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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.
I'm getting great battery with this combo.
let juice defender set it self up
In set cpu, (phone must be rooted) in profile's, screen off all the way down, priority 100.
Advance task killer, set close to crazy, close apps when screen off, make sure use are not closeing atk,jd, and cpu.
Getting through a 12 + day with moderate to heavy use.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
break in the battery
the thing is most people haven't really broken in their batteries yet, the galaxy s phones use a G9 battery, that takes close to 7 full cycles to fully break in, once that happens the battery should last all day, thats probably what happened with you as well, try disabling the auto killer for a day and see for yourself.
BTW people stop using 4g and wifi hotspot features, I know we are paying extra ,but they are just not worth the battery drain IMO, I can literally drain the battery in less than 2 hrs when I use these features
WTF is G9. I've already fully killed and charged my battery about 10 times, and it isn't any better than the first charge. I also shouldn't have to root my phone and be closeing apps left and right to be able to use my phone. I had a touch pro before this and this phone is just a joke compaired to it. This phone might be faster, but at lest I could use my TP for the whole day and still have battery when I got home. Right now I get 2 hours of use then the epic dies.
If you're only getting 2 hours, you have a serious problem.
juice defender wont let me install aosp helper!!
jfenton57
Old;8075409 said:
If you're only getting 2 hours, you have a serious problem.
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Tell me about it, and the store I bought the phone from won't exchange it for me.
At first I thought I was just using the phone a lot, until I started logging my use, and sure enough I get less than 2 hours of use before the phone says plug me in.
If it doesn't get better in 7 days I'm returning and maybe going to verizon.
What's running on your phone that drains the battery in two hours? I easily get 12+ hours with around 25% of the battery to spare. Today I've been streaming Pandora for almost 4 hours and still have over 75% battery. That includes taking calls, text, and emails.
One thing to add to battery to the list of big drainers. "Use wireless networks." It's found under "setting" > "location & security." When this is turned on and you have Google Maps installed, it keeps "com.google.android.apps.maps:LocationFriendsService" (Latitude's friend location service) running in the background whether you are signed into Latitude or not. Killing the service is no good as it will keep popping up. Unless switched off, it will constantly ping wireless towers around you.
If you're using a weather widget, or another app that requires location service and you're not traveling out of town, just use "allow mock locations." Found under "settings" > "applications" > "development." That way whatever software you are using that needs your location will just use the last one it recorded and not send out requests to the nearest tower.
I thought too maybe I had a rouge app sucking my juice. So I hard reset the device, it is setup just like it is out of the box.
I would love to get 4 hours of streaming audio. Right now I get about 2.
thiis thing dies on me really quick, at home not as bad when I'm on wifi, but i left this morning from my house, and by the time I got to work 45 minutes later i'm at like 90% and i've done nothing on the phone, not a thing, no text, no voice calls. time without signal is 0.
then of course I get to work and time without signal jumps to like 22%, but still, my blackberry didn't go dead in half a day. i'm running the mixup undervolted kernal and the epic experience rom.
I do run gps and normal phone settings but turning them off is really not an option, especially for my wife that just needs a phone that works and isn't dead before she is out of work, and she doesn't even use the phone.
am I doing something wrong or is the battery life really this crappy?
and it was worse before the new kernal on DI18, and way worse before that.
i use the same set up i got 10 hours under pretty use
try turning gps off at work
So what are you leaving on? 4g? Gps? WiFi? I found that using black wallpaper helps.
wifi and gps are always on, it seems its TWS that is killing it. at like 22% right now. battery is down to 83% right now 2 hours off charger. no voice calls or text calls.
If you are getting a tws of 50% then put your phone into airplane mode for about 10 seconds and then switch it back, you will see a dramatic decease in tws
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Here's a few things you can do ...
1) If you have Sprint service in most places, turn off roaming (Settings, Call settings, System select, Sprint). This will disable roaming period so that all roaming services are disabled (i.e. you won't ever see the data roaming guard).
2) Download JuiceDefender beta (this turns off all data, i.e. Wifi / 3G, whenever your phone's screen is off, if you purchase UltimateJuice with it, you can schedule it however you want, and you can choose to allow some apps to always allow data to go through). This saves me a LOT of battery since my screen is usually off.
3) Try the TWS hack mentioned in the earlier post, it should be fixed in DI18, but some people are still seeing high numbers there.
4) If you're rooted, get an app like Autostarts and disable the DRM service from ever running. This was found to be a battery killer.
The biggest battery drainer of them all is the GPS, and then 3G. If you can minimize your uses with those, you will maximize battery life. Also, use Wifi in areas that have it because Wifi hardly drains battery at all compared to 3G. I haven't seen any kernel really that gets much more battery life than stock, so doing these things will help. I love the Epic, but the battery life is a real downer for me too. I've gotten a full day's use (medium use) at times, while some days it hardly lasts at all.
Yes do the airplane mode trick and turn off gps if you are not using it and DO NOT USE JUICE DEFENDER i get 45 hours battery life without it. that app runs constantly in the background and uses more battery. Juice defender is for lazy people that dont know how to find these data and sync settings that are already on the phone or you can download an app that will let you toggle whatever setting you need. Set emails to sync once an hour and if it is really a priority then go into the email account and push refresh.
If you are really getting 45 hours of battery while actually using your phone then will you please share all of the settings that you have that give you this kind of battery life
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Use SetCPU, it will turn down the processor while the screen is off. Helped alot with battery life. =)
itsmebryan said:
I found that using black wallpaper helps.
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I wondered if that would do anything. Considering how AMOLED works, dark themes and wallpapers *should* help battery life similar to reducing brightness.
Auto-Sync does some mean damage if your settings are too frequent, too. Try not to use Facebook/Twitter/Myspace integration, if possible, or disable them from syncing automatically, and sync them yourself when you feel the need.
Okay I don't know exactly what I did/didn't do but my battery problem seems to be greatly improved. Lets start with my details. Before 2 days ago. No matter what my use my battery drain would be approx 6-8% an hour. If I took my phone off the charger at 11am by 4pm I would be around 60%. GPS/4g/wifi off. Screen brightness set to lowest. tws not too bad. Using both the tws trick and drm stopped. Usually 2 or 3 phone calls 5-10 texts 5-10 minutes of browsing. I had a task killer installed but never used it to kill tasks just as an app switcher. Even after the di18 update no major difference. So the other day I downloaded an app called system panel. Another task manager. I deleted the task killer widget on my home page but no the app. The first day I took my phone off the charger used it for about an hour then put it back on the charger for about 15 minutes. When I took it off the charger it was at 96%. I opened system panel and killed all apps (necessary services/apps restarted immediately) did tws trick and drm kill. Same use as always after 8 hours my battery was at 80% a 16% drop. That's 2% an hour. The next day I deleted my task killer and over the same period of time I went from 96% to 83% (13% lose over 8 hrs) Only a little over 1% lose an hour. The only difference that I am aware of was the deletion of the task killer widget and then the app completely.
Sh0wNuF said:
If you are really getting 45 hours of battery while actually using your phone then will you please share all of the settings that you have that give you this kind of battery life
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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Ditto, I'd like to hear what you're doing too ... even when I do not TOUCH the phone, I cannot get 45 hours. I think you're being a bit optimistic here.
Lmao No. Since di18 it has been great. I use my phone for a lot of stuff too. I have a live wall paper and rss feeds that update. email is set to once an hour. Now dont get me wrong if i play a game then it will suck my battery pretty good like 5% for ten minutes. i have a widget for sync settings. im rooted with ALL SPRINT apps removed i think thats the biggest thing. dont leave gps or other on if you are not using it. i do not have drm removed. i use full brightness. i talk a few times a day and dozens of text and web surfing. no juice defender or task killers. The object for me was to not have any unneccessary stuff run when it doesnt need to. so the phone is set to come alive when the screen is on not off. Check ALL APP and WIDGET SETTINGS FOR HOW OFTEN THEY UPDATE. I DO MEAN ALL. GO THROUGH EVERY APP AND CHECK THEIR SETTINGS ALSO the biggest drain is make sure you sign out gtalk or it will just constantly run. I shoulda posted my screen shot of battery life earlier sorry i will as soon as it reads 1d21h again. prolly tomorrow afternoon.... Rooted,cwm,galaxy rom and kernel, blue minimalism theme
jbadboy2007 said:
Yes do the airplane mode trick and turn off gps if you are not using it and DO NOT USE JUICE DEFENDER i get 45 hours battery life without it. that app runs constantly in the background and uses more battery. Juice defender is for lazy people that dont know how to find these data and sync settings that are already on the phone or you can download an app that will let you toggle whatever setting you need. Set emails to sync once an hour and if it is really a priority then go into the email account and push refresh.
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i do the airplane trick, problem is it seems,when im on wifi, the life is great, battery is perfect, as soon as you go to 3g, it goes to crap, plus the service where I work is spotty as well. I don't know what to do, seriously I can't go through 2 years of great cell service that I can't use because the battery is dead. I mean if I could get through 10 hours it wouldn't be bad, but as it is now, i'm lucky to squeak through about 8 hours. and I have the mixup kernal that is undervolted and supposedly already messing around with the cpu. usually on 3g, no matter where I am pretty much I"m at like 10-20% TWS.
tws is 50% for me. just stop the data with sync settings then it has no reason to draw more. my house and school have terrible service. you are only losing battery life due to data that is going really slow and it takes way more battery to accomplish. i keep wifi on all nite at my house but my sync settings are off. i do this so its not searching for 3g because i have an airrave and wifi. i used the di07 mixup and was not happy with it. galaxy roms have been the least buggy and very stable with the best battery life. That might be my opinion but also genius dog doesnt have an epic yet so i cant trust his stuff when he cant see the impacts with the kernels he is making. but he does know code i will tell you that.
robl45 said:
i do the airplane trick, problem is it seems,when im on wifi, the life is great, battery is perfect, as soon as you go to 3g, it goes to crap, plus the service where I work is spotty as well. I don't know what to do, seriously I can't go through 2 years of great cell service that I can't use because the battery is dead. I mean if I could get through 10 hours it wouldn't be bad, but as it is now, i'm lucky to squeak through about 8 hours. and I have the mixup kernal that is undervolted and supposedly already messing around with the cpu. usually on 3g, no matter where I am pretty much I"m at like 10-20% TWS.
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Holy crap 8 hour battery life is really bad.
Do you have any apps syncing? A weak signal with an app syncing can have a devastating effect on the battery life.
In my school building I get 0-1 signal bars and once I use the stock email app to sync my email every hour with 3G on my battery life is probably a third as good.
How?
jbadboy2007 said:
Yes do the airplane mode trick and turn off gps if you are not using it and DO NOT USE JUICE DEFENDER i get 45 hours battery life without it. that app runs constantly in the background and uses more battery. Juice defender is for lazy people that dont know how to find these data and sync settings that are already on the phone or you can download an app that will let you toggle whatever setting you need. Set emails to sync once an hour and if it is really a priority then go into the email account and push refresh.
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sent from my epic 4g with no 4g
only thing syncing is gmail, I refuse to stop syncing my email, otherwise whats the point of the phone? my blackberry could do push no problem, the iphone could do push no problem.
akei1 said:
Holy crap 8 hour battery life is really bad.
Do you have any apps syncing? A weak signal with an app syncing can have a devastating effect on the battery life.
In my school building I get 0-1 signal bars and once I use the stock email app to sync my email every hour with 3G on my battery life is probably a third as good.
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robl45 said:
only thing syncing is gmail, I refuse to stop syncing my email, otherwise whats the point of the phone? my blackberry could do push no problem, the iphone could do push no problem.
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Inside my building where I get a weak signal I turn off 3G and use the wifi to sync my apps regularly. I get a good wifi signal there.
If I can't get a good 3G signal in the building than there's not much I can do to my phone to make the 3G signal better (I think that's the cause for the battery drain).
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.
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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?
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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.
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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......
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+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.
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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..
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).
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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
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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).
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^^^ 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.