Comments on: How long is your E61’s full-battery life? http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html My way on using wonderful Nokia gadgets Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:20:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Quist http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24519 Quist Sun, 04 Mar 2007 21:23:42 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24519 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. 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.

]]> By: Quist http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24342 Quist Thu, 01 Mar 2007 02:17:34 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24342 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. 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.

]]> By: Quist http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24259 Quist Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:46:32 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24259 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. 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.

]]> By: Quist http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24227 Quist Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:59:48 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24227 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. 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.

]]> By: Quist http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24208 Quist Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:47:07 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24208 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... 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…

]]> By: Pasha http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24188 Pasha Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:02:15 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24188 Quist, let us know the details... Quist, let us know the details…

]]> By: Quist http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24171 Quist Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:04:45 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-24171 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. 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.

]]> By: Michel http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-23562 Michel Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:17:10 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-23562 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. 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.

]]> By: Jack http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-23312 Jack Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:53:11 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-23312 How do you disable WLAN or have it so that it doesnt' connect automatically to access points? How do you disable WLAN or have it so that it doesnt’ connect automatically to access points?

]]> By: Quist http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-22754 Quist Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:14:15 +0000 http://www.nokme.com/how-long-is-your-e61s-full-battery-life-103.html#comment-22754 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). 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).

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