Statement regarding battery usage

[Corjan Meijerink]

Hi all!

Quick update about the battery usage of the app.
I am working with HERE quite a lot to resolve the issues. This has for now resulted in an upcoming update 4.3.3 in which some critical issues have been resolved.

The excessive temperature has been resolved for all devices we tested on Having less heat being generated has a lot of positive side effects for the phone in general. Especially stuff like charging (which generates heat) will be easier for the phone.

Unfortunately, the battery drain itself hasn't yet improved on all devices. We are working together to investigate why this is the case. Therefore we expect that quite some users will be very happy with the 4.3.3 update but definitely not all just yet!

[Nick Carthew]

@Corjan-Meijerink Would it be useful to compile a list of phones that are and are not affected by excessive battery drain?
My iPhone 11 mounted on a QuadLock wireless charger does not suffer from excessive battery drain, in fact it always shows a positive charge after navigating.

[RetiredWingMan]

@Nick-Carthew my Samsung S20 5G has suffered overheating but charging from the Quadlock wireless charger has generally not been an issue.

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@RetiredWingMan my Samsung S20FE mounted on a wireless charging quadlock dus not have the overheating problem but charging wireless resulted in a big battery drain. So much that it couldn't keep up with an all day drive

[Corjan Meijerink]

Nah, we do not need to keep a list of devices here
Just released the statement about the work we are doing!

[Dae 0]

I’m not even sure it’s device specific.

As an example, this weekend my wife and I both used MRA via our Chigees on our iPhone 15 Pro Max phones. Both using same iOS and MRA version, and version of offline maps. Obviously both using the same route. Both set off with 100% battery and not connected to chargers. On arrival after 3.5 hours she had 20% remaining, I had 50%. We both charged to 100% during lunch. After the return journey, not identical route to the outbound but similar in mileage and time, we were both only down to 80%.

[RetiredWingMan]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom out of interest, do you use the direct wired charger or the one that plugs into a USB port? The direct wired charger is supposed to put out a much higher charging current.

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@RetiredWingMan I recently changed it to a usb Port with quick charging. Tomorrow I'll find out if that will be a difference

[richtea999]

@Nick-Carthew said in Statement regarding battery usage:

@Corjan-Meijerink Would it be useful to compile a list of phones that are and are not affected by excessive battery drain?

It would be good, but I can see why Corjan says 'Nah!'. There are so many variables at play that it may be quite difficult to pin it down. Some factors:

• the device
• the OS version
• the battery (is it new, is it 5 years old?)
• the charger (low power, high power, wireless, closeness to wireless charger)
• the charging cable
• the actual route
• the route options (traffic updates, offline, etc)
• the display intensity (often driven by the strength of sunlight hitting it)
• light/dark display mode
• other apps running

That's just the ones I can think of in 3 minutes. There will be others.

To pin it down, you need to restrict all but one of the variables, and then run a lot of live tests. And repeat. On several devices.

I've done such testing, and if you can test on a bench then you can pin it down a bit better. You need something called a 'dummy battery' which allows you to dynamically measure the current being taken from the battery (now a measurable power source inserted instead of the battery). But this is an app to be used on the road too, for confirmation of test results. Nightmare.

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom did a test today result
2 times 105 km drive starting with 100% battery after the trip it took 20% battery and 25% battery on the trip home so its better but still need improvement. Since 355 is not yet out for Android it was version 348

[Corjan Meijerink]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom 4.3.3 (355) is available for Android beta testers.
Version 348 is 4.3.2 and has no changes at all regarding battery usage (this is the current public release)

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@Corjan-Meijerink hi Corjan. Yesterday when I left home in the morning I looked for the 355 update and at that time it was not available. Somewhere Yesterday my phone did an auto update so I don't when that happened. So maybe in the way back home it was already updated to 355. Is there a possibility to check when the update was installed

[RetiredWingMan]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom in Android, go to the play store, account, manage apps & device, manage and it will, display the last time it was updated.

[Marinus van Deudekom]

@RetiredWingMan Sorry my friend that will only tell you when the app was last created. In this case october 28th. Since it was installed somewhere yesterday during the afternoon this will only say when the Devs created it.

[richtea999]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom said in Statement regarding battery usage:

@RetiredWingMan Sorry my friend that will only tell you when the app was last created. In this case october 28th. Since it was installed somewhere yesterday during the afternoon this will only say when the Devs created it.

This app will tell you when an app was last updated:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bluckapps.appinfomanager

I'm sure there are others, but this one has minimal permissions & can be used offline if you're worried about nefarious data collection.
The only permission it requires is to read info about other apps on your device.

[RetiredWingMan]

@Marinus-van-Deudekom it works on my tablet and phone ....

[dave99]

I saw these threads on high battery usage and wanted to chime in. I'm trialling MRA and just got back from my first ride with navigation. It used 70% of my phone's battery in about 90 minutes - still extremely high.

I'm using MRA 4.3.4 on a Samsung A52S running Android 14.

[Erdna]

Cheers everybody,

I just wanted to update this. Using 4.4.1 - 410 there´s a significant decrease in battery drain.

I use a Fossibot F101 Pro with 10600 mAh battery and at season´s start, I was able to ride for about 10 hours without charging. Meanwhile, after 10 hours the battery still is around 30%. I ride in offline mode with route-as-a-track and for me personally, the problem is solved.

I understand that not everybody has that much battery capacity, but also not everybody is doing 500km trips constantly. So the chances are good, that more users will not have issues with battery drain anymore.

Regards from Austria,
André

[Con Hennekens]

Indeed the amount of people claiming to have problems with powerdrain seem to have dropped significantly in this forum.

[Nomko Nomden]

@richtea999 said in Statement regarding battery usage:

There are so many variables at play (.....) to pin it down

Exactly!

Too many variables at play to pick point the exact problem! And, if you read the posts of @Corjan-Meijerink, he already mentioned that he is been working together with the team behind the HERE map to solve this issue. And some steps are made so far to solve the battery drainage issue.

However, i also do see the point of compiling a list of mobile phones/smartphones having the drainage issue. Users/owners of such smartphone are made aware that their phone has a battery drainage issue while using MRA Next app. So, asking the same questions over and over again can be avoided when you, as a smartphone and MRA Next user, are made aware of such a list coming with a short explanation of the issue.

Other systems/applications are doing this in general on their websites. Not breaking it down in details, but more in generally/globally just naming the brand and model who are affected by the issue and what the issue is without getting into too much detailed explanation.

But then again, @Corjan-Meijerink and his team must need to test every brand and model smartphone out there to compile that list! So, yes on one hand a list would benefit users while on the other hand it is a monkey's work to compile such a list! And my best guess is that @Corjan-Meijerink and his team can put their focus and efforts on fixing the drainage issue (together with the HERE team) instead of wasting valuable time testing every device and compiling a list.

I know and i'm fully aware there is a drainage issue which affects almost every smartphone. I also know that MRA is working on it. So, for me, knowing this is all the information i require and need. And i'm waiting patiently till this issue if fixed. Or at least minimized.

By the way, i have a 3, maybe, 4-year-old phone, namely a Oppo Find X2 Pro. My smartphone was also suffering from a huge battery drainage issue. After the latest update is was not solved completely, but it was reduced remarkably. So, the MRA team is really putting in every effort to crack this case and solve it!

And it certainly needs to be said: the entire MRA team certainly does their utmost to keep all MRA users satisfied! The MRA users are heard by the MRA team.

Keep up the good work!!!