I have been reading articles all over the net about how BlackBerry’s new Facebook application is a battery drainer. First of all I have not seen any extra battery drain and second of all every application that is constantly running takes processor power and thus eats battery life.
The main reason I am confused about the claims is because I discovered something interesting about how the BlackBerry Facebook application works. It essentially just hijacks the Facebook notifications that you normally get in your email and shows them in the Facebook application. I figured this out because I had all of my Facebook emails automatically forwarded to a subfolder in my Exchange account and then the Facebook application no longer worked. The second I removed the rule the application worked again. Since the application is based on email I don’t think it would be such a battery drain unless you were uploading pictures and updating your status all day. Personally I have not seen any significant difference in my battery levels on my BlackBerry 8800. All the other users I have spoken to have also not seen a 10–15% battery drain.
Let me know what you think!
Viral Electronics Not Registered
Posted: November 2, 2007 at 11:21 AM EST
I agree, people need to realize that anytime you are transfering data rather its programs, texting, internet or what not. It is going to use more battery life than your phone setting idle.
ben Not Registered
Posted: December 1, 2007 at 10:05 PM EST from my BlackBerry 8830
I installed the app on my sprint 8830 and every day afterwards had 0 battery around lunchtime. I fully charge my bb every night and have never had this problem before.
I barely use this app at all!
ketan Not Registered
Posted: December 31, 2008 at 11:19 AM EST
Prior to upgrading to Facebook v1.2 on my Blackberry 8330, I had no issues with battery levels. However the day after I installed Facebook v1.2, my battery level was in the “redzone” within 4 hours of unplugging after a 100% charge cycle. I’ve had my Blackberry 8330 for 7 months now, and I’ve never had a battery drain like this. My daily pattern hasn’t changed either, it was a normal day, I woke up, got ready and went to work as usual. So absolutely nothing was different except the new Facebook version. This also happened to another co-worker of mine, so I’m convinced that Facebook v1.2 is a serious battery drain.