Possibly An Odd Cell Phone Battery Life Question

[jmetal88]

Is there a scientific reason that my cell phone battery doesn't last as long in Minnesota or North Dakota as it does in Oklahoma?

Just curious. I thought it was kind of weird that when I bought my cell phone in Oklahoma the battery lasted a week, then when I moved to Minnesota it lasted about 3 days, then when I moved back to Oklahoma again it went back to lasting a week, then when I moved to North Dakota it went back to lasting 3 days.

 

[fishybawb]

Did you make/receive more calls or play more of those exciting phone games when you were in Minnesota or North Dakota? It's either that or aliens.

 

[kevcal]

Could it be searching for compatible networks more often..
I'm not an expert by any means but I think if the phone is set to roaming it could be verifying multiple networks all the time (if you're in an area where there are many networks available). I know this was happening when I was in France, it kept swapping between networks and that affected battery life...
This could be all rubbish though .... :blink:

 

[fishybawb]

Could it be searching for compatible networks more often..
I'm not an expert by any means but I think if the phone is set to roaming it could be verifying multiple networks all the time (if you're in an area where there are many networks available). I know this was happening when I was in France, it kept swapping between networks and that affected battery life...
This could be all rubbish though .... :blink:

I think you're on to something there actually... When I visit my parents my phone's always displaying "Emergency calls only" because it can't find a signal, and the battery does seem to die more quickly now that I think about it.

 

[kevcal]

In fact are we talking 3G..?
Here's a link related to what I posted above:
http://www.cellphones.ca/cell-phones/reviews/40038/
Could try turning off 3G and see if that helps at all as well?

 

[nickspoon]

If a phone is close to a signal tower both the signal tower and the phone reduce signal power to conserve energy. If you're close to a tower, then your phone battery will last longer. The effect is more pronounced when you're in calls but it also happens when the phone is idle.

 

[jmetal88]

In fact are we talking 3G..?
Here's a link related to what I posted above:
http://www.cellphones.ca/cell-phones/reviews/40038/
Could try turning off 3G and see if that helps at all as well?



It isn't even close to 3G. It's your bog standard GPRS/GSM.

The phone I'm referring to is a Nokia 6010.

You could be on to something with the roaming part though, although where I've been it usually locks on to an Alltel tower and doesn't jump around networks much. I'm getting full bars right now. The phone is T-Mobile, by the way.

 

[Squidge]

Kinda what nickspoon says. If the cell phone tower masts are more populated, then you have a higher chance of being close to a tower, and that means your phone uses less power to talk to it (and so, longer battery life). The further away the tower, the more power is required to talk to it, and thus the less battery life.

Temperature also has effect, although I wouldn't have thought it would be that much difference to make the battery life difference you are stating.

 

[jmetal88]

Kinda what nickspoon says. If the cell phone tower masts are more populated, then you have a higher chance of being close to a tower, and that means your phone uses less power to talk to it (and so, longer battery life). The further away the tower, the more power is required to talk to it, and thus the less battery life.

Temperature also has effect, although I wouldn't have thought it would be that much difference to make the battery life difference you are stating.

I'm pretty sure the towers are more dense in Fargo than in Bartlesville.

Also, there's a pretty wide variation of temperatures in Oklahoma, and that doesn't seem to affect it, so I don't think that's it.

Perhaps it's just searching for a T-Mobile network all the time, since pretty much all there is up here is Alltel, even though it does successfully connect to the Alltel network.