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Hey people,
following on from artisticcheese's thread about battery consumption Ive performed a few tests on some different radio versions to see what the actual difference in battery consumption is.
Right now (as of 16-01-2008) I recommend the following radios:
1.47.30.10 with an overall score of 1.22 (the highest in the test)
or
1.54.30.10 with an overall score of 1.21 (2nd place).
Remember people, if you are planning on changing your radio version, flash hardspl, and make sure nothing is running which will interrupt the flash process. The radio flash is still the most risky of all flash processes and it is possible to kill the device so be sure before you flash. In doing these tests I performed over 10 radio flashes in a day and i made usre nothing CPU intensive was running on the PC and that i wasnt going to unplug the USB by accident etc...
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Test Run 16-10-08:
Before running these tests the phone was soft reset, ALL today plugins shut off (apart from x button), internet explorer for downloding and acbPowerMeter for power monitoring.
All tests again running on WM6 "V3 cabb'd III".
This set of tests is the following:
Test 1: GSM mode, backlight off, downloading for 5 minutes.
Test 2: UMTS mode, backlight off, downloading for 5 minutes.
The results vary and a pattern ive noticed is radio versions 1.47.30.10 and 1.54.30.10 seem to have the same behaviour in GSM modes, perhaps the extra ".30" in the version number denotes a particular tweak or feature??
Radio_Power_Tests_16012008.zip
Enjoy.
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Inital test run:
Using a freshly flashed version of my "V3 cabb'd" ROM which is a tweaked version of pandora naked 6 3.60 ROM with nothing installed so a lean install and using acbPowerMeter I ran the following tests on each radio rom:
Test 1: Backlight off, automatic standby disabled, all processes stopped using start>settings>system>memory. GSM only and phone left on idle.
10 minutes and average current consumption recorded.
Test 2: Same as test 2 , UMTS only.
Ive taken a screenshot of the data with magicss and normalised the results so the earliest radio version tested is the baseline score.
The results of the first test are in the attached spreadsheet and screenshots.
Conclusions:
The results show that overall the differences are neglegable for these tests, however I still believe there is a major difference in practice. So the next load of tests I propose will test the power consumption with data connection attached. Somehow I want to test during a call or download since the HSDPA power consumption is likely to be a BIG number.
how comes you didnt test the latest radio versions? *waits for more results*
nice idea though
each test involves flashing a new radio (20 mins-ish) and two ten minute test runs...I need to use my Tytn today so can probably try the other radios later on, it takes a fair ammount of time for each one so i only went from the ground (1.43.00.00) to the one currently on my device (1.47.30.10) last night. I abandoned doing the later ones until ive figured out a worthwhile test to run for ALL versions. Ive presented my findings so far to show that essentially the 4 versions i tried are identical under idle conditions...not really a true to life test.
..big thanks to u bro! ..awesome work as usual..
mrvanx said:
each test involves flashing a new radio (20 mins-ish) and two ten minute test runs...I need to use my Tytn today so can probably try the other radios later on, it takes a fair ammount of time for each one so i only went from the ground (1.43.00.00) to the one currently on my device (1.47.30.10) last night. I abandoned doing the later ones until ive figured out a worthwhile test to run for ALL versions. Ive presented my findings so far to show that essentially the 4 versions i tried are identical under idle conditions...not really a true to life test.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I think it will be the 3G call and HSDPA tests where the benefit of testing will be found.
My own tests show little difference in the idle power consumption.
I made very good experience with 1.41.00.10.
Good signal and low power consumption!
I've changed from 1.54 to 1.48 and I can honestly say my phone goes another day or two without charging!!!!!!!
Im gonna do some more tests tonight on the new format probably with some sort of download running (web n walk is usefull hehe).
So i'll post some more results later on if i can.
The best radio rom I've ever used
I tried many different radio roms for my Jasjam, believe me the best radio rom I've used regarding to power usage and signal is 1.46.00.11.
Even when using UMTS and 3G, in other radio roms; when connecting to internet with my laptop, I mean using Jasjam as access point to internet , the battery drains fast even if the Jasjam is connected to charger. but in this radio rom, when the charger is on, the battery stays stable and the Imate can also get charged. I know that this radio rom is designed for Trinity which is GPS enabled, but I am telling my experience. THANKS
For your testing goodness, here are pretty much all the radio roms I have ever come across.
http://www.crc.id.au/files/xda/Radio_Roms/
They are in .nb format - so you'll need to use Duttys tool to get them into .nbh files.
The power consumption is definately related to voice call usage.
My normal usage in a day means I use about 50 - 80% of my battery.
Whilst away in Tenerife I used my phone exactly the same but without making voice calls and I only used 50% after 3 -4 days.
This is certainly true. I was away in a place with no mobile coverage (no GSM or UTMS) and using the device for GPS navigation only I was able to get 2-3 full days out of the standard battery.
What is necessary to detect the correct battery consumption?
Something like this: http://www.vandenmuyzenberg.nl/PowerGuard/ ???
Should I use this tool?
matar said:
What is necessary to detect the correct battery consumption?
Something like this: http://www.vandenmuyzenberg.nl/PowerGuard/ ???
Should I use this tool?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both threads you have posted in have shown you the program that is to be used. Why do you keep asking?
Starfury said:
The power consumption is definately related to voice call usage.
My normal usage in a day means I use about 50 - 80% of my battery.
Whilst away in Tenerife I used my phone exactly the same but without making voice calls and I only used 50% after 3 -4 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Experienced exactly the same thing when I was in Majorca. Even though I did use the phone a lot for sending as MMS (as that was free for me) I still got more usage out of the phone in Majorca if I had done pretty much the same usage pattern over here (UK) and that is because I suspect there transmitters put out a stronger signal, which means the phone has to 'work' less to get a stronger signal.
Starfury said:
Both threads you have posted in have shown you the program that is to be used. Why do you keep asking?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for double posting, but I read that those tools doesn't show the correct consumption because they needs power themselves and therefore distort the result... Maybe somebody can confirm this? Thank You.
A very good point. I've known the radio kicks up the power when you have a low signal, and if it's lost - I turn off the radio until I get back to a good area or it really kills the battery fast.
Just thinking here, but to add another level of complexity to the testing - while statically measuring power drain without moving the device will give repeatable results, could a radio power draw "react" differently to signal strength variations, and not be as "efficient" compared to others while on the move (typical usage)?
For example, if the signal goes above 50db (no idea if I'm even using the correct scale here ) it incrementally increases power by 20% for 10 seconds each until an "acceptable" signal level is reached. Once this is achieved, will it reduce back down - say you came around a building an now have a better signal? How long will that take? Will some radios respond more rapidly than others - optimizing power usage vs signal strength?
Dammit Matt! Now you've really got me thinking
In a bit of the background on this, the GSM/UTMS protocol allows the base station to tell the mobile to increase or decrease the transmit power of the phone. This allows it to tune the performance of the phones radio to get the optimum signal level at the cell site. It also helps a heap in deciding what cell towers to jump between and all the critical handoff levels and names.
Much more info can be found:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5357513-description.html
There's a lovely paper about it all here - but I don't want to pay for it
http://www.actapress.com/PaperInfo.aspx?PaperID=18185&reason=500
power useage is down to lots of different factors, one of the main culprits is use of HSDPA/3G and it bounsing up and down between it and GSM when the local Cell doesnt support it or has a weak signal.
I can't believe the statement made above about the battery being used quicker when you talk, of course its going to drain quicker, its permanently transmitting for gods sake
It also depends on how strong the signal to the nearest cell/Base Station is, if its a week signal then the radio/phone will bounce around to find a stronger one, I believe typically a phone will register with up to 3 base stations to enable you to auto switch between cells when you move.
if you're really bored and want to dig into how GSM works heres a starter for 10
http://www.fci-cu.edu.eg/INFOS2005/presentation/GSM_Concepts.pdf
If you want to test weak signals stick your phone in a tin box, assuming this doesnt kill the signal totally then the phone should start ramping up its power output and sucking the battery dry quicker.
My point was made in reference to the testing of the phone to see what uses the most battery and indicating that we should direct our testing at the phone application over any others.
Obviously we don't need 4G or 3G running when we're just walking about town waiting for phone calls, emails, or texts. Is there any way to reduce battery drain by turning off the 3G EVDO radio and falling back to 1xRTT, in a similar way to how we currently turn off 3G UMTS/HSDPA on an iPhone and fall back to EDGE to preserve battery life?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
TKardinal said:
Obviously we don't need 4G or 3G running when we're just walking about town waiting for phone calls, emails, or texts. Is there any way to reduce battery drain by turning off the 3G EVDO radio and falling back to 1xRTT, in a similar way to how we currently turn off 3G UMTS/HSDPA on an iPhone and fall back to EDGE to preserve battery life?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Click to collapse
I have been thinking about this and would like to know as well.
Just because 3G GSM is not as efficient with battery life as 2G does not necessarily mean the same problem exists for cdma technology, however I do not know for certain and its a good question
drewX2 said:
Just because 3G GSM is not as efficient with battery life as 2G does not necessarily mean the same problem exists for cdma technology, however I do not know for certain and its a good question
Click to expand...
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Indeed. I don't know. And that's why I'm asking!
A few things might improve battery life:
-Turn off constant GPS; it chews up battery when not needed. It's on by default with the EVO and queried every 3 hours (default) by Sense UI for weather information. You can get the same information based on Cell Tower triangulation without firing up GPS needlessly.
-Sense UI (according to rumor) uses more power in and of itself than the stock Android GUI.
-Froyo (by virtue of JIT) should be more efficient and therefore consume less battery life as well.
One topic I'm not sure on is whether Android can scale CPU clocks automatically based on need, like mobile CPUs for laptops/netbooks do? If not, it should absolutely be implemented, and that would be my next project..
Coming from a samsung moment to the evo i can say that jumping back and fourth between evdo and 1xrtt cancause battery drain. Really theres no great method to combat this other than using common sense. If your not in need of gps- turn it off. Turn off queing for cell towers as well, while it doesnt consume as much power as the gps it does take some resource to triangulate your location. The only other thing i would say is using setcpu and establishing profiles that suit your needs. I.e. screen off can be the lowest cpu setting while battery at 50% you could set your profiles clock speed to sit at 600-700. But thats all providing an app like setcpu will play nice with the evo.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
It does not seem like the phone has 1x radio in it. I have never seen it ...not even once fall back to 1x even with zero bars.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
clubtech said:
It does not seem like the phone has 1x radio in it. I have never seen it ...not even once fall back to 1x even with zero bars.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assure you it does.
I manually set my wife's pixi to 1xrtt and her battery life has increased significantly, had to do some hidden code, so perhaps same for evo
It's ##EVDO# in WebOS. Not sure what the code is in Android.
My phone seems to suffer really poor battery life.
Checking on my handset under the testing menu, phone info, I find that my signal strength while I'm at my workplace is just -109dBm.
Does this poor of a signal mean my phone has to work harder to maintain a connection, therefore caning my battery more?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
yes, your thoughts are correct. A poor signal forces the phone to bump up the power to try and improve the signal.
Anything I can do, aside from use 2G instead of 3G to conserve power?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
I found that my phone using WiFi to sync used less power compared to relying on the phone network alone in areas of poor signal.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
109dbm is pretty poor so your battery life would be poor. you would lose the signal at 113dbm. quicker switch to PRL provider happens if you fiddle the test setting menu. and this has an affect on battery life too inadvertantly as the switch to PRL provider happens quicker and battery power is not lost mindlessly bonking the airwaves to get a signal. but the PRL switch will happen only after the parent signal is lost, if it keeps fluctuating between parent and PRL signal then you will still be losing more power. another way would be to edit the PRL file settings which i am not familiar with but can be done as per some posts on xda or to force it to stay on PRL provider which can also be done as per some posts on xda but untrodden territory for me but am exploring it for the moment by reading up on it. most are explanations on evdo and not hsdpa / umts so am not keen on going down the editing PRL files option unless i can see some anecdotal evidence given by braver people who have treaded down that path before.
or you could go the easy way and buy a signal repeater (fixed or potable versions available) and get better signal and battery life consequently as a bonus.
My battery life is pretty good.
setspeed said:
Anything I can do, aside from use 2G instead of 3G to conserve power?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
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Click to collapse
2G eats more battery than 3G, but you must have strong 3G signal, if it is weak than u get higher battery drain on 3G, and also if u use automatic GSM/WCDMA on that switch from 2G to 3G and reverse you loose a lot of battery power.
First impression is that 3G uses more power. However its transfer speed is much greater, so the overall Watts usage for the same downloaded size will be smaller, which makes 3G more efficient and thus less power consuming in practice.
Here is an example to illustrate the above statement. Let’s assume that we want to download 1000 Kbytes:
2G: 1000 Kbytes at download speed 8 Kbytes/s will take 125 seconds. At the power usage of 1.27W this will take about 159 Watts-seconds (125 seconds * 1.27 Watts).
3G: 1000 Kbytes at download speed 65 Kbytes/s will take 15 seconds. At the power usage of 1.69W this will take 26 Watts-seconds (15 seconds * 1.69 Watts).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for battery life issues read this link http://myhtcdesire.com/tipstweaks/t...about-li-ion-batteries-but-were-afraid-to-ask
for network signal issues and attenuation read this link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7544011#post7544011
hope the links help understand the issues a bit better even if it is not a solution!
what wastes more energy? having 4g on or having wifi on? i read the other threads but it had to do with 3g.. they said 3g wastes more power. is this the case with 4g as well?
thanks!
WiFi drains more battery always
that's from personal observation on all the phones i've owned in the past to now
as soon as you use WiFi the battery drains like there's no tomorrow
however this phone seems to handle it quite well
Yeah, 4G is a big battery hog. Wifi doesn't drain as much so long as you are connected to the same one for a while.
EDIT: just saw AllGamer's reply. Wifi really drains that much? I remember seeing the Droid Razr review saying that 4G eats batteries for breakfast. I might be wrong then!
Sent from my SGH-T989D using xda premium
They both drain battery about the same in my opinion.
When ever I can I turn both of them off to save battery.
It's really easy with the toggles that a couple roms have.
This phone is a BEAST!
From my personal experience wifi doesn't drain as much as 4g.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
WiFi is far more efficient than the cellular network, and any usage will count against your allocated full speed GB's.. not a good thing.
don't have a sgsII yet but my experience with my vibrant is that wifi if connected uses less battery than hspa. If I'm not connected to a wifi network it drains the battery looking for one.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium
heygrl said:
WiFi is far more efficient than the cellular network, and any usage will count against your allocated full speed GB's.. not a good thing.
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Forgive my ignorance but how come the usage of Wifi will count against your allocated full speed? My personal experience has been different .
knut150 said:
Forgive my ignorance but how come the usage of Wifi will count against your allocated full speed? My personal experience has been different .
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I meant not using it will count against your data allotment
lol so there's no unanimous answer. i guess i'll just try to experiment a little and see which one uses more. thanks everyone.
4G uses more battery than WiFi
Definitely 4G... I sit on wifi all day and do not use much battery at all.
skadude66 said:
Yeah, 4G is a big battery hog. Wifi doesn't drain as much so long as you are connected to the same one for a while.
EDIT: just saw AllGamer's reply. Wifi really drains that much? I remember seeing the Droid Razr review saying that 4G eats batteries for breakfast. I might be wrong then!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I understand, LTE is a bigger battery hog than HSPA+.
jasnmb said:
From what I understand, LTE is a bigger battery hog than HSPA+.
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For sure. And after that I'd say HSPA+ > WiFi in terms of battery draining.
Wait, our phone runs off energy. Please tell me its kinetic?!
Sent from my Juggernaut SGSII or Galaxy Tab 10.1 now "In Paris"
bhowanidin said:
Wait, our phone runs off energy. Please tell me its kinetic?!
Sent from my Juggernaut SGSII or Galaxy Tab 10.1 now "In Paris"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Solar backpack maybe ?
ok guys lets keep this topic sane, yeah it's funny, but lets go back on topic
it's a very valid & informative question
my personal experience shows me WiFi is worst, but others here says 3G/4G is even worse, but from personal experience 3G/4G is less than WiFi
so even i find that contradiction very interesting
the thing that could make a difference is the signal strength, perhaps better 3G/4G reception requires less power to maintain the connection?
possibly the same reason why WiFi always seems to do worse for me, because all the Starbucks, Airport, Hotel, Library, and other coffe/restaurant places that offer WiFi it's horrible, very slow, and hard to maintain signal, probably because tooooooooo many people are hogging it or maybe just because too many devices are bumping each other off the Router/WiFi AP on those establishments
Whenever I use wifi I turn my data off and gst better battery that way. If you have a bad data signal or wifi it'll take more battery to try to keep a connection.
In my Bio class I have terrible data signal and my battery will drain really fast with heavy use but if I turn on my wifi and turn off the data my battery iis way better
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
So after doing testing of my own I have come to the conclusion that 4G drains more battery than wifi. With wifi I can get about 14 hrs, but with 4G I only get 6-8 hrs.
This phone is a BEAST!
AllGamer, makes sense. If you have slower networks, your screen will be on for longer as you wait inbetween pages and downloads. Fast downloads => less screen time.
My personal experience with wifi vs THREE-g is that wifi eats my battery quickly (on all previous phones and there have been many, including present BB Torch for work). An d 3G doesn't drain as quickly.
However I agree wifi seems pretty sippy and efficient on the SGH-T989. My battery is learning. I am now getting 1 day and 13 hours of discharge time. Very moderate use. 4G. So yes there well may be a difference between 3 and 4G.
I will test wifi-only as soon as I can in the next few days.
AllGamer said:
ok guys lets keep this topic sane, yeah it's funny, but lets go back on topic
it's a very valid & informative question
my personal experience shows me WiFi is worst, but others here says 3G/4G is even worse, but from personal experience 3G/4G is less than WiFi
so even i find that contradiction very interesting
the thing that could make a difference is the signal strength, perhaps better 3G/4G reception requires less power to maintain the connection?
possibly the same reason why WiFi always seems to do worse for me, because all the Starbucks, Airport, Hotel, Library, and other coffe/restaurant places that offer WiFi it's horrible, very slow, and hard to maintain signal, probably because tooooooooo many people are hogging it or maybe just because too many devices are bumping each other off the Router/WiFi AP on those establishments
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen screenshots of people getting 5 hours of screen-on time. Is anyone here getting that? If you are, please post screenshots below of your setup, and be VERY specific on what you are running, and how you are doing it. Please share the knowledge. Oh, and please don't bother posting if you're using an extended battery.
I'm running Liquid Smooth 1.4 and the (supposed) 3800 mAh Trexcell battery that I bought for $20 on Amazon.
With the standard battery the most screen-on time I ever got was 2:30 hrs. Now I get 3:30-4:00 hrs of on-screen time. Not quite double, but an improvement.
Frankly I don't know how anyone is managing 4 hours of screen-on time with the stock battery.
As an addendum: Even when I was running stock, I was getting equal-to or worse values for screen-on time.
95% of the people getting 4-5 hours of screen on time are on the GSM version. 2-3 hours is typical for Sprint and Verizon users.
Setups don't make a huge difference. What makes the difference is usage while the screen is on.
Depending on the usage, i can get 4 hours screen time on stock 1750mAh battery.
Just occasionally surfing the web using WiFi, no 3G connection, occasionally pressing the power button to check the time and 30% brightness.
I use AOKP + Franco (both latest), and always get around 3h - 3.5h. Half the time I'm using wifi, and I never use data. I don't have cell service 25% of the time, and usually have weak cell service.
Most of them are on wifi... like me I can get 5hrs of display time over wifi but only about 3hrs on my terrible 3G speeds and connection.
With the stock battery.
Sent From My Sprint Galaxy Nexus via XDA Premium
When I was running AOKP build 36 with Franco Kernel 166 I was able to get 3:55 with the stock battery. I did underclock to 1036MHz with some slight undervolting. I never use WiFi and my data is only on when my screen is on. I also played games for about an hour and a half.
Now I'm on AOKP build 38 with Franco's Milestone 4, and I usually average 2-3 hours of screen on time.
Unless the spring and verizon versions are so wildly different, I'm going to ask for screenshot proof if this. I bet you're mistaking "awake" time for screen-on time.
absoluteparanoia said:
Unless the spring and verizon versions are so wildly different, I'm going to ask for screenshot proof if this. I bet you're mistaking "awake" time for screen-on time.
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Click to collapse
They are wildly different. They use different cellular technology.
But you just said at the top of the thread that Spring and Verizon have comparable times, now they are wildly different? They are both CDMA. In the case above its WiFi only.
absoluteparanoia said:
Unless the spring and verizon versions are so wildly different, I'm going to ask for screenshot proof if this. I bet you're mistaking "awake" time for screen-on time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem...
Sent From My Sprint Galaxy Nexus via XDA Premium
absoluteparanoia said:
But you just said at the top of the thread that Spring and Verizon have comparable times, now they are wildly different? They are both CDMA. In the case above its WiFi only.
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I thought you were talking about Sprint/Verizon and the GSM model, that is my fault.
BUT, Verizon has LTE for the majority of people, which will suck the battery dry faster than EVDO Rev A on Sprint.
joshnichols189 said:
I thought you were talking about Sprint/Verizon and the GSM model, that is my fault.
BUT, Verizon has LTE for the majority of people, which will suck the battery dry faster than EVDO Rev A on Sprint.
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I concur... usually if you have good LTE speeds and connection.. your battery life will be better same goes for 3G... i've seen people with full bars on 3G pull almost 4hours with the stock battery, yet with a 1-2 bar connection and a .50mbps speed... i can almost get 3 hours. I would assume that LTE would be less of a battery drain unless you have terrible connection to it.
ÜBER™ said:
I concur... usually if you have good LTE speeds and connection.. your battery life will be better same goes for 3G... i've seen people with full bars on 3G pull almost 4hours with the stock battery, yet with a 1-2 bar connection and a .50mbps speed... i can almost get 3 hours. I would assume that LTE would be less of a battery drain unless you have terrible connection to it.
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Click to collapse
LTE is more of a battery drain than EVDO I believe. Unless you have full signal. All the time.
joshnichols189 said:
LTE is more of a battery drain than EVDO I believe. Unless you have full signal. All the time.
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Click to collapse
hmm doesnt make sense, i figure the faster speeds would help... then it wouldnt have to struggle to pull something up through, lets say the web browser. I mean if you have 1bar of LTE then yeah thats gunna drain faster or similar to 3G. But 3-4 would be optimal.... i assume im terribly wrong but.. these are just my thoughts and assumptions
ÜBER™ said:
hmm doesnt make sense, i figure the faster speeds would help... then it wouldnt have to struggle to pull something up through, lets say the web browser. I mean if you have 1bar of LTE then yeah thats gunna drain faster or similar to 3G. But 3-4 would be optimal.... i assume im terribly wrong but.. these are just my thoughts and assumptions
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In terms of data transfer, sure but I believe just getting and holding onto an LTE signal, especially for a CDMA-based phone causes a lot of the problems.
HOW!!!!! What are you running, what apps you have, etc.
Like I said over all wifi. Skanwich and Samurai Kernel. I don't have anything that syncs. I dont use any "battery" apps and this is just Xda and various other games and YouTube... it just doesn't show up... for some reason. Also its undervolted but stock frequencies. Using the on demand governor.
Sent From My Sprint Galaxy Nexus via XDA Premium
joshnichols189 said:
LTE is more of a battery drain than EVDO I believe. Unless you have full signal. All the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can vouch for this. When I am at home I drain battery as slow as EvDo when on LTE. But I have a better signal than most people out there.
Whatcha running?