Are high end mobile phones battery killers?
Thursday, 11 March 2010, 15:11 IST   |    11 Comments
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Are high end mobile phones battery killers?
Bangalore: While a normal mobile phone's charge easily goes three days or more, many smartphone owners are saddened by the fact that their new mobile phone requires charging every 24 hours, or even more often. One of the iPhone, blackberry and android users said that even though he was checking only calendar and respond to multiple incoming calls during January's Consumer Electronics Show, the battery died in less than 24 hours. To figure out the strategy to reduce energy consumption while still having it available for essential tasks, The New York Times has laid down some important points to make the battery work for longer duration Reconsider Your Network All things being equal, the C.D.M.A. mobile standard used by Verizon uses more power than a G.S.M. network, principally used by AT&T and T-Mobile. If battery life is critical, you might want to consider G.S.M. as long as its coverage meets your needs. Dim It The brighter your screen, the more juice you're using. If you're in a dimly lit room, turn down your LCD screen's brightness. If your device has an autodimming feature that detects the light in a room, use it. Similarly, if you use your smartphone or laptop to play music, lower the volume. If you have a BlackBerry, the company's holster will automatically turn off the screen when you insert the phone. Stop Searching It is great that you can use Bluetooth technology to connect your smartphone to a headset, or use Wi-Fi to speed up the downloading of e-mail messages. But when you're not using that headset or not near a Wi-Fi hot spot, turn off those features on the phone or laptop. Skip a Generation Your smartphone is also continually looking for a cellphone signal. If you're in a weak signal area, your phone must work even harder to find one, decreasing battery life. If you know that there is no coverage in your area, turn off your portable device's mobile capabilities. If your G.S.M. 3G network is not available or the signal is weak, the battery will drain faster looking for one. Consider turning off the phone's 3G network or using the slower EDGE network instead. It will make Web access slower but won't affect phone call quality. Check Mail Manually Mobile smartphones can check for e-mail messages and instant messages automatically. Or they can be set to 'push' notifications as soon as they arrive in your server's mailbox. Both strategies can be power hogs. To increase your battery life, turn off push and increase the interval between when the phone checks for new messages. Or better, set up your phone to check for messages manually. Turn Off Everything The simplest way to cut power to a minimum is to put your smartphone into 'airplane mode'. You turn your BlackBerry or iPhone into a music player and personal organizer, and you won't be able to receive e-mail messages or make or receive phone calls, but you will stretch your battery. "In airplane mode and running just the alarm clock, your iPhone battery will last up to a week," said Kyle Wiens, Co-founder of ifixit.com, an online iPhone and Mac laptop repair company. Disable the Animations The hotter your laptop feels, the more battery power it is using. And one of the biggest users of power is Flash animation, the technology behind many online videos and animated ads. To improve battery life, disable Flash when not using wall power. BashFlash and ClicktoFlash for Macs and Flashblock for PC are programs that will automatically restrict Flash. Get an App to Aid You There are a number of applications that can help monitor battery life and shut off various functions that cut down on a mobile device's effective power. Realize the End Will Come The older generation of nickel cadmium batteries suffered from memory issues; if you didn't fully charge and discharge one, it would hold a progressively smaller amount of juice. Today's lithium-ion batteries don't suffer from memory loss, so it is safe to top off a battery.