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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Ok I got the X10 a few days ago.. loving it.. now..
How do I extend the life of the battery? I know theres a ton of topics on this but I can't seem to get more than 12hours..
- I use StartupAuditor and pretty much stopped most apps from running at start.
- I use ADW Launcher
- I use JuiceDefender
- Timeout - Screen timeout after 15s, lock after 2mins
- Schedule - Enable APN/Wifi for 1m every 15secs (for Moxie Sync/Mail - Push)
- Screen - Leave APN/Wifi enabled while screen unlocked (So it disables it after it has been locked)
Any help is appreciated.
After a couple of weeks your battery life should get better with out you having to do anything. Just be patient and let it fully discharge before recharging. Also restart your phone after a full charge and after using wifi and gps.
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force close the face recognition will save alot of power, face recognition sucks the cpu hardly!
wingz85 said:
After a couple of weeks your battery life should get better with out you having to do anything. Just be patient and let it fully discharge before recharging. Also restart your phone after a full charge and after using wifi and gps.
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Discharing a battery is bad isnt it?
Well your problem may lay here
"- Schedule - Enable APN/Wifi for 1m every 15secs (for Moxie Sync/Mail - Push)"
Your using Moxier which other X10 users have identified as a huge power user and according to you, your also using APN/Wifi for a minute every 15 seconds..........so it's essentially never turning the APN/Wifi off :-S
Hope this helps!
Also fully discharging your battery every now and then is actually beneficial for your battery.
Quite certain the 1 minute every 15 seconds is a typo
Juicedefender defaults to 1 minute ever 15 minutes.
I removed ATK and Juicedefender, I found they only screwed up things in the phone and after removing them I noticed no change in battery life. (If anything, my battery life increased after removing ATK)
The best things for battery I have found to be.
-- Alternate launcher (I use ADW, I think Helix is better for battery performance but ADW has more options).
-- First 5 charges, discharge battery completely and do this again once every month or so
-- After full charge, power cycle phone (Turn off/on)
-- Use quick settings to turn off GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth when you are not using them
-- Make sure you back out of programs when you're done with them. This will close most applications so they are not running in the background. Certain apps (like a dolphin browser) have exit functions under more options. This is useful as back will just go to the previous page.
Note: Force closing applications which you see open in the background may use more battery as it may just start up again. Constantly killing and opening the program will use processor/battery power. Whereas many programs, when open in the background, are not using active process power and Android OS will pause/stop applications which are not in active use, by default.
xxsashixx said:
- Timeout - Screen timeout after 15s, lock after 2mins
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Where can i find the timout setting for the lock?
Screen brightness turned down. Wifi instead of 3g. That's what I do. And I think I get around 15 hours. Still kinda bad. But better than nothing.
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From my experience..
I find 3G has better battery life than WiFi, unless you are constantly browsing. When 3G is active, but you're not browsing the web and stuff, I find it doesn't use much battery. WiFi, however, uses up loads of battery when the phone is idle.
MarylandCookie said:
Where can i find the timout setting for the lock?
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I want to know that as well Tried to find in phone settings but couldn't figure it out
Battery barely gets drained by wifi in idle state. you just go into wireless settings and set wifi sleep policy to when screen turns off.. should be fine after!!
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Mano, not sure if this is what ya after! but here goes.. go to settings, sound and display, then screen timeout!!
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As per my last question, discharging is bad isn't it? With these batteries, you have to constantly charge them so they don't loose life
Edit: Also.. if I press home button or back button that doesn't close the app.. most apps don't close like that, so I have to use ATK to kill it.. is it fine to leave apps running in the bg like that?
Edit: So I should uninstall ATK?
I also JUST got an X10 about 2 weeks ago! My battery life was so bad at first, and I ended up trying most of these battery saving apps. But to be honest, I found that they did more damage than good.
I now have everything I don't use turned off. Bluetooth, WiFi (when I'm not home at least) etc. Just skim through settings and turn off anything you don't think you'll use. And I restart my phone every morning and I get 30-50 hours out of it, depending on use. It is definitely getting better with time too.
For ATK, I would uninstall it as generally killing tasks does more harm than good. If you use it intermittently and only when necessary (and not use auto-killer) you could keep it installed.
As for apps running in the background..
-- If you press back, it should close most apps (not all, but well designed apps should)
--The Android OS is designed to pause/stop apps/processes which are not being actively used by the user and will close them eventually if left unused
-- ATK is generally only freeing RAM which is not important. It is not like Windows in the sense that more free RAM = faster speeds. It is a lot more like, more free ram = more wasted ram.
Here is a link to where I found out most of this information.
http:/geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
As for WiFi sleep policy, thanks for pointing this out. It seems that my phone is already set to sleep WiFi when the screen is turned off. I find this weird as I have found significantly reduced battery life when I turn WiFi on, even when my phone is mostly unused/idle.
Mobzter said:
Mano, not sure if this is what ya after! but here goes.. go to settings, sound and display, then screen timeout!!
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Thank you so much Mobzter, but i was not after that As Sashi said that he has set "Timeout - Screen timeout after 15s, lock after 2mins", I know about about screen timeout but "Lock after 2 min", How? Thnak You anyway ^^
@mano. Good question. I can only find screen time out as well.
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Sent from my X10i
i have noticed some thing strange ,the phone lasts more with apps open in backgroung than when i close them . and using my phone consumes less battery than leaving it in standby .very strange phone (may be only mine ) any confirmation.
Hey Hoss,
I can confirm that force-closing/killing apps seems to be worse for battery life than leaving them alone. Backing out of apps usually will stop any cpu usage, but leave the app running. Killing/closing them will just result in more cpu power to run it when necessary.
As for standby vs usage - I have the opposite experience. The battery life on my x10 lasts a lot longer when I am working all day and not using my phone very much.
Terul
I have seen over and over people state how they use ATK or other task killers to improve battery life, when in fact they are actually hurting android 2.2 multi tasking. In 2.2 google changed the api that devs used to kill apps in all other versions of android. I myself use Auto Killer and Auto starts. Those two apps tweak androids internal task manager and keep my phone running smooth
Even the creator of ATK and the other most popular task manager Advance task killer have stated it. Your better of using an app like Auto Killer ( http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.rs.autokiller ). It tweaks android internal task manager.
AutoKiller is an award winner minfree tweaker, it fine tunes android's inner memory manager to keep your device fast and lowers battery consumption. Also includes a manual process/service manager.
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Here are a couple articles about why you dont need them in android 2.2
FAQ: Why You Shouldn’t Be Using a Task Killer with Android
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Froyo update kills Android task killer apps
http://androinica.com/2010/08/09/froyo-update-kills-android-task-killer-apps/
Task killers have long been a crutch for users to forcefully shut down applications and “free up memory” to conserve battery life and space. However, that’s a common misconception buoyed by old Android flaws and the power of the placebo effect. Task killers actually get in the way of Android handling memory management as intended. We’ve already written an article on why you should not be using a task killer, so read that post for more information.
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Google and Cyanogen comments imply task killer/manager apps are pointless
http://androinica.com/2010/05/07/go...-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/
However, developers of task killing apps are of a different opinion. Arron La, developer of Advance Task Manager, suggests that task killers are more important for legacy devices like the G1 and phones running older versions of Android.
“Task Managers were absolutely needed in the past before the new services UI came out in Android 2.0 or 2.1,” La said in an e-mail. “Task Managers had a niche of allowing users to quickly kill services associated with apps – including all the other stuff as well, such as alarms – but that was the only way to do it before the introduction of the new services UI.”
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I am gunna try out the difference. I do follow cyanogen and I saw that exact tweet lol. at the time though i was on windows. we will see what happens.
This needs to be moved to the head of the class as it is great info and everyone should read.
There is a lot of people running around saying task killers need to be used.
THis isnt winmo.
The idea that leaving all your applications open not hurting performance or battery flies against what most of us expect to be true. Lately ATK hasn't worked. I'll kill all apps, then minutes later they will all reappear. I will try going without a task killer for a while and monitor subsequent battery life.
What about all the OCD people? I would imagine it being hard for people with OCD to not compulsively close tasks.
I would add the use of auto killer as the op has stated. It works in conjunction with the way android kills task. You can set it aggressively or not. I cannot quote on battery life as I tend to damage mine. Only a rogue app would cause major drain. I also use a program called data on demand. That works by turning off data when the phone is off and lock.
this is indeed an interesting light for us all!
testing begins.
Deleted...
polo735 said:
The idea that leaving all your applications open not hurting performance or battery flies against what most of us expect to be true. Lately ATK hasn't worked. I'll kill all apps, then minutes later they will all reappear. I will try going without a task killer for a while and monitor subsequent battery life.
What about all the OCD people? I would imagine it being hard for people with OCD to not compulsively close tasks.
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As an actual sufferer of OCD who is trying out the no task killer method, I will say that it IS making me itch a little bit :/
....need to stop killing tasks. Its hard. I'm so used to it now. Will report my findings!
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Glad to see everyone is finding this info helpful. The word really needs to be spread.
Also you can add an app called watchdog that monitors your memory and lets you know when it gets below a certain threshold. it will then notify you and let you know wich app caused the memory drain.
You can do it. Consider this the support group for those who don't use task killers.
Thank u mvp77 for bringing this to light. For me my hd2 runs so smooth!!!
Well, with no task killer, after about 90 minutes of sitting on my desk at work, sending about 20 texts & listenening to 2 songs, my battery went from 70% to 35%. I was shocked at the accelerated battery drain, and I noticed that the back of my phone started getting hot too, which it NEVER did before I disabled the ATK. I re-enabled it around 5:30 on the way home, and after heavier texting, data, and music usage, it's only gone down to 22% after 4 hours.
I'm gonna conclude that my task killer serves a very good purpose, at least with my specific setup. Methinks I'll keep it enabled!
wow thats really strange because that actually goes against the way android actually works. as it stands the task killer is needlessly killing so called process's that may not even be active.
This is based on what the google android developers say. To each their own I will continue you to run without it as a see a speed increase without it. I would venture to say that there is a program that is causing problems.
kabuk1 said:
Well, with no task killer, after about 90 minutes of sitting on my desk at work, sending about 20 texts & listenening to 2 songs, my battery went from 70% to 35%. I was shocked at the accelerated battery drain, and I noticed that the back of my phone started getting hot too, which it NEVER did before I disabled the ATK. I re-enabled it around 5:30 on the way home, and after heavier texting, data, and music usage, it's only gone down to 22% after 4 hours.
I'm gonna conclude that my task killer serves a very good purpose, at least with my specific setup. Methinks I'll keep it enabled!
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I have never experienced battery drain like that. It would seem you have a bad app causing it. I would suggest you install watchdog and set the threshold at 30% and see what app is causing the problem.
The Creator of ATK stated on his blog, witch I can't find now, that his app does not work the same with 2.2 because the API used is no longer there.
Also install autokiller and autostarts to tweak android internal task manager and to stop unnecessary apps from starting.
I think it is the placebo effect cyangon and others mentioned.
I actually think my screen is killing my battery. I have to much current draw as noted using current widget.
I'll try Watchdog, and I've already got autokiller & autostarts installed.
I'm thinking about hard resetting. I've noticed that lately my battery hasn't even been charging completely, it only goes to 95% unless I charge it in WM or when it's turned off.
hazard99 said:
I actually think my screen is killing my battery. I have to much current draw as noted using current widget.
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Click to collapse
I believe I have the same issue running ShubCraft 1.5. 95% of the power consumption goes to display, while everything else is at 5%. This is after 1 hour of usage.
In comparison. If I use MattC SenseUI build. 45% goes to battery while everything else goes to Phone Standy or Idle.
Though I can get about 20 hours on Shubcraft instead of like 8 hours for MattC. SenseUI must be very taxing on battery.
Well Like i stated at the beginning I ruin batterys by constantly tethering or atleast I think it does.
Watching the current widget the ma's can be upwards of 150ma which isnt right at all. When I look at watchdog I am under 95% idle which means apps are behaving correctly.
looking at the battery information it shows that the display is using the most of my battery.
Watch dog states that the android system is using 1.3% of cpu.
If i select real time watchdog jump to 6.8 percent which is understandable since it isnt being passive.
Right now I think the screen management is the problem. I cant do this any scientific way but based on what I see it seems to be the only reasonable thought.
+1 for screen being the cause every thing i use to test shows as screen being the issue of battery drain next to some live wallpapers
100% AGREE!!!
I have tried Taskiller and ATK and both did what they were made to do but my battery simply was eaten 12% every hour... So, I uninstalled EVERYTHING related to "battery preservation" and installed AUTOKILLER - this gave me 60% improvement over my old setup and battery life... I now easily pull more than 24hrs in stand-by - about 15hrs with average usage!
FYI: When installing certain apps (as AutoKiller) allow three four charging cycles - use phone as usual and re-charge 3-4 times... You will see that battery self-operates into the best working option and it starts working great...
With setCpu and ATK installed (with kill set during screen off and setcpu on ignore list) I had 12% drain / hr on stand-by ...
Both have been uninstalled now and only Autokiller is installed (Akiller shrinks memory threshold so Apps are shut-down natural "organic" way by Android OS) and I get less than 5%/hr drain on batery...
How is that possible? Simple - Linux is not like WinMo or WinOS - running process does not necessarily means it will drain battery.
I've been seeing a lot of posts on crap battery life around here, and I was chasing my tail about some of them as well, following a lot of misinformation even by senior members. I think I have a good handle on it now, and picked up most of these tips from these forums, so I'm not taking credit for these ideas, just collecting them in one place. Some of my suggestions assume you have root and Rom Manager (see the Tips and Tricks sticky thread on how to get them).
1. If your battery drains in less than a day on standby, you probably have a bad flash of the JI6 modem (either from the OTA update or from a ROM). Flash the JI2 modem from here "www dot teamwhiskey dot com/home/downloads". If the flash fixes it, you may try going back to JI6 if you want, and it may stay fixed. I went back to JI2 and didn't bother going back to JI6, but it has worked for others. With JI2 and 3G on I get just over 24 hours in normal usage.
2. The #2 battery drain on standby is 3G. I turned it off (Settings/Wireless/Mobile networks/Network mode/GSM only) and my phone lasted for 40 hours on Edge with light usage (few phone calls, messaging, quite a lot of web surfing, 2 hours of podcasts). Didn't even feel too slow (I get 140kbps on edge). Can anybody suggest a really good widget for turning 3G on/off? I use the 2G-3G OnOff widget by Curvefish. It's not one-click, it's just a shortcut to Mobile Network Settings, but it works. Note that sometimes it takes a while for the data connection to re-establish after you see the 3G or E icon.
2.5. WiFi always on is a huge battery saver! It keeps 3g off. I can easily get 3+ days with light usage on my home wifi. Settings/Wireless and Network/Wifi Settings/Menu/Advanced/Wifi Sleep Policy/Never.
3. Don't need a task killer. I wasted all my time killing tasks trying to chase down my crappy battery usage, but since I fixed my modem and turned off 3G I know that the 3-5% CPU usage at idle does not hurt my battery. Taskiller for me was actually hitting the CPU constantly, lightly but for no reason, so I got pissed and uninstalled it.
4. Install a CPU usage monitor like Usage Timelines. It sits in the notification bar, very easy on the battery, but tells you if you have a rogue app pegging your CPU and draining your battery. These are the only apps you should be worried about killing. Astro File Manager has a task manager that shows CPU usage for each app, so you can kill the rogue one. I shoot for about 5% cpu usage at idle (at 200mhz - at 100mhz it would be a bit higher).
5. The app Autostarts lets you disable any app from starting on boot or other events like connectivity changes. This is not strictly necessary unless you have a lot of crap apps installed on your phone and they like to start themselves and waste CPU time behind your back.
6. If your battery reads less than 100% as soon as you unplug it from the charger fully charged, or your battery meter sits at 100% for a long time after you unplug it, you can recalibrate your battery meter. To recalibrate: 1) charge your battery to full, 2) unplug, 3) reboot into Clockwork Recovery and 4) Wipe battery stats.
7. There is No Such Thing as "battery reconditioning" (for all intents and purposes). The above procedure only RECALIBRATES you battery METER to read on a more linear scale between full and empty. It DOES NOT make your battery last longer, period. Whoever tells you that is a moron. If your battery is dying in 6 hours, doing any amount of calibration will not make it last longer (I've tried).
8. I wouldn't be too worried about undervolting, overclocking, kernel tricks and superawesomefast ROMS. The CPU drain at idle is so minuscule (as long as you don't have rogue apps) that those things make precious little difference. Like I said, the biggest drain is 3G and other radios. Having said that, I run Bionix 1.9 with the JAC kernel. It drained my battery in half a day at idle until I flashed the JI2 modem. With JI2 it suddenly started lasting over 24 hours, and once I turned off 3G, over 40 hours. I like this ROM and see no need to switch, it's very smooth. But you should be able to get similar battery life on a stock Vibrant.
9. I have GPS on, WiFi never sleep, auto-brightness, and a few widgets on like Weather and friend updates. I have no fancy settings, literally just turning off 3G (or wifi on, which is the same) got me 2-3 days. So I wouldn't waste time fooling around with magic settings (other than wifi never sleep), battery saver apps, etc.
10. If your screen is on all the time and you're playing games nonstop, you're draining your battery quicker than any of the things I mentioned above, so you probably don't care. In that case an optimized ROM/kernel is probably your best bet, especially JIT in Froyo. You can probably save on screen brightness as well.
If you guys have any other tips I'd be glad to add them to the list, but I hope this gives you an understanding of where your battery life is going. Basically: bad modem, 3G, or rogue apps.
Also, I hope this will put an end to trolls calling people whiners for complaining about battery life and saying unproductive **** like "you're a whiner" or "the Galaxy S is just a battery hog, live with it". It's not, you don't have to live with it, nobody should have to, here are your solutions.
Good luck.
A few things I do to help with battery life is:
Disable Audible touch tones
Disable Audible selection
Disable Haptic feedback
Disable SD card notifications
Set animations to NO animations
Uninstall media hub if you dont use it
Disable auto brightness adjustment
Disable power saving mode
I disable the last 2 and just swipe the notification bar to adjust brightness. Granted these items really only work when using the phone but I can go about 2 days of normal use without a charge believe it or not.
yeah disabling 3g has always been the best option for people really, really concerned with battery life.
But it's kinda hard to tell people not to use 3g on their brand new 3g capable devices.
You may want to add how to test if you battery is bad. If you use you phone repeatedly while it its plugged in you risk overheating and damaging your battery. Signs that unitas is the case are very quick drain and long (7 hours) charge times. You can easily test and see if your battery its damaged. Remove it from your phone and place on flat surface (e.g. Counter top) try spinning the battery. If it rotates easily and quickly you battery is bulging, this is a sign of damage. Time for a new battery.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Answer to #2-
Use APNDroid. Comes with a widget.
Thanks to the OP and other contributors in this thread.
I flashed a ROM with the ji6 modem and battery life has been noticeably ****ty since. Example - this morning I unplugged my phone at 7:30 am. 100% charged. It's 10:21 am and my phone is at 75%
In the last 3 hours I browsed the web for 10 minutes while having my coffee and a smoke before heading out to work. Blue tooth was on for my drive, and I've sent 2 text messages. Aside from that my phone has been on stand-by since I unplugged it 3 hours ago.
I'm going to try to flash back to ji2 tonight as the battery usage was definitely better. Will also look into the 3G thing.
Thanks again.
You forgot to mention the two DRM and one downloader services that run resident on JI6.
These were the cause of my reduced battery life after I upgraded. Killing & removing these processes restored my battery life back to normal
blink55184 said:
Answer to #2-
Use APNDroid. Comes with a widget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried this - switching 3G off works fine, but switching 3G back on didn't work for me. I had to re-boot to get 3G back so this is a no-go in my case.
I know how to kill the processes for the DRM and downloader but how do I remove them?
OP thank you for putting together the list. But I've never seen the point of doing all this. Its like getting a lamborghini and only driving 40mph because it you don't want to waste gas, whats the point? Either get a second wall charger to charge at work or a car charger. Heck even get a second battery if you are out for a long period of time.
speoples20 said:
Its like getting a lamborghini and only driving 40mph because it you don't want to waste gas, whats the point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to disable 3g.
The point of my post is to avoid people wasting their time with tweaks that have little to no effect on battery life. I'm telling people that they're wasting time killing apps and optimizing cpu usage and twiddling their settings when the radio drains most of their battery on standby anyway.
Meaning no matter what changes you make, you can only hope to improve your battery life by a tiny amount, because any other effect is overshadowed by 3G.
Put another way, you will NEVER get battery life much longer than a day if you're on 3g, so you're wasting your energy trying all kinds of tricks.
blink55184 said:
Answer to #2-
Use APNDroid. Comes with a widget.
smutek said:
I just tried this - switching 3G off works fine, but switching 3G back on didn't work for me. I had to re-boot to get 3G back so this is a no-go in my case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me the widget did nothing. But it seems like it's not even supposed to turn the 3G radio off, but ALL APN network traffic. Did I miss something? It won't save battery power as long as the 3G radio is on.
I went back to the 2G-3G OnOff widget by Curvefish. It's not one-click, it's just a shortcut to Mobile Network Settings, but it works. Note that sometimes it takes a while for the data connection to re-establish after you see the 3G or E icon.
Back to my Moto Startac
While i understand the idea behind this thread, your conclusion is simple.
If you use the phone as a smartphone, it will eat up your battery no matter what.
I personally go through two batteries and some a day. (they cost about 12 bucks in ebay, and they work just fine)
The price for saving battery is not using the phone, and having a 400 bucks phone just for show off is just silly at least.
If you have a phone like this is to use it. At least you can change the battery not like some other devices......
I understand that task killer is useless, but do any of you use Autokiller (memory manager) ?
That's kind of a redundant question because even if you do not use the app, your phone is still performing the functions. The app just adjusts the settings. But to answer your question, using a memory optimization tool such as AutoKiller is 1000% more efficient than using a Task Killer. I don't think it effects battery much, but works wonders on performance.
There's no 3g-off widget because apparently in Android there's no way to do that through a direct command. I also use the Curvefish widget, and you are absolutely right about turning off 3g to save battery. I normally do so when I'm asleep or if I'm sitting at my desk next to a computer (why do I need fast data on my phone when I have my computer right here?).
The other thing I would recommend is AutoStarts. There are way too many apps that open themselves up at bizarre and inappropriate times. Autostarts is an easy and painless way to see which apps do this and keep them from opening.
gagb1967 said:
While i understand the idea behind this thread, your conclusion is simple.
If you use the phone as a smartphone, it will eat up your battery no matter what.
I personally go through two batteries and some a day. (they cost about 12 bucks in ebay, and they work just fine)
The price for saving battery is not using the phone, and having a 400 bucks phone just for show off is just silly at least.
If you have a phone like this is to use it. At least you can change the battery not like some other devices......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1000
Great battery life comes to people who hardly use their phones. Guess I need to get a netbook. Will prolly get a netbook or 3g laptop + skype and ETF my phone soon. These battery woes are show-stopping.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Losing 4% an hour on standby when you're not using the phone is unacceptable. Samsung screwed something up with the JI6 update. Most people think it's because of the stupid Media Hub. I think they are right.
People are not complaining about the poor battery life from using the phone. They are complaining about the slow battery drain even when they are not using it. ~4% an hour adds up fast. Vibrant is supposed to have 450 hour (18 days) stand-by time. That's what is rated. But people are getting 24 hour (1 day) stand-by time after JI6.
Yellow C6 said:
Losing 4% an hour on standby when you're not using the phone is unacceptable. Samsung screwed something up with the JI6 update. Most people think it's because of the stupid Media Hub. I think they are right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not ready to sign off on this idea. For me simply flashing JI2 over JI6 fixed it. For some people flashing JI6 back over still left the problem fixed. I still have those processes running on JI2 and my battery life is fine.
The other reason I'm not ready to recommend wiping out those DRM processes is that apparently it stops the bundled Avatar movie from playing, and might affect other things that users may get pissed about. I've read that killing the downloader process people are talking about kills the market. So I really wish those people advocating that solution would figure their **** out and provide exact steps for the fix (right now their posts are really vague like "kill the processes that are named something like this" and not well tested; in all my research I didn't find the exact name of the "downloader" process).
Is it possible to flash the ji2 modem without root? Wishful thinking, I suppose..
Don't know if its just me but anyone else getting crazy battery drainage? I mean I use the phone but not enough where it will drop from 85% to 75% in a matter of 5 minutes. Very weird. I have my phone oc'ed to 1.4 mhz on kings conservative module. Any ideas?
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
I've been getting at least 12 hours. Im not using a module, or bluetooth, but I'm on Wifi all the time. GPS is typically on as well.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
Try removing King's module.. I'm on 1.2 Ghz and I haven't seen any difference in battery consumption when at stock speeds as well..
Mines been unpluged for 13 hours and I'm still at 37%.
It'll last me about over 12 hours and up regardless just weird how it dropped 10% in 5 mins like that.
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
luis86dr said:
It'll last me about over 12 hours and up regardless just weird how it dropped 10% in 5 mins like that.
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it calculates use/time so the percentage is a simple variable that will change as soon as you take a idle phone and start using it.
Don't know if this has anything to do with it but I did install a task killer from the market with the red android icon. Maybe this has something to do with it?
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
luis86dr said:
Don't know if this has anything to do with it but I did install a task killer from the market with the red android icon. Maybe this has something to do with it?
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably best that you remove that.
The problem with task killers is that when you end those processes most of them automatically start back up which of course uses more power to do so. So say for example you get one of those automatic task killers then all day long your phone is ending processes and then restarting them.
Froyo has sort of a built in task killer which you can use to close apps that aren't working probably or that you notice are draining your battery.
You shouldn't use automatic task killers, as others have already stated above me. Another reason is that the task killers themselves are wasting and using system resources and cpu cycles.
What I generally do to keep my phone's unnecessary tasks down and such is to manually end tasks and keep a note which tasks are always popping back up. Once I've determined those processes/services, I would generally put them on the ignore list and have a widget placed on my homescreen so I may tap on it whenever I get a chance, or pass by it, killing off the tasks that I know don't make a difference on my daily use of the phone.
My ignore list consists of:
My Account
3G Watchdog
Voice Dialer
Beautiful Widgets
Widgetlocker
eBuddy
News Weather
BatteryTime
Astrid Tasks
Clock
MixZing
Google Voice
Gmail
Photobucket -- Because it doesn't give up after you've killed it.
You're going to take a battery hit overclocking. Other than that I'd look at what's running at any given time, and everything that you've got installed. There really isn't a need for a task killer. And if you're adept enough to use a module, you might want to look into disabling applications that you don't use via adb; if you haven't already.
To put it another way the more you're running, the faster your battery's going to drain.
Im Oc'ed to 1.4GHz and running all kinds of widgets and i text and call all day.
No issues at all. Both my orig phone and now my replacement phone.
So I'd have to check under running services under applications ? I uninstalled the task killer.
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
I am overclocked at 1.5ghz and my phone last all day. I think the two main things that attribute to this are:
1. I have a profile on SetCpu that underclocks my phone to 245mhz when the screen is off
2. I used this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=809231 to disable alot of the stock apps that load automatically on the phone (Finance, Qik, Photobucket, Amazon Mp3 etc)
If you do want to try out the 2nd option send me a PM. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the application "Gscript" but it allows you to input a script and have it activate at the touch of a button instead of inputting lines in "Terminal Emulator". Basically, one click and all the BS apps are gone. Do you have the VISIONary root?
Yeah I do. Just charged my phone and it dropped from 97% to 77% in like a half hour. Something is def up. NOT NORMAL. And this was stock. No OC.
Anyone have a list of all the bloatware so I can disable them via terminal. Don't feel like looking thru pm list packages. Lol. Yes, call me lazy.
On a side note just looked at the temp of the battery its saying 101 f. Wtf?!
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
I just got the G2 yesterday to try out.
I charged the phone to 100% today and put it into Airplane mode (my office doesn't get reception), quit all the apps using ATK (froyo version), and killed potential network-hogging apps in Running Services menu. My battery went down to 83% without being touched in a matter of 30-60 minutes.
There's no custom OS/root/overclocking being done here. Anyone else find this a bit strange? Neither my Nexus One or Vibrant deplete this quickly. I also understand the whole battery calibration, but damn!
This seemed to help me. Try pulling out the battery from the phone for 1 min then pop it back in and power up. For some reason that helped. Phones at 50% with heavy use and I took it off the charger at 530am and its now 3pm
Sent from my HTC Vision G2
i took my phone off the charger at 6 am and i have 55% left on the battery 13 hours later. juicedefender baby
I to have battery issues...not to sure what it is. Just curious how some people are getting more than 10 hours of battery life. I too use Juice Defender and although at start is said 1.31...it now is going to 1.10. How do you all get such high battery life? I get at most from (what I call heavy use, twitter gtalk, txt, web, games) about a single work day which is 8 to 9 hours. Ideas...?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App