[mjbanks]

My battery life on my Bold seems to have suddenly gotten horrible. I don't have anything running in the background other than the typical things that BlackBerry always runs (Browser, Phone, Home, Messages, BlackBerry Messenger). Running OS .190, have Bluetooth on all the time (but not connected to anything unless I'm in the car), WiFi is always off.

I charge my phone overnight and today I took it off the charger at 1pm ET (6.5 hours ago). After normal usage, I'm down to 50% battery. I used the phone for 10 minutes, did about 15 SMS, about 50 email, about 30 BlackBerry Messenger messages. That's it.

I'm thinking something has gone bad here. Should I take it back to Best Buy and have them swap the phone? I'm still within 14 days of purchase.

Thanks,
Matt

[JSanders]

There was likely something out of the ordinary, such as the browser on an active web page?

[mjbanks]

Web browser sitting at the Go To... page (where I always leave it). No apps are set to automatically update, etc.

[mayte]

I had a great loss of battery power yesterday after installing Google map.So I ran battery out completely,charged overnight,and today is back to normal.Drain the battery,recharge and you may be fine....

[mjbanks]

Originally Posted by mayte

I had a great loss of battery power yesterday after installing Google map.So I ran battery out completely,charged overnight,and today is back to normal.Drain the battery,recharge and you may be fine....

I'll give that a try. I've had Google Maps installed for a while but haven't used it. Also have Viigo, Poynt, Twitterberry, Facebook, and AP Mobile News installed. I set all of them (that have the option) to not run in the background and to not automatically update.

[mjbanks]

Went to Best Buy this morning and they replaced the phone. Got my BIS changed over to this device, now it's time to put .190 on here before I start to sync PIM data and such.

[tkao2025]

Don't have the BOLD yet, but could it be the .190 OS....I've read some negatives about it and have decided that when I get the phone will put .185 on instead.

[mjbanks]

Originally Posted by tkao2025

Don't have the BOLD yet, but could it be the .190 OS....I've read some negatives about it and have decided that when I get the phone will put .185 on instead.

I've heard nothing but good things about battery life compared to the shipped .167

[Serkle K]

Not sure if it's device specific, but IIRC if you have BT on all the time, w/o anything connected to it, it will keep searching for a device to connect to. That could be something contributing to the drain. I know it does on my current device, so when I turn my headset off, I have to switch BT off on my phone too.

[pizzaman383]

Wirelessly posted

I was in an area with no/weak coverage on Saturday. I made no calls but had wifi going. The battery was fully drained by 4:00 PM.

[mjbanks]

I have full 3G signal at my house and all around town where I go normally, so I don't think that's it.

[EricScott]

Originally Posted by Serkle K

Not sure if it's device specific, but IIRC if you have BT on all the time, w/o anything connected to it, it will keep searching for a device to connect to. That could be something contributing to the drain. I know it does on my current device, so when I turn my headset off, I have to switch BT off on my phone too.

Unless BT works differently on the Bold than it did on my Pearl I doubt this is the case. On my Pearl I did a few days of side by side tests comparing battery life w/ BT off vs. BT on (never actually connecting to anything) and they were virtually identical. Don't you actively have to pair devices on BT so it shouldn't always be searching for something. I leave my BT on all the time and only actually connect when I am in the car. Haven't tried it any other way on my Bold but would be curious if it really does impact your battery.

[Serkle K]

Again, I'm not sure if it is device spacific... I'm currently using a WM device. the original OS that shipped with my device had a horrible BT stack that actually helped out the battery life in the long run cause I could turn my head set off, and the BT stack would "drop" and not search. I have since upgraded the OS. (FFW a couple of years) As of lately, my battery life on my current device is getting worse and worse, so I now have to manualy turn it off... my last 2 phones had the option to always search/be found for BT range. So I know the battery life was affected by it. I'm not sure how BBs use the BT stack. They may very well have a "battery fail safe" of sorts to only connect to one device and only recognize when that device is in range.

Same thing goes for radio range. I live between 2 towers, one 3g the other edge, and it's constantly fighting to stay on one tower, and that too affects my battery life. So that argument could hold some merit. Even more so now, that the Bold is on a "3.5G" network. It is possible it could just take that much more to keep it on the 3G tower if you are in such range.

a few weekends ago, i put my SIM back into my old edge phone, for the weekend, and i used my 8525 just for the PDA. I turned off the cell radio and BT. I was able to get a full weekend out of it w/o a charge, but sunday night as soon as I put my sim back into it, and turned them both on, within an hour my battery was about dead.

[raven71]

Wirelessly posted (BOLD)

That's ok I just put the 185 system on at 9am and I am down to 45% already. I have used it no different then the last couple of days. With the original system I lasted all day and still was only at 35% by 2am from a whole day of use.
I see no great improvements in the 185 over the original one so I am going back if this keeps up.