3 ms·

Just go on a trip where you use your GPS a lot and take pictures with your phone and it will last half a day at best.

ghaff 4y ago
Especially if your phone isn't new and doesn't hold quite as much charge any longer. I've definitely ended up plugging my phone into a portable battery when traveling. But usually if I'm out and about and using GPS and camera a lot, I'll have some sort of small bag with me for water, snack, additional clothing, etc. anyway so easy to throw a battery and cable in.
- jstarfish 4y ago
  Some of them are solar-equipped or have hand-cranks for emergency charging. Usually a built-in flashlight too.
jahewson 4y ago
Why would GPS use more power? It’s only receiving.
- 1123581321 4y ago
  The phone’s not always using true GPS (reading satellites.) When it does, it uses more energy. In a difficult environment it scans for more satellites than usual, which uses even more energy. Basically, the phone’s battery life depends on disabling hardware components, or running them in a low power mode, as much as possible.
- pja 4y ago
  There’s a fair amount of signal processing going on inside a GPS device. Modern GPS chips only need around 25mW apparently - older chips can pull 100mW though. Scanning needs a bit more power than tracking.
  - pastage 4y ago
    Is it the same on sport watches? They seem to easily do 24h when doing GPS tracking. That is the popular models there are watches that can track more than 100h (but they always have bigger batteries). This is impressive for me since I remember doing tracking back in 2005 and that meant using lots of batteries. On phones I think the problem mainly is that the GPS needs to wake up an app that need to handle the GPS data and then do some calculations. You can easily get data ten times a second that is alot of wake up from sleep, and probably draws lots of CPU.
    - pja 4y ago
      Yes. same chips. I suspect you’re right - it’s not the GPS itself that’s the problem but waking up the main CPU to run whichever App has requested location data.
- joncrocks 4y ago
  When people are using their phone's GPS they typically have the screen on (using maps/navigating etc.) more than usual. I think most of the drain comes from that rather than the GPS unit itself. But people might say "using my phone's GPS uses a lot of battery."
Accacin 4y ago
If my phone is at risk of running out, I just take my wall charger, find a nice cafe to sit down in and plug in my charger whilst having some lunch. I've never had anyone complain at me about it, although I'm normally buying food and drinks so I'm not just leaching electricity.
brianwawok 4y ago
My iPhone has not had this problem in years.

Especially if your phone isn't new and doesn't hold quite as much charge any longer. I've definitely ended up plugging my phone into a portable battery when traveling. But usually if I'm out and about and using GPS and camera a lot, I'll have some sort of small bag with me for water, snack, additional clothing, etc. anyway so easy to throw a battery and cable in.

jstarfish 4y ago
Some of them are solar-equipped or have hand-cranks for emergency charging. Usually a built-in flashlight too.

jahewson 4y ago

Why would GPS use more power? It’s only receiving.

1123581321 4y ago
The phone’s not always using true GPS (reading satellites.) When it does, it uses more energy. In a difficult environment it scans for more satellites than usual, which uses even more energy. Basically, the phone’s battery life depends on disabling hardware components, or running them in a low power mode, as much as possible.
pja 4y ago
There’s a fair amount of signal processing going on inside a GPS device. Modern GPS chips only need around 25mW apparently - older chips can pull 100mW though. Scanning needs a bit more power than tracking.
- pastage 4y ago
  Is it the same on sport watches? They seem to easily do 24h when doing GPS tracking. That is the popular models there are watches that can track more than 100h (but they always have bigger batteries). This is impressive for me since I remember doing tracking back in 2005 and that meant using lots of batteries. On phones I think the problem mainly is that the GPS needs to wake up an app that need to handle the GPS data and then do some calculations. You can easily get data ten times a second that is alot of wake up from sleep, and probably draws lots of CPU.
  - pja 4y ago
    Yes. same chips. I suspect you’re right - it’s not the GPS itself that’s the problem but waking up the main CPU to run whichever App has requested location data.
joncrocks 4y ago
When people are using their phone's GPS they typically have the screen on (using maps/navigating etc.) more than usual. I think most of the drain comes from that rather than the GPS unit itself. But people might say "using my phone's GPS uses a lot of battery."

Accacin 4y ago

If my phone is at risk of running out, I just take my wall charger, find a nice cafe to sit down in and plug in my charger whilst having some lunch. I've never had anyone complain at me about it, although I'm normally buying food and drinks so I'm not just leaching electricity.

brianwawok 4y ago

My iPhone has not had this problem in years.