Database Users

Average Battery Life ? ? ?

What is the average battery life most people are getting from their devices? The reason for asking I beleive that my battery life has reduced drastically, I'm averaging 36hours. I do not use it as a phone, the Wifi & bluetooth is switch off, the unit is used for push email only and I receive about 20 emails per day, very little WEB browsing.
I'm sure my battery life was a lot better when I took delivery of the unit.

a18041967 said:
What is the average battery life most people are getting from their devices? The reason for asking I beleive that my battery life has reduced drastically, I'm averaging 36hours. I do not use it as a phone, the Wifi & bluetooth is switch off, the unit is used for push email only and I receive about 20 emails per day, very little WEB browsing.
I'm sure my battery life was a lot better when I took delivery of the unit.
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Mmmmm.. well I'd consider 36 hours fantastic but then it sounds as if I use mine a lot more for wifi, surfing, phone etc. than you. Perhaps an hour to hour and a half per day and charge once per day but will usually have 40/50% charge left I did see a post from someone saying with reasonably heavy use they could only get 8hrs.
Mike

i use mine mostly for data.. in a 3G area i average about an 9.2% loss per hour.. in a edge area i am averaging about 1.7% loss per hour... these are all estimates since the battery meter only goes by 10's

I am fairly certain that the 3G is eating power. I get a full days work out of it with a lot of phone calls, push email, BT always on, and occasional WiFi usage. I am almost always in 3G, I very rarely lose it and only when at a clients far away.
Later, Lew
BTW, A full days work for me is 9am to 3am.

3G is the problem. Consider switching to 3G via MortScript as described in another thread. Personally, I use the GPRS only setting for normal use. PushMail would consume a lot less energy with GPRS and the speed isn't such an issue for mails in my opinion. Whenever I'm willing to browse the net a bit more, I switch to 3G before doing so (takes ca. 15s via the script) and when done, I go back to the less battery eating and more reliable (for taking phone calls etc.) GSM only mode.
You will definately at least double the runtime of your Hermes. I can do 5 days (phone on at night, little use) by doing so.

Well I can confirm that 3G is the cause, as suggested I've switched to GSM and battery life is a lot better.

3rd charge i managed to get nearly 2 days, had a 4 hr gprs web session last night on minimum brightness and still had 30% battery this morning.
if the battery goes to 0% what happens? data loss or just turns off?

jonr said:
3rd charge i managed to get nearly 2 days, had a 4 hr gprs web session last night on minimum brightness and still had 30% battery this morning.
if the battery goes to 0% what happens? data loss or just turns off?
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Other than any document/application open at time of shut down you should be ok, not like my old Clie that looses everything that's not screwed down on the storage card. In fact quite often I deliberately remove the battery for a while if I reckon it may help with a lock up (normally due to some rubbish downloaded freebie!!). All saved programmes to Device memory and card remain in tact.
Mike

Using my TYTN for email (check every 30 minutes), newsgroups (check every 30 minutes) and reading both every 2 hours.
Also using the phone for lots of browsing.
And i am also using my phone for making some phonecalls over the day (with and without bluetooth carkit), i get to use my phone for about 16 to 18 hours without need for a recharge.

[OT]
How do you enable auto email send and receive?
Cant find the option anywhere
[/OT]

if you add an email account to your tytn you get the option advanced at the end of the settings. if you click it you will get the option to send/receive at a standard timeperiod.

I use UMTS for email and web browsing continuosly for 2 hours and I'm down to 10% after a full night charge. It's pathetic.

Your device is broke, or your battery is defective. Seriously, if you have a warranty, act on it.
Later, Lew

lewcamino said:
Your device is broke, or your battery is defective. Seriously, if you have a warranty, act on it.
Later, Lew
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i dont know about that.. everyone seems to be getting around the same battery life... i would bet that if i used mine on umts continously for 2 hours i would be close to the same drain, UMTS sucks alot of battery

shogunmark said:
i dont know about that.. everyone seems to be getting around the same battery life... i would bet that if i used mine on umts continously for 2 hours i would be close to the same drain, UMTS sucks alot of battery
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that's true and umts sucks a lot of power. i am using mine on umts in tokyo and i can only get 10 to 12 hours. i use it mostly for push email (about 80 emails), an hour of browsing and some phone calls a day. i've ended up purchasing mugen's 3000mah one to get through the day without recharging.

lewcamino said:
Your device is broke, or your battery is defective. Seriously, if you have a warranty, act on it.
Later, Lew
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I highly doubt it as I have two 8525 and both of them will be at 10% with 2 hours of continuous use.

Well I'm on my 2nd battery.First one was replaced under warranty as I was getting about 8hrs with very little usage.
I'm on my third charge with the new battery. The first & second charges have given me about 15hrs.
Agent said I should be getting 4hrs talk time and if the second battery is also [email protected] then they will replace the phone. So I'm monitoring until next week.

Quad said:
Well I'm on my 2nd battery.First one was replaced under warranty as I was getting about 8hrs with very little usage.
I'm on my third charge with the new battery. The first & second charges have given me about 15hrs.
Agent said I should be getting 4hrs talk time and if the second battery is also [email protected] then they will replace the phone. So I'm monitoring until next week.
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This may not apply to you (as you probably know it already!), but Windows Mobile does not shut down programmes when you click the x in top right corner. To ensure you are not unknowingly running lots of applications in the background you need to use a programme that really shuts applications down properly - e.g. Magicbutton or HTC X Button. This can save considerably on both battery power and performance.
Mike

Mike, I'm using Magicbutton and make sure all apps are closed all the time. I've read a lot about the UTMS connection on all the time draining battery. I've just downloaded this app: http://www.gb-soft.cz/XDAII/product_gprs_tweak_wm5pe_en.htm
See if this works and extends battery.

Quad said:
Mike, I'm using Magicbutton and make sure all apps are closed all the time. I've read a lot about the UTMS connection on all the time draining battery. I've just downloaded this app: http://www.gb-soft.cz/XDAII/product_gprs_tweak_wm5pe_en.htm
See if this works and extends battery.
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Had a quick look at your link and yip, looks good going to try it as well.
Mike

HTC TyTN Battery Life with ActiveSync Really bad

Hi
I have read a lot of threads about short battery life, but so far none of those applied to me. I have recently purchased this great device, and normally it gives me 2 days of usage time with a fair amount of fiddling etc, and no activesync. Now the main purpose for this purchase was the Activesync feature, as I have an exchange server pushing me my mail. I have the following settings:
Exchange 2003 SP2 without SSL certs/encriptions
Active sync set to download mails upto 0.5KB and from all times, not only the last 3-5 days, etc.
Active sync is also set for immediate retrieval, which leaves the phone with a permanent GPRS connection. There are PEAK times set, from Monday through Friday between 8AM to 6PM. Off peak times it gets it at every 2nd hour.
My battery lasts 12-14 hours like this, and I dont touch the phone much, plus dont have more than 20 minutes talk time per day. Yesterday I arrived home at 10PM with a dead battery already. This is really bad that I cannot even make it through a single day.
An addition to this the phone gets really warm, but only at the very end of its battery-life, lets say from 30% to 0 it goes in less then an hour or 2, and warms up pretty badly.
I also have the BandSwitch utility keeping my phone on GPRS only, and killing idle connections that are non-used for over 2 minutes. This I guess only takes affect during off-peak hours, but even in those hours, when I check my phone I can see a GPRS connection on for like 20-30 minutes. So I guess Bandswitch doesnt always do a good job.
Any hints? This is really annoying,
Thanks a lot,
Ben

Does automatic email checking kill the battery

The reason I am asking is I am trying to track down a battery drain issue. The only thing I think can be causing it is the fact that I have my phone set to check 4 different email accounts every 5 mins.
I have a 3000mAh battery and I am able to kill it in 8hrs. I seem to remember someone talking about an app that could tell what apps or services were causing the most battery drain?
I am thinking about doing a test where I turn off automatic email checking and seeing if the battery lasts any longer. I use the phone for business as well as private use so I need to keep track of things when someone needs to get a hold of me. So I use email a great deal.

Ya.. that seems pretty fast.
I would also recommend checking the radio version that you have. Some people say that some radio versions kill the battery faster than others.
Check that out.

I have push mail set for one account (MS DirectPush with an Exchange server) with a 4/5 minute update interval, and I get acceptable battery life... It's not fantastic, but what do you expect for a PDA smartphone As soon as I fire up pRSSreader to check four RSS feeds (even if I set the interval to 3 hours!) my battery life REALLY suffers, and I'm in a 3G area - close to a mast, stationery - all day every day. The Palringo client REALLY kills the battery, we're talking about 3/4 hours to get to 10%.
SPB GPRS Monitor is useful for seeing if there's any data throughput going on, and the BatteryStatus Today plugin is also useful for seeing current battery drain in either mW or mA, so you can kinda figure out what's going on with your phone at the time (that and acbTaskManager to see if there's any processes maxing the device's CPU out, which has caused me battery drain in the past). I've got a HERM with v1.05.05.00 radio, for the record.

I've been having the same issue with my Vario II...
The battery life was relatively good when I didn't have my web'n'walk connection enabled. But now I have DirectPush enabled to check emails on an Exchange server set for 'as items arrive' aswell as another three POP email accounts.
The GPRS is almost always on and on full charge will only last me about 8-9 hours from 100% charge. If I'm out for a continous stretch for more than that time- I'm in trouble (as I was yesterday!)
I'm guessing this is normal behaviour then? Not too good if it is (!)

Well I went from 4 accounts every 5min down to 1 account every 5min and my battery life doubled. So yep constant email checking does kill the battery. Oh well, I have my important account set to check every 5min (may change it to 20mins) and my other accounts set to once a day, which I usually just check manually when I have a few min.

There seems to be many other threads on this issue and some say, even with multiple accounts setup, battery life is in the region of 20hrs. Changing to a different [radio] ROM seems like one of the solutions.

Sorry guys...I know I'm kinda late joining this discussion, but I thought I'd put in my two cents...
Checking your EMail in the fashion you described in your first post definitely drains your battery. I was in the same situation you're in: about 4 different accounts, set to update around 30 minutes or so...my phone was beeping "low battery" before the afternoon was over (and that was after being charged the previous night!)
Not only that, but I'm convinced that the "always-on" state that the radio was in from all that EMail-checking is what caused the radio to "burn out." I had to get a new 8525 after that happened.
Good luck with your situation. I'm looking for a solution myself.

Battery Usage Solved

The following thread on the XDA Desire forums was pointed out to me on androidforums by marabuchi. I did what was recommended and everything seems good so far.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=666404
"UPDATE APRIL 28 2010: PERMANENT SOLUTION FOUND?: Remove Flickr Sync. Go to Settings>Accounts & Sync>Flickr. Then press remove account at the bottom of the screen and reboot the phone - Please report back in the thread if successful! "

I don't have Flickr sync on anyways haha.

after a week of haveing it I stopped messing with it every 2 seconds... and dont have your accounts update every 15 minutes all it does is eat away our battery... I have all mine set for every2 hours and my battery lasts just fine unless I'm playing a game or something ... I even use slacker radio for over an hour a day and it barely used up 2% of my battery for the day

I realize that not everyone is having this issue specific issue, but this sure helped my battery life.
I am now at 31 hours uptime, 2 hours awake time since the last time I charged my battery. My updates are at 4 hours (I'll normally go into the app and refresh), GPS is enabled, Always Connected is on, and I use the phone pretty regularly throughout the day. I have 5 battery bars currently.
Anyway, helped me, figured someone else might be in the same boat.
Thanks

Didn't change anything for me, my calender was normal.
I get probly like 14 hours max on my battery, gps off, always data off, wifi off, screen low, only thing updating every hour is weather. I mostly text and do some web surfing, seems quite a bit low of battery life.

Gmail or Exchange?
roninld said:
I realize that not everyone is having this issue specific issue, but this sure helped my battery life.
I am now at 31 hours uptime, 2 hours awake time since the last time I charged my battery. My updates are at 4 hours (I'll normally go into the app and refresh), GPS is enabled, Always Connected is on, and I use the phone pretty regularly throughout the day. I have 5 battery bars currently.
Anyway, helped me, figured someone else might be in the same boat.
Thanks
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roninld, do you sych your email? (gmail or MS exchange or both?) thanks

sniczz said:
roninld, do you sych your email? (gmail or MS exchange or both?) thanks
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I have Google set to sync gmail, but not contacts/calendar. No exchange, and have Hotmail setup with manual refresh.
As a quick update, battery life for me has still been great with pretty much everything turned on. Going about 2 days before having to charge.

Battery Life?

I've had the HTC Aria for about four days now and my biggest issues is the battery drains to quickly. At first I attributed it to use because android phones prompt you to use them more often. However, even without use it still drains pretty rapidly. Does anyone know of a solution to this issue software wise. I have already turned off Bluetooth, GPS and Wifi. Are there other solutions

I got mine on Saturday, and I've actually gotten pretty good battery life out of it. I'm still in the habit of charging it every night, like I had to do with my old WinMo phone, but I think I could probably go two days without a charge. And that's with GPS / data always on, Wifi parts of the day, and pretty heavy use, since I'm always playing with it.
Have you tried something like Advanced Task Killer to keep apps closed that you aren't using? You can also adjust your screen brightness and timeout to try and save power.

It says that of my power is used by cellular idle or something like that 50% of it was used by that. Could it be my AT&T service

I don't get more than 10 hours out of mine. When I know I will be out all day, I turn the screen brightness almost all the way down to help conserve energy.

Good as it Gets.
With basic usage (some texting, a few calls and some market browsing or playing a game here and there) about 2 to 2.5 days without charging. Maybe the ones having issues with there phone sucking battery have to many widgets running.
In my current configuration I am only using 3 of my screens and only 3 widgets [favorites (small one), HTC clock/weather widget, and the HTC calendar widget (small)]. I have my work email checking every 30 minutes for syncing. I also have gmail and the default mail app pulling mail. I run ATK but only to kill apps on startup (cause it runs almost everything), other than that you don't need a task killer as you will have to reload these tasks next time and that will drain battery. I don't use it after that to kill anything. I am also running my screen at about 30% brightness.
Just some tips, widgets are nice, but they suck the battery life as well as constant updates. Check to see what you are running and disable/remove what is not needed or adjust sync times.

My battery life is fine. I got two days over the weekend with light usage. You need to look at what services are running and disable any widgets that you dont need. You may also want to look at the sync settings and turn off things you dont use (such as news). You do not need a task killer.

Also, see this post:
cranked said:
some quick tips:
1) disable market notifications - Market -> Downloads -> Notifications -> 'Don't Notify Me
2) Lower the sync times for your social network apps like twitter and facebook (or make them manual)
If you still suffer, have a look at some of the great tips HERE on the Cyanogenmod forums...ignore 1 and 3.
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Also one might do *#*#4636#*#* then change phone setting from WCDMA to GSM .... Then that get little more out of battery...

It's critical that you turn off auto-sync; I have found that it absolutely destroys battery life.
Before I was losing maybe 5-10% every hour on standby, but ever since turning off auto-sync, I'm still sitting at 100% battery after 5 hours of standby.
Turning off mobile data/Wi-Fi doesn't make an impact on battery life, in my experience.

hi2u2 said:
It's critical that you turn off auto-sync if you don't want update to happen, such as Facebook, email, google account (cal/contact) sync, etc..; I have found that it absolutely destroys battery life.
Before I was losing maybe 5-10% every hour on standby, but ever since turning off auto-sync, I'm still sitting at 100% battery after 5 hours of standby.
Turning off mobile data/Wi-Fi doesn't make an impact on battery life, in my experience.
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I edited your response..
Auto-Sync in itself is not going to be a problem.. Depends on what's syncing. EVERYONE will have different battery life because everyone uses their phones differently. Different configurations, different accounts used, different amounts of traffic on those accounts, not to mention actual usage patterns.

khaytsus said:
I edited your response..
Auto-Sync in itself is not going to be a problem.. Depends on what's syncing. EVERYONE will have different battery life because everyone uses their phones differently. Different configurations, different accounts used, different amounts of traffic on those accounts, not to mention actual usage patterns.
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90% of people will have *slightly* different battery life.
5% of people will drain it fast.
5% will use it like a voice phone and might even get 16 hrs out of it.
But to turn off all apps makes for an invalid test because then you're testing the phone as if it were a non-smartphone, like a voice only phone.
I think the battery is too small for me and probably too small for most people. I look forward to fat batteries for this great phone.

bwolmarans said:
90% of people will have *slightly* different battery life.
5% of people will drain it fast.
5% will use it like a voice phone and might even get 16 hrs out of it.
But to turn off all apps makes for an invalid test because then you're testing the phone as if it were a non-smartphone, like a voice only phone.
I think the battery is too small for me and probably too small for most people. I look forward to fat batteries for this great phone.
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My wife gets 2+ days out of hers... The battery is not that much smaller than my Nexus One, a more powerful phone, and I'm a power user with a lot of crap running including IMAP push mail, weather syncing... I look in at Market, Facebook, Twitter and manually sync those types of things etc.. I can easily get a full day out of it, off charger ~8am back on the charger midnight, 20-30% left. What I don't do is sit staring at my phone all day or play games for 8 hours at work, nor do I use it as a mp3 player..