Now, don’t get us wrong, we know that the USB port on your laptop or PC isn’t the most ideal place to put your phone if you need a quick battery charge. It will, at best, provide a “trickle charge” but isn’t as good as the usual wall charger. On my own phone it’ll keep the charge static under heavy use, and charges quite happily (if a little slowly) otherwise.
But, we’re a little surprised to see the problems that Jamie Wright is having with his new Xperia S. Even with the screen off, he’s finding that the phone uses the battery faster than the USB power output from his laptop can recharge it.
I’m sat in work, phone is plugged into my USB port to top up the charge. Guess what – even without the screen on the battery is going down.
He’s provided this screenshot and there, at the bottom, you can see when the battery is receiving charge. However, up top, there’s a distinct ski-slope even when the screen is off…
Now, this could be some nasty background app that’s gone onto overdrive, so we need to ask the question, are any other Xperia S owners having the same issue? Let us know!
I haven’t noticed that (yet), but I’d start with investigating background apps and services which might spin around too much.
Fame at last! lol
I’ve installed nothing that I didn’t have on my Desire which charged quickly on the USB cable. The next step is to check what Sony have installed by default.
I am also having this issue (I’ve had the Xperia S for 2 days now) and it seems to drain real quick – there is an option that shows you which app are using what and it seems most of it goes towards the screen.
I’m going to turn off the bravia engine and see what happens.
Other than this battery issue I am having – I must say I am very impressed with this phone – only the battery is letting it down thus far.
What app was causing this problem? You can easily see in Battery Use
See if com.sonyericcson.awake is running in the processes. That’s what keeps the phone awake so much. Mine lasts 13 hours of reasonably heavy use and the difference I see is that mine is rarely “awake” when the screen is not on.
There’s a big thread about it at xda developers http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1536332&page=1
Hi,
I have had the Xperia S for 2 weeks now and I have been having the same issue, not just with USB charging, also with electricity connections. It’s been so inconvenient. It takes about 3 – 4 hours to achieve a full charge, and for that to happen, I need it connected to the original charger only. If I connect it to USB, my battery app shows it’s connected to charger but says “discharging”. I don’t have any complex apps running, other than GMAIL +WiFi. I wouldn’t have thought they use up that much battery.
Mo
I also experienced the battery drain while charging via USB, however if you get a dual USB A to Micro USB B cable it will charge fine. It will just use an extra USB port on your computer to draw additional power from. Here’s the cable that I got: http://amzn.to/MAeM6y it works perfectly.