General How accurate is usage time ?

[dspaceman]

Under General>Usuage, is this the total amount of time I've had my device on and used it ?

I don't mean the standby time but just the usage time.

It seems a little high sometimes and works out to be well over 10 hours of battery use (ipad mini), which seems pretty optimistic.

Thanks

 

[jacobss]

There's something fishy about it.

 

[Weegee1]

It counts apps that run in the background as usage even if the screen is not on. For example, if you leave music running while it's "asleep" (not really sleeping), it's usage. But there are a lot of apps that run in the background on the App Store.

It also seems that apps that run in the background while the screen is off counts as both usage and standby. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. While I agree that background tasks should count as usage, standby and usage should be mutually exclusive times.

 

[cyks]

It all depends on what you're using the number for.

For comparative reasons or if you're curious if you get good battery life (as you'll find in countless threads here), it's completely useless.


If I were to put my phone in Airplane Mode, start a song on endless loop and lock the screen, I could likely get DAYS of Usage Time reported on a full charge.

-or-

I could go to a place with poor cell coverage, set the maps to take me somewhere, and record video while using the flash and end up with less than an hour of Usage Time.

Without knowing not only HOW one uses the phone, but what kind of cell and WiFi signals they get, and countless other factors, Usage Time doesn't tell nearly enough information to be even remotely "accurate."

 

[NewAnger]

I don't believe it sometimes. There have been times my 4S will show 7 hours usage with 23 hours standby. I've never been able to get that since 2007. More often, it shows 2-4 hrs and that is more believable.

The most recent 7 hour usage time was just doing what I do everyday, email and loading a few websites and FB and Twitter. Nothing that would use that much time.