Battery life of a new xperia z1 compact

[Joe25]

Hi.. I just bought an xperia z1 compact 1 week back and i am having concerns as to whether its battery life is as it is supposed to be since the phone was manufactured way back in september 2014 and if the 9 months on the shelf has affected its battery. It was from an online retailer and the box looked dirty, so i have doubts it might be a refurbished phone. Could someone advice on whether my phone battery life is how it is supposed to be after seeing the attached pics?. I am also attaching pics after a full charge. It is running on kitkat 4.4.4, 14.4.A.0.157. 

I used it with screen brightness at minimum all the time with the occasional increase in brightness when out in the sun which was just for a few minutes. Stamina mode was also on 90% of the time and i used to close all apps after use. The wifi also drops at times and while connecting it shows poor strength even if the actual strength is excellent and then settles to a medium range. I mainly need to know if i have to return the phone or is it working as it should?. Thanks.

[SergioPL1 · Accepted solution]

I think that over 5 hours with screen on and more than one day of battery life is normal for Z1C. If battery wasn't completly dead after you first opened the box it should be fine.

Wireless range on mobile devices are lower than on laptops. Compare it with other phone or tablet. If looks similar it is fine. If lower than others devices or lower than full in 3-4 meters in direct line of sight (no walls etc) consider return.

[Joe25]

Thank you for the reply. I didn't turn on the device when charging it for the first time so i don't know the exact percentage but it was kind of half in the on screen indicator. Regarding wi-fi, the signal kind of fluctuates when connecting, but once connected remains stable, though there is the occasional drop but doesn't affect me all that much, so i guess its ok.  The estimated battery time after a full charge has decreased though, it shows just 2 days and 3 hours in stamina mode as compared to 3 days as i had posted above, but i guess it will keep varying depending on usage. 

[SergioPL1]

@Joe25 if battery level was higher than 0% it is fine.

Wireless signal level is quite useless until connected. In hotels it often shows full bars during scan but after connecting it drops to 1 - 2 bars and this is real signal level.

If you want you can try Wifi Analyzer from play store, it will show you signal levels of surrounding networks.

[Joe25]

Just one last thing, since i have a limited time, I can expect the Z1C to give me only 5 and a half hours maximum on screen time for just browsing the net over wifi with minimum brightness, playing music occasionaly and standby on 2g network with stamina mode on and no apps running in the background?. I mainly use it for browsing  and 1% goes every 4-5 minutes. I expected more, i thought it could easily last 2 days with my usage after reading all the reviews and user opinions in various forums. So i guess its standby is really good and thats it.

[SergioPL1]

During standby battery should last very long. Drop around 2-5% per night is quite normal. When screen is on battery goes down quite fast. I can't tell you exact numbers but my wife's Z1C has similar on times. Except she has about 2-2.5 screen on per day and phone easly lasts two days.

Do you need 2G only? I would switch to WiFi or 3G. Modem uses a bit more power but over much shorter period of time and over all it may increase battery life.

[Joe25]

So i guess my expectation was a bit too high with some people getting upto 7 hours screen on time. For now my Z1C seems to be giving numbers similar to what you mentioned. So thats cleared up and i hope it lasts 2 years without any hiccups :). Thanks again.