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It's fair to say Pokémon Gohas sent people wild again for the 20-year-old gaming franchise.
The augmented reality mobile game became available for Australians and New Zealanders on Wednesday morning, as well as Americans later that evening, with grown adults back trying to "catch 'em all" like they once did as children.
SEE ALSO:Pokémon Go gamers are having a blast catching Pokémon in crappy placesIt shouldn't be a surprise that the game's heavy use of the phone's camera and GPS makes it a serious battery killer. Users have been chronicling how the game chews up their phone's batteries on Twitter, and it ain't pretty.
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Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
A test to see how long non-stop Pokémon Go will last on a phone
Mashable Australia fortunately got the game loaded up on a iPhone 6S, with plenty of time to catch some Pokémon while at work.
For the purposes of this test, we've turned Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off on the phone, and we'll operate the phone on a 4G cellular network. In the game, Pokémon Gokeeps your phone's screen on, unless you manually lock your phone. We'll keep the screen on the whole time for the test.
The game also has a "battery saver" mode which you can activate, although we won't be turning that on for the test. According to the game's developer Niantic, all "battery saver" does is disable your screen when you point your phone downward, but the app will continue to track you and notify of nearby Pokémon. That's sort of useful, we guess.
In the test, we'll also be measuring how much mobile data the app uses, as unlimited mobile data isn't really a thing in Australia unfortunately.
The countdown to a dead battery
1:45 p.m. - 99 percent battery.
The phone's battery is full and we're ready to go. We captured a nearby Poliwag and a Staryu, starting the day off strong.
1:54 p.m. - 89 percent battery.
It's been less than 10 minutes of play on Pokémon Goand we've already decimated a tenth of the phone's battery. On the plus side, we've just reached level 5 in the game.
Credit: mashable australia
Credit: mashable australia2:05 p.m. - 83 percent battery.
After letting off some incense in the game to attract wild Pokémon, we've ended up being surrounded by three Zubats. Damn you, Pokémon Go.
2:25 p.m. - 70 percent battery, 3.9 megabytes of mobile data used.
Whoa, that was a big drop in battery life. All we did is visit a PokéStop, with the Zubats disappearing in the meantime. Despite an early surge of action and a big chunk of battery life lost, we've only managed to use 3.9 megabytes of mobile data thus far.
2:36 p.m. - 60 percent battery.
We spent about five minutes trying to capture a Golbat, while being sent outside due to a compulsory fire drill in the building, resulting in another deep plunge in our phone's battery percentage. Overall, our iPhone's battery life has been reduced by 40 percent in only 51 minutes.
Credit: mashable australia
Credit: mashable australia2:52 p.m. - 56 percent battery, 5.2 megabytes of mobile data used.
It's a busy time in the Pokémon Goworld. We've captured a Krabby, while also scoring items from a PokéStop. Shockingly, it didn't kill off our battery once and for all, after a dramatic half an hour.
3:15 p.m. - 43 percent battery.
We've done nothing in the game and somehow it has shaved 13 percent of our phone's battery. Thanks for that.
3:32 p.m. - 31 percent battery, 8.4 megabytes of data used, and our first app crash of the day!
The Pokémon gravy train wasn't going to last for long. The game crashed on us for the first time, and it wasn't going to be the last.
3:45 p.m. - 23 percent battery and the second app crash.
Our phone can't handle the Pokémon heat it seems, as the game crashes again. At this point, Pokémon Gohas destroyed 77 percent of our phone's battery life in less than two hours.
BUT I WANT TO PLAY POKÉMON NOW.Credit: mashable australia3:48 p.m. - Still 23 percent battery and now the servers are experiencing issues.
It's Pokémon No as the game tells us "our servers are experiencing issues" and to "please come back later," making us quite the annoyed trainer.
The worst part about the server issues screen is that you have to log yourself in again, which will happen over and over again if you can't get in because of the problem. Not fun at all.
4:13 p.m. - 13 percent battery and we're back in the game.
After trying to get back in the game for 25 minutes, we're back. No clue on what's causing those server issues, by the way.
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4:31 p.m. - 1 percent battery!
This is it folks. Hope you had a fun ride. We've captured some Pokémon together, developed some great friendships and had a jolly good time. Kumbaya, my lord.
4:40 p.m. - The phone is still alive.
Like the fuel gauge on one's car, "empty" seems to not really mean empty. The same applies to batteries, which seem to cling on to dear life for ages like that woman in the movie Cliffhanger, until they die at the moment you need it.
4:45 p.m. - Now the phone is dead.
It was a good life.
How long did our phone's battery last and what's the data usage?
Exactly three hours, although 25 minutes of server issues stopped us from playing. So in actual playing time, we had 2 hours and 35 minutes of pure Pokémon Go.
The app chewed up 15 megabytes of mobile data, which is surprisingly light for a game that is reliant on it. This will surely increase as you move about from location to location, requiring the game to download new maps and images.
Of course, most people won't be playing Pokémon Gofor three hours straight. The game is obviously designed as an accompaniment to our day-to-day lives, as we wander around our city checking emails, look at Facebook or snap photos on Instagram. These activities are hardly easy on a phone's battery either.
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If you want to save on battery life, you can try switching on the "battery saver" option in the app's settings, or do the usual battery saving techniques such as turning down your brightness, exiting other power hungry apps, or ones that use background data.
You can also try and save a bit by turning off the augmented reality option in the top right when trying to capture your Pokémon. This will turn off the camera, defaulting to a generic background instead of your real world surroundings.
But for many people already addicted to the game, the solution to saving battery life is simple: Buy a battery pack.
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