Expert: DebiN - 12/18/2011

Question
QUESTION: I know little about cell phones, I got one about 1 1/2 years ago to use just for emergencies and use it very little. It's just your basic phone, none of the extras but it does have a camera. A charge normally lasts me for many months. But I just got a text message that was a wrong number, someone saying "is this aunt sally" and it had an attachment, don't know if it was just a picture or a video. But I noticed my battery was down to almost nothing when it had been fully charged. I deleted whatever it was but wondered, if someone had sent me a video from a smart phone, could that deplete the battery so much, even without opening it? Can I even receive videos on a regular cell phone? In any case, I recharged the battery and will see if it holds it, but what could have happened other than the battery going bad so soon?  Thanks

ANSWER: Your suspicion is correct. Downloading a picture or especially a video uses a lot more battery that just being on "standby". Also, if you were to look at the specs for your phone, you would see that it indicates that it will have a certain amount of hours for standby (which means not using the phone or anything else and just how long it keeps the charge - it's not months, it's typically as much as 21 days but that's close to a month - if you turn it off, then yes, definitely, it will last for months) and then for example, 3 hours to 14 hours talk-time, meaning that if you were just talk on the phone non-stop, the battery would last a certain amount of time. Talking on the phone uses a lot more battery than standby. If your phone can play music, that uses battery (but much less than talking but more than standby) and playing games uses a certain amount of battery. What uses the very much battery is downloading especially video. So what happened to you is exactly what should have happened. I promise you, your battery will hold the charge and you will be fine. Using the phone the way you do today, it will last a lot longer than most people's, so you should be fine for at least another 1 to 1/2 years and maybe even longer before having to replace the phone (or battery). One thing to keep in mind, who sent it to you and how they sent it to you has nothing to do with you receiving it. It doesn't matter if they sent from a SmartPhone or anything else, it's all related to your phone, not theirs. Hope this helps.

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QUESTION: Ok thanks. I always keep my phone off when not using it. Assuming it was a video someone sent, would it still drain the battery like that even when the phone was off, or did it happen when I turned the phone on? Although, when I turned the phone on, it was already there. What puzzles me most is I didn't even open it, so just receiving a video without even opening it can drain the battery? Thanks!

Answer
It won't drain the battery if the phone is off regardless of what someone sends you. Turning on the phone uses a good amount of battery especially if you turn it on an off frequently. It actually uses less battery to just leave the phone on standby then just turning it on and off each day. If you didn't open the attachment, it didn't use the battery to do so. This may have been an anomoly, so I wouldn't worry a lot about it. If the phone is older, the battery life will be less than it was previously, but keep in mind that if you turn on and off the phone, it uses more battery than just leaving it on and on standby. Most phones last on standby for a couple of weeks. I hope this helps and sorry if I couldn't totally solve the problem for you.