Database Users

Battery Time

Hello
Just wanted to ask other xda II users what there battery times are like.
I've had mine two weeks and have found times getting steadily worse. Today i've had the phone on from 8am to 6pm and its gone from 100% to 9%, i've had 40mins call time and use a bluetooth headset, i've not used it for much else today, do you think that this is acceptable???
-Steve

Hmmm mine will go for about 2 days with blue tooth enabled and if i hardly use it. Switch it on for any length of time and its a different story. I think the battery life really is poor.

I think its really good.
In standby mode i can use it for 3-4 days.
But if i use it roughtly (bluetooth, calling, SD-cardread, watching movies, playing MP3 etc..) it works for like 2-4 hours.

Mine has got better as it does with this type of battery (to a point) I get about 3-4 days between charges.
Pete

Mine can stay on for around 5-6 hours with the screen on running bluetooth for the phone headset and the gps and running tom tom all the time,
I have set the backlight to turn off after 2 minutes though, i found if the backlight is left on i get less than half this run time

i think that disabling grps and bluetooth and
making sure there are no running programs is the best way to
start if one wish to know the batt time
backlight should only matter if the device is turned on

I'm a bit heavy phone/pda user. Stock battery isn't acceptable. So I got myself a backpack and overall battery time is great! Almost double as compared to before...
Poch

pochreyes said:
I'm a bit heavy phone/pda user. Stock battery isn't acceptable. So I got myself a backpack and overall battery time is great! Almost double as compared to before...
Poch
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The size of your xda II is doubled too eh? :shock:

If you buy XCPUscalar you can adjust the processor speed. l find that reducing the speed increases battery life without a significant reduction in usability (in terms of speed). Check out http://www.immiersoft.com

Crappy battery life on ATT 8525

I have a slight beef about my 8525. Sure, it's a great phone with a lot of features, but that only goes so far when the battery life is terrible. I came from a RAZR so maybe I am expecting too much, but I can start the day with 70% battery life and take a couple pictures and browse the Internet for a few minutes (under 10) and end up with 40% battery life by the end of the day. I'm not keeping Bluetooth, WiFi or any Cingular connection open and I am leaving the phone in standby. It seems like anytime I do anything, the battery life goes down 10%. The only software I have installed is Google Maps mobile. Is this normal or am I expection too much out of this thing?
I have done the registry edits for better battery life and conditioned the battery properly when I got it. Will a different radio version help (I currently have 1.40.30.00 on WM5) or WM6 help?
I once placed a 45 minute call and the battery life went down 20% just by doing that.
Am I being too picky?

Rockford_622 said:
I have done the registry edits for better battery life and conditioned the battery properly when I got it. Will a different radio version help (I currently have 1.40.30.00 on WM5) or WM6 help?
I once placed a 45 minute call and the battery life went down 20% just by doing that.
Am I being too picky?
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Click to collapse
I've seen people say that some radio's gulp power like crazy, so u cud experiment with different radio's.
I'm on 1.47 rite now and I talk a lot of my phone, use google maps, browse the web, and I charge my phone once every 2 days or so. So its pretty good, i think for the amount of functions the phone has.

I just did a search for battery just in this forum, and in the title of the thread and found a lot of similar complaints so I don't feel so bad now. I also did the registry edit that allows the BAND tab to show under the PHONE settings so I can manually lock my phone to EDGE most of the time and select UMTS only when I prefer the additional speed. One would logically conclude that locking the band would help battery life. We shall see
Radio 1.40.30.00 seems to be a radio version most people are content with so I am stick with it for the time being.

Battery Life
I had an 8125 for almost a year and it was usually good for a day or so.
I recently dropped the 8125 into a cup of water... Amazingly it was not submersible. So now I have the 8525 here in Los Angeles.
The battery life is pretty pathetic. If I unplug the phone in the morning (around 10am) and just carry it around with me without even talking by 2am the phone is letting me know the battery is low.
If I talk on the phone (under an hour) then the phone is dead by 11pm
I use Google Maps for the traffic, and I also have multiple exchange email accounts which check about every 10 minutes.
On days when I actually use the phone and google maps, if I unplug at 10am the phone is dead by 6pm.
At the moment I am running Schnaps 3.60a.
Dave

*All* PocketPC phones will have battery life about as long as yours has.
The problem here is merely that you are trying to compare its battery life to a normal cell phone. For the past 4-5 years, the battery life on Windows PocketPC phones has been about the same.
If you want to compare your PocketPC to another device with regard to battery life, you have to compare it to a laptop and not a cell phone.

Welcome to the future.

I do realize that all of the advanced features will use more juice. I use a HP iPAQ and a Dell Axim at work which both use WM5 and those only get around 4-5 hours of life before they are dead.
It just seems that battery technology is lagging behind the electronic gadgets that use them.
I almost hate leaving the house with the phone being less that fully charged in case I really need it somewhere I am not around a place it can be charged. Suppose a car charger would be in order.

Yes! Crappy Battery Life on the 8525
Yes. I came from an 8125 (ActiveSync on 25/7) and was able to use my phone for 1.5 days. With the 8525, I am lucky to get 6-8 hours. Big bummer!

I locked my 8525 into the Edge network and I believe that my battery life has increased marginally. Of course, this will not work for some people because they need the faster 3G network, but if you would rather have longer battery life, I say give this trick a try. It is really nice if you live in a fringe area where your phone bounces from Edge to 3G and back again frequently.

Doom Tints said:
*All* PocketPC phones will have battery life about as long as yours has.
The problem here is merely that you are trying to compare its battery life to a normal cell phone. For the past 4-5 years, the battery life on Windows PocketPC phones has been about the same.
If you want to compare your PocketPC to another device with regard to battery life, you have to compare it to a laptop and not a cell phone.
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Sorry but you are totaly wrong.
I had a TyTN for 3 monthes. I hardly had more than 24h in standby (no phone, wifi & Co). Phone was only in GSM mode, no UMTS. Tryed a lot of rom/radios.
I sold it, cause this was really too ridiculous.
Now I own a HTC Touch. With same usage and applications installed, I charge my phone only every 4 to 5 days.
12h in standby = only 10% less for battery.
This added to form factor made me very happy, no way I come back to hermes or even kaiser ...

Can acbPowerMeter be trusted?

Hi!
I have had my Tytn for roughly 2.5 years. This autumn/winter the battery time I could get out of my Tytn was really ridicilousley low, so I bought a new "non original" 1500 mAh battery. It got better but not much, I started to think that perhaps the battery time was never better than this.
The other day I skimmed through this forum about battery problems and found this little program for meassuring battery consumption. I have now had it on since I removed my phone from the charger this morning and now, 4 hours later I'm down to ~30% battery power and acbPowerMeter tells me that the phone has used 90 mAh all together.
I have made 1 shorter phone call and made a couple of synchs with turbo 3G during this period.
Does 90 mAh sound at all right? That would mean that the battery was crap to begin with....or is it possible that acbPowerMeter isn't giving me even "close to correct values"?
Does anyone have any comments or ideas around this issue?
Best Regards,
Olle

Don't know anything about your abcpowermeter. What I do know, is that when I've had a new battery, or when I flash a new ROM, I often have problems with low battery. I just run the battery down like three times in a row, and my battery always improves.
So before making any determinations or using a program, I always run the battery down.

I've got acbpowermeter on my phone, and I don't think it's much good to be honest. If I remember correctly, the last time I left it running, it severely drained my battery - not exactly what you want a power meter app to do.
I find it far more reliable by using BatteryStatus from chi-tai.info and just seeing what the momentary power usage is. (it sits on your Today screen). Yeah, it's not a comprehensive breakdown of your power usage over time, but it doesn't run the battery down like acbPowerMeter does
Like you though, I'm still curious as to what exactly my device consumes in terms of power over the course of a single charge, and I'm on the look out for a decent app which just ticks away in the background measuring power drain...

Hi!
Regardless of Acbpower I just bought a new HTC Original battery and now I have the "normal" battery life I was used to during the first year of my device. As it has allready been discussed in other threads: These non-original batteries are far from always a safe purchase...
Br, Olleman

I recommend Lion Batteries. I have had a great experience with their 3000mAh battery for over a year and a half. Use that 3G on my Hermes and music all the time -- serious user-- and the battery still last me over day. Mind you I am constantly on the internet and always using push email and other data-centric services.
As far as Battery Status, for general purposes is great as I find the more complicated the app the more drain on the system it is trying to read. A simple app that you can just keep an eye over a period of time I think works best.
As far as batteries I was concerned where to buy one. Since my brand new battery died over just a year. Mind you a tethered a lot and I think that tends to kill the battery life faster.

[Q] horrible battery life! anyone else?

Hi, I been having the HTC Surround for a little over a week now. I love the look and feel to it (I know OS wise it has a lot of improvements to do but I'm willing to put up with it for a bit, considering its a new OS). However one thing I notice is that it has horrible battery life! The phone last about 10/12 Hrs on a full charge. During this time period, there is no heavy use; tops 50 txt messages send and received, about an hour of music, screen lock (brightness set to low, when on), perhaps 15 minutes of talk time, data connection turn off, about 20 minutes of WiFi (I turn off WiFi when not in use), rest of the time on stand by as mention before (with the screen locked). Another thing i noticed yesterday night was that my phone was charge completely, i left it on stand by and within 5 hrs that i slept the phone had gone a little lower than 3/4ths (data connection was off).
I read a post here that said battery may drain quicker when phone is left in cold weather and i thought maybe this could be the case. However I'm really skeptical because i live in Los Angeles. Cold weather, which is this time of the year, is mid 40 degrees at its lowest! That's not cold! But anyways i guess I'll try putting that theory on a test (imma try keeping it warm, see if it makes a difference)
so is anyone else experiencing horrible battery life? Or am I just an unlucky person who got a defective battery?
THANKS in advance

gravewormx said:
Hi, I been having the HTC Surround for a little over a week now. I love the look and feel to it (I know OS wise it has a lot of improvements to do but I'm willing to put up with it for a bit, considering its a new OS). However one thing I notice is that it has horrible battery life! The phone last about 10/12 Hrs on a full charge. During this time period, there is no heavy use; tops 50 txt messages send and received, about an hour of music, screen lock (brightness set to low, when on), perhaps 15 minutes of talk time, data connection turn off, about 20 minutes of WiFi (I turn off WiFi when not in use), rest of the time on stand by as mention before (with the screen locked). Another thing i noticed yesterday night was that my phone was charge completely, i left it on stand by and within 5 hrs that i slept the phone had gone a little lower than 3/4ths (data connection was off).
I read a post here that said battery may drain quicker when phone is left in cold weather and i thought maybe this could be the case. However I'm really skeptical because i live in Los Angeles. Cold weather, which is this time of the year, is mid 40 degrees at its lowest! That's not cold! But anyways i guess I'll try putting that theory on a test (imma try keeping it warm, see if it makes a difference)
so is anyone else experiencing horrible battery life? Or am I just an unlucky person who got a defective battery?
THANKS in advance
Click to expand...
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What "theme" are you using?

If I don't use my phone, it will last for days. Even when I use it through out the day, it lasts well into the next morning/afternoon.
The battery life does get better the more you drain/charge it.

dressanderc said:
What "theme" are you using?
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I'm using a black background and lime tiles...

XeNoMoRpH1030 said:
If I don't use my phone, it will last for days. Even when I use it through out the day, it lasts well into the next morning/afternoon.
The battery life does get better the more you drain/charge it.
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Click to collapse
well, I been having it for a week now. I seen no difference in battery life. But imma give it another week or so. See if this works. Then I'm gonna try buying different battery. If that doesn't help, I think I'm going to have to switch back to my Samsung Captivate. I would hate doing this, but this type of battery life is a deal breaker. Today, it was even worse! It lasted me only 9hrs while I was at work, which at least 8 of those hrs it was on stand by!

Sounds like you have a bad battery, bro. I'd get it replaced at the store you bought it from.

dressanderc said:
Sounds like you have a bad battery, bro. I'd get it replaced at the store you bought it from.
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yeah, I'm going to try this on my day off which is on Monday. Also gives me time to test out the other persons suggestion
thanks for your opinions. I'll get back to you guys and see what happens.

My surround - now two weeks old is showing much improved battery life. It didn't make it through a day when I first got it. Part of that was due to my fiddling with it and part due - I think - to the battery conditioning.
Now, it is going a full day on a charge. I am also switching off 3G and on WiFi when I am in my office or home. It is a bit of a pain in the butt and I hope that M$ gives up some APIs soon so that someone - cough Bruce Jackson cough - will write an app. We'll see.

I have noticed that the Bluetooth drains the battery considerably faster. Try turning Bluetooth off when you don't need it.

acur8ly said:
I have noticed that the Bluetooth drains the battery considerably faster. Try turning Bluetooth off when you don't need it.
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I don't use the Bluetooth at all. So this can't be the problem. but thanks anyways. (I might need this information since I was planing on using one in the near future).
So I notice that now, my Surround does get better battery life. (which is absolutely crazy! since now I have the screen brightness on medium and data turn on lol). I guess the battery just needed to be use and charge a bit more. However, I still think battery life could be improved. (hopefully, future updates will teak some system settings that will do this)
I have also decided that I will keep my Surround instead of going back to my Captivate I wish battery life would be better and the OS to be more "open" but truth be told, I fell in love with my phone haha Then when i went back to my Samsung Captivate, it felt weird. Android felt much slower.
So i gave it a little test; I launched messaging, email, music, browser, etc on both phones at the same time. Turns out both of them launch these native applications in the same amount of time.
I guess what makes WP7 fell smother and faster is the (eyecandy) transitions.

think its the battery
ya i have had mine for 2 weeks now and i think the problem is the fact that the battery is a 1230mAh, and we also have a samsung focus with a 1450mAh battery that will last an exra 2-3 hours longer which makes a huge difference! im hoping htc will make a larger mAh battery avaliable, mine will only last anywhere from 5-7 hours from normal use

I just ordered a Mugen 1300mah battery..not *much* more capacity, but hopefully it helps a bit!

if i dont use my surround (like not using too much 3g, wifi, music, gaming, and just normal phone calls and texts) it can last a whole day and probably a lil more, but when i do too much 3g/wifi/gaming/music it drains quickkkkkk.
and i do hope htc will have a larger capacity battery for the surround soon... 1230 is kinda small compare to other phones nowadays..
but still this has much better battery life than my previous phones (diamond2 and touchpro)
i just find myself carrying the usb cable and wall charger alot in my bag :]
and having a car charger is a plus also.

My girlfreind has had the phone since xmas. Initially the battery would lose its charge very quickly. I had her do a bump charge and just let the battery settle in. She can now go up a third day wothout the need for a charge with moderate txt.
Be aware the quick drop whenn taking it off the charger is NORMAL. Read this thread for a discussion of that http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=871051
Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

Agree - Bad Battery Life - But not as bad as some....
Smart phones, in general, aren't what I would call great at conserving battery life under any condition. Pick any model of high-end smart phone and tell me who can get more than 2 days (using every trick in the book to eliminate unnecessary drain). Yes, this phone is under-powered in terms of only having a 1300 mAh battery when it should have a 1400 or 1500.
Cut the unnecessary stuff when you are not using it - Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.
You can easily get a day + out of this phone with moderate/mixed use (some talking, some browsing, some multi-media viewing). That's pretty good, I'd say (from my relative experience across many different types of smart phones). I just plug it in every night.....pick it up in the morning and go. Haven't had any issues with it running out during the day.
Now, if you are starting first thing in the morning and running movies, have the bluetooth going, the WiFi on........well, heck yes, you are going to have a battery drain problem. If you want to run it that way.....just leave it plugged in.

Has anyone used a Seidio Innocell 1300mAh Replacement battery? Was wondering if it was worth the investment to improve the Surround's poor battery performance.
Thanks,

So...when is someone gonna step up to the plate and improve battery technology? It really sucks that these phone manufacturers are giving us ALL these fancy features that drain the battery and when we complain about having poor battery life they are telling us to not use all those fancy features...kinda defeats the purpose of buying a smartphone, am I right?

guys .. wake PLZ UP ))
1 ghz (1-2 core cpu ) ..
3.8 and more screen ..
DEDICATED GRAPHICS .
OS .
with DIRECTX9 Interface .
and that all spiced up with 1600 ma battery in best case .
and that you wana to run more then 6 hours on full load ? say THX TO MS .. for NON multitask os .. overwise battery life was even more lol then this

dgduris said:
My surround - now two weeks old is showing much improved battery life. It didn't make it through a day when I first got it. Part of that was due to my fiddling with it and part due - I think - to the battery conditioning.
Now, it is going a full day on a charge. I am also switching off 3G and on WiFi when I am in my office or home. It is a bit of a pain in the butt and I hope that M$ gives up some APIs soon so that someone - cough Bruce Jackson cough - will write an app. We'll see.
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I noticed this as well. As time went by the battery actually started to last longer. When i first got it i used it less than i do now and the battery would die before i even got home for work. Now it lasts till about an hour or so after i finish and get home.

does the surround use the same battery as the HTC desire HD?
Theres an ebay seller that is selling a surround battery and wall charger but the wall charger has a sticker that says: For HTC Desire HD

X10 battery drain solved - by buying a new battery

So I always assumed the battery drain was a hardware or software issue, especially as my X10 would often shut down on 40% power and refuse to stay turned on unless the battery were taken out for 5 minutes.
Rather than buy a new phone I thought I'd try a new battery (I have had the phone since August 2010) - just £3 from ebay, and since then my battery life has been astounding - I'm quite a heavy user, but would almost run out after 8-9 hours despite keeping everything off and only switching on 3g and wifi when necessary. Now I can leave wifi and 3g on all day, leave the phone at medium brightness setting and still have 40% after a 15 hour day of medium-heavy usage.
I used to get idle drain of 1% every 10-15 mins as well (unless the phone was rebooted), but that seems to have disappeared as well.
So before you give up on it, do try a new battery, especially if you've had yours over a year. If there's no effect, you've lost £3 and still have a spare on hand.

Hello friend,could you please post the link where did you buy?

You think people on here throw their phone away because of battery drain,and it doesnt cross their minds to buy a new battery.....instead of buying a new phone.
I just hope your £3 battery doesnt damage your phone........or explode when youve got the phone in your pocket.......or during a call

talon1579 said:
So I always assumed the battery drain was a hardware or software issue, especially as my X10 would often shut down on 40% power and refuse to stay turned on unless the battery were taken out for 5 minutes.
Rather than buy a new phone I thought I'd try a new battery (I have had the phone since August 2010) - just £3 from ebay, and since then my battery life has been astounding - I'm quite a heavy user, but would almost run out after 8-9 hours despite keeping everything off and only switching on 3g and wifi when necessary. Now I can leave wifi and 3g on all day, leave the phone at medium brightness setting and still have 40% after a 15 hour day of medium-heavy usage.
I used to get idle drain of 1% every 10-15 mins as well (unless the phone was rebooted), but that seems to have disappeared as well.
So before you give up on it, do try a new battery, especially if you've had yours over a year. If there's no effect, you've lost £3 and still have a spare on hand.
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Whats the size? i have a 1500mAh and a 2600mAh whats ur cpu settings also? looking for a good setup thanks in advance!
Also amazon link for 2600mAh btw its a big battery, and requires its own case which is rather bulky (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Ericss...TIMS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331594837&sr=8-1)
This is the 1500 i currently use, still getting the battery sorted with kernels ect
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/KC-Electron...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1331594882&sr=1-1)

I would just like to confirm what OP wrote. Not only did my new battery (I got the 1800mah one from Mugen, $33) solve my battery drain, it also solved my mysterious reboots, lockups, and heat issues. My phone would regularly get up to 48 celcius, it would result in it automatically shutting off the charging. It was a pain in the butt when using GPS on long trips as I would have to have the AC run straight onto the phone just so it would still charge. It was like this from new. With the new battery it has not budged above 29 celcius with GPS navigation, 100% screen, bluetooth, music and sync all running at the same time, I am shocked!
In order to condition the battery I turned off the screen timeout ("No screen off" in the Market) so I could get it to drain to 5%, it lasts twice as long even with the screen on all the time then it did before I got the battery, feels like a new phone.

beware of cheap batteries
beware of counterfeit batteries. Ive read a bit about cheap batteries being inferior knock offs. You tube has several vids about how to tell the difference

I'm about to buy bigger battery for my x10i. Now I have original 1500 mAh. Do you, who already tested thease 2500 mAh bateries see the difference?

Bialynia said:
I would just like to confirm what OP wrote. Not only did my new battery (I got the 1800mah one from Mugen, $33) solve my battery drain, it also solved my mysterious reboots, lockups, and heat issues. My phone would regularly get up to 48 celcius, it would result in it automatically shutting off the charging. It was a pain in the butt when using GPS on long trips as I would have to have the AC run straight onto the phone just so it would still charge. It was like this from new. With the new battery it has not budged above 29 celcius with GPS navigation, 100% screen, bluetooth, music and sync all running at the same time, I am shocked!
In order to condition the battery I turned off the screen timeout ("No screen off" in the Market) so I could get it to drain to 5%, it lasts twice as long even with the screen on all the time then it did before I got the battery, feels like a new phone.
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My phone starting doing the exact same thing... shutting down at around 40% so I order the Mugen 1800mAH battery as well. Should get it in a few weeks... I did see much cheaper batteries available but figured you get what you pay for, and the reviews on the Mugen batteries seem to be good so I spend the extra money for it. Looking forward to the extended battery life!