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Blackjack Battery Life - Post here how many hours you are getting from battery

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Posted by: Armanius Maximu

I have been keeping tabs on how long the batteries for the Blackjack are lasting. I got the Blackjack the morning it was released (11/16). For the past two days, I have been getting about 26 hours on a full charge. However, I haven't really used the Blackjack that much for voice purposes, because I am still using my T-Mobile SDA and no one has my Cingular number. I have Exchange/Activesync turned on to push email as soon as the server receives it, and I receive on the average about 50-60 emails per day through my work e-mail. I've spent about 10-15 minutes streaming videos, sent about 2 text messages per day, 5 emails, and used the Blackjack for about 3 minutes as a phone. Bluetooth is off. I am in Houston, so 3G is around in most areas. Cellular connection is really bad inside my office, even though it shows full bars for the most part. So the network connection switches from 3G to EDGE to no service (all inside my office). I am not sure if this constant switching of network has an effect on the batteries. It may.

So, as of now, it's about 26 hours per day with light usage. Hopefully, the batteries will improve a bit after a few more cycles of usage and recharge. As of now, it looks like the Blackjack batteries have to be charged every night if you plan to use it as your only phone device. If anyone has ideas on how to extend the battery life, let me know. I wonder if someone will come up w/ some sort of extended batteries for the Blackjack.


Posted by: jpbadonk

My battery was down to 30% after 24 hours. That includes BT tethering, Exchange push, polling comcast email (anyone know what interval 'SmartPower' uses for Xpress Mail?), about 45 minutes of voice calls, and some minor internet browsing.


Posted by: creighton1

With Direct Push set to "as mail arrives", also in Houston and 3G, I am lucky to get 12-14 hours on a full battery charge. I have had the phone since 11/14/06 and cycled both batteries several times. Same results. This is with minimal usage (~10 minutes on the phone and 40-50 e-mails received).

This weekend I set Direct Push to check for mail every thirty minutes instead and after 26 hours I still have about 25% charge. If I could get this kind of life with Direct Push always set to "as mail arrives" I would be a happy camper. This might be possible if someone can figure out how to re-enable the network selection option in the phone configuration.


Posted by: Armanius Maximu

jpbadonk - What setting did you have push email set on? You tethered the Blackjack and still used only 30% of batteries after 24 hours? Wow ...

creighton1 - I guess I can switch my push email to check every 30 minutes to save on the battery. But if I did that, it would no longer be "push" email. It would be "pull" email just like the old Activesync. I think Microsoft is fooling all of us into thinking that Direct Push is a "real" push. It is probably just doing constant pulling, and that's why it's sapping the battery off the Blackjack. If it was real push, the Exchange Server would be sending the emails to the device and only causing the device to use battery when there is in fact new emails in the server. Instead, our Blackjacks are checking with the Exchange Server every minute. Of course I could be totally wrong ...


Posted by: dclin

I'm also in Houston and received mine on Thursday. After completely draining the two batteries (w/o charging) and then starting with a fully charged battery, I have gotten approximately 34 hours.

My day starts at 7:30am, and played with the phone off and on during the day. I made roughly 5 minutes of call, surfed approximately 45 minutes, and played 23 sessions of Bubble Breaker (probably 5 min each game I guess, so around 1hr 45 mins?) Left it on all night and used it a few times the next day (couple minutes of voice calls, some minor internet surfing and another couple games of Bubble Breaker), and finally got a low battery warning at around 2pm. Left it on and played a couple more games of Bubble Breaker, and finally got a 2nd low battery around 6pm. At that time, I changed the battery.

- No push/pull email ( I feel sorry for you guys that have to get email on your phone too; it's bad enough at my desk)
- Screen brightness set to '2'
- Screen back light and display set to timeout at 30secs
- Regular ring (no vibrate)
- Keypad backlight set to only come on between 18:00 thru 07:00

I spent around 85% of the time on 3G, the rest of the time on Edge.


Posted by: creighton1

Quote:
Originally Posted by Armanius Maximu
jpbadonk - What setting did you have push email set on? You tethered the Blackjack and still used only 30% of batteries after 24 hours? Wow ...

creighton1 - I guess I can switch my push email to check every 30 minutes to save on the battery. But if I did that, it would no longer be "push" email. It would be "pull" email just like the old Activesync. I think Microsoft is fooling all of us into thinking that Direct Push is a "real" push. It is probably just doing constant pulling, and that's why it's sapping the battery off the Blackjack. If it was real push, the Exchange Server would be sending the emails to the device and only causing the device to use battery when there is in fact new emails in the server. Instead, our Blackjacks are checking with the Exchange Server every minute. Of course I could be totally wrong ...


No you are not totally wrong, you are right on. With Direct Push your device continually polls the exchange server to determine if there is new mail. It is not a complete sync, just a continual polling which requires a constant data connection. When the poll results indicate new mail a full sync takes place. The system works well but for the demand it places on the phone's batteries.

I agree that setting the sync to anything other than "as mail arrives" defeats the purpose of push mail, but if it's the only way I can make it through a day it might be my only option. I think that setting it to sync every five minutes would still be less demanding on the battery than "as mail arrives". On my 8125 I was able to go more than 2 days on a full charge with Direct Push set to get mail when it arrived. On the Nokia e62 I was able to get 3-4 days with its implementation of mail for exchange set to get mail as it arrived. Both of these phones worked on the EDGE network though. I like the fact the Blackjack is 3G capable, but 99% of what I use the phone for I don't need 3G speeds. I would be more than happy to lock my phone to EDGE and conserve battery. I've saw something somewhere (wish I could be more specific) suggesting that using the EDGE network instead of the 3G network would yield 30-40% more battery life. Don't know how true that it, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt.


Posted by: creighton1

Quote:
Originally Posted by dclin
I'm also in Houston and received mine on Thursday. After completely draining the two batteries (w/o charging) and then starting with a fully charged battery, I have gotten approximately 34 hours.

My day starts at 7:30am, and played with the phone off and on during the day. I made roughly 5 minutes of call, surfed approximately 45 minutes, and played 23 sessions of Bubble Breaker (probably 5 min each game I guess, so around 1hr 45 mins?) Left it on all night and used it a few times the next day (couple minutes of voice calls, some minor internet surfing and another couple games of Bubble Breaker), and finally got a low battery warning at around 2pm. Left it on and played a couple more games of Bubble Breaker, and finally got a 2nd low battery around 6pm. At that time, I changed the battery.

- No push/pull email ( I feel sorry for you guys that have to get email on your phone too; it's bad enough at my desk)
- Screen brightness set to '2'
- Screen back light and display set to timeout at 30secs
- Regular ring (no vibrate)
- Keypad backlight set to only come on between 18:00 thru 07:00

I spent around 85% of the time on 3G, the rest of the time on Edge.



I think the one constant among everyone complaining about the battery life (myself included) is MS Direct Push. I haven't seen anyone using Xpress Mail, Good, or Blackberry Connect complain about the battery life. I think MS Direct Push is a power hog, and that coupled with 3G justs saps the life out of the batteries incredibly fast.

As far as getting e-mail on the phone - that capability is what lets me get away from my desk.


Posted by: Armanius Maximu

On my T-Mobile SDA, I have Activesync set on "retrive e-mails as they arrive." It has the old version w/o Direct Push, so it utilizes the "pseudo" push by having the Exchange Server send a text message to my phone, which in turns pulls the e-mail from the Exchange Server. I am able to go at least 3 days on the SDA without recharging. Plus I talk on the SDA at least 30-60 minutes per day. Drawback of that system was that you better have unlimited text messages on your plan! SDA also runs on EDGE, instead of 3G. So it's slooooooow. Aargh, I want to retire the SDA and just use the Blackjack. I suppose until Microsoft comes up with "true" push email, I will just have to have the Blackjack constantly charging while I am in the office and at home. Maybe someone will come up w/ an extended battery that doesn't make the Blackjack all bulky.




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