Technology and Making

Image via CrunchBase

Answer: No, it's bloody not.

Well, that was easy.

One of the most eagerly anticipated benefits of the Android 1.5 update, apart from the soft keyboard, was an improvement in battery life.

I got my over-the-air update last week, fully discharged and recharged my battery to make sure it was calibrated, and took a careful note of the time when I took it off charge, eagerly awaiting a nice long runtime from Cupcake's much-lauded efficiency improvements.

I kept my configuration exactly as before - GPS, 3G and Bluetooth off, and exactly the same screen timeout. The time to beat was roughly twenty-four hours, my usual average time between charges before the update.

Twenty hours later, my battery was dead.

This is just my experience, and there may be something specific in my configuration which makes the new improvements irrelevant. Prove me wrong, somebody, please! Leave your own experiences of post-Cupcake battery life in the comments.

Labels: Android, android 1.5, Battery, battery life, charge, cupcake, Google, lifetime, over-the-air, T-Mobile G1, update