Cell Phone Battery Life Increase When Sleeping

[jamail77]

So, has this ever happened to any of you when you turn the screen off on your smartphone:

Basically, what I've noticed is if my phone says it has, oh let's say, 30% battery life left and I press the power button to turn the screen off (sleeping), but not turn off the phone itself (holding the button), then turn it on later it now says 31% or 32% or 33% battery life.

Where did that increase come from? Is it even accurate? What do you Escapists think?

 

[EeveeElectro]

It's because you aren't using it and draining its power.
It's odd that it increases though, mine doesn't.
It was at 20% last night and 17% when I woke up, now it's on the verge of dying cos I've used it for about ten minutes.

 

[jamail77]

It's because you aren't using it and draining its power.
It's odd that it increases though, mine doesn't.
It was at 20% last night and 17% when I woke up, now it's on the verge of dying cos I've used it for about ten minutes.

It doesn't always increase; it often does though. If I go to bed and wake up in the morning it will go down like that. I'm referring more to instances when I put it in sleep mode for 5 minutes and it goes up. If it's in sleep for over an hour then the charge either stayed the same or went down most likely. It's more like a temporary boost in short intervals than a general time defying rule.

 

[Esotera]

The most likely explanation is that the initial battery life was lower than it actually was. Alternatively your phone may have just solved the energy crisis through unlimited power.

 

[Angie7F]

I have never experienced an increase.
I also cant imagine why that could happen.

 

[nathan-dts]

Yes, I have. Phones aren't very accurate with their battery life.

May I suggest charging the thing until it says it's at 100% and then letting it drain.
Then try charging it for an extra 15-20 minutes after it says you're at 100%. It'll take a lot longer to run out than the first time.

The above will just let you see how inaccurate those battery percentage meters are.

 

[kortin]

Yes, I have. Phones aren't very accurate with their battery life.

May I suggest charging the thing until it says it's at 100% and then letting it drain.
Then try charging it for an extra 15-20 minutes after it says you're at 100%. It'll take a lot longer to run out than the first time.

The above will just let you see how inaccurate those battery percentage meters are.

In the end you might find out that cell phone batteries actually last forever and never lose power and they're just tied in with a system in the phone to make sure when the cell phone meter gets to 0, it turns off.

 

[eggy32]

So, has this ever happened to any of you when you turn the screen off on your smartphone:

Basically, what I've noticed is if my phone says it has, oh let's say, 30% battery life left and I press the power button to turn the screen off (sleeping), but not turn off the phone itself (holding the button), then turn it on later it now says 31% or 32% or 33% battery life.

Where did that increase come from? Is it even accurate? What do you Escapists think?

I think it's to do with how the phone predicts how much battery life is left. I've seen a similar thing happen with my laptop battery. From what I understand it predicts how much battery power if left by comparing the power usage per second of whatever it's currently doing with its maximum power.
Basically it predicts how long you can keep doing whatever you're currently doing before the battery dies. Since the phone is on and the screen is on, it predicts it can keep that up for a little while. When it goes into sleep mode and the screen is off its prediction changes because it's currently not using as much power per second.

I hope that made sense.