swype using battery

[rcyphermd]

I have an Incredible. When I use swype, my battery drains very quickly. I have updated it, same problem. When I switch to other keyboards, my battery lasts a much longer time. Others have this problem?

 

[wmm]

Yes. Swype is very computationally-intensive, running the algorithm that determines the closest match in the dictionary to the free-form shape you drew on the screen. Normal keyboards aren't as demanding of CPU resources, just responding to discrete keypresses, so the battery drain is less.

 

[AngryHatter]

No, I don't have that trouble with Swype.
My battery lasts a day or two.

 

[rcyphermd]

WHen I use slideit, I do not have this problem. It also uses tracing. I wonder why swype uses power so much, but not slide it?

 

[wmm]

I think the fact that Swype has a speed-vs-accuracy setting and SlideIt does not is a good clue as to the difference in their approach: Swype will keep trying to refine its guesses until the time indicated by that control has expired and will thus keep on using CPU for that long, while SlideIt does its computation and then stops. At least, that's my best guess; I don't have any direct knowledge of the internals of either program.