as usual, i'll disagree with ndi

when i received my e7, i said to myself: "well at least, i'll a have rock solid and battery friendly system"

but i was so wrong.

an out of the box n900 consume a little bit more than a e7.
BUT, n900 could be hardcore tweaked with tons of programs like autodisconnect, kernel power with low voltage, under/over clocking, and "eco wifi" mode. with symbian there isn't such thing. not even a program wich can act like a shortcut for wifi/3g/blutooth enable/disable like an android phone. only a ecomode wich is a joke.

as a result, if you try to do a lot of things with your e7 like a n900 is capable (only try, because symbian is not an always connected system. ndi had explain that), well, you will eat MUCH MORE battery life compared to an n900.

also, you have to remember that n900 has 1320mah compared to e7 with his 1200mah....
YES, battery life IS such a crap on e7.

really, some day, i'll have to take time to write a full review like ndi (even if i totally disagree with him, i must admit that he wrote a great review) just to explain not only that the e7 is not good (hardware) but also that symbian 3 is a total failure in everything

The connection management shortcut is integrated to homescreens. Shouldn't be too hard.

yeah! absolutely!
but you know what? when i wrote this reply, i did totaly forgot him.
.... because i CAN'T count him as a shortcut because, well, it's not short enough. if you use it, you'll find that you'll have to tap more than twice to do some thing. for exemple, 2g switching need 5 screen tap, wich is TOO much.
with n900, not even this is done automagicaly, with autodisconnect, but it's also be done using a classic app 2g/3g switch, it's done in ONE screen tap ...

doing things is something.
doing things well is another one ....

if it were not, then my ol' windows mobile phone is enough.....
EVERYTHING the e7 is doing, my BA could do that, and in some rare case, BETTER (there is no symbian 3 youtube app, but on windows mobile, it exist ....)

To fairly compare the batteries of the N900 and E7, you need to put them in your normal situations and see how they fare. For example, I went out all day and night yesterday in NYC, partying in bars, uploading pics to facebook, using Maps to find our way, texting friends, calling friends, even taking video of our escapades! I left the house (ok, apartment, it's New York) around 11am and got home around 2am. I left with a freshly charged battery, and when I got home I was down to just 1 bar. But my E7 did a stellar job all day and night, so having just 1 bar at the end of it all shows it did really well for my needs.
On a similar day/evening with my N900, I could get through to the early part of the evening, but there would be no battery left at 9pm to video my friend talking to his KFC burger before we hit more bars. But I would habitually carry a spare N900 battery, and swap it out when it was running low. I can't do that with the sealed E7 one, but after yesterday, it's pretty clear that I don't need to.
Incidentally, my friends' collection of Samsungs, iPhones and Droids either all died before the night was up, or were the same as me, running very low. So I would factor that into a fair (ish) comparison also.

On a side note, my E7 performed excellently all day and night, no freezes, no restarts. I took about 20 pics (some with flash some without) video, I was on Maps, Opera Mobile, Texting, Calling, Chat but it was all on 3G, no wifi, so maybe that makes a difference, I don't know. All I do know is that my N900 would have let me down on much of what I used my E7 for yesterday, and it has made me love my E7 even more. It truly is the best phone I've ever owned, and going by ndi's superb Anna review, it looks like it's going to get even better (when the US finally gets it) and then Belle will just make it even more perfect. I loved my N900, but I enjoy using my E7 more.

@ndi Thanks for your Anna review, another excellent slice of info. I will try your advice on the 80cm-then-zoom photo for close-ups. I'd love to come to Romania and sit down with you for a long, nerdy E7 chat! Maybe one day. Let me know if you are ever headed to New York. I owe you at least a beer!

Bob:

Forgive my bluntness, but you're doing it wrong. E7 is twice as efficient with battery compared to N900 - mainly because it has a much more efficient screen, less overhead overall and, with a smaller resolution, there's half the work to render.

One of the things you're doing wrong is you didn't scan the OVI for apps right. There is at least one (I and think of about 3) apps that reside on the home screen and allow for quick toggles. Like this. Not free, but at under 1 Eur, it might as well be. I won't be arguing free versus non free, all platforms have paid apps, Maemo is a nice exception, and there are tradeoffs. If not, there are apps like "fast panel x" that also allow wifi scanning off.

Also, there are some better shortcuts: BT can be toggled by holding "*" in phone (# is silent/general, zero is internet, one is voice mail and 2-9 are speed dials).

The wifi in the E7 is (roughly) the same as the one in N900, so, at worst, they will be the same, regardless of other optimizations. So, there is no way they eat the same overall.

I recommend you install Nokia Battery Monitor (free) and see what's draining your battery. There's another called Energy Profiler, but it requires some skill. What apps do you have installed? Does it get warm to the touch? Did something get stuck? Did you play with the settings and deactivate power saving for wifi?

As for power saving mode, the one that comes with the phone, it's great. In power saving, the phone drains under 10% a day if left alone and no weird stuff start happening.

The PSM switches the phone from 3G/3.5G to 2G, which elongates standby times from 420 to 470h (20 days), talk time from 5 to 9 hours and dims the screen (by default) from 100% to 25%, also enabling light sensor so it goes even dimmer in the dark.

This mode is great if you are low on battery or are simply away from a charger in an emergency, and can push a 2-day phone to a 20-day phone - provided you don't use it. If power could be saved while the CPU is screaming at full speed it would have always been on.

So:
* Check wifi power save is on.
* Check you don't use "n" wifi (not much overhead though), check to see you don't have constant traffic over encrypted networks (encrypting eats power)
* Check you didn't install "daemon" software that always run and keep phone on.
* Check that you don't have ridiculous intervals for weather (I have 1 hr), mail (15 m, wifi only), other widgets that would disallow sleep, fire up wifi, power on sensors like proximity or orientation, disallow screen sleep, use screensavers, etc.
* Install mentioned software and check to see if any software eats large amounts of background.
* Make sure you use a dark theme. Unlike LCD, AMOLED uses power with color, so very little for black and a lot for white. A dark theme with a faint red design will use 1% of the power required to display a white theme.

And finally, ALWAYS profile battery use when phone is blank. After a ton of stuff is in there, settings have been fiddled with, sleep options have been toggled, it's not a correct test.

Overall, I keep my phone at 25% brightness, use the dark copper theme, all power savings are on (minus PSM - that comes on automatically at 30% left) and get 2 days clean - messaging, phone, net, mail, weather, social, camera. If you don't, there's something wrong on your side, be it software of hardware.

At the same usage rate, N900 would be full at night (96%), 86% morning, 60 mid-day, and 30 evening, 6 PM-ish. If the night would be longer, it would beep or fail by 10-11 PM.

Compare N900 to E7 official times from Nokia:
Standby: 278 versus 470 h
2G talk: 6 versus 9 hours
3G talk: 4.3 versus 5 (well, not that impressive)

So, it is more efficient.

Note, however, that looking at a white internet page is the worst case scenario for E7 (OLED) whereas N900 doesn't really care - white is the TFT-LCD's best state. A TFT eats 90% of its power when white and 100 when black. OLED eats 0% when black and 100% white. TFT should be marginally better on white. So, Google is the worst drainer. Try browsing this.

I kid. Still, bear in mind that comparing batteries can't be all about one task. If you use Internet most of the time, lower brightness as much as possible.

Overall, however, take the time to do a balanced test. If you just write to prove that E7 is bad hardware and S3 is just bad at everything, you'll probably succeed.

We, in Romania, have a saying: 'He who searches, finds". It's mostly used to hint that one needs to search before anything can be found - but the reason I love it is because it also works the other way around. Keep searching and you'll find something, even if it's not there.

Balance it out, test all avenues, and remember - only a select few could undervolt their devices, only a select few could enable the VSYNC, and mostly, that there are tradeoffs in technologies - like the AMOLED thing being at its worst in a white/light/brightly colored theme.

E7 isn't an internet tablet.

@ndi Quick question: when you say "you can now add a caption" does that mean when you click the share icon within the Gallery to upload to Facebook, you now have the option to add a caption before it uploads, or do you mean that adding a caption is now possible in the updated Social app?

It's one of my bugbears of S^3. On my N900 I could take a photo, then while viewing it, press share, choose facebook, then add a caption, and it would upload straightaway with the caption, so I could forget about it.

At the moment I'm using Pixelpipe as a way to add captions to photos going to fb, but it would be so much better to be able to just use the phone's inherent software to do this. Sounds like Anna adds that feature, but I just wanted to check with you, as you have an E7 with Anna on it, and I'm STILL waiting for her to arrive in the USA.
Thanks

Aye.

Also, when you take a photo, the freeze-frame thing after capture has a share button. Click, and it presents a list of services with checkboxes next to them (feel free to toggle). Then hit OK and it asks you to type up a caption. It's the same as the image viewer. Tap the image, press share, etc.

Also works when checking into a place. The Check In screen has a message (duh) but also has an image placeholder that, when clicked, also attaches an image from gallery or camera. The list of services underneath also has checkboxes to selectively check in whatever networks your significant other doesn't check.

@ndi Thanks for your response. Good to know that captions can be added easily. Can't believe they missed that one off!

Another question for you: I've read a lot of posts in various forums that after installing Anna, E7s have a problem with incoming calls. Apparently if the E7 is in your pocket, the screen stays completely black when you go to answer the call. It only happens to E7s after installing Anna. It's a bug with the proximity sensor + Anna.
Is this true? Or maybe it's just for certain product codes.
Bit worrying if it is true...what's the skinny on that?

Cheers

I have seen at least 100 problems with E7 that happened "ever since Anna". Out of those, NONE have happened to me or the majority of others. There are complaints on Nokia discussions with ONE post. How these people assume it's an Anna issue and not THEIR issue I can't tell.

Makes for a fun if frustrating reading of app reviews on OVI. "Warning, this does not work on Anna! Wasted money!". Both the developer and me and the other 4000 downloaders agree: it does.

It never fails to amaze me. When 4000 people rate it as good, and say it works, and yours doesn't, what chemical imbalance can happen inside a brain to conclude "it's broken"? It's not broken, you are, get checked.

Some have botched updates, some have dropped, reset, drowned and violated the phone, then wonder what the issue is.

Some are just not the sharpest pencil in the box.. What do you say to this guy: "[...] after updating my phone to the leaked chinese version of Anna, widgets seem[...]"? Really? The leaked Chinese version. Sounds contagious.

Googling the issue got me hits like these:

"Hey!i update my n8 to symbian anna via ovi suite BUT there are some bugs such as:
1)music player cannot play music-general system error appears!
2) error appears when i install an app or a theme via ovi store
3)i can't install any app to the phone via micro-USB
4)my maps haven't changed and many others!
i re-installed symbian anna via both ovi suite and nokia software update but nothing ever fixed!
i've also made a hard reset and restoration to factory settings but nothing happened!
any idea?plz help!:/"

Accents are mine. I'm pretty sure music player not playing and general system error is not due to Anna. It's because you dropped it, and now it's dead. When hard reset does nothing, it's not a software issue.

You dislodged the internal storage, and now it boots up but can't play music, can't install, no maps updates and no OVI copy of files.

When hard reset doesn't help, don't go to Facebook. Go to Nokia Care and tell them you dropped it in the toilet.

As for the "display darken" when call is incoming, I found 2 examples. One that got sent to Nokia Care and was replaced, and another that refuses to send to Nokia, but apparently problem was intermittent since March. So, unlikely it's Anna.

If the display doesn't fire up, try this: Open the phone. If it comes to life, it's a hardware issue with the proximity, get it fixed. If it doesn't, it might be software, either the OS is busy or there's some other problem. Take it to Nokia, they'll clean-flash it and try again (standard procedure). Either way.

Why aren't these sent to Nokia? Phone is 6 months old, it MUST be under warranty. Either it's not your phone or it was full of water and has a chipped corner.

So, the skinny: It's not an issue with Anna, and if it were, it's a few isolated cases Nokia will be happy to help you with.

So, the skinny: It's not an issue with Anna, and if it were, it's a few isolated cases Nokia will be happy to help you with.

Good to know - I guess that if someone updates with Anna and then has a problem it's easy for them to think, "oh it must be Anna because everything was fine before" but they forget it could be something else, like a 3rd party app not responding well to Anna, and not Anna herself.

Also, after seeing a bunch of E7 + Anna vids on youtube, I really think this is a rather bland slice of garlic bread as a starter when really we're waiting for the delicious filet mignon main course that is Belle. I mean from what I've seen, it looks like the split-screen calendar is the only real benefit. I use Opera Mobile, and will probably do so after updating, I have an "Anna" theme right now, with black wallpaper, so that won't change much, and I downloaded the latest and greatest Maps from Nokia Beta Labs. So what else is there?

I suppose if you could say, Andy, Anna definitely speeds things up, it is much more zippy, it flies through the menu and there is very little lag, I'd think wow, great, can't wait. But it seems like I would prefer to wait, have Anna on there for about a day then update to Belle, so basically wait until Jan 2012 when they start the Belle release for E7s.
Or, is it worth updating the day Anna comes out in the USA, and enjoying a better E7 experience until Belle comes out? I ask this because right now things are fine and my E7 runs pretty well, with only the odd hang here and there every few days, nothing a restart can't fix. If Anna isn't going to address these, I'll just wait for Belle. Or does she work more magic than just a fancier browser and portrait qwerty? (something else I'd hardly use)