[wgimenes]

Received my Diamond Touch on Wednesday. It crashed several times on Wed/Thursday requiring several hard resets.

Charged the battery on Thursday and left if on standby at 23:00. When I was getting ready to leave the house at 6:30 the next morning, the phone was out of battery. I thought that it was something I might have left on, i.e. gps or something.

Charged it until 13:30 this afternoon, went to football and used for about 10x 1 minute calls, some light surfing and about 5 emails.

Result: The battery was dead by 16:45. That's a staggering performance. Is it just me???

I spoke to Vodafone who are happy to send me a replacement phone. The question is: does this sound like my phone is faulty or is this the type of performance others are experiencing?

Would like to hear from other with similar experiences to see if I should ditch the Touch or go for a replacement.

Many thanks in advance for your replies.

W

This post has been edited by wgimenes: 19 July 2008 - 07:39 PM

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[Dumdidum]

How many % was the battery when you did Hardreset?
Always load up your phone to full power before dooing a hardreset

[mcwarre]

I would also suggest leaving your phone on first charge for 24hrs if possible.

[mattie01]

one thing i do which greating helps my battery life, but then i do have push emails running on "as items arrive" all the time.

is to change the phone to gsm, so that is it not connected at hspda when it isnlt doing anything. other then pulling in headers.

then if i wanna use the internet on it, i just which it back to 3g/hspda and then use it.

[wgimenes]

Dumdidum, on Jul 19 2008, 21:04, said:

How many % was the battery when you did Hardreset?
Always load up your phone to full power before dooing a hardreset

Phone was left charging on Wednesday all day/night. I started playing with it on Thursday and was planning to take it out with me on Friday.

One or more of the hard resets might have been when the battery was not at 100%. Are you saying a hard reset might interfere with battery life?

I just turned the device back on now at 5:30 AM after having lelt it charging since 18:30 last night and don't expect to use it too much today (Sunday).

Let's see how it goes.

Thanks for your replies and I am still hoping for other Diamond Touch users for feedback as well.

W

[wgimenes]

mattie01, on Jul 20 2008, 00:15, said:

one thing i do which greating helps my battery life, but then i do have push emails running on "as items arrive" all the time.

is to change the phone to gsm, so that is it not connected at hspda when it isnlt doing anything. other then pulling in headers.

then if i wanna use the internet on it, i just which it back to 3g/hspda and then use it.

Mattie, good point. Didn't think of that. I actually have been using Blackberrys for the last 3 or so years, having previously used a couple of HTCs with Orange and Vodafone. I did use push email witht the Voda v1250 and my Exchange Server but over GSM as well. Battery was never an issue.

I'll be getting the Bold next month but wanted to give the WM6.1 a go over push as well.

I currently have a project where I have to upload pictures and video clips to a blog, live from the field but the battery life of the Touch proved to be woeful for that purpose.

Browsing and 3G are a must for that project, and so is 3G so the Touch may not be what I need afterall.

[eggs]

wgimenes, on Jul 20 2008, 06:45, said:

Mattie, good point. Didn't think of that. I actually have been using Blackberrys for the last 3 or so years, having previously used a couple of HTCs with Orange and Vodafone. I did use push email witht the Voda v1250 and my Exchange Server but over GSM as well. Battery was never an issue.

I'll be getting the Bold next month but wanted to give the WM6.1 a go over push as well.

I currently have a project where I have to upload pictures and video clips to a blog, live from the field but the battery life of the Touch proved to be woeful for that purpose.

Browsing and 3G are a must for that project, and so is 3G so the Touch may not be what I need afterall.

Or you can buy the extra battery 1340 mAh. It will probably solve your problems.

[Neil5459]

What you are seeing is not typical, nor is it the expected behaviour; nonetheless, we are seeing a number of similar reports from both Voda and Orange users, so perhaps there is an issue somewhere with batteries, or the power management?

Like Mattie, I keep 3G turned off till I need it, which is easy on the Diamond with its button on the Comm Manager. I use Exchange Push all the time, but turn the phone radio off overnight.

With some moderate web browsing, about 6-10 minutes of phone calls and about 50 Exchange items, my battery goes from 100% to about 20% in 36 hours. A little more if I use GPS/Google Maps (about 15% per hour)

[wgimenes]

Neil5459, on Jul 20 2008, 09:45, said:

What you are seeing is not typical, nor is it the expected behaviour; nonetheless, we are seeing a number of similar reports from both Voda and Orange users, so perhaps there is an issue somewhere with batteries, or the power management?

Like Mattie, I keep 3G turned off till I need it, which is easy on the Diamond with its button on the Comm Manager. I use Exchange Push all the time, but turn the phone radio off overnight.

With some moderate web browsing, about 6-10 minutes of phone calls and about 50 Exchange items, my battery goes from 100% to about 20% in 36 hours. A little more if I use GPS/Google Maps (about 15% per hour)

Thanks Neil,

It sounds a bit fiddly tough. I'm used to just leave the phone as is and I am a heavy user during the week.

Maybe I need a portable generator with me all the time :-)

W

[mintfresh]

i've had a few issues with battery life. i'm used to charging the phone every day though as i had to with my vario ii.

Yesterday i took my phone off charge around 9:00 ‚ didnt do alot until about 11:30‚ when i used the gps foe about 30 mins. I then used the camera on and off between 12:30 and 14:30 which is when the battery ran out.

Ive had similar days where i used gps in the morning for30mins then on and off browsing and the battery lasts til 5 ish.

I have noticed a strange issue with charging overnight though.Twice this has happened. Ive woken up, pressed the power button to check the time and the white light starts to go like its charging, checking the battery shows it to be around 3/4 charged, like its stopped charging overnight. This could be happening to others with battery life issues?

[mcwarre]

This seems to be a growing problem. Makes me feel better that I returned it

[_dg]

Batteries only reach their full capacity after several charges.

And its not just usage of the phone, but the signal in the locality determines how much power is needed to maintain a connection to the network.

Mine going from full to 1/3 full during a day - compared to my m700 which would go down to about 2/3 full on similar days use/travel.

The concerning thing is just how hot the phone gets in use of 3g/GPRS and GPS. This can not be a good thing, and seems to indicate some poor design or hardware/firmware issue.

It's alright turning off all these things to reduce battery use, but surely the point is that we should not have to do this. The phone should work for a reasonable time with all these things switched on - like other phones do!

Also, the phone was very slow to charge for the first few times, but now does seem to charge up to full faster

For me, I am never too far from a charger so the phone tends to stay topped up. But the thought of being 1/3 full and then having a long conversation and having the phone cut off is a bit worrying

I've downloaded (from xda dev) a battery bar which goes along the top of the screen for a good, graphical display of battery charge.

[rameses]

Found this mentioned on the Xda Dev site

If you're after a cheap spare battery have a look here:

900mAh Battery & Desktop Charger £17.99

1800mAh Battery £14.98

They also do just the battery or just the charger, have a look round.

Delivery is £2.99

This post has been edited by rameses: 22 July 2008 - 07:56 AM

[wgimenes]

rameses, on Jul 22 2008, 08:49, said:

Found this mentioned on the Xda Dev site

If you're after a cheap spare battery have a look here:

900mAh Battery & Desktop Charger £17.99

1800mAh Battery £14.98

They also do just the battery or just the charger, have a look round.

Delivery is £2.99

I thank everyone who tried to help but the Diamond Touch went back to Vodafone this morning.

I just can't be fussed with having a phone which doesn't last a whole business day. Nice phone and features but they are more geared towards the those who use their phones occasionally but not the business user.

Another question then: Who out there can claim the LONGEST battery life?

Go on, suggest a replacement WM device, please.

W

[Monolithix]

From all the WinMo handsets i've used the 3G ones are consistently poor with battery life. You might squeeze 48 hours out with 2G forced on and extremely light use, however par for the course across manufacturers seems to be <24 hours on 3G with moderate use.

I have my Diamond normally forced to 2G, push mail off and 2 accounts checking every 30 mins, my average use is 10-30 emails, a couple of texts and 30 mins or so of calls each day and I'll just make it through the day (16 hours or so).

[tmohammad]

I too thought the battery was poor initially.

But it seems to have improved with every charge!

I have cut down all the comms and forced 2G.

The battery went from 10 bars (full) down to 9 bars over 24 hours with minimal use.

I let the battery fully deplete, then gave it a 12 hour charge overnight. The MDA C4 was unplugged at 08:00 yesterday morning and today at 09:45 I still have 9 bars! I am quite please with it now.

I guess I'll have to force it to 2G and move onto 3G if I am surfing for extended periods of time.

Hope that helps.

[ZSX]

I just want to reiterate most people's experience. On day 1 (after the obligatory 5 hour charge, phone off) my phone died after just 7 hours of use with some GPS useage, a dozen texts, half an hour of talking, half an hour of WiFi and a few reboots as I was loading software.

Day 2 and I switched off 3G but turned on "pull" email to my Google and Yahoo! accounts. Used it approximately the same and am getting nearly 18 hours of battery life.

I really can't believe what a battery drain 3G really is!

[Dr Who]

Monolithix, on Jul 22 2008, 19:42, said:

I have my Diamond normally forced to 2G, push mail off and 2 accounts checking every 30 mins, my average use is 10-30 emails, a couple of texts and 30 mins or so of calls each day and I'll just make it through the day (16 hours or so).

Not really acceptable that though, is it? My car goes 1000 mpg provided I start it on a very long downhill with a tailwind and a sail. My Vario II on a two year old battery with 3G and HSDPA on will make it through the day happily - key is turning off the screen pretty quickly. I have always hated doing that but I will just about put up without. Having to go into connections and turning on 3G every time I wanted to use the internet would drive me beserk. If the phone won't last a day under normal use its not going to be popular - look at what happened to the first HTC 3G smartphone (forget the name, but battery life was shash). Hopefully the Rafael will at least make it through the day!

[rameses]

But don't forget PPCs like the Kaiser have a 1350mAh battery not 900mAh like the Diamond.

I think a replacement extended battery would be worthy investment - and before anyone says shouldn't it come with a bigger battery so you don't have to buy one later, perhaps it should but it would only put the price up so you're going to pay for it anyway.

[FlangeArtist]

wgimenes, on Jul 22 2008, 11:36, said:

Another question then: Who out there can claim the LONGEST battery life?

I can with light use get from Friday @ 17:00 until Monday @ 09:00 on one charge and still have 1 bar left from the 900mAh battery.

That is, email sync every 30 mins on peak times and manual (when I'm asleep) off peak, loads of text's, 1/2 hour web browsing on HSDPA, and <1 hour of phone calls. I've also done some registry tweaks (all documented here of XDA Forum) and am sensible is switching off the screen when not in use (quick tap of the power button). If I do a lot more activity such as web for a couple hours or more phone calls, it does die on the Sunday.

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