[keffa]

What I am about to post here is valid for any 3G phone or device regardless of model but it is particularly focused towards the N series devices and their power hogging features.

Your battery life is dependant on many many things. How often you take calls on the device, the condition of your battery, the features you use on the device and so on and on. Therefore it is impossible to say that by following the information in this post you will get x amount of days battery life, but it will get you more time out of the battery than you otherwise would have got.

So with that out the way, if your looking to increase your battery life then follow these tips and your battery should start looking a lot healthier.

First of all lets start with THE big one. The one that is going to save you the most juice. Switching 3G off.

Yep, you heard me right. Just by switching the 3G capability of your phone off you will add hours and hours to your battery life. How is this so? Allow me to explain...

Due to the rather poor delivery of 3G in the UK by the network operators, it is rare for any 3G phone to maintain a constant 3G signal. Instead you will find that the phone constantly flips between 3G and GSM mode (Keep an eye on your signal one day). Even those of you on Vodafone who probably have the best 3G network coverage will find this is the case.

Unfortunately, this constant flipping between the two modes sucks power from the battery like a vampire as it alters its reception state for the different modes and the constant flipping is..well...causing it do this constantly! It can sometimes even make your phone unavailable for calls for very brief periods as it trips from GSM to 3G and vice versa.

If you need to use 3G for video calls or whatever then I'm afraid your just going to have to live with this but if you don't (And lets face it few of us do) then you can switch 3G off and increase your battery life considerably.

To do this, go into the "Settings" application (Found in the menu somewhere, by default Nokia normally stick it in "Tools"), and then to the "Phone" tab. In there you will see an option that says "Network mode" and you have a choice of "GSM" or "Dual Mode" (I.e. UMTS and GSM). Set it to GSM and your phone will restart. Once it restarts it will be working in GSM with GPRS speeds only but really for most purposes this is fine.

You have now just extended your battery capability considerably. You can further extend it by going to the "Connection" tab, going into "Packet data" and changing it to "When needed" so it is not constantly checking for a data connection.

The second big change you can make is to turn your phones wifi scanning capability off. The last time I looked not all Nokia's phones that have wifi capability can have their wifi cards switched off entirely but if you can, turn it off except for when you need to use it. Wifi is a power hog.

The next big change you can make is to lower the screen brightness settings on your phone. The less bright your screen is the less power is being used to light it up. Nokia by default leave the screen brightness at something like 50%. Lowering this a bit more will conserve more juice. Before you do this though please consider the fact that lowering the brightness setting will have a big impact on your ability to see the screen clearly in sunny conditions although you will be fine in the dark as you can't lower the brightness that far.

To lower the brightness, go to the settings tool in your phone and into the display option (Hidden in a subcategory called "Personalisation" on the N95). It won't hurt to set the power saving time out to 1 minute and the backlight time out to 10 seconds while your here (Although these are the Nokia default so they should already be set to this).

Finally in regards to the screen, although they may look pretty, animated screensavers use more battery power than the standard blank screen with time and date so avoid them if you can.

It also helps to keep Bluetooth switched off until you need it although the power savings are minimal in comparison to the other changes but every little milliamp counts!

Using the above methods I generally get about 3 to 4 days with about 3 hours talktime on my N95 without using Bluetooth, GPS or anything like that (I might be able to get more but so far I have not paid attention to the battery state before I put it on charge). If I am on a long train journey I can get about 4 hours worth of full screen video and about 2 hours talktime over the period of about 24 hours before it needs a recharge. As I said at the start of the post your mileage will vary greatly depending on how you use your device.

Hope this helps.

[bixby]

mate all valid and constructive help points.

BUT thats all a cop out for nokia NOT releasing the phone with a higher capacity battery.

thats unforgiveable and such a crass and disrespectful decision, its not liek they didnt test the phone.

it was released like that with intent, whoever beta tested the handsets were not doing there job properly.......or nokia choose not to listen......

i hope some third party company makes a 1300 - 1400mah battery

[paulpaul]

Excellent and useful tips! I'm certainly going to use it and wil let you know.

At the other hand I agree, Nokia could design a more resiliant battery.

Paul

[keffa]

It's a little bit unfair to say that it is a cop out by Nokia. As I said in the original post, the information and guidance in it is true of *ALL* 3G phones whether they are made by Nokia or not.

The REAL villains of this story are the network operators. If they would do a decent job of rolling out 3G in this country then the phones would not have a problem as they would maintain a constant signal and your 3G phone wouldn't be forced to constantly flip between modes. It's not 3G that sucks the battery, its the constant flipping between the two modes that does it.

[bixby]

no keffa it is a cop out from nokia
its not unfai as its a premium device with a premium price
the n95 battery is atrocious
dont change the post content as the title is 'How to increase the battery life of your N series device'
your talking about nokia phones specifically
the networks are not to blame
they do not make the handsets : Nokia do !!!!!!!!!!

[keffa]

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02-May-200701:14 PM
bixby wrote:
no keffa it is a cop out from nokia
its not unfai as its a premium device with a premium price
the n95 battery is atrocious
dont change the post content as the title is 'How to increase the battery life of your N series device'
your talking about nokia phones specifically
the networks are not to blame
they do not make the handsets : Nokia do !!!!!!!!!!

---

I'm going to choose my words carefully here...

I would never deny the battery on the N95 is not really up to the job of powering the N95 with its power hungry features. To put the same battery into a phone that has WiFi, GPS and a large 320x240 screen, the same one that goes into the E65 which has comparatively nothing compared to it is a bit pants.

However at no point was I criticising them for the band hopping problem. I labelled the post as how to increase the battery life of your N series device because this is a board for the N series devices. It was a simple choice of wording and not intended to be cutting in any way and I did make a remark that the details would be true of any 3G device at the top of the post.

What I was trying to point out in my second post is that the constant band hopping the phone is being forced to do that is draining its battery so much more quicker than it would if it had a constant signal of one kind or another isn't quite Nokia's fault.

They build it to conform to a laid out specification for 3G. However if the network operators cannot be bothered to roll out their 3G infrastructure adequately enough that the phone can find and remain locked onto a 3G signal that is usable then what are Nokia to do other than offer you the capability to turn 3G off until you need it (Although note to Nokia: That **bleep** reboot the phone does when you do this is entirely unneeded and you know it).

Blaming Nokia for this would be like blaming the manufacturer of your radio for failing to pick up radio because the radio station does not have any transmitters within range of your radio's receiver.

Finally...this band hopping is exhibited by all 3G phones built by Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, etc, from their most budget 3G model to their priciest piece and is the reason that all phones with 3G capabilities have batteries that do not last for any respectable length of time because these phones are also having to band hop between 3G and GSM.

Finally the proof is in the pudding. Turn 3G off for a few days. See your battery improve. Then (Although admittedly this will be harder to do...mcuh harder) find an area where you get a fairly decent 3G signal constantly. Again, see your battery improve. Try it with a different 3G phone...different manufacturer even. The same will be true.

So I stand by my comment, the network operators and their woeful 3G rollout are the villains costing you a fair chunk of your battery and Nokia cannot be expected to mitigate this....but a better battery would be nice all the same...

[megadodo]

The problem of battery life has often been discussed on this forum. The issue that a lot of people seem to misunderstand is the bigger the capacity of the battery the bigger the battery must be! Therefore the manufacturer must decide on which way the compromise should go, do they build a big phone with a big battery to increase the battery life or do they keep the maojority of customers happy by building a nice sized phone with lots of features which are so easy to charge at home, in the office on in the car! I know what i would do. Yes some customer have particular issue with usage and coverage which means they may see particular battery life issue but they are the minority.

[paulpaul]

Here in Holland they've got an expression: "the truth will probably lie in the middle"...

Off course Nokia have to balance between a small gadget with many functions...

At the other hand, I disabled all the fancy stuff, made only a few extensive calls en shoot some photo's. The battery was down & out in 1,5 day..

[bixby]

sorry but i blame nokia for releasing a` shabby battery.

the phone could have been thicker / higher capaciy battery, sorry thats a lame excuse on a £549 phone

nokia make it but i should blame my network for the batery ....yeah i can see everyone agreeing wiht that

[chriso]

However, if you are on the 3 network like myself, you cannot turn 3G off as that's all they use.

[keffa]

That should be fine for you then. If all your able to access is a UMTS signal then the phone can't flip in and out of UMTS/GSM and therefore it won't, saving the battery.

[marcussweden]

I have to disagree on the last post! Is it not so that it is the umts that is draining the battery? I have always heard that 3g drains more then 2g does?! And by the way, why buy a 3g phone with wifi and bluetooth and and a good display if you are to disable them? Perhaps i should have stayed with my old 6230? People expect a good phone with descent battery!

[keffa]

No, it's not UMTS that drains it. It's signal switching that does it, where your phone changes between a GSM and a UMTS (Or 3G) signal.

In the UK none of the networks have a completely rolled out 3G infrastructure so the constant signal switching the phone does takes up much more battery than it would if it had a stable UMTS signal or a stable GSM signal.

I'm not suggesting you disable wifi, etc. You just need to use them as and when you need them. Keeping them permanently on is a terrible waste of battery. You wouldn't have to disable UMTS either if the networks would roll out their infrastructure enough so that you could maintain a constant signal, but as they haven't why force your phone to do this constant signal hopping if your someone who hardly ever uses UMTS speeds for video calling, downloading, etc.

[neocon]

Thanks keffa for the very useful tip. I recently got an N95 and any hints on how to best and most effectively use the device are appreciated. Please keep the tips coming in.

I can't understand why with this battery life problem, Nokia would want to compromise the image of its flagship device that will also affect negatively sales figures. I can only expect that in the not too distant future, Nokia will come up with a higher capacity battery and/or a more efficient energy management system for the N95.

[_rob_]

> To put the same battery into a phone that has WiFi, GPS and a large 320x240 screen, the same one that goes into the E65 which has comparatively nothing compared to it is a bit pants.

Hmmm... the E65 has all these things except GPS (but it has a less powerful processor). The battery life on it is still pretty poor, so I can only imagine how bad the N95 is!

[oranki]

I bought the phone because of it's size. A bigger battery would mean a bigger phone. I am happy as it is.

[toy_rn65]

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18-May-200711:25 PM
keffa wrote:
No, it's not UMTS that drains it. It's signal switching that does it, where your phone changes between a GSM and a UMTS (Or 3G) signal.

In the UK none of the networks have a completely rolled out 3G infrastructure so the constant signal switching the phone does takes up much more battery than it would if it had a stable UMTS signal or a stable GSM signal.

I'm not suggesting you disable wifi, etc. You just need to use them as and when you need them. Keeping them permanently on is a terrible waste of battery. You wouldn't have to disable UMTS either if the networks would roll out their infrastructure enough so that you could maintain a constant signal, but as they haven't why force your phone to do this constant signal hopping if your someone who hardly ever uses UMTS speeds for video calling, downloading, etc.

---

wow keffa, very well said and ditto to all you commants. We here in the US have pretty much the same issue on 3G as you guys in the land of Royals. People just don't understand that until the battery technology catches up to the power demand of all the new devices, we will always have this problem unless we are will to settle for larger sized phones while keeping all the feature that we want.
Roger and out!

[aussiefones]

If you are on 3 network and if the phone is unbranded you CAN still set it to 2g network....you can expect a call from the service provider after 4 or 5 days though

[genesis]

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02-Jun-200711:09 PM
aussiefones wrote:
If you are on 3 network and if the phone is unbranded you CAN still set it to 2g network....you can expect a call from the service provider after 4 or 5 days though

---

I debranded my 3UK branded 6630 as soon as the contract was at an end, i then signed up for another 12 months with 3UK and carried on using my debranded 6630 with GSM/2G mode enabled, 3UK haven't contacted me in over a year for using GSM/2G mode.

[genesis]

If you have a branded 3G handset from 3UK or from some other network provider, the only mode that may be available is "Dual Mode", this causes the signal to hop quite a bit between "Dual Mode" and "GSM", which kills the battery.

Also, it is true that 3UK provide a 3G only service, but, they use orange to carry the GSM/2G signal when you are out of range of their 3G signal, they did use O2 for GSM/2G but they got the service cheaper from orange so they dumped O2.