In a tech driven world, we use many devices with batteries. These devices have a battery life for how long you can use them before you need to recharge them. The problem is the measurement for battery life doesn’t account for use cases.
I purpose a better way for measuring battery life using four different use cases:
Ultra Light
Light
Medium
Heavy
Before diving into the break down of the use cases, let us go over the absolute rule that must be followed when measuring for the testing.
Rule:
Must be done after a dry cycle recharge. The dry cycle is where you’ll use the device right to the point of %5. Turn the device off. Fully charge. Then unplug to start the test.
Next let us go over the how:
Stop watch/timer
Pen and paper - can not use the device to measure. Record the Percentage of battery life along with the time since unplugged.
Run device through a use case till it hits 5% on battery life Record the time.
This should give you a better idea as to what your battery life will be when using the device.
For Laptop and Chromebooks, put it in sleep mode when not in use.
On to use case break down:
Ultra Light
Brightness set to 40%
One Tab - For Web Surfing [If you are measuring for laptops or tablets.]
Blue Tooth off
4G/3G and Wi Fi off on Cell Phones, Tablets, and Ereaders.
Light
Brightness set to 50%
Two Tabs. One is streaming music.
Blue Tooth off
Wi Fi on [ For ereaders and cellphones.]
Medium
Brightness set at 50%
Four tabs. One will be streaming music, except when watching the videos. Watching 4 30 minute videos.
Streaming Music - For 2 hours on phone and watch 2 ten minute videos.
Blue Tooth is on for phone - can use blue tooth devices with it for the time listening to music and watching videos.
Heavy
Brightness still set at 50%
For Laptops - Convert a 2 hour 1080p video using handbrake to an mp3 file, Play an Online MMO for 2 hours [I recommend warframe], Watch Two 2 hour films from your preferred streaming service. For the rest of the time have 8 tabs open, Listen to music in one of them, Multitask with the others.
For Chromebooks - Watch Four 2 hour films from your preferred streaming service. For the rest of the time have 8 tabs open, Listen to music in one of them, Multitask with the others.
For Phones - Watch Two 2 hour films from your preferred streaming service. Stream music for 8 hours.
On the Subject of Screen Brightness:
While you can use screens with less or more brightness than 40%-50%, it isn’t always ideal to do so. The number for the Percent was tested in a dark room to see what would be ideal in a no light situation. In cases greater than ultra light, it was determined 50% would likely be used because you’d be using the device for a longer period of time.
Example of this Standard in practice:
Nokia 6.1 - Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery
-
Ultra Light Usage
Thursday Jan 24, 2019 Phone was Fully Charged at 19:00:00.000 EST At which time it was unplugged.
Wednesday Jan 30 2019 Phone reached 5% at 17:58:21.055 EST at which time it was plugged in to recharge.
Result of Ultra Light Usage: Battery life is 5 days 21 hours 58 minutes 21.055 seconds -
Light Usage
Wednesday Jan 30 2019 Phone was Fully Charged at 19:30:28.024 At which time it was unplugged.
Sunday Feb 3 2019 Phone reached 5% at 17:42:10.522 EST at which time it was plugged in to recharge.
Result of Light Usage: Battery life 3 days 22 hours 12 minutes 10.522 seconds -
Medium Usage Test
Saturday Feb 9 2019 Phone was Fully Charged at 18:31:00.000 EST at which time it was unplugged.
Tuesday Feb 12 2019 Phone reached 5% at 21:30.41.214 EST at which time it was plugged in to recharge.
Result of Medium Usage Test: Battery life 2 Days 21 hours 59 minutes 41.214 seconds
- Heavy Usage Test
Saturday Feb 23 Phone was fully charged at 08:00:00.000 EST at which time it was unplugged.
Sunday Feb 24 Phone reached 5% at 18:14.32.115 EST at which time it was plugged in to recharge.
Result of Heavy Usage Test: Battery Life 1 day 10 hours 14 minutes and 32.115 seconds.
The Challenge
Run these tests on your own devices and then post your results.
Rules for this Thread
You can discuss the results of test here.
You do not have to measure out to the second in your test or post them in your results.
When you post your test results include the Milli-Ampere Hour and battery type, the only device that is the exception to this are ereader devices.