Energy consumption of cellular telephones

Energy consumption is a major contributor to the environmental impact of portable electronics. The power required by electronic devices is usually calculated from engineering data sheets and a use pattern is assumed, in order to evaluate the energy consumed by a device. In an ongoing effort to assess and improve the environmental performance of the authors' products, the energy consumption of a few cellular telephone models was measured and the efficiency of chargers and battery packs was evaluated. A real user profile was simulated in the laboratory and a data acquisition system was used to measure the power required by the system while performing various functions. Although the models tested are new, high efficiency designs, further improvements are still possible. Particularly, higher efficiency of chargers and overall better power management of the system can produce further power savings.