šŸŖ« Battery life: how to troubleshoot?

Mudita Products
21

@mchodakowski when you write that you listen to podcasts- is this from a sideloaded app, like Spotify/Tidal? Or are you uploading audio files manually. I think that this might have an impact.

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22

It sounds like heā€™s been using AntennaPod and Pocket Casts (same as me). Agree, surely the process of streaming them is using the battery which is perfectly reasonable. The 5% per hour I mentioned is for streaming from sideloaded apps.

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23

so do you think Whatsapp drains the battery more than, say, Signal, Messenger? Or does it not matter?
Is there any possibility of the phone only receiving messages once an hour for example?

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24

Unfortunately I canā€™t comment as I havenā€™t installed other messaging apps. WhatsApp is by far what I care about most (in terms of messaging), so Iā€™m trying to decide if Iā€™m happy with the WhatsApp experience during my 14 day return window. Maybe others have experiences to share though.

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25

Thatā€™s surprising to see, I wouldnā€™t expect a messaging app to eat up whole battery. Reminds me of times when a PC messaging program back in the days got greater system requirements than Quake III at some point.
I feel urge to sideload WhatsApp and Signal but charging the phone more than once a week is something I hoped to avoid. This makes all optimization and e-ink efforts kinda futile when it comes to energy consumption.
Maybe Iā€™ll workaround by charging the phone whenever Iā€™m on the road, that should suffice. USB tethering instead of Wi-Fi hotspot should also contribute to battery %.

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26

Something important that I donā€™t think was mentioned is cellular signal strength. Even if your cell strength is 50%-75% it will drain that battery fast. Stay on WiFi and have full bars for a more accurate reading

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27

Hereā€™s my feedback for what itā€™s worth. I have both Signal & Whatsapp installed- as well a BRAVE browser. I do listen to podcasts & long-form articles on Mudita Kompakt- However, I upload the audio file to KOMPAT via my computer. If Iā€™m in a pinch- then I send the file to myself via WhatsApp from my laptop and then just downloaded from there.
Listening to my audio files & WhatsApp & Signal donā€™t really drain my battery.

28

With all the talk of Battery life I just wanted to remind that the ā€œ6 days of battery lifeā€ that people keep quoting from the specs is actually ā€œstandby timeā€ not normal usage time. So I would say that 2-4 days of normal usage probably makes sense and is not at odds with what Mudita claims for battery life.

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29

You could easily get 6 days of battery life without sideloading apps. Because nobody calls or sends SMS :smiley:

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30

Agree with you re: the standby time. My issue was, Iā€™ve been getting < 2 days despite not using the Kompakt as my main device. Was hoping there was a simple solution with diagnostics to just show me whatā€™s draining the battery.

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31

Iā€™m using AntennaPad and stream, most of the time via LTE.

32

Unfortunately, Iā€™m not familiar with that app- but that could be whatā€™s causing the issue. Itā€™s probably not optimized for eink and could be using a lot of battery, but, itā€™s hard to say for me.

33

Thatā€™s not my experience at all. I have 3 sideloaded apps & use it normally. However, Iā€™m not a huge phone user either.

34

@urszula:

  • Will the Kompakt have a dedicated Podcasts app eventually?

I apologize, if someone already has posted an answer to this question. I searched the Mudita Forum for an answer and did not find one.

Background:

  • I am switching from AntennaPod to your approach because AntennaPod stops playing a downloaded-to-AntennaPod podcast after about one minute after I lock the Kompakt.
  • The Music app today shows the podcast MP3 files that I put in the Podcasts folder on my Kompakt.
  • Unfortunately, the Music app today makes the spoken-word podcasts sound like chipmunks or squirrels at anything above x1 speed (unlike dedicated podcast players) ā€“ not to mention the fact that the Music app has no skip-back button or skip-forward button, which are both standard on podcast players.
  • And, the Music app cannot see a podcast MP3 file if I put it within a folder ā€“ dedicated to that podcast series ā€“ within the Podcasts folder on the Kompakt.
  • Plus, if one listens in the Music app to part of podcast A and then switches to start listening to podcast B and then returns to podcast A, the Music app starts over with podcast A. The Music app does not keep up with where we are in each podcast.
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35

In case you find it helpful, Iā€™m using Pocket Casts and it stops playing exactly 20 minutes after device lock. For me thatā€™s worth not having the issues mentioned in your post.

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36

Iā€™m currently having -102 dBm and 38 asu indoors. Kompakt showing 3 from 4 bars, iPhone showing 2 from 4 bars, same operator.

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37

@urszula:

  • Will the Kompakt have a dedicated Podcasts app eventually?
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38

Iā€™ve been roaming around the city, adjacent town and across the countryside and the best I could get, even standing tens of meters away from a cluster of several bts towers, was around -68 dBm. Most of the time it was -80 to -110. I think thatā€™s the norm because intended 4G/5G deployment density would be too expensive.
Phone calls themselves are in range of tens of kbps most likely so with such low signal, sending voice shouldnā€™t be a problem. If there was a lot of data, it could be slow = send longer or try to increase transmit power causing battery drain.
Iā€™m not 100% sure on that matter right now but battery drain with low signal is more likely noticeable when we talk about lots of data to be transmitted back and forth; not for voice or text, but perhaps for background operations of sideloaded apps.

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39

Right now, thatā€™s not something that we have made a decision on. However, we are looking at feedback from users to determine how we will move forward. We cannot promise anything, but we are making note of all the feedback that we receive.

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40

I did a test. I fully charged my Mudita at 06:20 AM CEST on Monday. We have 10:50 AM CEST on Thursday and I still have 25% left so it seems that one charging lasts for over 4 days for me.
My usage was:

  • I sideloaded some apps like e-mail or Messenger and I check them a few times a day.
  • I did WiFi-Hotspot for a couple of hours yesterday.
  • I have a few calls daily.
  • I used meditation app for 2 hours.
  • I spent ~30 min on Calendar app.

ā€¦ and some more small activities.
I keep mobile data and WiFi off when I donā€™t need it. I turn it on only when I want to check something.
4 days on one charging is a satisfying result for me.

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