[HD2 General] motoi_bogdan:
Hello,

After making that hardware mod to enable my hd2 not to freeze or lock up anymore because of thermal related problems, i feel it's time to get a bit technical on it agait :D

As far as i see, some newer android builds use about 1mA from the battery (stand by) and there is a 60mA drain when using bluetooth. However i guess most of these readings were made using software based measurements so i guess some of them won't be 100% accurate compared to the reality encountered at hardware level.

So i'm looking for a lowest power consumption rom, either it be windows mobile or andoid or wp7.

LE : DID THE JOB.

So.. here are the results for 4 roms (2 x win mo 6.5, 1 x android, 1 x wp7).

The specific roms used are:

TMOBILE STOCK - Latest (with stock radio)

ENERGY ROM win mobile 6.5.3 DINIK skin latest version (with 2.15.50.14 radio)

RAFDROID HD 4.0.2 (with 2.15.50.14 radio)

WP7 - BOYPPC - SHIFTPDA HD2 - v3 (with 2.15.50.14 radio)

Hardware setup :

HD2 (1024 LEO)

battery is connected to the phone via some wires and the + pin of the battery is mounted in series with a multimeter. Measurements are made with a Velleman DVM1400 (accuracy tested and compared with a Fluke 127). Data pin and - pins are directly connected to the phone.

A fair amount of tape was used. 0.5kg of coffee was required (this is also included in the hardware setup :D especially when doing flashing operations with the phone's battery linked to the phone by some wires sticked together with tape)

:D Flashing HD2 with it's guts out

So here's the results:

1. Stand by. 3G Orange network used, no active connections, nothing connected to the phone.

Stock - 0.6mA - 2mA

Energy - 0.6mA - 6mA

Android - 0.6mA - 2mA

WP7 - 0.06mA - 1mA

Comments: the actual value varies, so the min/max value is given. Please note that the phone will use more power in a low coverage area, therefore if the signal is low or very low, the phone can use more power then the values stated above. The test was done at 80% signal power. Energy rom did registred some 6mA spikes, but 90% time, results were under 1mA.

2. Idle - at full brightness. Default home screens. Wifi/bluetooth turned off.

Stock - 410mA - 210mA

Energy - 500mA - 210mA

Android - 400mA - 280mA (live wallpaper) 400mA - 230mA (simple wallpaper)

WP7 - 350mA - 230mA

Comments : when you turn on the phone from standby the CPU will do some intensive work reloading the home screen. Depending on the complexity of the items shown on the home screen, initial values will vary, however they are not that relevant - if you want a lower power consumption, use a lighter home screen. The smaller values (second ones) are the actual values being used when loading is complete and you have true idle state.

3. Idle - minimum brightness, same conditions as above.

Stock - 110mA (note that it is almost half of full brightness consumption)

Energy - 80mA (once initial loading is completed, energy rom is more efficient then stock rom at both medium or low brightness)

Android - 170 mA (live wallpaper) and 110mA (simple wallpaper)

WP7 - 210mA - 110mA - depending on what the home screen is doing or what part of it is being shown. If you display the menu list, consumption drops to about 110mA.

Comments : You can compare maximum and minimum brightness values in order to find out how much current you can save by turning down the slider and setting a lower value.

4. Voice calling. Full brightness, other wireless off. 80% carrier signal.

Stock: 210mA (390mA with display powered on -without proximity sensor active)

Energy: 200-210mA - slightly better, averaging about 202mA (380mA with display powered on -without proximity sensor active)

Andoid: 190mA (440mA with display powered on -without proximity sensor active)

WP7: 210-220mA (390mA with display powered on -without proximity sensor active)

Comments : note that every other OS, except the stock one, uses the upgraded radio rom. However andoid wins it here, same results were measured over and over again. Then comes energy and at the bottom we have WP7.

5. Wifi and Bluetooth - using maximum brightness, either connecting to a wifi network (full signal) or pairing to a bluetooth device. These values are similar (bluetooth to wifi) as both technologies use the same carrier frequency and almost the same emission/reception power.

Stock - 230mA (10-20mA effective power used for wifi/bluetooth)

Energy - 220mA (but still.. 10-20mA effective power.. pretty weird.. energy is thus more effective at overall consumption)

Android - 230mA-270mA (but about 6-20mA used effectively wifi/bluetooth)

WP7 - 190mA - 230mA (6-20mA for wifi/bluetooth)

Comments: I cannot establish power consumtion for a specific bluetooth pairing with a headset, or standby bluetooth drain when paired with a headset.. simply because i don't have one). Another note is that, some roms include some kind of wifi performance boost that is supposed to increase performance at the cost of more power consumption. At 60% to full signal power, however, i didn't see any increase in power consumption.

6. Full load. Brightness to maximum. Stressing the hell out from the phone. All wireless option on. Playing intensive games while benchmarking or stressing the cpu. Whatever is needed to get the maximum value.

Stock : 500mA - half an Amp. Phone's heating up like crazy.

Energy : 520mA - same thing

Android : 520mA - heat and etc, however is pretty hard to get the phone to this level of consumption

WP7: 520mA - only managed to get this during the initial setup when i flashed the device. All my other attempts to stress the phone ended somewhere around max 500mA

7. USB - Mass storage - the phone is connected to a standard desktop usb port in mass storage (or the zune crappy interface for WP7) No transfer being made, phone is at max brightness, in home screen, wireless off)

Stock : + 120mA

Energy : -1mA - +12mA (?!?)

Android : +170mA

WP7 : +160mA

Comments : Plus (+) values means that the phone is actually charging from the usb port. Minus (-) values means power is being drained from the phone. I suspect something wrong with Energy, whatever i tried i couldn't get any other values other then that range between -1 to +12. I would call this "inconclusive" as i don't know if the phone was doing some background work during the tests. Energy rom should do about the same as the Stock rom in this aspect. Active sync will get similar values for the winmo 6.5 roms.

8. USB Standby. Phone in standby, connected to pc with an usb cable.

Stock : +340mA

Energy : +340mA

Android : +350mA

WP7: +330mA

Comments : this shows the current rating for charging up the phone from the computer's usb port. Being positive, current is getting in the battery. Although the port is capable of 500mA .. i never saw it to actually rise up to this value.

The usb charge test is done at the same battery level (40%). reasons explained at the next test.

9. Charging with the wall charger. Phone in standby (not switched off) bt/wifi off. Battery level used for testing - 40%

Stock: 780mA

Energy: 780mA

Android: 780mA

WP7: 780mA

Comments : the battery charging process is hardware regulated. So it's independent of OS. The battery will charge at a same rate in every OS. HOWEVER, the standard hd2 charger will output 5v at 1A. If your battery is empty but you still use the phone while charging, at full load (about 500mA) only 500mA will be left for charging the battery, therefore charging will take longer. Tests are being done with the phone being idle. Note that HD2 charges its battery at variable current. When the battery is about 70% charged, for example, the charging current decreases to about 500mA or less. That's normal procedure involving charging a li-ion based battery. At about 100% charge level, the charging current will decrease to some 10-20mA.

10. Bootloader mode

If you place the phone in bootloader mode the battery drain will be around 310mA. Even if it's not doing anything else. It will quickly discharge the battery if you don't connect it to an usb port. NEVER flash using a SD card when your battery level is less then 50% or USE the charger. Bootloader operations are done at full brightness and are CPU intensive. If the battery is at low level and you don't have a charger near you, don't flash via SD method.

11. Bootloader operations - with USB cable connected to PC

In this case, the phone will actually charge with about +130mA. Even if your battery is at 1%, the phone woun't die if you are flashing via USB. It's actually charging and the 130mA rate is pretty constant. USB flashing is safe at any battery charge level. However in winmo the flasher woun't allow you to write a rom if your battery level is less then 50%.

One note: when in MAGLDR the phone actually charges faster when connected to a pc. Constant 150mA values measured.

12. Flashing

All flashing operations with USB connection. +130mA - phone is charging from the USB port while flashing.

That's about it. As you can see, there aren't huge differences on the way these roms use power. However your battery life will depend on 2 main characteristics:

- backlight level - yep the rumors are true. At max level 100-110 more mAmps are used only for the backlight (compared to min level). This is 1/5 of the total maximum power consumption of a full load HD2.

- rom and software load and complexity. A lighter rom will get you better battery life, that's for sure. The HD2 CPU's pretty power hungry.

BONUS : hardware power consumption

1. CPU - biggest amount required. At full load it takes about 50-60% of total power requirements.

2. Display : the TFT matrix and it's backlight will take up about 20-25% maximum. This is achieved when displaying black color (or darker ones) at full brightness. A lighter.. more luminous theme (white, yellow, warm colors) and lower backlight levels will save up battery.

3. memory : RAM is the most power hungry chip. Then follows the NAND memory and the SD card. About 10% at maximum. However intensive ram usage or nand memory transfers will occur when the cpu is also at high power consumption.

4. wireless features. Both wifi/bluetooth etc doesn't use as much power as those other components. Max 5% with both on - but... when using this, you will have a constant power drain.

Total HD2 power consumption at full load : around 2.75 Watts :p

Yet to come :

GPS tests. These need to be carried on outside and with a clear sky view in order to monitor the power requirements when an active fix is being made.