VoLTE: Massive Battery Drainer?

by Sean Stewart on
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With all new technology, there also comes compromise. Such seems to be the case with VoLTE (voice over LTE) technology. In news that’ll have nearly all smartphone owners cringing; a recent test that consisted of an unknown device making both CDMA and VoLTE calls over an unnamed carrier revealed some interesting results. It was found that VoLTE calls generated 100% more current drain on the battery which in turn resulted in 50% less battery life. Granted, this is just the beginning stages of VoLTE technology, and we aren’t 100% sure of all the variables in the test. However, I think we can assume that much of 2013 will be spent by engineers making sure we don’t lose 50% of our battery life with this technology.

source:  Droid Life

How to get the most battery life out of your Android Phone

by Jared Peters on
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A little over a year ago, we did an article on how to squeeze some extra battery life out of your phone. Most of those tips still apply, but Android has changed a lot since mid-2011, and I’m sure everybody could use a few extra tips on how to get your phone to last a few hours longer. A few of these things are simple, and have already been in past articles, but there’s a few tricks that most people don’t think about when they’re trying to conserve battery life. We’ll start with the basics and move up into the more complex things you can do to keep your device alive. » Read the rest

Nexus 4 Battery Life Not So Good

by Sean Stewart on
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As we all anxiously await the November 13th arrival of the Nexus 4, I’m sure a lot of you are concerned how the battery life will fare. Well, early results aren’t very good. Based on recent unbiased and fairly scientific test results from AnandTech, the battery life on one of the most anticipated devices this fall will leave something to be desired. AnandTech did admit that they have yet to run through their entire battery life suite, but they did fully test, record, and publish the results of the most important category.

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One Power Guard will extend battery life for rooted and custom ROM users

by Jared Peters on
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Battery life might be the biggest concern of any Android power user. Custom kernels, scripts, and applications are some of the many tools users have to squeak out as much battery life as possible out of their devices. Of course, as batteries get better, so do the apps that we use to manage these batteries.

XDA developer fonter has released an application aptly named One Power Guard for rooted and custom ROM users that gives them full control over power and battery management. This app controls just about everything any power user could want: overclocking, underclocking, I/O scheduling, CPU governor, and much more. It even includes six power saving modes which include:

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Check Out Asus PadFone’s Real World Battery Life

by Jack Holt on
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Back at MWC this year Asus debuted its PadFone tablet/phone combination with much fanfare. In April pre-orders were available in Taiwan with hopes that the U.S. would soon be able to do the same. Well sadly as is with most technologies the device was delayed with the S4 processor shortage being the possible culprit as to why. Well in a “leaked” video on Asus’ YouTube that has now been taken down Asus went as far as to boast about the PadFone’s battery life. According to the video the phone itself will see 16 hours of use where the the tablet mode and laptop modes should see 63 and 102 hours respectively. According to the folks at engadget though, Asus said that this is in regards to 2G talk time.

Asus was awesome enough though in sharing some of the more realistic battery life figures they’ve found in a lab setting. When the device was set at half brightness it came up with the following results:

 

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HTC One X extended battery a possibility in the near future

by Tony Rosario on
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Earlier this morning we reported that HTC was primarily going to focus on thinner, sexier looking phones for their future lineup with secondary focus on battery life improvement. From the comments left in response to the story, it’s clear that this decision will not be received well by many power users in the Android community. After all, wasn’t Android designed to heavily multitask with ease while surfing the web on those fancy LTE waves? We all know that you can’t play hard for too long without a sizable battery on board.

Well it so happens that mobile battery company Mugen Power Batteries agrees with these sentiments and has posted a poll on Facebook that asks users if anyone would be interested in the possibility of them providing an extended battery kit for the HTC One X. The whole process would be exactly like what was described in our report for turning your DROID RAZR into a RAZR MAXX. The kit will come with the extended battery, tools for taking the phone apart along with step-by-step instructions. Of course doing a procedure like this will most certainly void your warranty so I’m not sure how many new HTC One X owners will jump at this right away. At least there are companies out there that are willing to think outside the box and offer alternatives to resolve issues that admittedly should be addressed by the manufacturer itself. Anyone interested in beefing up your future One X battery? Hit the source link below to take the poll.

source: facebook

HTC customers want thinner smartphones versus improved battery life according to research

by Tony Rosario on
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We all have the perfect smartphone design brewing in our heads. We visit our local cellphone carrier and browse the net searching for a phone that will encompass everything on our wish list. HTC wants the same thing for their customers and has done some research over the last year to find out what features are most preferred these days. Afterall, what better way to save money on manufacturing costs than making phones that they know most of their customer base will want to purchase? The results showed that the majority of customers preferred to have a thinner, sleeker phone versus one that would be a little thicker for the purpose of housing a larger battery.

With this information now at hand, HTC has stated that improvements on battery life will still be a focus but not at the expense of thinner design, but rather though enhanced software efficiency and power management. Motorola couldn’t decide which route to take with their DROID RAZR line and opted to release both the super thin DROID RAZR and the battery conscious DROID RAZR MAXX. So what is the verdict? Is HTC’s information correct? What other features would you like to see HTC focus on as well? Let your thoughts be heard in the comments below.

source: theverge

The Era Of Poor Battery Life Is Almost Over, New Chips Are Looking To Preserve Battery Life On Devices

by Roy Alugbue on
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It’s one thing for chipmakers to promise great battery life on devices, but it’s another thing to actually see it in reality. Thanks to the energy-efficient DROID RAZR MAXX, it’s made us re-think how we should look at battery life on our devices. As PhoneArena put it best, battery life comes down to simply three things: the display, phone’s radios and the processor. As each evolve, we can see some sort of improvement on the battery life, even if its minimal.

The new architectures of the various chipsets are well on their way to changing the idea that Androids can’t have great, if not good battery life. You may remember how we highlighted the sexy Nvidia Tegra 3 processor which not only efficiently manages tasks such as emailing or watching videos by dedicating them to a core processor, but it has a specific low-level core which is specifically tasked with operating the battery at the most efficient level. Chip manufacturer ARM is following suit by developing a dual core chip featuring one low-power A7 core and another high performance A15.  In this setup, the processor can choose which core to use— for example using the A7 for basic apps like emailing and texting.  When users are doing something more demanding such as playing a 3D game or streaming HD video, the processor can automatically switch to the A15 for more power. Perhaps the most intriguing development is coming from Qualcomm. The manufacturer is currently developing a solution called “Consia” where the processor can learn a user’s habits such as when the user uses the device most and when it is not used,  the device would then automatically adjust its settings based off of its users habits– such as when to gather and push data and when to shut it down and sleep when you sleep. In addition, the chip would learn when and where WiFi is available, without the need for additional apps. Neat isn’t it?

Ladies and gentlemen, the era of poor battery life on Androids are soon to be over. Let the games begin!

source: PhoneArena
via: AllThingsD

Could OLED Displays With Solar Panels Lead to Self-Sustained Smartphones?

by Jack Holt on
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Now that the push into HD displays, quad-core processors and 4G LTE radios is in full swing a lot of manufacturers are looking into ways of making their device’s battery life last more than a couple of hours. We told you about how Samsung was going to look at tweaking radios for better battery life, Motorola is releasing phones with giant 3300mAh batteries and so on. Well others are looking into more efficient smartphones in a completely different direction.  » Read the rest

2012 Is the Year for Better Battery Life, At Least At Samsung

by Jack Holt on
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All those fancy features in your 4G LTE phone are amazing. A dual-core, soon to be quad-core processor, with 8+ MP cameras, huge HD displays with the added speed of 4G LTE in a tiny frame is something sought after in today’s phone market. However, having these state of the art parts in our handheld device comes with a high price; dismal battery life. Well it appears that some folks are starting to catch on that this is an issue and they are making strides to combat this. Motorola for instance is releasing the RAZR MAXX, the first smartphone to boast a 21-hr talk time with a 3300mAh battery.  » Read the rest

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