I bought a new phone recently. Or an old phone, depending on how you see it, but with better specs than my current one.
The thing I was most excited about was the camera. Even with newer models it's hard to find a good one for a decent price, so I opted for a refurbed classic, and OnePlus 3 fit the bill! It's a solid build in all areas, and seems to be modifiable to allow for updates past the intended date, which I aim to start experimenting with soon...
One caveat though. The battery.
I didn't read up beforehand, and it turns out it's bad.
But my initial impression was even worse.
I powered it on when I'd received it, and started receiving updates and what-not, transferring data, doing what you usually tend to do with a new phone. But before that I charged it, cause the battery was empty entirely.
It charged quickly at least - better than my older/newer phone - and when I was done with it I left it on flight mode, intending to get back to the upgrade/transfer/update process later, and when I did... it wouldn't turn on! It wouldn't charge either. It wouldn't do anything.
I started thinking about getting a refund, but looked online a bit for ways to maybe somehow force a charge anyway, or what could be wrong - I'd already transferred data to it that I wouldn't want to still have on it if I'd send it back, and stumbled upon some troubleshooting advice that mentioned just holding the power button for something like... a minute? Less?
It was longer than I'd tried already - I wonder if I've ever needed to do this with the current phone - and when I did... it booted! And shut down. And charged properly when I plugged it in then. Android protip.
I'm not sure what had happened to it during that brief moment of time in flight mode, but I suppose the system bugged out somehow, and the battery drained, and it entered energy-saving mode, and for some reason it stayed there, and only became responsive again after a forceful reboot.
Needless to say I was a bit skeptic about if this phone would hold up now, so I did some battery tests.
First I charged the phone again, up to 93% charge.
This took about two hours, about twice as much as it should take with a new phone, according to manufacturer specs. Though maybe there are other things that factor in, like temperature/voltage/what-not.
I'm not sure I was given an original charger either.
After that time for the tests! My observations:
- Lost 2% charge just starting up the phone. Down to 91%.
- In flight mode, with no open apps, no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi etc it was at 88% charge after a full day!
- Second day: Tested opening some apps but still leaving it in flight mode - just down to 78%! So ~10%/24 hours so far, with the phone mostly on standby.
- Third day: Not sure! Didn't have time to measure. It's still on.
- Fourth day: 69%! Still hasn't seen much active use but all things considered this is going very well...
- Fifth day: Didn't have time to check again, not sure.
- Sixth day: At least I think it was sixth day. Seventh, possibly?
I upped the test requirements now and watched some video material, took some photos, browsed the Internet etc etc.
Initially it lost roughly 1% charge/minute, which seemed alarming, but it evened out around 55% and depleted slower after that... and then I charged it up again.
After the first day or so a notice regarding 'inactivity optimization' popped up too - seems it has built-in functionality in regard to keeping things at bay while you sleep. This is activated automatically but can be turned off.
Overall I do get the impression the battery is worse than my current one, and a little unstable/inaccurately measured, or has a higher depletion rate when fully charged, but it doesn't seem that bad. Seems possible they swapped the battery during the reburbishment.
I don't plan on using this phone for longer durations of time at any one time, just for communication, photos and occasionally a little Google Maps navigation - that seems like the biggest threat to battery time. But if you have a charger nearby or with you, and if you have a USB connection in any car you might need to use it as a GPS for...
I think this'll go well after all. Battery test results. OK.
rated 3.5/5: not bad at all