note, does anybody have this battery?
http://www.amazon.com/Seidio-Innocel...2280397&sr=8-2

 

[Bateluer]

As soon as I go out of contract I'm gonna over-clock my Droid after rooting. Already have a couple spare batteries and chargers around the house, so I think I'll be OK.


On an unrelated note, does anybody have this battery?
http://www.amazon.com/Seidio-Innocel...2280397&sr=8-2

Don't want to thread hijack, but that extended battery would make the phone utterly massive. Does anyone have experience with the Seido extended batteries? I see they've got some that are denser, 1600mah for the TB, but the same size as the stock battery. No idea if that slightly bump will make any difference at all.

 

[Mopetar]

It's like this.

25% higher clock speeds = same power

Dual channel memory or higher frequency = same power

3D or higher resolution/contrast displays=same power

Overall we'll probably stay the same.

On the other hand, if you're able to complete the computations more quickly, you'll use less power overall. I think the biggest improvements to battery life will come from better radios that aren't complete power hogs. Anything 4G absolutely gobbles power right now.

 

[Brian Stirling]

1. Phones are mostly sold through the carriers and the carriers have no desire to increase the amount of data you use so providing phones with limited battery life improves there bottom line!

2. Many customers are driven by size and although many want a large screen they also want a phone that's wafer thin.

3. Android is supplied to many device makers and the large variations in hardware mean that things can't be so easily optimized.

4. Many of the Android phones have much larger screens (4.3) and the display is often the biggest power draw.


I have the evil Evo and seldom had to recharge during the day with the standard battery. I've had the extended battery since November and seldom drop below 50% at the end of the day and will sometimes go two days on a charge.


Brian

 

[poofyhairguy]

4) The reason why iPhone has stellar battery life is because the Gmail doesn't push and because so many people use Gmail, their iPhone isn't pushing all day long. Duh battery life is much better

The main reason iOS devices (iPhone/iPad) have better battery life then their Android equivalents is that iOS uses the GPU for the GUI, while Android uses the CPU for its interface.