Monday, November 29, 2010

Supplemental Review: X10 Mini Pro Eclair (2.1) Part 2 (Camera and Battery)

Ok, more noticeable improvements in 2.1.  Somethings I hadn't noticed earlier: Significant improvement in the camera's 'Twilight' setting.  Although still not as sensitive as I'd like it to be... way better than 1.6 which almost had no difference between 'Auto' and 'Twilight'.  Unlike with Donut, the Twilight Setting now actually does something significant.  Shutter speed slows down, so moving subjects will be blurred. But there is a big jump in exposure.

Automatic Setting



Twilight Setting

There also seems to be a very significant change in power management.  Although I still need Juice Defender to manage my 3G/HSPA settings, I can now leave wifi, gps and bluetooth on all day and still get the same battery life I did with them all off in 1.6.  HSPA and PUSH services though still eat up a lot and can kill your phone in under a day.  Juice Defender handles mobile data quite nicely and can give you 2-3 days of average use.

If you're always within a wifi area, you can leave your wifi on the whole day (no sleep) and it won't drain your battery as much.  I never could do this with 1.6.  This is a big help now since I can leave my phone connected over wifi whenever I'm home.

GPS can also be left on since the chip only seems to draw power when an app needs it.

Currently, with the exception of my 3G services which are scheduled every 15min by Juice Defender, I have all my background data services and all radios on all day.  By the end of the day, I still have over 50% power.  It's not a marathon battery life, but the fact that I can leave all the features of my phone on now and it'll still last a day is a significant improvement in how I can now use my phone.



*Dec 10, 2010 - Battery experiment update*

I decided to try just switching off mobile data and wifi for a couple of days.  All other settings are the same.  No Task Killer, no CPU underclocking, and no power management.  After 33 hours straight... I still have 50% battery left.


***December 20, 2010 - Momax Portable Battery Review***

22 comments:

  1. hi!

    i have updated my x10 mini pro to android 2.1 and i dont know if its just me but i have been having problems with the responsiveness of the touch screen. i only have experienced this in some games (Angry Birds & Jewels), where the game could not recognize the object i am interacting with in the screen, which leads to birds not being recoiled from the slingshot or jewels not being moved from one place to another.

    i dont know if this is an issue with the games itself or with the 2.1 update because i havent had this issues with 1.6 version. im still also trying other apps if they lose some responsiveness as well.

    i also found a bug in the homescreens. when i "press" just below (usually in the lower right part) any widget icon, the screen changes to the "Arrange Widget" mode.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have a question regarding Barnacle Wifi (seeing that you use it). I downloaded it and tried it, but it just wouldn't work. It just stays stuck at "Starting..." Have you had any problems like that before? I'm scared that it might be a hardware defect or something.

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  3. Hi Rissa, is your phone rooted?

    Barnacle needs to run on a rooted phone only. If you're running 2.1 already download Z4 root

    If you're still on 1.6, Universal Androot

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  4. Hi! It seems you are using a Launcher on your screenshot. That isn't ADW by any chance, right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Roberto, no. I used to use ADW... switched to LauncherPro when 2.1 came out. Much faster than ADW, similar features. Widgets respond a lot faster on LP than ADW.

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  6. Yupyup. My phone's rooted and all that. I just came across articles on the web and thought it was a great idea. The problem seems to be that I'm not connecting to my carrier... Do I need to in the first place? Some articles say it's got something to do with kernel?

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  7. OH!!! Ok... ya, I was able to recreate your problem. You need to have a working data connection before Barnacle will work. Otherwise you'll just be stuck at "Starting..."

    Also, disable wifi when using Barnacle.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi mikko, sorry for the delayed reply... I was trying out the things you said... I'm not sure if the issue you're having is a digitizer issue or just the fact that the Mini is running a 600Mhz CPU. It might be CPU lag you're experiencing. Just an experiment, try using Overclock widget and allow your CPU to go all the way to 600 instead of the 528 limit. It MIGHT help.

    Unfortunately, the Mini and Mini Pro are not gaming machines... I don't have a single game on mine since I find the screen too small.

    With the widget issue, are you using the default homescreen? Ya, some taps on certain areas are read as a long press and goes to edit mode. I stopped using it because I'm not fond of the iPhone horizontal scrolling. I use Launcher Pro. I do miss the corner buttons, but Launcher Pro is more useful for me.

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  9. hello hello!

    i experimented a bit more on the touch screen response issue and i found out that it only happens when i turn off the music on the games (Angry Birds & Jewels). but i'll try and experiment on it more.

    on the widget issue, yes, i was using the default homescreen and certain areas are read as long press. eneweis, its not much of an issue, its just a bit annoying when it happens while i browse thru widgets.

    eneweis, thanks a lot for the feedback! :D

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  10. I am having some issues like @mikko when it comes to the home screen (the default, UXP one). Also evident on the drawers (apps accidentally launched when I'm just browsing). I think it has to do with the screen sensitivity.

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  11. The issue I have with the screen is that it has a tendency to 'stick' and when I scroll, it starts autoscrolling all the way down the menu.

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  12. Hey John! I'm not too keen with techie talk so I can't seem to understand what you meant that I have to have a working data connection? Maybe the problem can also be related to my carrier (Sun Cellular)? Although from where I am, my phone signal is fairly good.

    Thank you :D

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  13. Hey Risa, do you have a data/internet subscription w/ your Sun Cellular line? Beside your signal bar, there should be a G, E, 3G, or H beside it. If it's just the signal bars, that means you do not have data/internet enabled w/ your Sun line.

    The data/internet plan of Sun is separate from the regular phone service.

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  14. Ohh... Now that's something I didn't know. Haha~ No I don't think I have it. Thank you for giving me the information though. At least now I know why I can't get my phone to tether. :D Anyway, I'll try it with my Globe sim card. Maybe I'd then get a different result? Thank you again!

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  15. You're welcome. Barnacle is designed to share your celfone Internet with your laptop or other device. So it needs your phone line to have a data/Internet subscription as well. Sun's Internet plan is very affordable at P799/month compared to Globe or Smart's P1200/month. Make sure to disable mobile data after since Android and iOS devices are notorious for eating up data and running up you celfone bill

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  16. where could i upgrade this android into 2.1 ???

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Anonymous, just download SEUS (Sony Ericsson Update Service) from their website and it takes care of updating your phone for you. You have to be running Windows, so if you're on a Mac, you're out of luck for now.

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  18. Hi! It seems that the new update for the SE X10MP can now be rooted! all thanks to the devs at XDA!

    although there is no official changelog from SE, so there is no detailed benefits of the new update (0.24 something)

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  19. Haven't looked for the new root app. But I haven't heard of any major change. I'm more excited to see the new Mini Pro :)

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  20. recently changed 3G network to EDGE. Batter life improved drastically...

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  21. Hello 'Vladimir'! :) Yes, using GSM/EDGE is far less power hungry than 3G/HSPA. Another tip, if you do not use the internet a lot, leaving the phone on GSM only, and disabling mobile data really extends battery! :) Thank you for reading my blog! :)

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  22. I am impressed. I don't think Ive met anyone who knows as much about this subject as you do. You are truly well informed and very intelligent. You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. Really, great blog you have got here. 24onlineservice.com

    ReplyDelete

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