Cell Phone battery power vs. Signal Strength (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

For some reason I can't post my long post here - I'll try again later :frowning:


EDIT:

For Easter, my family went to my Aunt's house all day. They live in a HORRIBLE cell phone reception area and basically no one can get a signal there.

After being there several hours, my mom shows me her phone and the battery is completely dead. She kept insisting that she just charged the phone and that she had a full battery when she left the house.

Being skeptical of her claim, I pulled out my cell phone and put my battery into her cell phone. Her cell phone worked, so I concluded that the battery was dead. She was all like "But it was completely charged!!!"

I didn't know what to say and figured that maybe her battery was no good and she needed to bring it back to the store.

BUT! When I looked at my phone, my battery was half dead. I charge my phone every night and never have anything less than full bars on my battery. I hadn't used my cell phone all day and in fact, I had pulled the phone off the charger at 2pm, so it's not like it wasn't plugged in all day (i.e. it was half dead at like 5pm - - only 3 hours after being completely charged).

The only thing I could think of is, I wonder if it had anything to do with the crappy cell phone signal? Is it possible that since the cell phone wasn't getting a good singal, the cell phone had to work harder because it was constantly looking for a signal? That would explain why my battery was half dead and my moms was completely dead.

I recharged my phone last night and it's been off the charger for almost 8 hours now and the battery is completely charged, so there's nothing wrong with my battery.


???????

 

[Lew Crippen]

Strange indeed Mark. I could read the beginning of your post when I ran my cursor over the thread (the previews feature), but when I tried to load your post, I went straight to a reply panel.

BTW, most cellphones in a low signal area often try to find a better cell—and they keep trying. The continual searching takes more power than staying on one cell.

 

[MarkHastings]

Yeah, it originally posted, then disappeared.

 

[MarkHastings]

That's what I thought. Damn! How come I can post these messages but not my original one????

 

[Holadem]

Well, post the original one as a reply. Stranger things have happened on AHL.

--
H

 

[MarkHastings]

I've been trying to post as a reply too. It previews it, but it won't actually post it...

 

[MarkHastings]

What the hell, I can't even post a link to a web page that has my post in it - but I can post these short blurbs???? ACK!

 

[MarkHastings]

Well, I was finally able to post my original response. Check out the first post....

 

[Mark Paquette]

It's been my experience that a cell phone will use more battery power when in a low/no signal area. I can speculate as to the reasons why, but I have no actual facts to back it up. You can try the juveniles over at Howard Forums .

 

[Bob Graz]

Analog roam takes a lot of power. If signal was weak and it automatically went to analog roam, that would explain the quick drain on the battery.