SonyEricsson V800

These reports that the poor battery life on the 3G phones were network-caused started soon after the 3G network with Motorola E1000 was launched which also needed to be charged daily.

March, this year, I went to the UK and Europe and tested the battery life on the E1000 under various different conditions and with different firmware on the phones.

We got EXACTLY the same usage times on the phones as in South Africa.

The later firmware did help, with about 20-30% more talktime.

Unconfirmed reports seems to indicate a much better battery life on the Nokia 6680.
 
Hi
Battery life cannot be consistently measured across different networks, or even between different cells on a network for that matter. Check out this post :
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=218272&postcount=7

Basically, it all depends on how busy the cell itself is. Code Division networks adjust the transmitting power levels on your phone from the base station. Obviously, the more power required, the worse your battery life is going to be.

This is why some people rave about the battery life of their WCDMA phones, and other people curse it. If your WCDMA cell is not heavily utilised, you will see good battery life. If you are in a heavily utilised cell, standby for bad battery performance, irrespective of your handset.

This is unfortunately by design in CDMA networks, so you basically have to live with it :D

For the record, I have experienced this first hand. In Joburg, my battery life is terrible. At home in Cape Town, my battery lasts the entire weekend and some.

Welcome to CDMA :D
 
I also read somewhere that high quality video over mobile networks is never going to be realistic because of the high power requirements for high speed transmission. Does this make sense?
 
magus said:
I also read somewhere that high quality video over mobile networks is never going to be realistic because of the high power requirements for high speed transmission. Does this make sense?
Click to expand...

correct. upload speeds on 3G at the moment are only 64Kbps. Enough for low resolution Video calling, but certainly not boardroom quality!
This should be addressed with HSDPA.
Upload speeds are always going to be a contentious issue - there is a fine line between balancing consumer expectations wrt battery life and the transmitting power required to go "high speed" on upload. And considering that in normal applications, the majority of data flows down... Video Calling does however change this scenario somewhat!
 
ScrnScrm, while I fully agree with you, subscribers don't like the "It depends" type of answers, it always smacks of trying to pass the buck. So we decided to do the tests ourselves.

They consisted of numerous different tests, on different cells, different networks, different countries and different times of the day. (I won't mention the phone bills :eek: ).

In all, there was no significant difference in the battery life (on the E1000).

It is true that a 3G terminal is more tough on a battery than it's 2G counterpart, but we've also seen big improvements in the phones themselves, especially how they manage the battery life.
 
vodacom3g said:
ScrnScrm, while I fully agree with you, subscribers don't like the "It depends" type of answers, it always smacks of trying to pass the buck. So we decided to do the tests ourselves.

They consisted of numerous different tests, on different cells, different networks, different countries and different times of the day. (I won't mention the phone bills :eek: ).

In all, there was no significant difference in the battery life (on the E1000).

It is true that a 3G terminal is more tough on a battery than it's 2G counterpart, but we've also seen big improvements in the phones themselves, especially how they manage the battery life.
Click to expand...

Ok, I will let it go :D Was just trying to make the point that battery performance on WCDMA is not the same as TDMA, so users need to change their expectations. If offered a sound technological explanation, it makes it a lot easier to accept. Its something the yanks have long since accepted on their CDMA networks...

Wrt managing battery perfomance on the terminals - that is where firmware upgrades help a lot. My recommendation to all 3G handset users out there is to stay current with Firmware upgrades on your device, at least until the technology has matured.
 
Wrt the batterylife dicussion. Isn't there some truth in the fact that because Vodacom's 3G network isn't yet fully deployed, that you WILL have worse battery performance than, say on the UK Vodafone network because the phone needs to switch from 3G to 2G and back to 3G more frequently?

Luckily this will be resolved when more 3G base stations come into operation.
 
erike said:
Wrt the batterylife dicussion. Isn't there some truth in the fact that because Vodacom's 3G network isn't yet fully deployed, that you WILL have worse battery performance than, say on the UK Vodafone network because the phone needs to switch from 3G to 2G and back to 3G more frequently?

Luckily this will be resolved when more 3G base stations come into operation.
Click to expand...

Ok, maybe I should be more specific. Its not a Vodacom only issue - ALL 3G operators are affected by this. Its by design.

With regards to the addition of more 3G base stations - it may or may not help. It would depend on a whole bunch of things like amount of users, degree of overlap during "breathing", and most importantly, the level of the "signal noise floor". In some instances, overlapping cells can actually increase noise levels thereby raising power requirements if you are in the overlap area. Remember - your phone doesnt have to deal with signal noise from just the bast station - it has to compensate for your wifes/friends/enemies phone 1 meter away from you as well...

With regards to the 2G/3G switching - your phone accomplishes this via two different antennae. Whilst you are on 3G your phone is still "listening" on 2G and vice versa. Best way to get more life from your battery in this situation is to manually select "GSM" as preferred network and switch off 3G altogether. I found that this drastically increases battery life...
 
I read all this with much interest. In Durban or Jhb I get 4-8 hours combined standby and useage. I landed here in London Friday morning 8am with a fully charged phone, now on Sunday morning 11am and I still have one and a half bars. That is close to 52 hours of usage.

I head everything that has been said, but tell me again that this isn't a network problem? Besides, why are SonyEricsson themselves telling everyone it is a network problem if that isn't the case?
 
And just in case anyone is interested. During that time I have spent time in London (mostly has 3g coverage) and Woking (is borderline area, the coverage comes and goes). Also makes me doubt the whole "more base stations will improve the situation" story. Until some honest and cohesive answers are forthcoming from Vodacom and SonyEricsson I still believe there is some kind of coverup happening here. If the situation is so bad that the phones are unuseable and they are all recommending 3g be turned off, why are there still 3g ads running all the time on TV, and in the print media ?
 
Hi JJ
What firmware do you have on your phone? Is it on a version that is supported by Vodacom? Firmware can make a big difference - your phone may be battling to understand the Vodacom BTS' power control instructions...
A colleague of mine who is also in London at the moment with an E1000 has fed back to me that his battery life appears "normal"..
Cheers -
 
Hi ScrnScrm...

Cant remember offhand which version it is, but it is the latest supported by Vodacom and SE. They upgraded it about a month back and checked it late last week.

I would be interested in hearing from other V800 users as to what their phones are doing.

Up to 56 hours and counting, still more than 1 bar left. . . .
 
j-j, a few points:

- There's no cover up by either Vodacom or the handset manufacturers. :) Vodacom would love your phone to last for hours, just think how many calls you can make (read revenue!) As discussed in this thread 3G (WCDMA) terminals are tougher on batteries than GSM devices.

- While I appreciate your standby time has gone up substantially (in the UK), I wonder if your actual talk-time has not decreased. Being in the UK, you're probably making and receiving less calls.

With the phone transmitting continuously (while you're talking), the battery will be depleted much quicker than when it's in standby. I found the E1000 to be less than 3 hours talk-time in either the UK or SA.

Just a thought, not to sure if you took this into account?

The last firmware version certified is R1S025 (R1J002, before that). Not to sure what the latest version available is.
 
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Hi Vodacom3g.

While you may say there is no cover up, sure seems like it to me. Each keep blaming the other. People tell me things and wont put it into writing. Nobody is coming up with a solution for a product that effectively doesnt work. Not quite sure how I should take that.

Yes, my talk time has certainly been significantly reduced in the UK. However, 15m talk time (normal voice calls) shouldnt reduce 54 hours off my standby time. So yes, i have pretty much taken that into account. In JHB at times I was getting around 8 hrs standby WITH NO TALKTIME. i.e. take it off charge at 10pm and by 6am it was almost flat.

With the phone in general use, I was getting around 4-6 hours useage, that was with around 20-30m talk time, maybe 20sms and a few minutes browsing.

Bottom line, to me the service doesnt work. It doesnt work as advertised, and as it continues to be advertised.

sucks.
 
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