[LezCronut]

Hi errybody! Can the smartphone be charged while we are Daydreaming with View?

[Solomon Davis]

No it cannot.

[LezCronut]

Wait, why not? It looks like it can. The phone's merely sandwiched with the sides visible.
Any source that confirms this?
Thanks.

[krisguy]

I would agree with Lez that you should be able to charge it, but every demo I have seen video on does not show it because they want to showcase the portability.

[Breuklen]

My question would be: why would you want to? It would be cumbersome and probably disrupt the experience. Not to mention tripping and tangling risks.

[Russell Holly]

You can absolutely charge while Daydreaming, but there's a good chance you'll run into heat problems as well as potential cable tangle issues.

[Cale Hunt]

While watching movies in Gear VR I've charged my Note 5. Haven't noticed any heat problems, but I guess it depends on conditions.

[Breuklen]

I forgot to mention heat issues earlier. Probably the key reason why I wouldn't recommend charging while daydreaming.

[pioann]

I guess you should be able to charge it while daydreaming. But personally, I wouldn't do it. It's still a lithium battery, and even though we have reports about exploding batteries with the note7 mainly, it doesn't mean it couldn't happen with other phones. You really don't want to be the unlucky one.

[mmidgley]

So if the phone is not charged (while reading this thread i imagined a portable battery mounted to the back of my head, so battery explosions could be on both sides of my head) how long can one daydream? say, with a Pixel XL?

[pioann]

So if the phone is not charged (while reading this thread i imagined a portable battery mounted to the back of my head, so battery explosions could be on both sides of my head) how long can one daydream? say, with a Pixel XL?

well, if both your phone and battery bank exploded and your head was in between, then I guess you'd be daydreaming for quite some time ^^ seriously though, while I haven't tried it, I'm gonna guess you won't be watching a whole movie with a single charge. There are way too many subsystems functioning all the time and draining your battery. I don't know if google did something with the Pixel to consume as little as possible while in VR.

[Breuklen]

So if the phone is not charged (while reading this thread i imagined a portable battery mounted to the back of my head, so battery explosions could be on both sides of my head) how long can one daydream? say, with a Pixel XL?

I'm just laughing imagining someone with a battery pack strapped to their head.

[rahool360]

Isnt it dangerous to charge phone while on use??

[mahmunk1]

Isnt it dangerous to charge phone while on use??

With standard core - it's not ideal...

[Murali14]

Not as of now.

[James Metcalfe]

Does using a phone in VR use much battery or is it just similar to watching a movie on it?

[pioann]

Does using a phone in VR use much battery or is it just similar to watching a movie on it?

in VR a movie will use much more battery. There are many other factors at play than just a video overlay while in VR.

[Breuklen]

Isnt it dangerous to charge phone while on use??

If the user doesn't pay attention, and depending on surroundings, yes.

[James Metcalfe]

There are many other factors at play than just a video overlay while in VR.

makes sense, can you tell me what these other factors might be?

[Derek McAdon]

Why would you need to charge your phone while using it for VR? It's supposed to have screen on time of 8+ hours, even while rendering for VR I'm sure you will still get 2-3 hours at a time, probably more if you're just watching a movie on Netflix or something.

[dpham00]

Why would you need to charge your phone while using it for VR? It's supposed to have screen on time of 8+ hours, even while rendering for VR I'm sure you will still get 2-3 hours at a time, probably more if you're just watching a movie on Netflix or something.

From what I am reading most people water getting 5-6 hours of SOT with regular usage with the XL

[pioann]

makes sense, can you tell me what these other factors might be?

Sure. While watching a movie on your phone/tablet and the video is full screen (it usually is) the video is rendered using the graphics chip frame buffer directly so that no cpu based memory copies are used. Something like that won't really happen because in VR you're rendering the movie on a GL texture in a 3D scene where every polygon is being computed for each frame (60 per second if your device can handle it). That alone should consume much more than normally.
Also many different sensors are constantly providing data, like the gyroscope. This drains the battery a lot (although as far as I know there are dedicated chips that can handle such tasks without bothering the cpu much on some devices). Same applies to the accelerometer, compass etc. Surely there are other things to consider specifically in VR, but these are the main ones I can think of at the moment.

[pioann]

argh, what are these $$ symbols in my post?? even after re-editing the post, they're still there!

FIXED: apparently the forum doesn't like "typos". The "afaikafaikafaik&$quot$; $word$ $was$ $the$ $cause$.

[Joshua Richards1]

Weird. I would have thought the pixel xl would have taken into account heating with daydream. This is a it of a let down.

[russell1997]

When doc brown charged his phone while watching vr that's when he invented the Flux capacitor. He just threw Marty off the trail with the other story so Marty wouldn't steal his idea!