Nokia Blog » How long is your E61’s full-battery life?

How long is your E61’s full-battery life?

The user’s manual says a talk time of 4-7 hours and standby time of about 8 days. I only use my phone for texting and a bit of calling under GSM mode only — it lasts only for 2 days. Is this normal? Does opening an office suite or any application lessen the full battery life?

37 Responses to How long is your E61’s full-battery life?

I managed to get 3 days with some talking and a bit of Wifi connection. If I use Wifi extensively, the battery can last only a few hours. I usually charge every 2 days or so.

bugmeister | 12:20 am on the 29th of December, 2006
I get the same two days or so and my phone is on GSM only too. I doubt anyone gets the quoted times.

blushy | 12:43 am on the 29th of December, 2006
If you only use your E61 for texting and a bit of calling, I’d have to wonder why you got an E61 in the first place Certainly using *any* application uses battery power. The CPU needs power to run your application and the screen wants to be lit as well.

Joerg Michael | 7:40 am on the 29th of December, 2006
haha! Actually i’m planning to get my blackberry installed soon. and this would actually post some kind of concern as well. That 2 days may lessen if I continuously use my blackberry, right? :-s

akosirap | 10:08 am on the 29th of December, 2006
My e61 only last for a small day. In the morning I use internet as my news paper. later on the day i want to make some phonecalls then it goes bleep bleep battery almost gone please charge. Man I really start to disslike this phone.

t.

Thimo | 12:43 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
Go into your settings

hit network

where it says dual mode, change it to gsm

Stefan Constantinescu | 5:47 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
well, I must be very, very lucky since my e61 last for 7 days with approx. 15 min of voice and a bit of GPRS every day (M4E on every 30 min)…
But only when charged with supplied charger, with smaller that came with NOKIA bluetooth headset, charging last longer but battery last “only” 4 days…

bramil | 4:47 am on the 29th of December, 2006
My E61 does not even last 1 day, even when making a few calls and some text messages. I use UMTS. Why does it make sense to switch to GSM? And if it does, how do I do that?

Martin Voorzanger | 6:39 am on the 29th of December, 2006
Mine lasts about 3 days if I am out of the office. inside the office, I always dock my phone in its cradle and it charges it continuously when i am not using it:) pretty nifty little critter.

Mark Charles C. Tesch | 9:55 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
Maximum is 3 days, without using it.. On a regular basis it’s 2 days, with 15 min voice, WIFI and Blackberry connect. I guess blackberry is the biggest power consumer of my phone I am in France and my network is GPRS for data and GSM for voice.

erwann | 5:28 am on the 29th of December, 2006
Strange, my e61 last for about a week…

Jurgen | 11:59 am on the 29th of December, 2006
Mine lasts a day, but that’s with some serious 3g traffic, reading rss feeds in the morning, email all day and downloading and listening to a podcast on the train home

James | 5:39 am on the 29th of December, 2006
Since I got my phone, I think I only had 2-3 days of a charge using UMTS calls and some WLAN browsing, plus pop-mail on a regular basis.

Since getting a data plan and Mail for Exchange running always on during the business day I got one full day’s charge, but had to recharge every night.

I just upgraded my firmware to v3.x and only now started using SIP/Voip round the clock. My battery would then only last 2-3 hours until I put in another bridged AP router into my network. Now I’m almost back up to a full day’s charge.

I don’t even use the phone for calls very often, but would like to be sure to get through the day without the battery running out.

Quist | 5:15 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
UMTS is a pig on battery life. IT is in most devices. Here in Shanghai
Im using HK purchased E61, and I get 2 days (gsm/texting/gprs 15 minute activesync).

I if leave the E61 activesync in direct push email, i get 1 DAY on the battery.
with polling 15 minutes I get 2/2.5 days. I seldom talk. Just text and
email.

Using the mobile in GSM only mode helps alot, so unless you need 3g speeds for file transfer or surfing keep it locked to gsm only mode helps 50%.

a.

ps: no 3g in china anyway, and if/when we get it, it might be TD-SCDMA and not work with any other mobiles in the world.

andrew | 12:16 am on the 29th of December, 2006
I use it in UMTS mode only and it is always connected in internet (I use SIP phone only): 12 hours of battery life!

filippo | 2:06 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
So if I leave it on GSM only, I cant use 3G?

J. K | 5:26 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
Well, sounds awful for you guys. Mine easily lasts 4-5 days with no charging. And that’s with a bit of WiFi, 3G, Sudoku, Messenger, mail, sms and phone calls.

If I’ve really used wifi/3g, battery life drops fast. But then we’re talking lots of hours (used it for about 30 minutes, no drop in the battery meter).

Jacob | 12:48 am on the 29th of December, 2006
I’m confused, my battery last for 4 days with an hour talking daily and half an hour WiFi… maybe I’m a lucky man, reading your posts…

cobosyt | 11:01 am on the 29th of December, 2006
When using WIFI very frequently and when I’m calling (GSM), texting and gaming a lot (I don’t use UMTS/GPRS/VOIP or anything like that, only WIFI hotspots) I get two days easily.

Billy | 3:04 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
With heavy BB usage and 10-15 calls per day average 5 mins each mine will last 2-3 days, bearing in mind BB is push email, when used with Intellisync server(which is pull) battery time is severe down to 1 dayif lucky, Goodlink is another battery drainer 1 day again if im lucky. I also use wifi for various RSS and internet usage.

RFBakeruk | 8:40 am on the 29th of December, 2006
For me, it will last three days on a regular business day (though I usually charge it every 2 days)if I am pushing it. My regular business day including: BB e-mails, 4-5 phone calls per day on this phone, WIFI internet browsing plus listening for 1 hour of music or watching 1 hour of video (while in the subway). No 3G connection in my area. On the weekend (or during the Christmas holidays), the battery can actually last up to four days. I think listening to music (or watching video) plus the signal blackout in the subway (that drains battery to boost the reception) contributed heavily to the battery consumption.

Sam | 9:31 am on the 29th of December, 2006
I get about 7 days using Blackberry Connect, Music, daily voice and text….

Andrew | 1:21 am on the 29th of December, 2006
Mine will last 3 days with just few calls and one day for intensive use of GPRS, IM and some other apps.

Nicusor Ionita | 6:55 am on the 29th of December, 2006
i did not used to have issues with the battery until the wifi started acting funny, i.e. not connecting. So I turned off power saving on the wifi, and it worked fine once again, but now the battery goes very quickly if I’m using the wifi. I’m in korea, so that’s about all i use it for anyway–VOIP thru truphone, agile messenger, mobireader, and mp3. I charge it at least once a day. I hope the new 3.x firmware will eliminate the need to turn off power save.

bodybydada | 8:32 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
The main cause of short battery life may be the WLAN power save issue. Since I installed the new 3.x firmware I could turn on the power save and the battery lasts now 4-5 days (compared to the 2 days before) with intesive use (push, wifi, music). Hope this may help someone.

Angelo | 1:46 am on the 29th of December, 2006
I did a little testing (fiddling really) and here’s what I found for my case:

In my estimation, each of the following will cut your battery life in half:
1. Using Mail for Exchange “always on” direct push function 8-10 hrs a day.
2. Having a registered SIP Voip connection with WLAN for 8-10 hrs a day.
3. Using UMTS instead of GSM
4. If using UMTS, having the packet data connection always registered (even if not being used or “on”).
5. Using Mail for Exchange to poll the server at 15 minute intervals during a business day, and hourly during low traffic times.

I have a phone from 3 Sweden, SIM-locked, meaning that when in my home network, I have no choice, but to use UMTS (plus my data subscription does not cover 2G data and Blackberry is not available).

I estimated by extrapolation that I could get about 7 day’s of charge if I didn’t do any of the above. Being forced to use UMTS, if I go to Tools-Settings-Connections-Packet data and select “When needed” I can get up to 4 days’ charge. Relying on email and not having Blackberry service on my carrier’s network, I’m relegated to using the MfE profile above, which cuts me down to 2 days’ reliable charge (3 days pushing it). Because I want to be able to be reached on my SIP number certain hours, my charge is cut in half again to 1 day’s reliable charge (maybe 2 if I’m lucky). When I used direct push with MfE, I was lucky to get through an 8 hour day without charging.

So, if you can use GSM. If you can use Blackberry. If you can limit your use of SIP. If you use MfE, use 15 minute polling instead of always on. If you have to use UMTS, don’t have the packetdata connection always registered.

Some other tips: Use the plain vanilla screen saver – anything else is an app running in the background potentially making the idle period energy-saving ineffective. Don’t have your phone out checking for WLAN’s in the area (you generally know when it’s there where you need it). Also, I have a feeling that the 11 mbs wifi’s will drain less power compared to 54 mbs. If you use the latter, upgrade to v3 firmware and turn on power saving on the router. Also, make sure your wifi has good coverage when you use it (think about adding a router or repeater if not).

Quist | 4:14 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
How do you disable WLAN or have it so that it doesnt’ connect automatically to access points?

Jack | 11:53 am on the 29th of December, 2006
I am using my e61 a lot for reading ebooks and checking mail. I get 2 – 3 days until I have to recharge it. Although it seems for some of you not much, i think its awesome compared to my palm tungsten i had before. The palm , used for pretty much tHe same, never made it for a whole day.

Michel | 2:17 am on the 29th of December, 2006
If you don’t want your phone to go out and look for a WLAN every so often, you can go to Tools-Settings-Connection-Wireless LAN-Show availability and set it to never. Note that if you use a WLAN in an access point group, the phone automatically resets this setting to 10 minute intervals so it can know if you come within range of the access point.

In other news, I’ve heard of people who suddenly got excellent battery life despite SIP voip usage with the new v.3 firmware. Not having experienced that, I rerigged my wifi multiple times and only just noted that when I had accelleration turned on in the router that massive amounts of data traffic was constantly being sent to my phone.

Right now I’ve changed the tx power setting on the E61 to 10mw, have enabled power saving in the router and on the phone, and have turned off acceleration on the router (to just use the plain vanilla 54 mbs).

These acceleration settings are usually supplier dependant anyway, i.e. you buy a 54 mbs router that says it can get up to 125 mbs, that’s acceleration that can only be used together with the supplier’s own wifi client cards.

I’ll be testing the next couple of days and will post my results.

Quist | 2:04 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
Quist, let us know the details…

Pasha | 2:02 am on the 29th of December, 2006
Still in the middle of testing, but here’s my set up and preliminary results thus far:

Nokia E61 (unless stated values are standard settings)
* Firmware v.3.x
* Tx power: 10mW
* Power saving: Enabled
* Connecting to GizmoProject with SIP settings Auto for TCP/UDP 5060
* Always on connection

Some other apps running in the background that drain the battery are: Mail for Exchange v.1.5.0 always on UMTS/WCDMA connection with 15 min. heartbeat intervals, Fring connected to Skype and GoogleTalk on same connection, Ultimate Voicerecorder (in off-mode, but initiated).

Wifi network: Access Point U.S. Robotics Wireless MaxG Router model 5461A in a very densely populated area with up to 15 other AP’s within range (including one that is very strong, likely MIMO).

I have monitored the ether and found Channel 8 to be unpopulated, so my AP is set to that. Other settings are:
Wifi Multimedia enabled
APSD enabled
Power level 100%
802.11g performance with no automatic 54g protection
Supported rate Auto
Multicast rate Auto
Acceleration None
Beacon interval (see below, from 50-1000 ms)
RTS threshold 2347
Fragmentation threshold 2346
DTIM interval (see below, from 1-100)
Preamble Short

Security was originally set so that the AP did not broadcast the SSID and had WPA2 with TKIP/AES enabled. Now I’m trying the same, but with a broadcast SSID. No info on any differences.

Regarding my previous post I first set the beacon interval to 1000 ms and traffic to the phone was greatly reduced. If I had registered the SIP to Gizmo before the change, it maintained a connection, but calls to the phone often had to be made twice to get it to connect. Then I noticed that other apps could not even see the same wifi connection already open. Apparently a 1 second beacon is outside of the phone’s window to recognise an AP. Unregistering from Gizmo, I could then not see the AP again until I returned the beacon interval to 100 ms.

Upon further research I found out that DTIM is the setting that lets the device know when it can sleep and how long under power saving. The value is a multiplier of the beacon interval (e.g. a setting of 3 here and a beacon of 100 ms, means traffic to the device is held for 300 ms until it’s sent, the phone receives a ping every 300 ms that tells it if it must wake up and get ready to receive or if it can continue to sleep/idle). Setting this to 100 at beacon 100 ms meant that the phone wouldn’t ring for incoming calls or if it did it would ring after the caller had already been redirected to voicemail (e.g. caller rings at 00:00:00, phone doesn’t receive incoming data here until 00:00:10 at which time the call may have been dropped or forwarded to voicemail). Setting this DTIM to 1 with 100 ms solved the problem, but the battery still drained quickly (phone was getting pinged 10 times a second). Now I’ve set the beacon to 50 ms (to help the phone and my laptop have no problem finding and keeping the connection in a noisy/obstructed radio wave environment), but the DTIM interval to 3 (data held and only sent every 150 ms).

I’m still testing with this set-up, but it does seem to help a little. Although it’s set to 10mW the phone still gets warm quickly if I go to a place with more than a door or 1 wall in the line of sight.

The saga continues…

Quist | 9:47 am on the 29th of December, 2006
After looking into the Active Connections and watching the wifi traffic to/from the phone, I realized that setting the transmission power down from the defaul 100mW should not affect battery usage all that much in stand-by mode because very little data is transmitted from the phone. The vast majority of data comes from the router.
*** So I returned the settings back to default and turned on automatic. Loads of data continued to be sent to the phone, but the battery still seemed to retain a full charge. Then, after leaving the phone unattended for about 1hr I picked it up to find the battery entirely depleted.
*** Surfing around for more information I found Truphone’s tips helpful. What I’ve found so far is that when my router is set to 802.11g a great deal more traffic (in pings) are sent to the phone. I’ve also found that changing channels on the router to be as far away from any of my neighbours’ AP’s to be helpful (yesterday while testing I was getting voip leakage from someone elses conversation OTA nearby).
*** Admittedly, by changing my router settings I may be avoiding a bug or bugs in the router firmware with the previous settings, and repeated reboots of the phone may be avoiding memory issues with its firmware. Still so far, my new settings appear to have cut the standby data traffic to less than 1/4 of what it was. Moreover, my reception of incoming calls is vastly improved. If I find any anomalies in the next week, I’ll post again on my observations, but unless you hear from me, these settings appeared to have done the trick.
*** Here’s what I did:
1. Set the router to only use 802.11b.
2. Set the router beacon interval to 50 ms.
3. Set the router DTIM to 3.
4. Enabled Automatic Power Save Delivery on router.
5. Most important, observed the wifi ether around me and set my router channel to a channel as far as possible away from any AP’s I see.
6. On the phone, simply use the standard WLAN advanced settings.

Quist | 4:59 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
The settings above worked like a charm for approximately 8 hours (with an additional setting of always on for the Gizmo Sip registration), then for some reason the registered connection to Gizmo was lost and not re-established although the battery remained fully charged (not really, but according to the battery display).

Re-establishing the Gizmo registration, the connect automatically went into stand-by idle as it should until I received a GSM call a few hours later. Suddenly the Gizmo registration was lost, but the wifi connection remained and data pings started pouring into my wifi connection, the phone got warm and within minutes the battery charge was cut in half. Using the connection tools I successfully turned off the wifi connection, only to see it pop up again without any sip registration becoming active (or from appearances being attempted).

Rebooting the phone, I was directly able to reestablish a sip registration (process actually starts before SIM registration), but the data influx continued. Inspite of this massive amount of data flowing into the phone and a confirmed sip registration, incoming calls were not being received reliably (this at a router signal of 100%). No other routers in the neighbourhood were on a channel near mine either.

Apparently this behaviour is what is causing my battery to be depleted all of the sudden without warning. I am not sure whether its the router, the phone or Gizmo, but given the fact that it started with a GSM call to the phone, I’m guessing it’s a bug in the v.3.x firmware and/or conflicts with other apps running on the phone.

For the time being I have to put my efforts on ice. Fring fortunately reliably receives calls via UMTS/WCDMA (3G), so my Gizmo call-in number is forwarded there. Unfortunately Fring can’t match the quality of SIP over wifi (nor does it have a vibrating signal which is needed in noisy cosmopolitan environments), but at least I’ll have a chance at receiving my calls.

Quist | 4:46 am on the 29th of December, 2006
Strangely enough, if I use an Always on sip registration, the wifi connection never goes into idle (power save), registration can be lost and a new wifi link established without sip registration being done. The battery disappears in a couple of hours on this set-up.

* Stranger still, using when needed sip reg and manually registering to Gizmo sip, the registration and wifi link both go down at exactly 56 minutes and 38 seconds. Every time!

* Even stranger still, when I do succeed in getting the wifi to go into power save mode, if I have anything that keeps a live 3G connection up go on (like Mail for Exchange push mail or Fring), the wifi connection goes off of power save mode and drains my battery faster than you can say go.

– All this said, I would be a happy camper if like M4E I could set up schedule profiles on both Fring and the Sip client. That way I could time Fring to be on when M4E is on, using the 3G connection during the business day, and when they both go off peak mode at day’s end the Sip client would register to Gizmo.

– Oh well, so much for trying to use SIP on my E61 and thinking I would always be able to receive calls. Still good for making calls out, but it would’ve been nice to be able to use it like a home phone without having to hook it up to the charger all day long.

Quist | 6:17 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
I have now resolved my sudden battery drain issues. It appears to be caused by (1) the configuration of the network and (2) software conflicts on the phone.
(1) My first resolution was to rearrange my network so that the phone only connects to a router that supports APSD with only 1 jump to the Internet. My previous pathway was a connection to such a router, but a legacy router was another jump before reaching the Internet. This was causing incoming calls to occasionally time out, which also caused dead traffic being sent to the phone without the phone having a real call to answer. The result was a loop of constant traffic that didn’t allow the phone to resume power saving mode.
(2) Software conflicts with how fring accesses the network (and potentially Mail for Exchange) combined with having the phone’s sip client active with a registered sip connection. This was the most severe cause whereby a full battery could be drained within minutes, with massive amounts of traffic and processing going on, occasionally even after the wifi connection was disconnected. Fring admittedly is not certified on the E61, but I’ve found the sip voip client from Nokia to be buggy itself. Solution: before registering a sip client, make sure to exit fring if you use it. The same behaviour may present itself using an always-on M4E connection (if it has difficulty establishing a connection) – I have not been able to reliably confirm this as my M4E connection rarely has trouble nowadays, but given how the sip client handles other software making connections to either wifi and/or 3G, I wouldn’t be surprised.
- Lastly, I mentioned that fring is reliable, but that should be taken with a grain of salt. Occasionally they have server upgrades or issues that cause the connection to Skype et al to fail and the client at times does not recognize this and at times just closes itself. In general, however, I’ve found fring to work 90-95% of the time for both incoming and outgoing calls. Also, using a 3G connection fring does not drain the battery noticably compared to e.g. M4E and other apps.

Quist | 1:23 pm on the 29th of December, 2006
i have charging my nokia e50-1 bettery after fully charge,it takes me for only 5hours to get completely run out only after a few calls

KAMEL MOHAMMED AWAL | 4:51 am on the 29th of December, 2006
my last 3 good day eixcilent phone i used wifi listen to music went on lots of apps

taariq1234567 | 1:55 pm on the 29th of December, 2006

How long is your E61’s full-battery life?

37 Responses to How long is your E61’s full-battery life?

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