vB Easy Archive - Poor Battery Life: S46

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Poor Battery Life: S46
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Posted by: RichXKU

Well I bought the phone tuesday and charged it for about 22 hours. I had to charge it again thursday morning and again this (saturday) morning. and right now (saturday night) I've already lost one tick of battery.

After reading the other battery-related posts it seems as though the network search uses alot of power. At my apartment I dont get much GSM signal, but TDMA is strong.

Would it use less battery to just lock it onto TDMA here?
Also, the "Fast Search" option is not clearly defined (as well as many other things) in the manual, I turned this off, but I don't know if it makes any difference.

Any other tips on how to set things in a weak GSM area?
Thanks.

Posted by: frrussre

Are you making a lot of calls, data or mostly just standby? If you use the IRDA for transferring address book etc, that will chew up the battery. But once transfers are down, that would not effect the battery. IRDA should be switched off when not in use. If you are not using GPRS, then switch that off. Fast search you already mentioned.
I have S46 in NYC (Mostly full bars & GSM)) I keep GPRS on & Fast search on. I have found the battery very good. Not up to spec, but they never are. Batteries do get better & need to be drained until phone goes off & fully charged the 1st few times.
Your battery life seems very low. Maybe you should go back to the store, while within the 30 days. GET A NEW BATTERY.
Reg. Frank R.

Posted by: RichXKU

well I have till the second week in Jan to play with it...

Since you mentioned it, yes I was transferring quite a bit over IRdA, and about 200 kB worth of GPRS.

IRdA is now off and I have it locked in TDMA manually , since sometimes in GSM when the signal fades it will go on a network search (at least here in the apartment.)

I will turn off GPRS next time I switch it back to GSM.

I havent been talking much..maybe 15 min since last charge. it's been just over 12 hours since that last charge, and I'm still down 1 tick.

I will keep after it and see what happens.

Posted by: frrussre

RichXKU, that will do it. The IRDA really sucks the power. After I finished my 1st few days of IRDA transfers & playing with phone ie. profiles & settings & voice recordings. I also had to keep charging the battery. Now my battery life is fine.
Sure yours will be too. I get 4/5 bars all the time in the city, so no problem there. As I said above mine is set to auto, GPRS & fast search. IRDA off.
Reg. Frank R.

Posted by: RenoWirelessGuru

You mention "ticks" in your post, but on my s46 the only thing with ticks is the signal meter (on the left). The right is the battery level which doesn't have any defined "tick" points. I would refer to it more like "75% charged" or "25% empty". Just wanted to make sure you're looking at the right guage.

Putting the phone in TDMA Only or GSM Only should help battery life. TDMA mode uses a lot more battery than GSM. Try GSM only for a day and see if that helps. Find a spot in your apartment (maybe near a window) that the phone gets it's best signal and leave it there for the day and see if that helps battery life.

Posted by: RichXKU

Good point, I juse used "tick" to describe one battery level, since there are no clear points, but after checking the manual it appreas that it goes in 25% increments.

So Right now, on monday morning, I've got 50%. (last charge was saturday, and it's been locked on TDMA since), which means things seem to be improving.

I'll be coming home from Penn State tonight (3 hour trip) so hopefully it will die 2 hours before I leave so I can charge it beforehand, or last the whole trip, so I'm not halfway home with a dead phone.

For now though, I'll lock it to GSM, though sometimes I'll come back to the room and it will have something like "Switch to Auto for better signal? (Yes/No)" on the screen. The tower I'm hearing is 1.5 Miles away at most, which is why it's strange for the signal to fade for no apparent reason at random times on GSM)

Posted by: frrussre

On my S46 I have found that from Full to half full battery indicator is much slower then 1/2 full to empty. 1/2 full to empty seems to go real quick, so don't base batt life on the principle: It took 3 days to go from Full to 1/2, so half to empty should be 3 days. Does not work that way. There have been many threads on that subject. Not just S46, lots of phones & products work that way.
Reg. Frank R.

Posted by: Eaton

Does anyone know what the SAR rating is for the S46?

Erik

Posted by: frrussre

see manual page 5 & 6.
When tested for use at the ear 1.12 W/kg. When worn on the body 0.41/kg.
The SAR limit set by the is 1.6 W/kg.FCC.

If that helps.
Reg. Frank R.

Posted by: Eaton

Thanks!

Posted by: AKguy

In my experiences with the s46, the standby time isn't very good, but the talk time is i.e. i only can leave it on for 2-3 days before it dies, but i can talk for over 4 hours on a fresh charge before it goes out on me.

Posted by: frrussre

yep, seems right. My trouble is I use the phone in the car holder charger, therefore always charged.
These GSM phones have much better life in Europe, especially say UK, small country with lots of RF power. Batteries seem to last much longer. In UK they seem to charge the batteries once a week.
So really depends where you live. If in bad RF area, lousy battery life.
Reg. Frank R.