battery

[Guest bingobob]

Well I've had my vario II on t-mobile for a couple of days, first charge didn't seem to last too long...a little browsing, ssh, skype and a bit of emailing and the battery ran out on the way home. This was without making or taking any calls!

Am hoping it will last all day on a full charge.

Should it / does it / will it ?

[Guest mandt]

Wi-fi and GPRS usage will definitely have a negative effect on your battery life,

Charge it fully, run it flat, charge it fully, run it flat. get the picture?

given time it will improve

[Guest thewitney]

Wi-fi and GPRS usage will definitely have a negative effect on your battery life,

Charge it fully, run it flat, charge it fully, run it flat. get the picture?

given time it will improve

Hi,

Just to let you know the above information is incorrect. THe Li-Ion batteries used in the M3100 etc will have a better life span if you keep them fully charged.

They are not designed to be run flat then fully charged they should be kept charged at all times to prolong their life.

[Guest patp]

Hi,

Just to let you know the above information is incorrect. THe Li-Ion batteries used in the M3100 etc will have a better life span if you keep them fully charged.

They are not designed to be run flat then fully charged they should be kept charged at all times to prolong their life.

This is the orthodox view of lithium batteries. However, I find I'm getting much better battery life after a couple of months. This above and beyond improvements made by switching off various power-hungry options. I would not be surprised if in some scenarios lithium batteries improve with a bit of use.

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

Never try to run a Li-ion battery flat as you can perminantly damage them as they will lose capacitance and drastically shorten it's usable life expectancy.

It is best to keep them topped up with a good condition charge (ie a long overnight charge) once in a while.

[Guest mandt]

Sorry guys, don't wanna start an argument here but I just don't agree

I always run my phone until it switches itself off, I get 2-3 days out of a charge and have never had a problem with it.

maybe I'm just lucky :)

[Guest bingobob]

now i AM confused as to what's best to do :-)

Anyways, I'm getting a day out of it (new device)....however I am playing with it a lot obviously given initial enthusiasm etc ! not bored of it yet, by a long stretch

found an app called Wififofum or something v nice.

[Guest Seraphic]

it is correct that you shouldn't let the battery run dry - but technically you shouldn't be able to do that. there are safeguards built in which are meant to prevent the battery completely discharging. the design of the battery means that it shouldn't suffer from the 'memory effect', so it doesn't really matter if you let the battery run down or not.

[Guest bingobob]

thanks for the opinions. It seems i am free to charge at will! Which is nice.

Battery life is not long the way I am using the vario but I've found the best solution for me.

USB charging is great, I just charge at home and then charge it again all day when i get to work.

Basically I've been comparing it to my Nokia phone (6230i) which lasted for like a week. I suppose i shouldn't do this because it's a different device all together. Will just have to get used to charging more often.

V pleased with my vario though.

[Guest Whitster]

I think it would be a good idea for someone to create a sticky topic about the numerous things you can do to increase battery life.

So far theres..

Only use Bluetooth, WiFi etc when required.

Turn off "allow all incoming connections"

Only allow manual activation of active sync. Otherwise the phone is constantly using it and it uses up battery

Change band to GPRS when 3G isnt required.

Screen brightness

Think thats all of them. Anyway, i've done them all and its made the battery life as good as a average phone. I just think it would be good to have topic explaining all of them as quite a few people seem to come on here complaining of battery life troubles.

[Guest bingobob]

Would you mind elaborating on these points...sounds interesting..

Clear on the other points.

What sort of battery life are you getting by the way?

Turn off "allow all incoming connections"

Only allow manual activation of active sync. Otherwise the phone is constantly using it and it uses up battery

Change band to GPRS when 3G isnt required.

[Guest Whitster]

The "allow all incoming connections" is mainly about the IR on the phone. If its ticked then IR is constantly on. Which in my opinion is huge waste of battery life.

All you need to do to turn it off is go to settings. Then the connections tab. Then beam. Just uncheck the box. Though it is worthy to note that if you wish to recieve files via IR or bluetooth this must be checked.

The other point is one I only learnt about recentley and someone else came up with the tip. As written by forumer spunkyboy:

"I bet yr battery is fine. I suspect Activesync is the prob as I've read a similar prob elsewhere. it is probably trying to automatically reconnect every few mins draining the battery.

You will need to go into activesync on your Vario and delete the schedule (menu/schedule). If this is greyed out you need to add a dummy server (menu/configure server). just type any old numbers in eg. 1.1.1.1 and any pw etc. you should then be able to access the schedule and change to manual rather than auto every x mins. Hope that helps you dude."

I would also seriously advise you to change to GPRS when 3G is not required. Such as overnight when sleeping. Especially if you have got the phone to check for email every so often, which is another drain on the battery. I've got mine to check for email every hour.

When i've got everything set to allow for best battery life I can get over two days with light usege on battery heavy aspects such as bluetooth, Wifi and 3G. With average to heavy phone use I can get over a day and just about squeeze two out of it.

[Guest bingobob]

OK clear on that. at the moment I actually have my phone function turned off completely at night, waitiing for my old number to port on jan 3, so phone is not that useful for me at the mo.

I like the idea of being able to turn off 3G and switching to GPRS manually temporarily to conserve battery life. How do you do this though?.....also I hope you can switch back OK afterwards!

[Guest max1956bikes]

i have a c500 i allways use usb to charge my phone perhaps half an hour a day it shows up as allways full battery im sure usb seems to be kinder for battery.some times i forget to charge it then lasts for 4 days but i do turn phone of at night.i like my sleep.

[Guest Whitster]

I like the idea of being able to turn off 3G and switching to GPRS manually temporarily to conserve battery life. How do you do this though?.....also I hope you can switch back OK afterwards!

It's all simple. If you're currently using 3G. Go to Settings. Click Phone. Go the the "Band" tab. Change Network type to GSM and click OK. This will change it to GPRS. Changing back to 3G can include one more step as you may get a message "data call already exists" when you try and change back to "auto" (Which means 3G if a signal is available). But all you need to do is when at the "Band" tab waiting to select auto just click the "G" at the top of the screen. Tap disconnect. then select auto and press OK. Once you get into the system the whole thing can be changed or changed back in less than 20 seconds. Which I think is worth it considering how much battery you can save by not having the phone constantly tryig to find and connect to a 3G signal which has been proven to be a huge battery drainer.

[Guest bingobob]

It's all simple. If you're currently using 3G. Go to Settings. Click Phone. Go the the "Band" tab. Change Network type to GSM and click OK. This will change it to GPRS. Changing back to 3G can include one more step as you may get a message "data call already exists" when you try and change back to "auto" (Which means 3G if a signal is available). But all you need to do is when at the "Band" tab waiting to select auto just click the "G" at the top of the screen. Tap disconnect. then select auto and press OK. Once you get into the system the whole thing can be changed or changed back in less than 20 seconds. Which I think is worth it considering how much battery you can save by not having the phone constantly tryig to find and connect to a 3G signal which has been proven to be a huge battery drainer.

perfect, ta.

bb