Database Users

Is your 4G a battery killer?

I tested the following:
Turning 4G on in a full bar area and letting it stand idle for one hour.
I lost about 20% battery in one single hour.
The phone had the screen off, wifi off and all apps but the essential ones off.
On 3G i lost about 5%/hour.
4G is supposed to be an "always-on" service with such a battery drainage?
I was sure it was supposed to be a power efficient service, like WiFi or at least like 3G.
Note the phone also gets a little hot after one hour if being idle with 4G on.
I wonder if other people are seeing the same results?

clubtech said:
4G is supposed to be an "always-on" service with such a battery drainage? I was sure it was supposed to be a power efficient service, like WiFi or at least like 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ummmm...
Wow...
ummmm...
4g = bad for battery

OK...Thanks!
I really wanted someone else to test this and report back.
Maybe it is just my unit or the ROM that i am using?

clubtech said:
OK...Thanks!
I really wanted someone else to test this and report back.
Maybe it is just my unit or the ROM that i am using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LoL sorry brotha' I was just messing around
You gotta admit though, you set yourself up for that one
In all seriousness, 4g is an absolute battery killer! ESPECIALLY if your in an area where you don't get good 4g signal.
If your in a good area and surrounded by 4g then the phone doesn't really have to work at all to keep the signal BUT if your in an area where there's not much 4g signal, like most of America, then it will destroy your battery life (and make your phone hot) because your phone keeps searching for it over and over which chews up the battery. I would ALWAYS keep 4g off unless your downloading something until the 4g becomes more expanded across America. Also download the app battery indicator and make sure you keep track of your battery temperature with it in the status bar. I never let my battery get above 99*F since that will cause permanent damage. In your first post you were talking about losing 20% in an hour while on 4g which would alot of sense since the phone (on 3g) is only slated to get 4-5 hours of talk time, with 4g on always searching for signal the 20% loss seems about right.
Sorry again for messing with you earlier

np.
I am with full 4g bar when testing, so it is not a signal issue.

Yeah, it's a huge battery drainer. I forgot I turned it on in town, took a nap and had 85% battery left, fell asleep and took a 2 hour nap, woke up and it was dead dead mofo dead.
So yeah, it's a battery killer.

Good thing you can barely use the main advertising feature of this phone.

roybotnik said:
Good thing you can barely use the main advertising feature of this phone.
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Click to collapse
LOL A+
stupid10char

The weirdest thing

So if you look at some of my previous threads you'll see that I have complained about signal strength A LOT. After upgrading to 2.2 roms it seemed like I was constantly having bad strength at the placed I most frequent, ie my house.
Today I decided to give that "htc official way to increase battery life trick" a shot just to see what effects I would have.
I'm currently running Evio 1.1 and kings latest BRAIN **** KERNEL
but anyways, I only got half-way (step 2 or 3), I did the first 1 hour charge then decided not to do the second 1 hour charge because I needed my phone. But anyways, after I turned my phone on after the 1 hour charge while having it off the first thing I noticed was I had 5 bars! I though this was just the normal fluctuation so I stared at it for a while and it hardly budged! Now its down to 3 bars however its not fluctuation up and down like it used to.
Before I would average 1 or 2 bars and it would fluctuate anywhere from 0-3 bars. Now I'm getting a stead 3-5 bars.
I'm really not sure what could have possible happened but the only thing out of the ordinary that I did with my phone was the htc battery tip....
dunno...just thought I'd share that.
P.S you can look at some of my other threads and see how much of a baby I was when it came to signal strength.

starplaya93 said:
So if you look at some of my previous threads you'll see that I have complained about signal strength A LOT. After upgrading to 2.2 roms it seemed like I was constantly having bad strength at the placed I most frequent, ie my house.
Today I decided to give that "htc official way to increase battery life trick" a shot just to see what effects I would have.
I'm currently running Evio 1.1 and kings latest BRAIN **** KERNEL
but anyways, I only got half-way (step 2 or 3), I did the first 1 hour charge then decided not to do the second 1 hour charge because I needed my phone. But anyways, after I turned my phone on after the 1 hour charge while having it off the first thing I noticed was I had 5 bars! I though this was just the normal fluctuation so I stared at it for a while and it hardly budged! Now its down to 3 bars however its not fluctuation up and down like it used to.
Before I would average 1 or 2 bars and it would fluctuate anywhere from 0-3 bars. Now I'm getting a stead 3-5 bars.
I'm really not sure what could have possible happened but the only thing out of the ordinary that I did with my phone was the htc battery tip....
dunno...just thought I'd share that.
P.S you can look at some of my other threads and see how much of a baby I was when it came to signal strength.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its possible that you have new towers or upgrades to the network in your region. Even so, it really doesn't matter what is displayed, it really only matters how well you stay connected. It can say 0 bars, but still have a decent connection.
Anyways, glad yours works, mine still has the issue. I may try the battery thing eventually, though more for the battery enhancements.

superlinkx said:
Its possible that you have new towers or upgrades to the network in your region. Even so, it really doesn't matter what is displayed, it really only matters how well you stay connected. It can say 0 bars, but still have a decent connection.
Anyways, glad yours works, mine still has the issue. I may try the battery thing eventually, though more for the battery enhancements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well it must have been a fluke, because after an hour or so things went back to normal... Im back to fluctuation between low signal strength... oh well. it was nice while it lasted.

The truth about the common overheating problem and/or battery drain.

Many people have had this issue and i am going to put down the facts here.
The GMS radio in the x10 is not.. great.
It suffers in low signal area's lets say 1 to 2 bars of signal or lets say about -80 to -108dB and lower.
It requires alot more juice from the battery and that causes overheating then after a time chipset death.
This is all based on tests done at home.. i contacted my provider and had a petition signed, they fixed the tower and the issue's with my phone's heat are gone!
Now that i have full signal strength the device has no heat or battery issue's at home.
The other problem you can face is only if you flash firmware with a baseband or a separate baseband.
Many times the baseband may not settle correctly.. this will lead to severe heat, restarts, laggs or even chipset death.
Sometimes the baseband will not even be compatible.
#edit
the third problem that i am adding here and almost forgot about...
Charging while under any or even both of these conditions... can be catastrophic.
As sometimes the modem uses so much energy while the INTERNET is in usage that it cannot hold the charge.
There by cuasing major heat.. and you can guess where that will end up.
Switching to 2G instead of 3G can help ALOT, but in some cases this will end badly
As you will get very slow speeds and that causes downloads to be pathetic slow
and even more prone to bad downloads due to the bad signal quality.
The other case may be that you have the dreaded chipset of DEATH if you get above 45*C it's a good chance you have this horrid chipset.
Have it replaced by SE.
#edit END
All of my theories have been properly tested and recreated and fixed to ensure that this info is correct.
Before you call me insane or retarded... test it first!!!
http://talk.sonyericsson.com/message/130419#130419 < my theory proven.

Nice find there!
Sent from my X10a using XDA Premium App

shahkam said:
Nice find there!
Sent from my X10a using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I spent alot of time on this.. one motherboard and a battery later i found the culprits.

OmegaRED^ said:
Many people have had this issue and i am going to put down the facts here.
The GMS radio in the x10 is not.. great.
It suffers in low signal area's lets say 1 to 2 bars of signal or lets say about -80 to -108dB and lower.
It requires alot more juice from the battery and that causes overheating then after a time chipset death.
This is all based on tests done at home.. i contacted my provider and had a petition signed, they fixed the tower and the issue's with my phone's heat are gone!
Now that i have full signal strength the device has no heat or battery issue's at home.
The other problem you can face is only if you flash firmware with a baseband or a separate baseband.
Many times the baseband may not settle correctly.. this will lead to severe heat, restarts, laggs or even chipset death.
All of my theories have been properly tested and recreated and fixed to ensure that this info is correct.
Before you call me insane or retarded... test it first!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may very well be right on the issue of the GSM radio but..... Some earlier X10's were a lot more susceptible to this issue. My first X10 burned out in about 3 months and ran warm all the time, but in standby the replacement rarely gets warm unless I'm in a fringe area that only has edge coverage.
Anyway you don't know what a hot phone is until you've used the HTC Dream. At times you can almost cook eggs on it

GreatBigDog said:
You may very well be right on the issue of the GSM radio but..... Some earlier X10's were a lot more susceptible to this issue. My first X10 burned out in about 3 months and ran warm all the time, but in standby the replacement rarely gets warm unless I'm in a fringe area that only has edge coverage.
Anyway you don't know what a hot phone is until you've used the HTC Dream. At times you can almost cook eggs on it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So true, but i have been seeing more and more reports of this issue.
And would like to simply give a solid answer to this.
This was not meant as a complaint, but more as a answer so as to end the scourge of that question once and for all.
A overheat that ends in a damaged device = a serious issue.

No worries here
I bought my x10 in march 2010, about a week or 2 after it become available in my country. And I must say that I never had any problems with it, except what all experienced with 1.6 version (slow, laggy, few small bugs).
Overheating was not an issue, even when I upgraded to 2.1 and recently to TripNMiUI (awesome rom btw). Only time I had problems was when I searched for the right rom flashed the wrong file and almost messed up my device.
The battery was above 40°C and went to 10% in like 3 hours Now about that GMS thing... at work I have almost all the time 2 bars of signal (see attachment, was at work from 5am to 2pm) the red bar is 1, orange 2, yellow 3....
and blue lines you see is when its scanning. Sometimes I lose signal for maybe 1 or 2 hours (and that sux) But I cant show you phone temp (dont know how), but it is almost never above 30°C , except when I play games and I do quite a lot
So after more than a year I still have original battery and lasts for 3 days tops, but usually its around day and a half. And I love my X10

dragoonxy said:
I bought my x10 in march 2010, about a week or 2 after it become available in my country. And I must say that I never had any problems with it, except what all experienced with 1.6 version (slow, laggy, few small bugs).
Overheating was not an issue, even when I upgraded to 2.1 and recently to TripNMiUI (awesome rom btw). Only time I had problems was when I searched for the right rom flashed the wrong file and almost messed up my device.
The battery was above 40°C and went to 10% in like 3 hours Now about that GMS thing... at work I have almost all the time 2 bars of signal (see attachment, was at work from 5am to 2pm) the red bar is 1, orange 2, yellow 3....
and blue lines you see is when its scanning. Sometimes I lose signal for maybe 1 or 2 hours (and that sux) But I cant show you phone temp (dont know how), but it is almost never above 30°C , except when I play games and I do quite a lot
So after more than a year I still have original battery and lasts for 3 days tops, but usually its around day and a half. And I love my X10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends.. the heat is mostly created from using the GSM radio in these conditions. such as online usage.
Games are not the problem unless they make constant heavy use of the internet.
Also what was the ambient temperature when you are testing?

Well I do play cestos, and was playing pocket legends, both require constant internet connection. But the temperature still didn't go above 35 (was quite warm). You mean rom testing? I mostly try out the nearly finished roms, so never had any issues with rom functionality or temperature. Except when I tried z's alpha kernel. Then it was around 33-38°C. Now that I think about it when I'm flashing new rom it always goes above 30, but after some time drops down.

dragoonxy said:
Well I do play cestos, and was playing pocket legends, both require constant internet connection. But the temperature still didn't go above 35 (was quite warm). You mean rom testing? I mostly try out the nearly finished roms, so never had any issues with rom functionality or temperature. Except when I tried z's alpha kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude.. i'm taking about the stock 2.1 rom.
WB CM 3.16 v6 did me help alot.
dragoonxy said:
Now that I think about it when I'm flashing new rom it always goes above 30, but after some time drops down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah thats the BB settling in nicely.. sometimes a few restarts or even the "white led of WTF crash" seems to sort it out.
averagely my phone will idle at 30 to 35*C but in usage it can climb above 40*c often.
My old motherboard reached a record High of 57*C just playing "robo defence" or even Hawx...
But here's one more test for you.
Once you need to charge plug it in and start using the internet for about 20 mins in a low signal area and watch that battery drain and the heat go thru the roof.

I never had this issue and i only get 1 to 2 bars only and it never went above 34 which is cool. Dunno about u guys but the only way i can overheat the phone is when playing heavy gunner and listening to music at the same time and the battery heat reaches 38 and it still works 100% with no trouble.
VIPER

viper619 said:
I never had this issue and i only get 1 to 2 bars only and it never went above 34 which is cool. Dunno about u guys but the only way i can overheat the phone is when playing heavy gunner and listening to music at the same time and the battery heat reaches 38 and it still works 100% with no trouble.
VIPER
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Click to collapse
Read it properly... i made a few edits just now to the first post.
These days on WB's rom.. i can play quake 2 death match online "with stencil shadows enabled" while listening to dimmu borgir" with no issue's..
but if i was on stock 2.1 or even the old motherboard.. forget about it.
And trust me many do have this issue.

OmegaRED^ said:
Before you call me insane or retarded... test it first!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol u just reminded me of the good old days when our old physics teacher used to call us " u buys are mentaly retarded, u think urself superman to get electrified, albert eineshtein was an idiot, i'm better than him, u listen to me not to his equations, if not u fail, i know dark matter very well better than nasa, u mentaly retarded creatures, u fools, IDIOTS."
And about the dark matter thingy, he has a very dark black skin so i guess he knows dark matter better.
Am not a discriminant, i'm too slightly black
VIPER

My phone overheated only once when i baught it and the temp reached 47. But i had to send it to repairs for the broken usb connecter, maybe they fixed that issue.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

viper619 said:
Lol u just reminded me of the good old days when our old physics teacher used to call us " u buys are mentaly retarded, u think urself superman to get electrified, albert eineshtein was an idiot, i'm better than him, u listen to me not to his equations, if not u fail, i know dark matter very well better than nasa, u mentaly retarded creatures, u fools, IDIOTS."
And about the dark matter thingy, he has a very dark black skin so i know he knows dark matter better.
Am not a discriminant, i'm too slightly black
VIPER
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMAO.. truly a wise and insane man.. ^_^

OmegaRED^ said:
Dude.. i'm taking about the stock 2.1 rom.
WB CM 3.16 v6 did me help alot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and how many ppl are still running stock 2.1? Everyone who is smart enough will go for custom roms/mods. they are all much better than stock no disrespect, just sayin

OmegaRED^ said:
The GMS radio in the x10 is not.. great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the same conclusion I came to.
When I was using the internet, my battery temp shot up and the phone would restart at 41-42 degrees (stock 1.6)
I got the motherboard replaced under warranty and I've never had a problem with it since

dragoonxy said:
and how many ppl are still running stock 2.1? Everyone who is smart enough will go for custom roms/mods. they are all much better than stock no disrespect, just sayin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it still has a effect on the phone.
But how many of us still flash roms or basebands?
Some versions of the board are way more unstable.. to be honest you have the most stable x10 i have seen out of the 13 i have seen here around me.
Also.. did you do the charging stress test?
It's more than just a single simple issue such as heat, it effects the battery life. "when the radio has to boost the signal"
And to be honest out of all of my phone this is the only one that loves to often drop my calls in bad conditions.

noob question coming: how do u do charging stress test? is this something like you test how long the battery lasts?

dragoonxy said:
noob question coming: how do u do charging stress test? is this something like you test how long the battery lasts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted it earlier.. lol. no problem.
Just go to a area with bad signal "low as in 1 to 2 bars", wait till the battery is getting low.
Start charging it and then use the "market or anything that constantly uses the radio and cpu" constantly for about 20mins while charging.
Watch the heat go up and the battery go down.
Also please note that if the ambient heat is very low then your phone should be reading much lower..
Not all of us get snow on this planet, some of us get heat stroke in the winter.

will try at work tomorrow, since i always get bad signal there.

Want to update Wife's Inc, not make her mad

So my wife hates the battery life of her Inc. I even got her a bigger battery (the one that is bigger but still fits with the stock back) and its really gotten bad. She gets maybe a days use. And use for her is hardly any data mostly talking on the phone. Its maybe 30mins to an hour on average of talking, some texting, and that its about it. I would think the battery would last longer.
I am no stranger to rooting and loading Roms, did it on my Droid 1 and now on my Thunderbolt, but the wife's phone has been off limits. But now its getting to the point where I want to step in and improve it. So I don't want to be flashing roms all the time, just need a stable rom with some nice bells and whistles, a good kernel for battery life, and I can load it and not have to worry about it.

ruby rom 2.0.2 and incredikernel 4/19 and then underclock it in gem settings. the best battery life ive seen ever across any android device ive had. its an aosp rom meaning no sense widgets, but that can be fixed with a third party launcher like Launcher pro plus. Not even sure if thats a factor. You could also try the xda superpower app wgich gives you automation with certain battery drainers, ie. 3g. let me know if you need help, because I have been on the quest for long battery life for a while and this is it.

I think she likes the Sense stuff, don't want to make it look too different than what she has now.

skyraider 4.1 with stock kernel then.

When you say "stock kernel" do you mean the kernel that comes with skyraider or the actual stock kernel (or does skyraider come with the stock kernel?).

it comes with the stock kernel. also check what is syncing and how often in system settings.

yeah I have clean out her syncing stuff, Cell Standby is using the most power, so I am not sure what is going on.

something is syncing definitely too much. my standby time is around 3% all the time and I manually sync.

I'm running SR4.1 with chad's 12/23; I unplug at around 7:30, and by the end of the day (around 10pm or so) I'm usually sitting at around 50-75% battery; that's with wifi/data off (turned on when I need them) and moderate texting (phone on vibrate) all day.
If you're getting Cell Standby as the biggest battery drain, that means she's in areas with low signal and its trying to find a stronger signal.

^^^^ That too. Forgot that part, but for whatever reason ive noticed sense roms have higher usage. Coincidense, maybe.

Do you mean higher usage as in Cell Standby or just in general? Just in general I can see why, because it has to draw more graphics on the screen for the UI.

carngeX said:
Do you mean higher usage as in Cell Standby or just in general? Just in general I can see why, because it has to draw more graphics on the screen for the UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im talking cell standby. strange, I know.

Hmm, that's weird. Could be because of stuff like HTC Check-in services, since that stuff would be in Sense ROMs...but idk. Guess all I've really used were Sense ROMs, so I don't have much of a basis to judge from.

Cell Standby is when you have no service. That is when it's constantly looking for a signal and can't find it. That's why her battery life sucks. In low service areas, when the service goes out, it starts searching for a signal, which eats battery life. I have the same problem at my job, because there's like no service there. Can try putting it in airplane mode in those areas (which makes it use almost 0 battery), or get JuiceDefender (works great OOTB) and use that to only allow sync's every X minutes......

todd3835 said:
Cell Standby is when you have no service. That is when it's constantly looking for a signal and can't find it. That's why her battery life sucks. In low service areas, when the service goes out, it starts searching for a signal, which eats battery life. I have the same problem at my job, because there's like no service there. Can try putting it in airplane mode in those areas (which makes it use almost 0 battery), or get JuiceDefender (works great OOTB) and use that to only allow sync's every X minutes......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessarily no service, but low service as well. I live in an area with low signal in places, and work in metal buildings that really cut my signal down as well.

Well we work is roughly the same area (maybe half a mile apart) and I never have that much usage on Cell Standby. Something is screwy and I am hoping a new Rom and kernel that does some unclocking might help. Maybe starting fresh I can configure it better.
She took it off the charger this morning at 100%. When she gets home I will post her battery level and usage info.

1/2 a mile can be a big deal. I don't know the kind of environment / area you're in, so I can only guess.
You could also try flashing a different radio if you want, too. Heard good luck about that sometimes.

Magnolia ROM. Rock steady; NO issues at all.

Tried and true
It doesn't seem to be getting any more updates but Incredibly Re-Engineered was my go to for speed, stability, and battery life.

re-engineered is a good choice as well.

[Q] Did a Antutu Battery Test and got weird results

Hi there, I got a Nexus 4 for around four months now, and the battery always seemed pretty ok, not spectacular, but ok.
Then today I did a battery test using antutu's tool and the results were really weird. I got little over 180 on their score, putting me on the lowest place. The high scores are with tablets, which makes sense, but I was even under the Galaxy SII (a smartphone that I already had before the N4 and the score was over 300), is that a rule with the N4? Is it my device? Or is Antutu's test just not really reliable?
And please, disregard the signal status from the screenshots, I usually put my smartphone somewhere inaccessible and without any signal so I can't tamper with the results.

Well, the low signal strenght could actually be the answer to this. Since your phone tries to reconnect to the cell tower, trying to get a better signal, which will consume quite alot of power actually.

mumaster20 said:
Well, the low signal strenght could actually be the answer to this. Since your phone tries to reconnect to the cell tower, trying to get a better signal, which will consume quite alot of power actually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, maybe.. but down to burn 80% of the charge in 1 hour? It seems a little too much

suborner said:
yeah, maybe.. but down to burn 80% of the charge in 1 hour? It seems a little too much
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Click to collapse
Dont know what that test does, but if it stesses the cpu 100% with 100% brightness on your screen, it sure will drain fast.