Database Users

How often do you recharge your Hero?

hi,
I would like to know how often you recharge your Hero?
With moderate to low usage I'm recharging every day and I'm thinking that autonomie on my Hero is really very bad. Before I used Polaris and I had to recharge every 2 or 3 days.
I'm thinking that maybe my phone have manufacture default. On official web page they say that autonomy on standby is 440 hours, its like 15 days, mine keeps barely 1 day, wtf!!!
Even during night when I don't use it all and put on plane mode battery loses 20%.
whitealien

i recharge everyday with mild usage. gaming - usually keep it plugged in.

with moderate usage i recharge my GSM Hero every 2-3 days. by moderate i mean, like 1h Wifi, 2h mp3, 0.5h phone usage, 1.5h online activity over 3G.
Thats about it. And even if i multiply the usage above by two, it will last two days.
During flightmode inthe night, it loses about 5-10%.
so it seems something is sucking really bad on your battery!
Cheers,
Chaos42

I would say I charge mine every 2-3 days. I'm a relatively low user but wifi is on all of the time and I use it for browsing a bit in the evenings when I don't have my PC turned on. GPS, mobile web and bluetooth is off for the most part.
My wife has the same phone and her battery life is a little shorter than mine but she has the mobile web on and uses hers a bit more then me so I would guess around 1.5-2 days.
My battery is rated at 1350mAh which I think is standard.

I have to charge it every day.
Unplug it from charger at 0700 and by 2200 it has less than 10% battery.
But I have WiFi on for over twelve hours a day, mobile web on and quite a few things updating online!

Background apps may be draining your battery
Hi whitealian,
Check the application list to see which applications are running in the background. One of them may be draining your power.
You can check the task list using Estrongs File Explorer (start the app, then menu->Task Manager). There are plenty of other task managers, of course...
In my case, I think it was ShopSavvy that was running in the BG. Once I removed it the battery performance was much better. See this post.
You can also use one of the apps that turn on/off wifi based on location. A quick market search finds "Y5 - Battery Saver". Haven't tried it myself yet!
Good luck!

mobile.dev said:
Hi whitealian,
Check the application list to see which applications are running in the background. One of them may be draining your power.
You can check the task list using Estrongs File Explorer (start the app, then menu->Task Manager). There are plenty of other task managers, of course...
In my case, I think it was ShopSavvy that was running in the BG. Once I removed it the battery performance was much better. See this post.
You can also use one of the apps that turn on/off wifi based on location. A quick market search finds "Y5 - Battery Saver". Haven't tried it myself yet!
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for advice. I was not using ShopSavvy, but I had doubts that either I got faulty device or some app is draining battery.
I called customer service and they advice me to put phone in safe mode and test it for awhile. It extended a little my battery life, but still recharge every day. Next step was to reset to factory default. This is what I did yesterday and now I'm at the end of second day since last charge and I still have 40% left, what seems to be normal, but still a little to early to judge that everything is good.
I still don't know from where battery drain was coming. Probably from some app.
I'm putting my bet on NewsRob - google feed reader. It was the only app that was using network in background (apart from mail and tweeter sync).

too often. mostly once a day.
but when i'm at home im ususally plugging the as adaptor in either way, because i'm afraid to have to little battery left if i leave the house without a 100% battery level. (this can happen fast if you sync a lot of rss feeds, surf the net, have an exchange server connection and gmail push and so on...)
They really need to make better batteries. They should last 2-3 days on full force usage.

Shahpur.Azizpour said:
They really need to make better batteries. They should last 2-3 days on full force usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish it could

I think once every 2 days, but at night I have the ''phonestuff'' turned of using it as an alarm clock only. I do use the mobile internet connection all day. Tried once without that and got almost 4 days out of one charge.
I agree they have to make better battery's but I don't think the hero's that bad.
I had a diamond wich I had to charge almost twice a day when data was on...
So for me the hero's a big improvement.

I too get 2 to 3 days use out of a charge. Got rid of standard HTC Twitter client and replaced with Twidroid Pro. Only have Gmail push synchronization on.

I am pretty sure you are aware if the standard HTC SMS app battery drain issue?
Someone pointed out that HTCs SMS app constantly drains the battery, because it stopps the phone from entering standby mode. You can replace it by going into Applications menu, open "Messages", "Clear defaults" and install HandCent. As soon as a new SMS comes in, it will ask you which app you want to handle SMS messages. Choose HandCent, make it default and you are set.
Gave me a huge battery performance boost.

every day. that is the only bad issue of my hero.

I charge mine daily when I go to bed as it's usually giving me the 15% warning about 24hrs after I last charged it.
The joys of smartphones

At least once a day.
I've got a desk stand so it sit's in that for a constant juicing up, when im in the car I put it on to charge.. At work its on USB charge.. Basically I just juice it whenever I can..
I dont think theres anything wrong with yours.. they just have bad battery life.
If you think thats bad try the fossil palm powered watches.. i have to take it off every couple of hours to charge it!

Too often. Exchange, gmail, 1 additional pop3 inbox, facebook every 2hrs, twitter every 2hrs is enough for my phone to barelly hold a charge for a day. But when actually using the phone (music, calling), it doesn't hold even a day.

klaus27 said:
I am pretty sure you are aware if the standard HTC SMS app battery drain issue?
Someone pointed out that HTCs SMS app constantly drains the battery, because it stopps the phone from entering standby mode. You can replace it by going into Applications menu, open "Messages", "Clear defaults" and install HandCent. As soon as a new SMS comes in, it will ask you which app you want to handle SMS messages. Choose HandCent, make it default and you are set.
Gave me a huge battery performance boost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it. I installed Handcent, but when I want to want to make it default, the button is greyed out. What am I doing wrong?

klaus27 said:
I am pretty sure you are aware if the standard HTC SMS app battery drain issue?
Someone pointed out that HTCs SMS app constantly drains the battery, because it stopps the phone from entering standby mode. You can replace it by going into Applications menu, open "Messages", "Clear defaults" and install HandCent. As soon as a new SMS comes in, it will ask you which app you want to handle SMS messages. Choose HandCent, make it default and you are set.
Gave me a huge battery performance boost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a US only thing though, right? The European ones don't suffer with that issue AFAIK.
...Which I'm glad about as I sometimes have to charge my hero twice a day. Data is on all the time when I'm out and I'm a pretty heavy user of it. In terms of calls perhaps an hour a day, and not a huge number of texts (more than ten would be unusual). I do use the phone to listen to music quite often too.
I think the apps in the background thing is what needs to be checked. I use a news widget and Facebook and Weather and a travel one which I think adds up to a lot of refreshes. I'm thinking about making a Sense Profile (or whatever it's called) that has nothing on the homescreens at all for times when I might want to be a bit more frugal with battery life.
I do think it's somewhat ridiculous that the phone is capable of doing so many things but that if you have it do them it withers and dies. I would've thought the way to calculate battery life would be to have the phone doing the things that people will want to do with it and work from there. It seems that battery life is calculated by turning the phone into as dormant a state as possible and then tip toeing around it trying not to disturb it.
I get by though.

tatwamasi said:
That's a US only thing though, right? The European ones don't suffer with that issue AFAIK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I cannot confirm that. I have a European one and mine drained the battery. I searched the net and with this trick I came from ~1 day to over 2 days with moderate usage and push enabled all the time.
tombond said:
Tried it. I installed Handcent, but when I want to want to make it default, the button is greyed out. What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, have you cleared the default for message application?
You probably want to google it or just read over this posts:
http://www.phonenews.com/improving-sprint-htc-hero-battery-life-9720/
My battery went even better once I configured Locale to go into airplane mode during night time and stopping sync services during work time. I don't need push when I am at work (timescal set, no GPS), because there I have all my mailboxes open and directly connected.

Some more tipps to improve battery performance.
Disable 3G - Set to "only 2G" in mobile network settings
Set display timeout to 30s or lower
Remove as many widgets from your homescreens as possible (I only have calendar)
use task killer app to check which apps are still running in the background and try to tweak their settings to not autoload or don't notify you on updates - and of course kill them
disable screen animations
uncheck WLAN for location checking
don't check your mailboxes too regular
disable vibration totally. disable haptic feedback for the keyboard as well

Really poor battery.

Hi guys, please bear with us on this one.
This is my 2nd Android phone, I used to have an Hero about 6 months ago. i really liked the front end but the screen was small so I upgraded to an HD2 which I still have. On the HD2 the screen is huge but Win Mobile lets it down a bit. The marketplace is expensive and very limited and the amount of apps for Win Mobile seem to be getting less and less, especially supproting the 800x480 WVGA screen on the HD2.
Anyway I was due an upgrade and Orange offered me the X10 for £20 which i couldn't refuse. I am trying to like the phone but the biggest issue for me is the battery. I did the usual of leaving it plugged in for 16 hours as recommended by orange etc. If the phone is on standby I seem to get around 8 hours and the battery will be down to about 40% remaining charge. That is on standby with the top button pressed and the phone on a black screen. This is really poor considering the HD2 can run almost 2 days on standby before loosing 60% of its charge.
Anybody got any suggestions on how to improve this? Would it be wise for me to do the debrand as mentioned in other threads? It is currently on build R1FA014.
Thanks for the help.

The battery will improve in time, after a few weeks of use the X10 will loose 1-2% of battery each 2 hours (at least my X10 R1FA016 and two of my friends X10 R1FA014 do). This is with 3G on, wifi sometimes on, GPS sometimes on. Just give it some time. I think the X10 is one of the best smartphones out there. There is an extensive thread on Power Usage which can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=657265
In the end it comes down to:
-Give it some time
-Disable auto search for software updates (settings>about phone>update)
-Wifi seems to drain sometimes
-Streaming drains.

Thanks for the pointers Vin87, I have got wifi turned off now but I am at work for the next 7 hours and I only have about 28% charge remaining
I'm going to have a good read through the thread you mentioned all 50+ pages LOL.
I do like the phone and for the cost I am going to keep it and hopefully we will get some new updates soon?

It gets better...way better. 13 hours since my last charge, and it's at 71%. I've been using it every now and then, Facebook, sending emails ect.
Great battery life now!

From a work perspective, I miss the X10 having a dock.
With my G900 each time I returned to my desk,I would throw it the dock and so it was receiving a charge throughout the day, the X10 is more fiddly as you need to play around the the flap and then figure out which way to plug in the mini-USB cable...
I wish they had chosen a better connector than the mini-USB as the standard, as it's not that easy to quickly connect it....
I could almost throw my G900 at the charging cable and it would connect.

Basically (if you want to use the smartphone):
1. In the beginning you will use the phone a lot. Installing apps, trying apps, games, music etc. so the battery drains faster. When you will stop pushing the phone to the limit will be better
2. Wait for a week, the batter will get better.
3. Get a task killer/boot manager and set it to autokill moxier. Don't kill other apps
4. Set facebook/twitter sync at 1h (or more) if you are not a hardcore fan of this social platforms.
5. Email: if you need instant notification there is not much you can do. If you don't need it, disable background sync and sync manually.
6. Disable location using wireless networks.
7. Wifi/3G: if you need instant notifications, wifi will drain your battery pretty fast but if you don't have 3G data plan like me, there is no other choice. If you have a good 3G plan, you can set wifi sleep policy to turn off wifi when phone goes to "sleep". Also, you can use this together with Juice defender free to turn 3G on 2 min every 3min to get notifications so, you will save even more battery.
8. Enable bluetoot/gps only when you use them and keep them disabled when not.
9. Set brightness to manual and around 25% when you are indoor and "sleep time" (screen timeout) to 30sec
10. Oh, i forgot, disable search for software updates and if you didn't install too many things, try a factory defaults. Some people did a SD card format (be sure you save everything first) and reported battery improvement.
If you want to use the dumbphone inside then turn everything off (BT, GPS, 3G, WIFI, Twitter/Facebook, email, background sync, etc.) and your dumbphone will last way longer

Expelling the Evo poor battery life myth!

Today I decided to do a real world test of the Evo's battery life. I used my phone the way I would normally use it on an other day. As for the phone itself, I am running the rom from the OTA update. The only changes that have been made is that I am using unrevoked root method so that I can use the Overclock Widget (marketplace) to turn the processor freq down to 245000 when the screen is off. I also use Advanced Task Killer to turn off apps that I am not using. I had bluetooth and gps turned on throughout the entirety of this test, wifi was on for about 3.5 hours. During this test I played a game for a short period of time, did some light web browsing, and had several phone conversations that totalled a little more than 2 hours. With doing all this, my battery lasted for a little more than 11 hours. That being said, under normal use the Evo should definitely last you throughout a full day.

Thanks for the info. I got my Evo yesterday and haven't been able to put it to through extreme testing yet

No problem. just kind of got tired of hearing how poor the battery life was. Even before using the overclock widget I was still getting decent battery life, but the overclock widget just put it over the top. To add to that, I don't normally talk for 2 hrs. on my phone during a normal day, so really a lot of that 29% battery drain from phone use wouldn't be there. The only thing I didn't use today was 4g (which I don't normally use unless I'm on the phone and need to use data).

Not sure what this proves or "dispells". When people (myself included until making some friendstream changes) are getting 6 hours out of a charge with light use, that is a real problem. You must not have friendstream syncing...if you did and did everything you just wrote about, your phone would be dead in 3 hours tops. Thanks for the info., but once again, people are havnig real issues with the battery...it's not made up.

admorris said:
Not sure what this proves or "dispells". When people (myself included until making some friendstream changes) are getting 6 hours out of a charge with light use, that is a real problem. You must not have friendstream syncing...if you did and did everything you just wrote about, your phone would be dead in 3 hours tops. Thanks for the info., but once again, people are havnig real issues with the battery...it's not made up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are experiencing poor battery life then it is most likely attributed to not managing your apps properly (friendstream included). For example, without advanced task killer you will get a drastically different amount of battery life than if you have it. Then add to that, the way you configure advanced task killer can add a large amount of battery life compared to having advanced task killer without it being configured properly. Even with friendstream running you should still be able to get a decent amount of battery life (I am aware that it does use more juice), try having your facebook sync less often.

mysterioustko said:
If you are experiencing poor battery life then it is most likely attributed to not managing your apps properly (friendstream included). For example, without advanced task killer you will get a drastically different amount of battery life than if you have it. Then add to that, the way you configure advanced task killer can add a large amount of battery life compared to having advanced task killer without it being configured properly. Even with friendstream running you should still be able to get a decent amount of battery life (I am aware that it does use more juice), try having your facebook sync less often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree I've been using my evo and been fine, I only really have it connected to power when I have it tethering. Besides that it lasts me not all day but while I'm at work (which is the most important part) I get a good 9-10 hours out of it before I really need to charge. It should also be noted that I use locale to switch BT and wifi off when I'm not in an area to take advantage of them.

I think some people have bad batterys/evo's, it's not just a matter of running the right programs or killing tasks

mrono said:
I think some people have bad batterys/evo's, it's not just a matter of running the right programs or killing tasks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While that is possible I think the majority of the problem rests with the user's mismanagement of apps. I have seen way to many posts from people declaring the battery life to be so horrible, only to make a few changes and then turn around and say how much better it got. If that person had a bad battery then the battery would still have been bad, it wouldn't just start being good. That said, it is very possible that there are people with bad batteries. I just think that most of the people have good batteries and bad phone management.

I did pretty much the same thing. I have the O/C widget to set the frequency to 245000 when the screen is off and also have Advance Task Manager configured to close apps I'm not using. Helps out a lot and I usually get around 12~14 hours on a charge.

mysterioustko said:
If you are experiencing poor battery life then it is most likely attributed to not managing your apps properly (friendstream included). For example, without advanced task killer you will get a drastically different amount of battery life than if you have it. Then add to that, the way you configure advanced task killer can add a large amount of battery life compared to having advanced task killer without it being configured properly. Even with friendstream running you should still be able to get a decent amount of battery life (I am aware that it does use more juice), try having your facebook sync less often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I completely understand what you are saying, I can't really agree that b/c someone is not getting a full day out of their phone it is b/c of poor app management. While deleting facebook for sense, then reinstalling with only contacts synced fixed everything for me, the fact that you have to go through the phone with a fine tooth comb to get it to run more than 6 hours at a time is pretty silly. While doing that stuff is fine for me and most on this forum, it will undoubtedly turn a lot of non-techie people off from this phone...especially with Sprint doing their new 30 day full refund policy.
It's all good though, just plugged my phone in after 19 hours...playing with it most of the day.

I use advanced task killer and turned off sync for apps I dont use. At 65% used pandora (in 4g for about an hour), browsed several sites, made phone calls, text, emailed. All the normal stuff. Took my phone off the charger 15 hours ago.
Prior to using advanced task killer I would be to about 18% right now. So for those saying that task managers kill more battery power my phone seems to do the exact opposite.

rutter9 said:
I use advanced task killer and turned off sync for apps I dont use. At 65% used pandora (in 4g for about an hour), browsed several sites, made phone calls, text, emailed. All the normal stuff. Took my phone off the charger 15 hours ago.
Prior to using advanced task killer I would be to about 18% right now. So for those saying that task managers kill more battery power my phone seems to do the exact opposite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Task killers really only help if you have an app that would normally be giving you higher than usual wake time (the calendar comes to mind). At the start of every boot I always make sure to kill everything so only essential apps and those I use are running. I don't use any kind of auto kill.
-------------
Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.

It is no longer recommended that a task killer be used. It may result in poor phone performance.

After i rooted with Toasts method, installed OMJ's rom removing all of the sprintware and added the OverClockWidget to tweak the processor, i was able to go a full 32 hours without charging. i had gps and bluetooth on the whole time and wifi on for several hours. i made calls, sent texts, took pictures, basically normal usage.

Just to add to all this. Bad battery isnt just a HTC Evo problem. Go read the forums of almost every android phone released and they all report the same things (in the beginning). Someone that has had a android phone in the past probably hasnt said much about battery. There are so many things you can do to increase battery.
1. manage your apps. Exit them instead of leaving them running (press back button until the app closes, or some apps you can Menu> exit) Pressing home doesnt close the app, it only takes you to the homescreen. Also change the sync times of all your apps/widgets. If you dont use gmail or google calendar, then uncheck the "sync" in Menu>accounts & sync> google. One last thing use a task manager (not recommended by some devs) I use it to end tasks of apps that use data, or ones that i use maybe once a day or once a week, i dont need them cached for quick returning, so i end the task all together. I ignore apps so they dont end that i use very frequently or ones that dont use data or run in the background.
2. Calibrate your battery once like so.. Charge your phone to 100% and then use your phone like normal until its so dead it shuts off by itself. Dont plug it into the computer or wall charger in that time. Then once it shuts off, plug the phone into a wall charger and charge it till its 100% again. After that, plug and play as much as you want.
3. Buy a car charger, usb cord for the comp, and maybe another wall charger. Buy an extra battery or extended battery. Doing the above and adding these to them, youll have a huge increase in battery.
I have an htc hero and i can get well over 12 hours of use by just watching what syncs and what uses data. And i use my phone alot, and wake it up a ton to check for notifications.
I use a friends Evo so im not new to the device and I understand its a different phone.
Stock htc phones come with a lot of stuff preinstalled and widgets. When signing into them with your accounts the sync times are usually pretty high, some like every 15mins. Watch what you are doing with the phone and youll have normal battery life.

i avg 18 -19 hours per charge so im very happy

aaaaah ok now I know who is the idiot Dylan here. Thanks. What a dumbass know-it-all.

I think some people are getting poor battery life because intermittent signal. I know this was the case for me. When I go to a friends house that I barely have signal, the phone constantly tries to find signal or goes into roaming. It would drain the battery fast. When I was in good signal area it seemed to last quite a while. Just saying that it is more than just running apps that cause poor battery.

Also if you will not use the internet turn off the mobile network, put the widget in your screen. You can receive calls but the internet is off.

dwertz said:
I think some people are getting poor battery life because intermittent signal. I know this was the case for me. When I go to a friends house that I barely have signal, the phone constantly tries to find signal or goes into roaming. It would drain the battery fast. When I was in good signal area it seemed to last quite a while. Just saying that it is more than just running apps that cause poor battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You make a very good point. Weak/no signal areas will drain your battery (as with any phone) very quickly due to the phone constantly scanning for signal. Not really much you can due about that other than turning your phone radio off or switching carriers lol. One thing I've read in the Dev forum that may help you is to change your prl to the Alltell/Verizon prl. Some people have reported that this works well in low signal areas.

DHD and its battery

What a fantastic phone. I've really never had anything so quick and so useable.
But the battery life is a disaster. I'm hard-pressed to get a day's use out of the thing - menaing hours of daylight - and that often includes short charge times connected to a computer.
The phone is so good that I've been prepared to try workarounds. I've ordered a couple of spares batteries - genuine ones. I've ordered the 1300 Mugen to see if that improves things.
I've ordered exprernal battery backs from New Trent - through Amazon.
Frankly, I'm going to be looking for some kind of backpack to lug it all around!!
I take or make about a dozen short calls per day. I check my emails about a dozen times a day - delete a lot, forrward a lot and reply to some - so that is the kind of use I am giving.
I'd like at least to be able to get up in the morning and find that the phone hasn't completely discharged overnight.
What's the heads-up on this?

Hi,
Depending on how long you've had the phone, your battery should get better.
Have you tried Juice Defender? Its very good.
Whilst I am working I switch to 2G only, Data & Sync are off. And I turn them back on when I want to check them. This increases battery life duration.

No I haven't tried juice defender. I'll give it a go. Thanks
I've had the phone for just over a week and it has already gone through several charge cycles. I would have expected it to have reached peak performance by now.
One of my new HTC spares seems to perform even more poorly - alhtough it is still very new.
I haven't tried the other one yet.

Once you have broken through the "Honeymoon" period you will notice better battery performance.
I've had my DHD since launch & my usage is not dissimilar to yours, maybe a little music or radio too. I get atleast a full day.
If your battery is being drained unusually quick, try installing Current Widget and enable logging with running applications, that way you can see what is using your battery.

lejars1 said:
No I haven't tried juice defender. I'll give it a go. Thanks
I've had the phone for just over a week and it has already gone through several charge cycles. I would have expected it to have reached peak performance by now.
One of my new HTC spares seems to perform even more poorly - alhtough it is still very new.
I haven't tried the other one yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A new battery needs some time to "reach peak performance" as you put it. In other words, it needs to calibrate or be calibrated, there are some tutorials on the subject in the DHD forums

andyharney said:
If your battery is being drained unusually quick, try installing Current Widget and enable logging with running applications, that way you can see what is using your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 to CurrentWidget, it's very handy. Also, you could try using Watchdog Lite to see if your CPU load is being used excessively and see what programs are running in the background. Have you checked things like Auto-Sync, USB Debugging? Who's your carrier too, have you got a lot of bloatware?

Ta.
My carrier is Orange.fr (worse luck).
I don't think that I have any bloatware. I'm using both maildroid and profimail to decide which one I want to use.
I'm not using a live wall paper. I have turned down the brightness to about 35%.
I use bedtime - alarm.
Only Total recall - a call recorder running in the background but it only pops up with phone calls.
And now juice defender.
No autosync. no usb debugger.
I have to say that I am not sure what to do about all the services.
Frankly it is a real pain having to take this amount of trouble with the phone just because the battery is not adequate. Luckily, the phone is so good that it is worth the hassle - just.
I'll try current widget as well.
I'm using Battery Doctor at the moment

Email apps are configured only to operate manually

check this guide :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=937080
I've had this phone for 2 months now, I use it pretty much the way you do (including some facebook and a few sms's) and I get more than 2 days out of it!!
Follow this guide, and if you re can, flash the Leedroid ROM.
You will not believe the difference in performance and battery.

Hi. I got my desire HD back in November and struggled to get 12 hours from it. So last week I rooted it and installed setCPU, set it to 768mhz I think and now I get 24 hours from battery!
That's my advice anyways
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Thank you for all the interest I am receiving with this.
I've installed current widget. As I reactivate the screen display back on it shows me a discharge of about 2Ma - very good.
With the screen on and no activity the discharge is about 257 Ma - very bad and it doesn't take much to get this up to over 350Ma - disastrous.
I've been considering rooting it but I have asked this initial question and don't have an answer as yet:- http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=970565

If you install Watchdog Lite from the Market you can see what is using your CPU and how much percentage of it is Idle. It could be possible that even though you are closing apps, they are still running in the background, especially with those on screen figures of 350, there's definitely something wrong there. For example, I have a game called iMobsters that even though I close it it runs in the background afterwards for at least an hour using up an average of 35% CPU which of course will run the battery down.
I'm Orange from UK and there was quite a bit of bloatware which was the main reason for me to root my phone. I'm unsure on your software version though. However if you follow the guide to root it as normal without downgrading, you'll know if you need to downgrade as Visionary+ won't be able to root it otherwise.
Rooting does help to uninstall apps you don't use too using Titanium Backup, for example, I uninstalled Friend Stream, News, Stocks, Twitter, Orange Services which all run in the background usually and run down battery.
Without playing too many games, I can get two days use out of mine now.

Yes, maybe I should bite the bullet on the rooting. Is it undoable?
There is a lot of advice about it on this forum. Which is the best set of instructions to look for and after that which is the best ROM?

Also, I can't find Watchdog Lite on the Market. Doesn't seem to be there. Do you have a link?

Thread closed....please read the sticky roll up as there's an existing,well documented Battery thread.
Regards,
M_T_M
The happy Mod

Epic 4G Battery Life Tips / Mods / Recommendations

Just reviewed several posts and looks like there's not a lot of clarification on extending battery life on the Epic 4G.
Based on what i've read here, its possible to extend battery life with the following ?
GB update (sprint released rom or modded roms)?
Screen Dims, Auto syncing disabling, etc?
PRL update (not searching for towers)?
Data disablement?
I hope the GB and mod updates are the real answer.

The fact that anyone suggests to disable your data as a way to save the battery is mind boggling to me. Why would I have a smart phone if I had to disable data to save the battery (aside from maybe being on a plane or something where you HAVE to disable it anyway).

Look for randomking's thread in the Q/A section in epic development... the link is also in his signature, but he gives great advice on how to save battery properly.
Sent from my Samsung-SPH-D700 using XDA App

I feel like I've tried everything but at this point I've resigned myself to poor battery life.
I have two Exchange accounts, gmail plus I use Yahoo and Live as well as a personal email account. Not to mention weather updates. I've got a 1amp charger in my car. A desktop cradle with a 1amp charger at my desk and another 1amp charger in a cradle on the table next to my favorite chair at home. At night I use the .5amp Samsung charger in a third cradle.
Basically, when I'm not using it its charging.
When I get up I automatically tap my belt case to make sure I don't walk off without it. I need it 31 and I need to know I get all email immediately and that I can be on a call for a couple of hours if I need to be.
But yeah, I wish I could just charge overnight and be able to depend on 24+ hours of battery life.

Milkman00 said:
The fact that anyone suggests to disable your data as a way to save the battery is mind boggling to me. Why would I have a smart phone if I had to disable data to save the battery (aside from maybe being on a plane or something where you HAVE to disable it anyway).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how I feel as well. I don't understand why you would want to have this phone if you are going to turn off all of its features. I don't undervolt. I am overclocked to 1400 and I have GPS on most of the time. I also use Bluetooth fairly regularly. I did spend $2 to get "Bloat Freezer" app to freeze the apps that run even when I am not using them. I also have a second battery. I can't obsess over the battery. I want performance and stability which I have. When changing ROMs, charge to full and wipe battery stats in recovery as well.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

JohnCorleone said:
This is how I feel as well. I don't understand why you would want to have this phone if you are going to turn off all of its features. I don't undervolt. I am overclocked to 1400 and I have GPS on most of the time. I also use Bluetooth fairly regularly. I did spend $2 to get "Bloat Freezer" app to freeze the apps that run even when I am not using them. I also have a second battery. I can't obsess over the battery. I want performance and stability which I have. When changing ROMs, charge to full and wipe battery stats in recovery as well.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking to get another battery.
Right now I always have wifi on downloading stuff like 24/7 brightness all the way down(come on its not like you need it up anyway). I'm always overclocked to 1.2, and not undervolted and I don't use dark backgrounds, and have everything set to sync every 4-6 hours. I charge maybe twice a day never completely until night time.
Sent from my SPH-D700

If you live in a poor service area of town like I do, typically avg 3 bars all day, and often less...you are doomed.
I've tried all the tips, but the constant tower polling rakes my bettery over the coals. This is why I've adopted the multiple battery approach (with an external charger of course).

MeetFace said:
If you live in a poor service area of town like I do, typically avg 3 bars all day, and often less...you are doomed.
I've tried all the tips, but the constant tower polling rakes my bettery over the coals. This is why I've adopted the multiple battery approach (with an external charger of course).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^^ This. If not for rooting and Roam Control I'd have to almost not use my phone at work, and even then even Verizon's signal is low/spotty though to a much smaller degree in the building than Sprint's.

I do a number of things that are convenient for me.
I turn auto-syncing off. I don't need it always searching for updates in my life. I can spend the 3 seconds when I open the app.
I only put it on wi-fi/gps/4g when I need them. Sure, they can be on, but they use battery and it also takes seconds to turn them on.
I use auto-brightness. It works for me.

I do a lot of stuff:
- Leave GPS/wifi/4g/bluetooth turned off until I need to use them.
- Set screen brightness to the minimum, in both the OS and the browser.
- Use Titanium Backup's 'freeze' to disable bits of the OS I don't need, like 'DRM content'.
- Set up non-push email addresses to be forwarded to push email addresses (like gmail) automatically so that the phone itself does very little polling.
Doing all this, I can leave data on and easily have it last the day, every day, or turn data off and use it for a podcast player with BT headphones for a full eight hours.

Green power helps A LOT btw... its better than juice defender ultimate.
Sent from my Samsung-SPH-D700 using XDA App

Bloat Freezer allows you to freeze apps like Titanium Pro although it seems like most people use Titanium
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

Freezing DRM saves a good portion for me. I also use Startup Cleaner to stop apps from automatically opening (not freezing) as soon as I startup my phone (swype, messaging, internet, etc). I'm not getting fantastic battery savings, but I've seen a difference doing this.

What is DRM?
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/drm/package-summary.html
It sounds like it would use some juice, but dunno that freezing may be most efficient for apps.

Dataswitch app by TomatoX. Its a widget that turns off 3G. I keep a Wifi on/off toggle on my homescreen as well. I connect often enough to get all my emails pushed through and what not so it doesn't feel like I'm crippling myself in the name of a little battery life. I went eight hours today and got home with 83% worth of battery. I prefer widgets over longpressing the power button personally.

These are a collection of the best suggestions I can make.
And no, turning data off is not one of them. Although disabling sync is.
DRM is a service for digitally verifying online store bought or rented audio/video. Itunes is a great example as the most annoying implementation of this concept. The problem is, that on our phones it runs constantly trying to verify files, whether you have any or not. If you don't think you need it, freeze it. Removing it completely has lead to problems. If you don't want to buy an app to do it, the terminal emulator commands are included in this thread.
PS: Currently I have not found one person that can top the best EC05 roms in battery life with a GB rom.

ok so i tried a couple of recommendations and i have some positive feedback!
I got green power and startup cleaner. After changing startup cleaner and using it to disable quite a few apps as well as drm and other non essentials it helped with my memory and apps running in the background.
I also tweaked green power settings to leave on the 3g and turned off the wifi on / off option (so i could do it instead of green power) and lt do its thing.
Excellent battery life. I left it on used it for a bit then let it sit and check a couple of emails, got a few pushed emails via gmail and did a few web searches.
i'm at 80% since 1pm. that's unbelievable yet that's the way it should be!
these apps / tweaks have helped. i do need push email and use push calendar from hotmail exchange.
i really wish the phone could do this on its own but i'll settle for this alternative using 2 apps at this time.
i hope gingerbread helps us all without the need for apps but i would probably still use them because of the substantial battery life gains.

Randomking is right.
All our efforts are minimal compared to what gb does....at least in cooked form
Rk..what custom rom do you recommed?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

swear0730 said:
I feel like I've tried everything but at this point I've resigned myself to poor battery life.
I have two Exchange accounts, gmail plus I use Yahoo and Live as well as a personal email account. Not to mention weather updates. I've got a 1amp charger in my car. A desktop cradle with a 1amp charger at my desk and another 1amp charger in a cradle on the table next to my favorite chair at home. At night I use the .5amp Samsung charger in a third cradle.
Basically, when I'm not using it its charging.
When I get up I automatically tap my belt case to make sure I don't walk off without it. I need it 31 and I need to know I get all email immediately and that I can be on a call for a couple of hours if I need to be.
But yeah, I wish I could just charge overnight and be able to depend on 24+ hours of battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's everybodys dream, to be ale to run this bad boy for 24 hrs straight. Unfrtunately were a long ways from that. Especialy from the way it sounds like you run your phone your going to becharging multiple times per day..that's just part of being a power user with a smartphone.
I gota agree though, fo the life of me i don't know why people disable data, or cripple thir phones ability just to eek out another hr of battery, this is a huge phone, with a big power hungry (beautiful) screen, you knew this when you picked it out. It can do pretty much any function that a laptop can. Use it like it was meant to be used, and dont fret so much over the battery.
From cellblock D

Great News!
Battery life is now up considerably without the use of 3rd party apps.
I may consider using green power to get more extended battery life...but here's how i did it.
1. Update to EF02 Gingerbread OS (on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of ease of upgrade...its a 2....1 being the most simple). It was as easy as download the app and let it upgrade your phone.
I'll post the video link here it was VERY Elementary folks.
2. Battery life in Gingerbread is great! Appears to have a better memory manager and much more smooth transition between screens, apps, etc.
Randomking was correct about battery life and adding all the apps we had to for Froyo just to get mediocre batter life.