Why does the battery drain so fast when I use my GPS?

[jmarshall1956]

I have a Nokia Lumina 929 with the latest Denim software update. When I use any GPS navigation app - Waze, gMaps, Nokia Here - the battery drain is so excessive that the phone gets very warm at the rear near the bottom of the phone. In fact, on a recent trip to Colorado, when using the Nokia Here application - the battery drain was so excessive that even when plugged in to a 2.1A power supply the battery died after 250 miles of driving and the phone was almost too hot to touch at the rear bottom.

[primortal]

GPS will chew through the battery and  heat up the phone being GPS is enabled but not to the point of draining it while plugged it; at least it hasn't in my travels.

Did you download the maps to Colorado? If not than the phone was doing dual duties of GPS and getting map data.

[jmarshall1956]

Yes, had downloaded the US Map for the Nokia Here application so there was no data traffic, at least for the navigation. I have the Waze and gMaps applications on my iPhone and Android device and have never seen battery drain like this or to the point of the device being too hot to touch.

[primortal · Accepted solution]

I might be indicative of the Lumia line, both my Lumia 822 and Lumia Icon do run hot when I use GPS.

[Geebox]

Yep, I agree with Primortalprimortal, both my Lumia 928 and 822 gets hots and drains battery when used. You definitely will have use external power for long period of use.