Mobile Phone Battery usage - Any News??

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@Robert-Smith-2 Yeah since Waze is the app to use if you want to navigate a planned route. NOT NOT NOT

[Robert Smith 2]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom Lucky I also have a Garmin XT and Beeline Moto for my bikes then. The point is, if you're going to sell a nav app, ensure it is usable and doesn't run the phone battery flat. That is pretty basic stuff and its not like it hasn't been a year since the issue arose.

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@Robert-Smith-2 It's not that basic stuff as you say. If you have your phone on a good USB powersource it still takes a lot of power but it will keep running. If you run it without a power source any nav app will run down.
The team is doing it's best to solve the problem with Here and that is exactly the problem they work for MRA en are depending on the folks at Here to get it solved. It has improved a lot but yes there'sstill work to be done.
Meanwhile smile and keep enjoying driving

[Paul Smith b]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom that is what I am now doing but it does seem to be a flaw with the MRA programme with it’s battery usage far higher than other similar apps?

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@Paul-Smith-b like its been said a lot. The problem is not MRA but Here and Corjan is doing his best to get it solved.

[M. Schrijver]

When navigating. Do not trust only on your phone battery. Make your phone is connected to a powersupply.
Every navigation app drains your battery. One more than the other but every app does.

That said. I totally acknowledge the battery usage. But somehow on my trip in Scotland MRA did not drain my battery not a single day.
Outside temps during the day where around 12 degrees (celcius).
Every day my battery stayed on 100% and the phone remains cold.
Possible cause. Lack of roads in Scotland and therefore less screen rendering needed.

[Rajp]

Curious why Scenic.app doesn't suffer from this excessive battery drain whilst MRA does - both apps use HERE maps

Thoughts?

[Lynchy67]

@Rajp

Not every one has this issue.
My personal preference is not to use the voice prompts as I prefer to visually focus on the route line.
It is mentioned by the Dev's that having Voice Notifications enabled can be the cause of the battery drain.

[Rajp]

@Lynchy67 but I'm comparing like for like, I use both voice and visual, online navigation and online maps - in both apps, and Scenic doesn't drain battery half as much as MRA.

The issue exists for everyone, just because you disable some features doesn't mean the issue isn't there, you're just not being impacted by it

[richtea999]

@Rajp said in Mobile Phone Battery usage - Any News??:

Curious why Scenic.app doesn't suffer from this excessive battery drain whilst MRA does - both apps use HERE maps

Thoughts?

Merely a theory, but MRA uses Flutter rather than native code which I've noticed isn't necessarily as quick/efficient. That's because there's an extra layer of code to 'detach' the Flutter code from the native UI elements.

The second possible reason is that Flutter tries to redraw only the parts of the screen that have changed (as does any decent OS/library), but it's very easy to code that poorly and end up redrawing stuff that doesn't need to be refreshed. Been there, done that! If the HERE API hasn't finely tuned the redraw logic (which admittedly takes time, skill, and a sh*tload of testing), then there will be CPU cycles and battery being used unnecessarly.

Pure guesswork, though, that theory.

[Nick Carthew]

@Rajp said in Mobile Phone Battery usage - Any News??:

The issue exists for everyone, just because you disable some features doesn't mean the issue isn't there, you're just not being impacted by it

I can assure you that I do not have this issue at all. My iPhone 11 charges on my Quadlock wireless charger whilst navigating with MRA.

[Rajp]

@Nick-Carthew Lol - that's because you're charging the phone - try without

[Nick Carthew]

@Rajp I wouldn’t expect to use any navigation app or device for any length of time without it being connected to a power supply.

[Erdna]

Cheers,

quick and dirty solution: get one of those rugged phones with huge battery. I´m using a Fossibot F101 Pro for approx. 14k km now since I switched to NN this March. It´s not connected to any network the whole day (except when I have to load the route in the morning or make adjustements during the day), functions as media player for my headset and of course tracks the route I´m riding. Nothing else. The battery will hold for 11 to 12 hours of riding (breaks included, during longer breaks the screen is turned off to save some battery life) with screen set to max. brightnes.

I´m prepared to have it loading while riding, because sometimes I just can´t get enough, though and 11 hours or so may not be enough. But that´s another story.^^

The complete solution cost me €150,-- for the phone, €20,-- for SP Connect Mount and another €21,35 for 10 pcs. of 3M 4936 adhesive strips (2 pcs. where acctually needed - that´s what they´re using to glue the windows into the skyscrapers in Dubai etc. and you´ll need something strong like that because original adhesive from SP connect etc. will not be able to hold that weight of the mobile^^).

Just my 2 cents.

Regards from Austria,
André

[M. Schrijver]

@Rajp
Charging when in use will make you phone more hot than without charging

[Rajp]

@Nick-Carthew Why not? I want to converse my battery health and not degrade it by constantly charging it.

I did 8 hours riding using Scenic navigation with the phone without charging and battery had just over 60% left from 90% charge. Tried to do the same with MRA and was down to 5% by hour 5. Same background apps running, same route.

[Rajp]

@M-Schrijver and constantly charging will degrade your battery health

[M. Schrijver]

Heavy usage were phone gets hots also.
Often little amount charging do not degrade more quick than less but longer.
A Li-ion has a max. amount of cycles. 1 cycles is from 100% to 0% and then charging back to 100%. How you divide those charges does not matter for the degradation.
A few things which speed up the degradation.

• Keep the battery for a long time at 100% without using it
• Heavy usage. Drain the battery faster than you should be considering the health of the battery. Temperature of the battery is your instrument for measurement.
• Drain your battery to 0% or almost 0% before charging.

Best way to keep your battery at good health as long as possible

• Always keep your battery between 10% and 80%. Especially when not using it for a long time.
• Keep the temperature of your Li-ion battery at ALL time at room-temperature. Even when charging.

[Con Hennekens]

@Rajp said in Mobile Phone Battery usage - Any News??:

Curious why Scenic.app doesn't suffer from this excessive battery drain whilst MRA does - both apps use HERE maps
Thoughts?

Maps having the same HERE badge do not mean they come from the same source, let alone the same SDK is used. I believe HERE offers multiple SDK environments. The one MRA uses is the latest one, and that's probably why some child diseases occur. HERE's own WeGo app is built on the same SDK and shows the same problem concerning battery drain.

@Lynchy67 said in Mobile Phone Battery usage - Any News??:

My personal preference is not to use the voice prompts as I prefer to visually focus on the route line.
It is mentioned by the Dev's that having Voice Notifications enabled can be the cause of the battery drain.

I cannot remember this statement, and I would be surprised if it works that way, since the problem is confirmed to be related to the rendering of the map. Are you by any chance navigating without the sound by tapping "Open route" instead of "Navigate"? If that is the case, you are actually not using the HERE map, nor the Next navigation module based on the HERE SDK

[GT JWR]

@M-Schrijver @NICK CARTHEW impossible to charge at room temperature all the time. Just finished a 10 day, 4000mi bike trip, where ambient temps were in excess of 90degF (12degC = 54degF....at those temps, I also do not have issues) for 6 of those days. With the combination of excessive battery drain by the app, and the added heat of the charging, combined with the ambient temp rendered MRA nav 100% useless, as the phone also goes into protect mode and dims the screen and it cannot be seen. It got shelved on day 3, and Scenic app took over....flawlessly, I might add.

So as @Rajp mentions, I too, am curious as to why Scenic (and Google, and Apple to name a few others), do not have such a severe issue?

And for the critics out there that will see this as negative, perahps it is, however, the only way to improve is to know the issues. As mentioned many times, this has been a known issue for over a year, no matter if it is a HERE problem or not, it is MRA's name on the app, therefore, the critique must go there. It's like having issues with a vehicle purchased at a dealership - it is the dealership that you deal with when issues arrive, not directly with the manufacturer.