phone review: battery

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Update (31-Jan-2014)

Great news - Installing Sailfish 1.0.3.8. Naamankajärvi fixes the NFC bug. For those who did the mask-workaround for better battery life: Jolla has confirmed that tohd.service can be left masked while updating system. This means that you can remove the mask either before installing the update or afterwards. Personally I'm leaving it on at this point, as I have no use for TOH connection yet. To enable the connection with your Other Half again (removing the workaround), here's a detailed HowTo

Sailfish 1.0.3.8 also changes the way of The Other Half connection. When attaching TOH, the ambience changes only if it's marked as a favourite, or in the first time when TOH is connected.

Original article 22-Dec-2013

After 90 reports posted with User Report Tool, and 10 more received directly from friends, I've managed to estimate some power consumptions of most elements in Jolla. A big THANKS for everyone in the community for using the report tool - this would have been a slow (or impossible) project without your help.

In general Jolla's hardware parts have a reasonable power consumption, especially those in the Qualcomm chip (processor, connectivity, graphics, memory handling). The main problem is Jolla's NFC connection with The Other Half - that's quite a power sucker, considering it seems to be on all the time. It actually seems to reduce Jolla's standby hours from max 500h to poor 48h. Removing The Other Half, ~~or the white chip inside it~~ (Update, see comments) fixes the problem. We don't want to do that! Unfortunately there's no setting for turning the NFC off, but maybe after this article Jolla start to work to offer us one. NFC connection sucks the battery about 2% per hour.

As usual in modern smartphones, the screen is the biggest power sucker, also in Jolla. Jolla's IPS LCD screen is worse than some OLED screens used in other models, sucking the battery 5% - 10% per hour. Recommended to use dark tone ambiences and as low screen brightness as reasonable.

Then comes the graphic chip, processor and data transfer - but as already said, Qualcomm has actually done a very good job with these in their Snapdragon 400 chip which Jolla is using. Anyway they matter, so if you really want to see the percentages drown, try playing a powerful online 3D game with full screen brightness.

Below, power consumption in different cases is listed as percentage/hour & the usability time

Jolla's battery life in varying scenarios

Screen OFF, all connections (including mobile network) OFF, The Other Half removed:
consumption 0,2% per hour, max 500h standby time
Screen OFF, all connections (including mobile network) OFF, The Other Half attached:
consumption 1,7-2,5% per hour, average 48h standby time
Screen OFF, mobile network ON, other connections and accounts off
consumption 1,7-2,8% per hour, average 43h standby time
Screen OFF, mobile network ON, WLAN ON, some accounts synching data
consumption 2,4-4,6% per hour, average 30h standby time
(depends a lot of the amounts of data transfered)
Phone in normal use, including some screen using, phone calls, data transfer
consumption 3,6-14,3% per hour, variance 7-28h usability time
(normal use varies a lot, as you can guess)
Phone in continuous use, screen staying ON at low brigtness
consumption 5,9-14,3% per hour, variance 7-17h usability time
(unfortunately, the reports didn't include what kind of screen use (video/3D gaming/static img)
Phone in continuous use, screen staying ON at high brigtness
consumption 10,0-30,5% per hour, variance 3-10h usability time
(lowest usability time reported playing Angry Birds)

The effect of NFC connection with The Other Half

Above, the 4th dot is maybe the best to describe the normal standby hours of Jolla, so let's calculate some more with that. NFC itself, when in use, eats the battery with a speed of 2% per hour. Using this value we can calculate that the stanby time of 30h mentioned above, or 20-40h variance of it, would rise to 38-250h when removing The Other Half.

To confirm this result

This result is based on only 4 tests where The Other Half was removed, two of them done myself. At the very moment I'm running my third test with even SIM card removed, and after 13h my battery shows 98%. Anyway, for even more reliable confirmation, I've added the selection to the last page of User Report Tool. Now I wish that many of you will reports new test results with The Other Half removed. To people who have already sent reports: It would be ideal to repeat the test with exactly the same other settings (please mention this in comments when posting).

Thanks to the community

As mentioned, this finding wasn't possible without the great community work of several Jolla owners. Special thanks to jollatides.com & jollasuomi.fi for sharing the User Report Tool for their readers.

Forwarding the information

I've sent a link to this article and to the user reports data to Jolla customer care. Answers will be commented to here, if I get one and if it's ok for them - maybe they will also confirm the problem.

In the end, I hope our great community work, multiple user reports and this article will help the whole community to have, in time, even a better phone. We are Unlike! Thanks once again!

UPDATE, Picked up from comments: Two possible workarounds (Software solution and Hardware solution) until Jolla comes up with a Sailfish hotfix

A) Software Solution with developing tools

(Please check Important below before you start )

Go to Settings -> Developer Mode
Enable developer mode. Enable SSH connection.
Enter or generate a new password after SSH. Remember it and Save.
Reboot the phone, open Terminal (Terminal becomes a visible app after enabling developer mode)
In the terminal, write the bolded commands exactly as here and press enter after each row:

devel-su
(your password) <- note: password is written invisible (you don't see your input). When your password is accepted, $ mark changes to #, telling you that you're in developer superuser mode. Go on with:
systemctl mask tohd.service
systemctl stop tohd.service
exit
exit
With the first exit you leave the developer superuser mode (# changes back to $). Second exit closes the whole terminal, and everything is done. Your phone will not establish connection to The Other Half any more, not even after reboot, and your idle battery use is 10% of what it used to be. (If you want your phone to connect TOH after reboot, leave the row with word "mask" unwritten)
To enable connection again and return everythihg as it was, open terminal and write:

devel-su
(your password) <- note: password is written invisible (you don't see your input)
systemctl unmask tohd.service
systemctl start tohd.service
exit
exit
Extra: In any time you can check the status of your connection to The Other Half. You can do it either in devel-su mode (#) or in basic mode ($) with this command:

systemctl status tohd.service

Important: Playing with developer mode might affect to your phone's warrantly. These commands are tested by several users and they don't seem to break anything, but writing something else might - so please doublecheck every letter before pressing enter. Everything you enter in the developer mode is in your own responsibility. If unsure, use the HW solution written below (after terminal images)

Note: There has been some testing going on with disable / enable commands also. They might work, even as good, and they can be tested as well. However I would recommend the masking procedure above, as otherwise the system is left a change to enable connection later for other reasons (if there are any, I don't know), or the system halts in cases where it excepts that tohd isn't disabled. Commands instructed above (5) should give a working, permanent solution, which will last until commands (6) is given.

Image 1, Jolla terminal: TOHD checking, masking, stopping and checking again. Note one typo in "service". Note also that the exit written only exits the devel-su mode (# -> $). Second exit entered would close the app. Click twice for full size img.

Image 2, Jolla terminal after REBOOT: checking, failing to start (in testing purpose) and finally starting TOHD.

B) Hardware solution with foil

Reboot your phone without The Other Half. (For testing in the end: Change your ambience)

Cover the NFC chip with a suitable piece of tin foil.(3 layers is found to be enough)

Attach The Other Half. (To be sure the tin foil is in place, your ambience shouldn't change now.)

Both of these solutions fixes the battery drain problem (tested). I recommend the upper, but if writing to a Sailfish terminal scares you a bit, just go with the HW solution. It should work as well, if there's enough foil. You might also just wait for a while, as reading the comment below written by Harri Hakulinen (Chief engineer at Jolla) we can guess that the hotfix won't take forever. Isn't it just great how Jolla community and Jolla the company can do things faster together? Now let's give them and ourselves a well earned Christmas holidays, and let's be patient while waiting for the Sailfish update fixing the problem.

Link to mobile view for Jolla Sailfish browser (browser is not automatically recognized yet):
http://reviewjolla.blogspot.com/2013/12/jolla-howto-workaround-for-battery-life.html?m=1

After publishing an article about finding the NFC bug, lot's of users have tested workarounds to fix the bug. The software solution given there is now confirmed as safe, so I share it again in this detailed HowTo. Workarounds like this remains the only change for users to extend their battery life for normal level, as the next Sailfish update 2, version 1.0.2.5 does not offer a fix the this bug yet, but an update is on it's way:

@zlatkoe @SimoRuoho ETA for NFC hot fix is second week of January. This time we need to make sure that it really works ..
— Harri Hakulinen (@HarriHakulinen) December 27, 2013

To enable developer superuser mode in Jolla

Go to Jolla Settings -> Developer Mode
Enable developer mode. Enable SSH connection.
Enter or generate a new password (options are visible after SSH). Remember it and Save.
Reboot your phone

After steps above, your phone has a new app called Terminal in the laucher view. Via terminal you are able to give commands to the phone as a root user, and practically everything is possible there - even causing the phone not to start, so please be careful and doublecheck every letter you write there. Giving wrong commands might affect to the warranty of your phone.

To prevent Jolla's communication with The Other Half (NFC bug)

Open terminal. You see an exchanged keyboard, and an enter line showing "bash-3.2$ ". That's where you write your commands. During the following commands, the enter line changes to "bash-3.2# ", telling you that you have entered developer superuser mode. In this mode it's possible to command the phone's hardware. During your writing, either the keyboard or the command line is higlighted - you can write even when keyboard changes to grey. Write the bolded commands below, and press enter after each:

devel-su <- you command your terminal to enter developer superuser mode
(your password) <- note: invisible writing. Jolla confirms that you are the superuser
systemctl mask tohd.service <- you put a mask to a buggy service commanding NFC chip
systemctl stop tohd.service <- you stop the service
exit <- you leave the devel-su mode
exit <- you leave the terminal (it closes)

Terminal closes, and you have now a phone using less battery. Cconsumption is reduced by 2% per hour, giving you max 500h standby time. Your phone does not recognize The Other Half any more, so the ambience does not change when you attach it. Everything else is normal. Masking the service, like commanded above, prevents the phone to enable connection after reboot, so this offers a permanent fix until removed.

To return everything the way it was

After Jolla distributes a Sailfish OS update fixing the NFC bug, you can remove your changes to the system. It's safer to do before installing that update, but this should work as well after it. Open terminal again, write the bolded commands below, and press enter after each:

devel-su <- you command your terminal to enter developer superuser mode
(your password) <- note: invisible writing. Jolla confirms that you are the developer.
systemctl unmask tohd.service <- you take the mask away, so the system can find the service again
systemctl start tohd.service <- you start the service
exit <- you leave the devel-su mode
exit <- you leave the terminal (it closes)

Terminal closes, and your Jolla can communicate with The Other Half again.

Is this all safe?

According to Harri Hakulinen, Chief engineer at Jolla, yes it is:

@SimoRuoho Stopping tohd.service should be otherwise ok, but if you do it you may need to start it again manually after update.
— Harri Hakulinen (@HarriHakulinen) December 27, 2013

According to several users, yes it is. I've been carefully following comments going on at forums, twitter and The User Report tool during the last 4 days. People are reporting better standby hours, and none of them has reported problems caused by this fix.

However, keep in mind that you must be careful with what you do. In the developer mode, wrong commands given can break your phone.

phone review

Minggu, 09 Februari 2014

User Report Tool: Jolla battery consumption

RESULTS: See the table below

Jumat, 31 Januari 2014

Jolla battery life power consumption problems