I admit I have only had my evaluation unit for a few days so I have been hesitant to make any bold statements about the battery life so far. I have been seeing better battery life than I did with the N80ie and even with lots of use I can count on the N95 lasting me most all day, knowing that I'll have to charge it each night. I accept the fact that I have to pretty much charge all my mobile devices each night, but the amazing camera, good media player, integrated GPS, VoIP support, and so much more is worth the trade-off for a device that lasts a day.

I do hope that Lion battery or Proporta come out with an extended battery though so I can go longer when traveling. The Proporta USB mobile charger is a great companion to the N95 in the meantime.

Unless I am wrong Steve, you only made 7 minutes of calls in your working day? Some reports I have seen are claiming that it is voice calls that are killing the battery in particular.

I haven't had my N95 long enough to get into a routine yet but I am taking the same steps I do for any gadget: USB charger (usb to power socket connector) so I can use a computer or my solar charger to charge, car charger, adapter so I can use older Nokia chargers if pushed (in most offices I visit someone has a Nokia) and I will be ordering a couple of batteries and desktop charger so I can swap out batteries and charge out of the phone.

Yes I know it would be far better if I didn't need to do this but I am just accepting what I have, remembering how lucky I am to have the N95 and ensuring I have options. I am looking to the future when emerging energy crisises mean a leap in battery technology.

I haven't got in to a routine with the N95 yet either, though I have been fairly impressed with it so far. I have not made many voice calls but have been taking pictures, watching videos and playing games and the battery has been very good overall.

disable unregistered comments.

If only they could squeeze in the E61 battery. I do hope people still follow the initial charging and discharging cycle when the get the new handset. It helps in the long run.

So on 2G, you clocked up just 7 minutes of talktime?

... and it almost exhausted the phone. 3G calls sap the battery really quickly. This confirms that the critics are correct, and Nokia underspecified the battery.

I'd like to see a proper "real world" test on 3G please: more voice, less futzing - but Steve has just persuaded me not to get one. :icon13:

Its not 3G calls that sap the battery (although they do use a bit more power). Its the switching between 2G and 3G cells and the seeking of cells that causes the 'use in GSM only mode' recommendation.

Personally I have mine in dual mode and get much the same pattern as Steve. In my case - yesterday - there was no GPS or video usage but about an hour ot talk time.

I'm using my phone for about 10 min of calls, 5 texts and 10 min surfing every day. I still believe that I can get at least 3 days battery life from this phone? I don't have the N95 yet but am I right? I don't use my GPS and camera and all that stuff an ordinary day.

Johan

It's unlikely you'll get three days out of an N95. I reckon two days at the most, but if you're not using the Web browser, GPS, Wi-Fi and so on very much, why buy one at all?

Actually, I think the usage in the test is MUCH heavier that most real life N95's will see after the initial exitement of the owner wears off and they go back to their normal usage patters. My pure guess is that even most N95 owners will not use the web that much, will not take many pictures each day, may not ever sync it with their PC in the end etc. Many many people will buy the N95 so that they have that ability there if they ever happen to want to use it (but won't, much), to be on the "edge", to have the bragging rights at the pub with buddies and for many other irrational reasons. Don't we all have things we bought just because it was so frigging cool but ended up not using it much? :) Well, maybe not us on this forum, right? :)

viipottaja

While it may be true to an extent that you are more likely to use a phone heavily when it is new and you are trying many of the features out, a lot of people do actually use the features regularly.

I don't think the N95 is totally groundbreaking, it simply strives to do a lot of functions that other phones have but better. I don't feel it is on the "edge". It is a highly specified phone and ultra-converged though little about it is truly unique.

I use the standard features that are in most phones these days such as recording video, taking pictures, listening to music and making calls on a daily basis. I also play a fair few games and surf occasionally on it - usually just for news or train and film times since I am never too far away from my laptop or a computer.

I have also set my laptop up as a media server and regularly transfer files to and fro.

I would consider this heavy use and the N95 lasts the day, usually on 1 or 2 bars by the evening. I don't think this is bad going for such a small battery.

Here's hoping for a larger capacity one though soon. Personally, I feel the phone is quite light and wouldn't mind it being a little deeper and taller to accommodate a larger battery.

I think it's somewhat of a joke to say if you do with your N95 what a typical dumb phone from 3 years ago could do, you get comparable battery life. The fact is if you buy a N95 it's to use all or most of its features. If by using most of the features leaves you with around 2 days of battery life, well it's just not that great. Of course this phone is gonna be demanding on battery life and there isn't much of a solution around that sort of making the phone much bigger to get more batteries in there, but let's not kid ourselves that this is acceptable battery life just because if you turn everything off it will last a good amount of time.

Why turn 3G off? Steve doesn't live in the third world...

I've not noticed any discernable differences in battery life with 3G on or off with any recent S60 phones in (sometimes heavy) European usage.

Perhaps toggling back and forth between 2G and 3G cells uses a little more power, but I reckon the shorter periods of data usage due to the faster 3G data rates will more than make up for that.

I can flatten the E61's battery in well under a day, and no-one's ever complained that the E61 battery is under-specced, and personally I'm not complaining either, I know my phone usage patterns are frequently atypical.

I'm sure these debates are raging all over the web. I don't think it is a joke at all. All that power and flexibility packed in to such a small and light form factor is very impressive and there has to be some compromise.

Talktime is comparable to other models with fewer features if you consult Nokia's (or any other mobile manufacturer's) website. As a music player, it lasts around 12 hours, It can play video for 3-4 hours and be on standby doing a few tasks on and off for a couple of days.

I think this is absolutely fine for now and things are bound to improve if users demand it. I'm sure Nokia are aware of the battery life but had to make a compromise somewhere. I am glad less effort went in to the battery than the features though! Perhaps this is why the N95 comes with such a compact charger.

I am surprised that there is not yet a desk stand, however, though one is most likely on the way. Charging at home on the evening and being able to charge at work if necessary will be great and cure this problem. If you are regularly away from power sources and need to make a lot of calls you should buy a different phone or purchase a spare battery!

One beneficial side effect(!) of the smaller battery is that it takes hardly any time to charge up. Certainly less than an hour from scratch, making it good for the odd quick splash and dash....

8-)

Steve

Can anyone give me a clue to actual call time. I use push email all day long and make about 4.5 hours calls, some via BT and use the internet for maybe 30-60 minutes a day and perhaps listen to music for 30 minutes on my Win Mo handset and it will die after about 9 hours. How would the N95 stack up with that sort of usage?

Ah! I got my hands on an N95 today for the first time! I compared my E61 battery to the N95's and was amazed at how much larger the E61's is! Does anyone know what the difference is? I know the N95 is 950mh - what is the E61? From its size, it seems a lot more powerful.....

Funny that, I just yesterday wrote about the battery life of my Nokia N95: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/04/...-battery-life/

My uptime only lasts 9 hours and I only have made 2 minutes of calls and taken 3 photo's.....however, I do have roadsync running checking for email every 15min. I wonder if this is killing the battery or it could be A2DP as I had 2 bars left and I listened to music for 1/2 hour and the battery was dead.

RoadSync/push email affecting battery life? Yes, that's a good bet. Any third party apps left doing stuff in the background will hammer battery life on any smartphone. The 950mAh has got to go somewhere, the N95's not frittering it away needlessly. If you're not using it explicitly, there are a number of background activities which all help drain it.

And yes, Rafe, can we *please* disable unregistered comments, I think the trolls are back. If anyone's got criticisms, please at least log in and back up your comments with details on connections/background apps etc.

Steve

Ok, no excuses now, I have a login. The above quote is mine, if that makes any difference.
The above info is accurate. I had no other apps running, no gps, no bluetooth, the only activity as above.
What I got in terms of usage is:
- 25 mins talktime
- 1 hour browsing
- about 10.5 hours of standby.
That is rubbish, in my opinion

"Ok, no excuses now, I have a login. The above quote is mine, if that makes any difference.
The above info is accurate. I had no other apps running, no gps, no bluetooth, the only activity as above.
What I got in terms of usage is:
- 25 mins talktime
- 1 hour browsing
- about 10.5 hours of standby.
That is rubbish, in my opinion"

Chag - Your right it is rubbish. Do you want to sell me your phone ;)

Just out of interest was the surfing over 3g or WiFi?

My experience using the N80 is that the battery life is not that good but on the up side phone chargers are light and small and the batteries are very small and cheap. It pays to keep both close.

>>"The above info is accurate. I had no other apps running, no gps, no bluetooth, the only activity as above.
What I got in terms of usage is:
- 25 mins talktime
- 1 hour browsing
- about 10.5 hours of standby.
That is rubbish, in my opinion"

Doesn't sound right, I have to say. Unless you were in a poor network signal area and the device was having to work hard?

FWIW, after another day's data on my N95, during which I did about 15 mins of calls, 30 mins of voice-guided, screen-on GPS navigating and 20 minutes of video recording - and I still had three bars on the N95 when I got home at the end of the day. And it recharged fully in about 25 minutes. FWIW, I'm very happy with my N95 and can live with the idiosyncrasies that we've found so far.

Steve

Steve,
Ah, that's interesting. My browsing was during 4 hrs train journey. Non wifi. Would that account for the drain? It'd be interesting if you could compare your usage to one involving a train journey.
Trouble is, that's when I need to browse, to eliminate boredom.

Steve,
Ah, that's interesting. My browsing was during 4 hrs train journey. Non wifi. Would that account for the drain? It'd be interesting if you could compare your usage to one involving a train journey.
Trouble is, that's when I need to browse, to eliminate boredom.