Appaling battery life on my N95

[a_ukboy]

Ok, i have a N95, it was originally on Orange so i've unlocked it, de-branded it and installed version 20, now today i've taken my phone off charge at 6am, i've browsed the internet for 12 mins, made 19 mins of calls and sent 7 texts.. Now at 14:25 i have 2 bars of battery life left.. Not good, i use to have the N73 previously and thought that was bad enough, but this.. It aint gonna get me through the day on a single charge! Whats other peoples like?

[crewmeal]

Ditto, mine is exactly the same and if you use bluetooth for more than an hour the bars just drop.

I even bought a new genuine battery and it's the same. I don't think debranding has had any effect on it at all.

[a_ukboy]

Well, i may try locking to 2g during the day, when im home and near a charger pop it back to 3g, hopefully if its not always on 2g Three won't get the hump?

[candyman39]

mine will last 2 days if i turn it off during the night or it will last a day and through the night if i leave it on during the night, how did you charge the battery when it was new that can make a difference to the battery life? even if i use it at work to play mp3's all day which i requally do it will last the whole day then i charge it when i get home.

[crewmeal]

Living here in Jordan there is no 3g only 2g. Orange said charge the battery up for 18 hours when I took out the original contract last May. Nokia here said 3 hours for my new battery. Either way I don't think it makes any difference.

One thing to note is that sometimes when I am using wifi or bluetooth the battery starts to warm up. Nokia said this can affect the motherboard and cause it to be damaged. I usually do a reboot and it seems to settle down afterwards

[candyman39]

when the battery is new dont charge it strait away, you should only charge new batterys from completly flat. use it till the phone swiches itself off because there is no charge left in it at all. then fully charge it up. use the phone again till it does the same then charge again. do this the first 2 or 3 times you use it then charge it when the battery runs low. you will get more from the battery, and it will last longer if you do this. the battery wont last as long if you keep charging it when it is only half used.

[a_ukboy]

I thought you only had to do that with the old nicad batteries? Well i did what it said in the instruction manual and plugged it in till it was fully charged.. I've locked my phone to 2g today and will see how better it seems! The only thing i'll miss is the 3.5g..

[john316]

What firmware are you running? My V20 upgrade doubled my battery life!

[a_ukboy]

Version 20.0.015

Right again my phones been off the charger since 6am, its now 2pm.. Made 24 mins of calls, 15 mins web browsing.. I'm on this site via my phone, and sent 12 texts.. Still full battery! But then i have locked it to 2g..

[Homer J]

when the battery is new dont charge it strait away, you should only charge new batterys from completly flat. use it till the phone swiches itself off because there is no charge left in it at all. then fully charge it up. use the phone again till it does the same then charge again. do this the first 2 or 3 times you use it then charge it when the battery runs low. you will get more from the battery, and it will last longer if you do this. the battery wont last as long if you keep charging it when it is only half used.

This was true with NiCd batteries and to an extent with NiMh but is completely wrong with Li-ion

Lithium batteries prefer to be kept near full charge, the best thing to do with the N95 is get a desk charger and have it charging whenever you are at your desk.

[Rexton270]

This was true with NiCd batteries and to an extent with NiMh but is completely wrong with Li-ion

Lithium batteries prefer to be kept near full charge, the best thing to do with the N95 is get a desk charger and have it charging whenever you are at your desk.

Hi,where did u got this?

[Homer J]

Hi,where did u got this?

Here (http://blogn95.blogspot.com/2007/07/gentlemen-charge-your-batteries.html) and here (http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm).

[a_ukboy]

Ok, just thinking about this and on my N73 they're use to be a sleep mode, so after a certain time the screen saver would switch off and the screen goes blank, does the N95 not have the same function? I can't find it on mine, just a power save mode but that doesn't switch off the screen saver.

[Graffen]

The n95 does have a similar thing. My screen goes to screensaver after 30 seconds, then turns the screen off after a further minute.

[Peter321]

You may want to install the Nokia Profiler app to check how much power your phone is using at a given time - it might give you an indication on what is using up all your power.

http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/a584ef84-3922-4992-a89d-590231235911/Nokia_Energy_Profiler_v1_0_en.zip.html

[Graffen]

I personally have found that the battery icon on the sceen doesn't go down in a linear fashion. The first two bars seem to go pretty quick while the last two tend to last for ages.

Over the new year I was stuck at work with no computer/internet access and I relied on my n95 classic to get my internet and games fix. Added into that about an hours worth of phone calls and a couple dozen texts the phone lasted for about 15-16 hours before a low battery warning came up.

During a normal days usage I've never had the phone die on me with a dead battery.

The n95 battery although not the best battery out there is still usable.

[Peter321]

I agree, it's actually OK - sometimes it can die quickly, but that's usually because something is running in the background sucking up power - so it's a good idea to use the Energy Profiler app to check usage if you experience problems - that way you can get a better feeling for what apps or activities are using the most power.

I must say that after FW20 I'm VERY happy with my N95 "classic".

[pa49]

when the battery is new dont charge it strait away, you should only charge new batterys from completly flat. use it till the phone swiches itself off because there is no charge left in it at all. then fully charge it up. use the phone again till it does the same then charge again. do this the first 2 or 3 times you use it then charge it when the battery runs low. you will get more from the battery, and it will last longer if you do this. the battery wont last as long if you keep charging it when it is only half used.

I really have trouble believing that this sort of advice is still being offered on this forum!
A simple search will pull up any number of threads about this subject most including me banging on about charge your batteries as often and for as long as you can in order to maximise their capacity.
But hey a simple search is too simple?

[superseagull]

out of desperation i have been trying a no-name 1800mah battery for a fiver off eBay, and after a couple of weeks am pleasantly surprised that is gives me around an extra hour on my GPS test which usually eats my 1000mah original nokia battery within around 2.5 to 3 hours.

it's early days but looking good so far - i will post an update after more testing assuming i don't blow myself up first!

onwards & upwards!

Forgot to mention that the 1800mah battery fits the phone battery compartment and does not add bulk to your n95 like the 3000mah battery mentioned in another post :-)

[a_ukboy]

The n95 does have a similar thing. My screen goes to screensaver after 30 seconds, then turns the screen off after a further minute.

Really? mine don't do that, the screen saver just stays up!! maybe thats why the battery drains so quickly..

Can't find a setting for this, only the screensaver setting, was called sleep mode on my n73

[Graffen]

Have you checked that there isn't any applications running in the background that you might not be aware of?

Another thing to check is things like the inbuilt email client has settings where it attempts to auto-check or auto-retrieve email. Check other programs that might want to connect to the internet periodicaly (sp?).

Just noticed that you mentioned that you are on 3. If I remember correctly from when I was with 3 a year or so ago, their data connection was on permanently. If this keeps dropping and trying to reconnect, that could explain your battery drain as well.

[scruffs]

i am on my second n95 now, i upgraded the firmware on both, the newer phone i can easily get a day and half and the older a little over a half a day, the firmware is the same and applications are the same, but the biggest difference i can see is when you run nss that the hardware codes are different, so i take the newer n95 has a hardware change/tweak.

[a_ukboy]

Have you checked that there isn't any applications running in the background that you might not be aware of?

Another thing to check is things like the inbuilt email client has settings where it attempts to auto-check or auto-retrieve email. Check other programs that might want to connect to the internet periodicaly (sp?).

Just noticed that you mentioned that you are on 3. If I remember correctly from when I was with 3 a year or so ago, their data connection was on permanently. If this keeps dropping and trying to reconnect, that could explain your battery drain as well.

No other things running, i always exit applications and have no email clients set up, the only email i use is the googlemail application, but that never checks on ots own, also my data connection only starts up when i tell it too, the data connection symbol goes when i exit Opera, or planet 3 etc...

I just thought the battery would be at least as good as my n73

[ahus98]

I think with such horrible battery life really sucks, even if nokia gave everyone a free second battery, thant wouldn't be good enough as who wants to carry around a second battery, it sucks absolutely & i will probably never pay for another nokia product again because of this, i will still use nokia but i'll not be funding them to do this nonsense.

I think there is some fault with their battery indicator bar, or perhaps they programmed it to lie. I find the battery power will remain on full bars through quite a lot of use throughout the day but the minute the bar drops 1, you best prepare to hear your phone beeping cause of low power within an hour of use. I personally need about 2 charges per day when using services, 1 per day on lite usage.

:dead:

[a_ukboy]

Ok, i may have found a solution, but its gonna make the back of the phone more bulkier.. Looking on good old ebay last night i found batteries for the N95, this one was a 3000mah capacity battery, and of course as it won't fit where the normal 950mah fits it comes with a new battery cover.. I know that most people will hate the fact that the phone will basically have a bulge at the back, i think i could possibly live with that, and with 3 times the normal capacity then i may even be able to watch my Slingbox on it too? I have checked what other ebayers have said about that particular product and the all seem really happy with it :-) if it don't work then it was only a tenner! Was considering buying the N95 8gb battery as apparently thats a slightly bigger capacity battery and fits the phone too.. Will post how it goes! As for today, i'll have to lock it to 2g, Sorry Three!

[ez2remember]

Ok, i have a N95, it was originally on Orange so i've unlocked it, de-branded it and installed version 20, now today i've taken my phone off charge at 6am, i've browsed the internet for 12 mins, made 19 mins of calls and sent 7 texts.. Now at 14:25 i have 2 bars of battery life left.. Not good, i use to have the N73 previously and thought that was bad enough, but this.. It aint gonna get me through the day on a single charge! Whats other peoples like?

Sounds like a faulty battery to me. The n95 battery is poor but from what I remember it lasts a lot longer than that. On average it will last about a day.

On the topic of hunch back batteries, the one advertised on eBay is false... It's not 3000mah. I have exactly the same one which had a honest quote of 1350mah when I bought it from another eBayer. It lasted about twice as long as the original.

If you can modify the BL-6F battery it should fit. Do a search for it as I've attempted to try this before I sold my original n95.