Battery and data on a full day
The two biggest drains on a knocking day are the screen and the radios. Continuous GPS is less costly than most reps assume; a phone repeatedly hunting for signal in a weak-coverage area is worse. Offline maps reduce data use to near zero for the basemap, and the queue means logging a knock costs no network at all.
What actually drains it
Screen-on time first. Then the radios, and in particular a phone in marginal coverage that keeps searching, which drains harder than one in a genuine dead zone that has given up.
What offline changes
The basemap stops being fetched, which removes a continuous request stream while you pan. Logging a knock writes locally and uploads later in one batch rather than per door.
Practical measures
A battery pack is standard equipment for a reason. Beyond that, lower screen brightness where the sun allows and avoid leaving the map open and panning between doors, which is screen time and rendering for no benefit.
Common questions
- Does GPS drain the battery quickly?
- Less than most people assume. Screen-on time and a phone hunting for signal in marginal coverage both cost more.
- Does offline mode save battery?
- It removes the continuous tile fetching and batches uploads, which helps. The screen is still the larger cost.
- How much data does a knocking day use?
- Very little once areas are saved, since the basemap is read from storage rather than fetched.
More on working offline
Dead zones, saved maps and field reliability — the wedge, and the thing reps complain about most.