Battery forecaster
How long will
your phone last?
Aster uses your phone's GPS for hours. Set your starting battery, pick a mode, and see exactly how long tracking lasts, all four modes, with or without auto-fallback.
Scenario
Tracking lasts with auto-fallback
9h 59m
If you stayed only in this mode
Actually spends 4h 40m here during the cascade (70% of battery).
Actually spends 1h 46m here during the cascade (15% of battery).
Actually spends 1h 33m here during the cascade (7% of battery).
Actually spends 2h here during the cascade (8% of battery).
Estimates from in-app burn rates. Real consumption varies with signal strength, temperature, and other apps. Cell signal is the single biggest variable, and weak signal can double the drain.
How the ladder works
Four modes. One ladder. No fiddling.
Aster has four battery modes, each with a different GPS sample rate and upload cadence. The default, Live, gives spectators the smoothest tracking at the cost of the fastest battery drain. The other three tiers progressively slow GPS sampling to extend tracking life.
You pick a starting mode when you tap Start. Most riders leave it on Live, which is the right call for races up to about two hours. For longer rides the app's auto-fallback takes over, so at 30% battery it drops you one tier (Live to Standard), at 15% another (Standard to Endurance), and at 8% the final step to Ultra. A small banner pops up each time so you know.
You can also turn auto-fallback off and stay locked to your chosen mode for the whole ride, which is useful if you have picked Endurance from the start and want no surprises. The calculator above models both, so pick a scenario pill to see the cascade or a single locked mode.
Other ways to stretch your battery
Low-effort wins.
- Lock the screen when you are not checking it, because the display is the single biggest battery drain after GPS.
- Drop screen brightness if you do leave it on.
- Close other apps before the start, since Spotify, Strava and navigation apps all compound the drain.
- Keep the phone out of direct sun if possible, because heat reduces battery efficiency significantly.
- Bring a battery pack for multi-hour rides. A 5,000 mAh pack weighs almost nothing and is cheap insurance.
- Charge while you ride if your phone is bar-mounted near a power bank. Some riders swear by it for ultra-distance days.
- Do not use airplane mode. Aster needs a data connection to upload positions, and airplane mode means your spectators see a frozen position the whole time.