Database Users

X10 Power Usage

Hey.
Got my X10 a few days ago,
And im the only one with a power problem ?
Having to recharge it alest once a day ?

My batteri drops aprox 12 % per hour, so I usefully charge 2 times a day.
Since 1AM to now (12AM) it went from 100% - 24%. And Ive been sleeping alot, so the phone hasent been muched used either.

What kind of usage are you partaking in? In my experience most smartphones have to be charged daily.
Here's a post from Esato Forums where someone did an extensive battery drain usage test:
http://www.esato.com/board/printpost.php?post=2933402

The last day Ive been using it minimally, and Im on my second charge for the day. All my other phone last 1 day (6am-12pm) before needing charging. But my X10 needs an aditional charge at about 2-3pm..... And even then is as good as empty at 12pm....
I hope its just a small software bug, or something that could be fixed with a reset. Im starting to enjoy this phone, but there are several days a week, I will not have the time to charge it a second time..
Think Ill go for that reset, and see if that helps....
Anyone else with X10, and batteries that drain extremmely quick?

Mine dies after about 8 hours, but this is usually normal with new batteries, it should be better after a few FULL recharge cycles.

TakenName said:
The last day Ive been using it minimally, and Im on my second charge for the day. All my other phone last 1 day (6am-12pm) before needing charging. But my X10 needs an aditional charge at about 2-3pm..... And even then is as good as empty at 12pm....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were your previous phones smartphones, just out of curiosity.
Also, you could try to reduce how often TimeScape polls in the background for updates. That might help.
My current iPAQ 910c lasts a full day if I do nothing but the occassional phone call and SMS. However, if I do anything power intensive the battery fails, and the phone is done until it can get 2 hours or so of charge. But that's why I'm looking to replace it... definitely not normal.

I have access to every phone I want.. And Ive only been using smartphones.
(Currently as in sign.).
I dont use timescape or mediascape, so they have been disabled.
And yet the battery only last for aprox 10 hours....
I never had a phone with such a bad battery, however, Ive never had a phone with such big screen or cpu either....
You gain some, you loose some.
And to he who talked about recharging cycles to maximize battery,
this kind of batteries dosent work that way... They are allready maxed..

I've had mine for a few days now.
The battery's pretty good, I've only charged it once over about four days, so I'm pretty pleased. However, it does seem to use a lot of power if you have wifi on, even in sleep mode.
I've also had no problems with my "a" in either keyboard (Norwegian/Japanese) so far.
I'm still on 14 btw, if anyone's noticted battery dropping after they updated.

roanmy said:
I've had mine for a few days now.
The battery's pretty good, I've only charged it once over about four days, so I'm pretty pleased. However, it does seem to use a lot of power if you have wifi on, even in sleep mode.
I've also had no problems with my "a" in either keyboard (Norwegian/Japanese) so far.
I'm still on 14 btw, if anyone's noticted battery dropping after they updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would not say that the my battery is good. but it is ok, i haven't had it fully charged yet, since I did get git yesterday. and it did last about 10 hours or so, from 60 or 70%. with playing music, trying out some things etc. but I worked 5,5 of these hours and was in the movie theater 2 of the other hours.
anyways, I haven't really had much problems with the keyboard either, as you said. the only thing that really buggs me is the damn space button. it is too small! :/ I wen't from an X1 to the X10 no, from using HTC magic before that. But I am starting to get really used to the other keys.
I haven't installed the latest build/patch either.

//
Just download "spare apps" and see what apps som drain u battery
My X10 take only 6% on 3 hour on normal use

very very bad battery drain! Left mine on flight mode at 2AM with 50% battery left, before going to bed. Woke up at 11AM and the battery was dead with no usage nor cell connection!

massimax said:
very very bad battery drain! Left mine on flight mode at 2AM with 50% battery left, before going to bed. Woke up at 11AM and the battery was dead with no usage nor cell connection!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A chellphone uses more battery when there is bad reception, because it tries to get a better reception.
Like if there is just edge, the phonei strying to get HSDPA connection instead, this drains more of the battery.
+ With android the phone leaves some of the apps running in the background.
I recommand that you get an app that can shut these down.
Like a task manager kinda..
eg.Advanced Task Manager
I hope this helps ye.
and if you go into "settings - about the phone - Battery usage" then you can see what apps that is draining the most of the battery etc.

ukon said:
A chellphone uses more battery when there is bad reception, because it tries to get a better reception.
Like if there is just edge, the phonei strying to get HSDPA connection instead, this drains more of the battery.
+ With android the phone leaves some of the apps running in the background.
I recommand that you get an app that can shut these down.
Like a task manager kinda..
eg.Advanced Task Manager
I hope this helps ye.
and if you go into "settings - about the phone - Battery usage" then you can see what apps that is draining the most of the battery etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I wrote before, phone was in standby on flight mode: it means that NOTHING was running nor any 3G data was exchanged. I've had many Android phones (Magic, Hero, Milestone, Nexus, Legend) and in similar conditions they lost only a couple of percentage points of battery, not 50% like X10!! I do love this phone, but heavy battery drains is driving me crazy (and it's definitely not a faulty phone, since I know many many users with the same problem)

roanmy said:
I've had mine for a few days now.
The battery's pretty good, I've only charged it once over about four days, so I'm pretty pleased. However, it does seem to use a lot of power if you have wifi on, even in sleep mode.
I've also had no problems with my "a" in either keyboard (Norwegian/Japanese) so far.
I'm still on 14 btw, if anyone's noticted battery dropping after they updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually think the battery is good too. I recharge every other day, which seems to work fine.
I have bluetooth and wifi off, and mostly doing manual updates for timescape. I do surf quite a bit though, and no problems with battery drain. In my experience, my X10 lasts a lot better than a Satio for example.

Strange how half of the people posting here, have very good batteries (1-2 days), and the other half have extremmely bad batteries (8-12 hours).
I doubt the ones with the bad batteries are "worse user" then the ones with the good batteries......

I'm one of those with lousy battery usage. Hardly use the phone, but drains in no time. However I've ordered 4 new batteries, so gonna test all of them and see if there's a pattern.

Grrr.. Was just setting up my contacts to Facebook.. Took around 20 minutes and drained 21% of my battery.. That's just not okay..

I just left it for 2 hours without doing anything and the battery from 90% dropped to 65%. This is not cool at all. SE we need a solution ASAP.

I'm one of those that get bad battery duration on the X10. I usually leave BT and WIFI on as I did in my N97. By observing who drains most of the battery, I get around 30% for the radio in standby and 20% for BT. The processor is only a small percentage (2%) so I don't belive that the snapdragon cpu can be blamed for bad battery duration. How is it possible that Nokias as the N97 having the same communication hw (GPS, WIFI, 3G, BT...) last for days with similar usage and battery capacity? Ok, the procesors are ony half the speed but I don't belive this makes so much difference...
I own a HTC Nexus also and has slightly better battery duration than the X10 but way far form the N97. I've roorted the phone and can change the CPU speed. It makes very little difference on battery duration if you set 400 or 300MHz instead of 1GHz.
So, it seems what makes all android devices so power hungry is the way the OS handles the communication interfaces, I belive most RF chipsets should have similar power drain and CPU's are idling most of the time. Perhaps symbian has a smarter algorithm to hanlde 3G/GSM/WiFi switching and no services polling the network when the phone is in your pocket.

ukon said:
A chellphone uses more battery when there is bad reception, because it tries to get a better reception.
Like if there is just edge, the phonei strying to get HSDPA connection instead, this drains more of the battery.
+ With android the phone leaves some of the apps running in the background.
I recommand that you get an app that can shut these down.
Like a task manager kinda..
eg.Advanced Task Manager
I hope this helps ye.
and if you go into "settings - about the phone - Battery usage" then you can see what apps that is draining the most of the battery etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So seeing i am in an area that does not have 3G I will have a problem with battery drain bcuz it will be constantly be trying to connect to HSDPA?

Weak Battery Life? Post Your Battery Use Numbers

I am still not too happy with the battery of the Galaxy, even though it should be conditioned by now. Nowhere near as good as the iPhone 3Gs, even though the 45nm chip in the galaxy, as well as the AMOLED screen, should be benefitial to battery life.
Maybe a good benchmark would be to see what readings people get at the time of the first "Low Battery" warning. You can see what depleted your battery by going to Settings/About/Phone/Battery Use. To get details, touch the corresponding bar in the graph.
Mine are:
20h 32m 4s since unplugged
Display: 38% (1h 54m)
Cell standby: 24%
Phone idle" 16%
Android OS 10% (CPU usage 50m 4s)
Voice calls: 6% (2m 54s --- WTF?!)
Android System: 4%
K-9 Mail: 2%
Advanced Task Killer: 2%

Those numbers look good to me somehow, I wouldn't expect better battery life after using the display for 2 hours and another 19 hours of standby? Especially as the phone can easily stand by another few hours on the last 15%...

i just got my phone recently, i'll post my results after a few weeks of daily usage.
i do a lot of 3G+, WiFi and SMS, not so much voice call, but regularly enough like two or 3 calls a day
that should be a pretty good test to see how long the battery last from full to like 20% that's when i usually recharge my phone if i don't carry a spare battery with me

Robin.B said:
Those numbers look good to me somehow, I wouldn't expect better battery life after using the display for 2 hours and another 19 hours of standby? Especially as the phone can easily stand by another few hours on the last 15%...
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Click to collapse
It depends on what you compare it to, I guess.
I am comparing it to my old iPhone 3Gs, which would last about 48 hours, usually with considerably longer talk time than the 2m 54s I have on the Galaxy S. How can less than 3 minutes of talk show 6% battery drain?!
As I noted, the Galaxy S's smaller die (45nm) and AMOLED screen should be an advantage over the iPhone 3Gs's older hardware, yet the iPhone lasts markedly longer.
Anyway, I just wanted to see what others are seeing and how long their phones are lasting. It might be interesting to many others, too.

The galaxy S holds considerably longer than the iPhone 3GS. Probably longer than the iPhone 4 as well.
My current stats:
2D 0H 33M 41S Since unplugged
Voice calls: 34% (38m 37s)
Cell Standby: 28%
Phone idle: 19%
Display: 18%
Funny, it doesn't show the time when i played SandStorm and Asphalt.
Oh, and my current battery level: 66%
If i skimp on the battery, i can hold 5 days between charges.

Pika007 said:
...2D 0H 33M 41S Since unplugged
Voice calls: 34% (38m 37s)
...
If i skimp on the battery, i can hold 5 days between charges.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! This is just amazing!
How long was your screen on for only 18%? (I have mine set at the dimmest, but still....)
Do you use email much and if so, how many accounts and often do you have the phone checking it?

Wait, you use tons of WiFi and you're suprised that the phone won't hold too much?
In contrast to the iphones that require you to manually search for a network, android ACTIVELY searches for local open networks and connects to them.
When you're not using WiFi- TURN IT OFF.
If you're talking about cellular internet, that's another thing.
And the display (set to medium-low brightness, the brightest mode where it doesn't BURN MY EYES. Damn this display is bright) registers 1h 27m.

Pika007 said:
The galaxy S holds considerably longer than the iPhone 3GS. Probably longer than the iPhone 4 as well.
My current stats:
2D 0H 33M 41S Since unplugged
Voice calls: 34% (38m 37s)
Cell Standby: 28%
Phone idle: 19%
Display: 18%
Funny, it doesn't show the time when i played SandStorm and Asphalt.
Oh, and my current battery level: 66%
If i skimp on the battery, i can hold 5 days between charges.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are we talking about the same phone? It's impossible!

Pika007 said:
Wait, you use tons of WiFi and you're suprised that the phone won't hold too much?
In contrast to the iphones that require you to manually search for a network, android ACTIVELY searches for local open networks and connects to them.
When you're not using WiFi- TURN IT OFF....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For what it's worth, my WiFi has been off for most of the day.
But, on WiFi discovey, my experience has been the opposite.
On the iPhone 3Gs, I always had WiFi and BT turned on. if I was not connected to WiFi, but WiFi became available, the iPhone would bring up a pop up, asking me if I want to connect to the network.
With te Galaxy S, I can have WiFi Notifications on, but unless I search for a network (usually by turning WiFi off, then back on), it doesn't inform me of available networks.
To boot, even though it remembers both my home and office networks, half the time it does not sign in automatically when I enter the area, but I have to do the off/on thing to get signed on

poolcin said:
Are we talking about the same phone? It's impossible!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The pictures are HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE, but the info is all there.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8025/dscn0044s.jpg
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/2236/dscn0042r.jpg
Point&shoot camera, single hand, and it's 3:33AM. You'll have to forgive me for the horrible quality of the pics.

Pika007 said:
The pictures are HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE, but the info is all there.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8025/dscn0044s.jpg
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/2236/dscn0042r.jpg
Point&shoot camera, single hand, and it's 3:33AM. You'll have to forgive me for the horrible quality of the pics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well consider yourself lucky! you got an amazing battery from the future or something, because this is not what we are all seeing... I get a decent 30 hours with mine max...

Can you tell us how long is the display time ?
My guess is that I could stay 2 days with my phone if I was never swithcing on the screen.
The thing is that you seems to use your phone like I was using my old nokia 6310 ...
Try to play some music or video and you won't last 5 days or even 2days ... maybe 1 if you are lucky
Basically you have left your phone switch off 2 days and call 38mn and that's all ?? I can't tell you that my old iphone3GS is going to be pretty close in term of performance of battery
given that 1h54 give 38% of 85% for the OP I would say that you have maybe 20mn of display

The battery life of my SGS was terrible for the first few days of use. I don't have the battery usage numbers but the battery would only last for around 20 hours doing: 30-60 min call, 2hour music, 30mins video, 30mins game, and approx. 40mins web surf using mostly wifi.
But after about 5 charging cycles (discharging until battery ran low and the phone eventually turns off, then charging the phone to full), the phone lasts for two whole days with the same usage described above each day!
So I have noticed a significant improvement in battery.
If you haven't gone through the charging cycle and your phone is relatively new, give it a week before you think the battery life is crap

yeah I am still waiting for the improvment
After almost 2 weeks , a dozain of cycle I still don't see it coming ...
I guess I must be using the screen too much ( miminum light) ...
Afert 12h46 I am at 25% with 65% taken by the display , 10% by cell idle, 8% by android , 6% by network idle, 4% by call ...
I have already used the screen 3h14mn
I don't know what you do but on my side I am reading my mails, reading xda, reading some newspaper on the train, watching some video ...
So my crappy battery doens't seem to come from some app draining it ... but just from the display.
So basically nothing I could do except using it less than what I am used to

Display time was 1h 27m

mine last around 10h (display on 4,5h) and thats as low as u can adjust brightness in settings according to gsmarena blog display can last up to 10h...
im using dimmer app now. hope i get 5-6h (display time) with that.

ok i'll play:
10hr:10min since last unplugged.
Battery at 74%
Display: 50% (I leave it on auto brightness)
Cell Standby:19%
Phone Idle: 12%
Bluetooth: 8%
NDrive: 7%
Android System: 2%
I'm happy with that.

I'm easily getting through a 15 hour day with moderate use (my normal usage pattern). this is on a par with my previous Nexus One and iPhone 3G.
BTW, I keep the WiFi on persistently (even when the screen is off) because I heard it draws less juice than the 3G/phone data. (I typically spend a lot of time around the house on WiFi ...)
Battery killer is normally "time without signal", the N1 would average maybe 70% without a signal, the SGS is averaging around 30% without a signal - so based on that perhaps the battery isn't quite as robust as the N1 (which was on Froyo).
Anyway, I have no concerns about my SGS battery based on similar phones and usage patterns. I will be tempted to get an extended battery for it though (I had a Mugen 3200mAh on the N1 and that would give me 2 days under quite heavy usage).

BTW, I keep the WiFi on persistently (even when the screen is off) because I heard it draws less juice than the 3G/phone data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure about this? I thought I noticed much better battery life when I started to switch wifi off and using 3g instead. I guess it could just be my battery maturing

dakine said:
Are you sure about this? I thought I noticed much better battery life when I started to switch wifi off and using 3g instead. I guess it could just be my battery maturing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keeping the WiFi policy to never disconnect apparently uses less battery than the system thrashing between 3G and non-3G data when sync'ing etc. Typically WiFi will show as 2% battery usage at the end of the cycle.
I base it off my old N1 usage, which I got from here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=006a844d7d335a90&hl=en

[Q] Tips to extend battery life? Anyone?

Hey guys,
Just got my Epic yesterday.. coming from the G1 with lots of experience loading and tweaking ROMs and dealing with same/similar battery issues.
After unpacking the Epic I used it and let it drain down to zero before recharging it; after a full recharge, I loaded up the 7 screens with widgets and ran a live wallpaper (fish). I didn't really use the phone much at all and the phone went from 100% battery down to zero in the span of only four hours!!! Geeze, you've got to be kidding me - four hours battery life?? WTF????!!
Back to the drawing board: I rooted it and ran SetCPU with some power saving profiles. Removed the live wallpaper and went to stock wallpaper. Set display power off at 30 seconds. Note that 4G remains off since there's no 4G in my area..
Couple of questions:
1. Is there any way to toggle 2G/3G like there was on my old G1? I know that was a power saver.
2. I didn't stop to read all the documentation yet (typical male, I know) but is there any way to wake this thing up from sleep mode besides pressing the power button? I can see that power button breaking for as much use as it's getting from me constantly having to wake this thing up!
3. My brightness setting is set to auto - since the display is usually the biggest drain on these things, is there a recommended manual brightness setting (percentage) that seems to work well for you and saves on battery power?
I'm waiting for the Seideo Extended Battery (just like many of you) and am wondering if I should keep the Epic since I'm on the Sprint 30-day Easy Return program.
Appreciate hearing from everyone!
Chris R.

I don't have 4G where I am. But, I have a all black wallpaper(uses less power) and unrooted. I easily get about 12-18hr out of my phone wit normal use(text, talk, and surfing the net with skyfire). Only thing that really kills my battery are games(Robo Defense can take over 30min to play one game).

Thanks for the reply - situation NOT improving
Thanks for the reply.. unfortunately, the situation is not improving...
I tried setting a Sleep Profile using SetCPU that would under-clock the CPU (using the stock kernel) once the screen dimmed and the phone went into Sleep Mode. Unfortunately, as mentioned in another thread here, the result was that the phone froze and required a battery-pull to reset.
I'm really starting to lose my enthusiasm for this device; as beautiful a display and as responsive a CPU/GPU, all of that doesn't mean much if you don't have good power management built into the firmware. At 6PM this evening I pulled it off the charger at 67% charged, it's now 8:35 PM, only 2.5 hours later and I'm down to 22%. I'm in a decent coverage area and get 2-4 bars of 3G strength so I don't think it's an issue of the radio being the culprit; in-fact if you check the battery stats it reports that that lovely Display is accountable for 78% of the battery usage! So I guess we're paying a hefty price for these 4-inch AMOLED displays!
I read somewhere else that the most recent update (DI07) has caused the battery performance to decrease; since my unit is brand-new it immediately went and installed DI07 shortly after the first boot-up so I have nothing to compare it to.. can anyone comment on that?
Thanks!
Chris R.

I'm sure custom ROMs will put performance / battery life on the top of the list but until then, I use JuiceDefender beta and have seen pretty good results with it. It shuts off data whenever the screen is off and since my screen is off a good amount (only use my phone if I need to check email, call, and / or text, which is rare when I'm at work). Other than that, yes, use black wallpaper, lower brightness to the min. in the OS and browser, and don't leave apps that constantly use 3G open (things like ebuddy, pandora, etc.). 3G really destroys battery life so minimal use of 3G data would maximize battery life. Maybe the devs can figure out a way to get at least one full day of battery life on this phone. I'm hoping that is the case.
As to your post, yes, DI07 has resulted in poorer battery life, for whatever reason. I was definitely getting a few hours more with the older firmware. I would not lose hope yet. As disappointed as you are (and all of us are, I can assure you of that), the devs are really starting to push out nice ROMs already, and in a few weeks to a month, I bet we will see some solid battery life. Hell, even 2.2 should yield much better results. Patience

Thanks for the tip!
nimaim said:
I'm sure custom ROMs will put performance / battery life on the top of the list but until then, I use JuiceDefender beta and have seen pretty good results with it. It shuts off data whenever the screen is off and since my screen is off a good amount (only use my phone if I need to check email, call, and / or text, which is rare when I'm at work).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply! Also thanks for the tip regarding JuiceDefender! What a great app! will give it some more time and report results back here.
Thanks again!
Chris R.

nimaim said:
I'm sure custom ROMs will put performance / battery life on the top of the list but until then, I use JuiceDefender beta and have seen pretty good results with it. It shuts off data whenever the screen is off and since my screen is off a good amount (only use my phone if I need to check email, call, and / or text, which is rare when I'm at work). Other than that, yes, use black wallpaper, lower brightness to the min. in the OS and browser, and don't leave apps that constantly use 3G open (things like ebuddy, pandora, etc.). 3G really destroys battery life so minimal use of 3G data would maximize battery life. Maybe the devs can figure out a way to get at least one full day of battery life on this phone. I'm hoping that is the case.
As to your post, yes, DI07 has resulted in poorer battery life, for whatever reason. I was definitely getting a few hours more with the older firmware. I would not lose hope yet. As disappointed as you are (and all of us are, I can assure you of that), the devs are really starting to push out nice ROMs already, and in a few weeks to a month, I bet we will see some solid battery life. Hell, even 2.2 should yield much better results. Patience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DI07 has hurt my battery life substantially. In fact, my battery drains very close to twice as fast now with the update. I don't understand what they did. My phone certainly doesn't seem any faster, my display is dimmer, and battery life sucks. I'm going to have to go back to DG27 so I can use my phone all day. With DI07 it always dies on me by mid afternoon. With DG27 it was still running by 11pm at night without even a battery low warning.

juice defender ftw
also, use advanced task killer with low security settings to kill all the background processes. Set the autokill to when the screen turns off. This keeps everything pretty well managed and helps with battery as well

JUICE DEFENDER BATTERY!!! Saved my phone from flying out of my car window at 10 in the morning........

here is a link to a thread I started.
Sharing my juice defender settings. I also use ultimate juice.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/sprint-epic-4g/133933-sharing-my-juice-defender-settings.html
I can get a day and a half (or slightly longer) out of a single charge.
YMMV.
Hope this helps

Advanced task killer + Juice Defender. You could also get some custom roms and Kernals that would help boost it.
But that's your best hope. Keep off 4g, wifi, bluetooth, etc.

compujock said:
DI07 has hurt my battery life substantially. In fact, my battery drains very close to twice as fast now with the update. I don't understand what they did. My phone certainly doesn't seem any faster, my display is dimmer, and battery life sucks. I'm going to have to go back to DG27 so I can use my phone all day. With DI07 it always dies on me by mid afternoon. With DG27 it was still running by 11pm at night without even a battery low warning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look here- try stopping the DRM service and see if that helps your battery life with D107

jimmyz said:
Look here- try stopping the DRM service and see if that helps your battery life with D107
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, the evils of DRM can strike in unexpected ways...
I wasn't really having a battery problem but I just turned DRM off, so we'll see if battery life improves anyway.
I had a whole long post here that got wiped with the xda disk array failure, so I'll just sum that up here too:
1) Use wi-fi if possible - it REALLY helps
2) 4G does not seem to use the battery any more than 3G, although hunting for 4G does and 4G coverage is not as extensive as 3G even in 4G areas. So it's still best to leave it off if you're moving around.
3) Dim your screen and use a dark, static background. AMOLED screens don't work like LCD's; they use more power the more pixels are lit and the brighter they are.
4) GPS also kills your battery - leave that off unless you need it too.
I think that's it. I get about 18 hours on DI07 (even before trying the DRM thing; maybe I can get to a full day!).
One thing I'm noticing after checking DRM - I've got Google Maps' LocationService popping up about every 10 seconds, and I can't seem to shut it off permanently. (I went into Lattitude and turned that off, not sure what else to do.) That can't be helping... anyone know how to get rid of that?

I'm using juice defender and a constant email junkie, but lite use on other aspects of the phone. It goes off charger at 5:30 am and I'm about 67% at around 3p. It then goes in the car charger on the way home. This has much better battery life than the Pre or the Hero as with both I had to turn off email to get it to last throughout the day.
I don't expect these phones to last days, but I expect any phone that I get to last the business day. I've always been one to charge overnight.

Wifi drains battery more from what I've read.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I've heard the opposite that wifi (as long as it's connected) uses up less battery than 3g/4g. Any of them will suck the battery dry if they're searching, so make sure you have a connection to one of them.

Hi everyone, new to the forum. Just started checking it out when the Epic was released and this is my first post. Anyways, here's my question. My phone's been off the charger for 7 hours and 17 minutes and it is now down to 15%.
Display 79%
Cell standby 7%
Android System 4%
Phone idle 2%
Swype 2%
I've gone into the display settings and I thought I had set everything up optimally. The brightness is always very low. The screen timeout is 15 seconds and the keyboard matches that. I don't know what else I can do to cripple the phone to get the battery to last longer.
I have had wifi on, 4g off, bluetooth off, gps off. Really all I have done this afternoon while watching NFL games is check my yahoo fantasy score, play 2 games of WordFeud, and check twitter and facebook. I purchased Juice Defender a week ago and it has been running all day.
Any suggestions for how I can reduce the drain from the display? My background is a black and white picture of a friend of mine, which I thought would help.
Don't get me wrong, I love this phone. But the battery life I've seen is just terrible. I'd love to buy the extended battery from Seidio whenever its available, at least that would make it last longer even if the settings aren't tweaked.

Do you have juice defender installed?

Yep. Its installed and running now.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

bagelicious said:
Hi everyone, new to the forum. Just started checking it out when the Epic was released and this is my first post. Anyways, here's my question. My phone's been off the charger for 7 hours and 17 minutes and it is now down to 15%.
Display 79%
Cell standby 7%
Android System 4%
Phone idle 2%
Swype 2%
I've gone into the display settings and I thought I had set everything up optimally. The brightness is always very low. The screen timeout is 15 seconds and the keyboard matches that. I don't know what else I can do to cripple the phone to get the battery to last longer.
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There are only two reasons for your display to be using that much battery:
a) it's too bright, or
b) you're using it a lot.
If you're using the phone a lot, your battery's going to run out pretty quick and there's no way around that. If you're using it a "normal" amount, which to me means maybe an hour *total* per day of having the display on, then the other culprit is going to be your brightness. (Some would argue that's less than a normal amount, but think about it... you get a new phone, you're going to play with it for a week or two until you've seen all the cool stuff. But at some point you're going to start putting it away most of the time and just using it when someone calls you, you get a message/email or maybe to play a game or two while waiting for the train.)
Set your brightness *all* the way down, just as a test for a couple days. Make sure all the "power saving" features of the display are turned *off* (auto brightness, and whatever that "picture detection" feature's called, I can't remember). You just want the display as dim as possible all the time, just to see what happens. See what the battery usage says after a day or two of this.
My bet is that you'll see a drop, and then as you get into a more normal usage pattern it'll drop further still. You can raise the brightness a couple ticks then as you learn how to stretch your battery out.
Personally, my display is rarely over 15% or so of my usage. Today it's 29%, but it's a Sunday and I don't have anything better to do but play around on my phone.
btw, it's still the first day I've tried this but that DRM thing might be working. It's almost 9PM and I'm still on like 80% battery, and like I said I have been using the phone off and on throughout the day.

That has helped tremendously. I installed it pretty much when I got the phone and I'm able to last the whole work day with 67% left. (10 hour day)

Epic battery performance after months of use

Hoping to get some good feedback from those who have used the epic for a couple months or more. Now that you're probably using the device normally, as in not attached to it all the time, how is battery life? I've heard initial reports that it's not so good... Also, for those of you who have updated unofficially to Froyo, does the upgrade help with battery life? Can anyone comment how Epic's battery compares to EVO's?
Thanks.

I usually get about 9 hours in my stock battery and 6-7 on my cheap eBay ones. Overall idea say meh, its about on par with most other android devices. I'm running the stock dk28 leak as well with no battery tweaks or mangers of any sort.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

On most of the DK28 roms I'm pulling a solid 10 hours with moderate use. For reference, If I leave the phone on standby all day in my house it's lasted 23 hours, if I recall correctly. Honestly that's pretty damn good for a smartphone.
EDIT: I don't use any battery-manager or powersaver either. Brightness = Auto, bluetooth/wifi/4g/gps = 1 is on at any given point in time usually. Google auto-sync = on as well as touiteur (twitter) and facebook notifications every 15 min.

I have been impressed by my battery life actually. I can't speak for the EVO(although maybe soon since my friend might give me his as a backup). I can usually get between 4-5 hours of play time(surfing, texting, apps, music, wireless tethering, movies, etc) The rest of the time it is usually idol. I usually charge it over night, unplug it around 7am, then plug it back in around 11pm. At 11pm, I usually have between 10- 30% battery left.
I just switched to a froyo ROM(bonsai, which is excellent) and so far the battery seems to be about the same. By lunchtime 12:30 it is usually between 70-80% and right now I am at 72% but I also had some extensive time testing the tethering feature.
To be honest, I had a blackberry, and the battery life was a little better, but the features were not nearly as good. It amazes me the battery these things get with that amazing samoled screen.
disclaimer: I do not play games outside of sudoku and spades, so my CPU does not really get challenged, which probably accounts for some battery savings. Oh and I use regular wallpapers, cause I don't really like the live wallpapers.

Im on 2.2.1,and I have to say I see a 40% increase in battery life compared to 2.1,and thats about 11-12 hours,no battery saving apps either,well except setcpu,which does help,but its set at 100mhz - 1ghz conservative.And I use it more now then when I got it,I havnt got tired of it at all.I have noticed the first 10% goes the fastest,and I have calibrated twice since moving to the ROM im on,and its the same in all,so if you get an Epic dont let that scare you.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I've had an Epic since a couple weeks after it was released and I think the battery is probably working the way they meant it to, which means a solid day. I charge it overnight, unplug it when I go to work, plug it in when I go to bed, and I'm usually at around 40% by that time with moderate use. I don't generally have problems with battery drain.
The exception to this is when using GPS with the screen on. It's really difficult to use this phone as a direct PND replacement even though it's basically made for it (especially with Froyo, which fixes the GPS lock issues), because the screen and GPS together will drain the battery from 100% to 0% in about 40 minutes. My dedicated PND, by contrast, will give me 8 *hours* of continuous use on battery power.
Also, I have a 1000mah car charger and even with that connected, the battery still drains when using GPS and the screen (it just drains slower). I have to just turn the screen off when I know I won't be needing to make a turn for a while.
The one thing I wish about the Epic is that it had a regular old LCD screen. The AMOLED screen is the one battery killer - you really need to watch how long you have it on. In normal use it isn't much of an issue, but you just can't do much of all the cool things they advertise that you can do with this phone (like GPS or watching movies).
I do also keep my screen turned way down, which makes a difference, but it's still a killer.

Well, I reported over in another thread that with Froyo, and basically having my phone sit around and do nothing with no WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, no "fixes" such as switching to airplane mode or killing the DRM service, and no "battery saver" programs, I was able to get 108 hours on a single charge with the stock battery (1500mAH). That was with the screen on time of about 50 minutes and talk time of about 40 minutes... (pictures here)
It all boils down to how you use your phone, but in a stock configuration, the power management seems to be better on 2.2 than 2.1 as shown by the large amount of "idle" time I was able to get on a single charge.

Koadic said:
Well, I reported over in another thread that with Froyo, and basically having my phone sit around and do nothing with no WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, no "fixes" such as switching to airplane mode or killing the DRM service, and no "battery saver" programs, I was able to get 108 hours on a single charge with the stock battery (1500mAH). That was with the screen on time of about 50 minutes and talk time of about 40 minutes... (pictures here)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't disbelieve that - in my post above, when I'm talking about draining the battery with GPS and the screen on in 40 minutes, or when I'm talking about having 40% battery left at the end of a regular day, it's almost always with a screen on time of 30-40 minutes. So 50 minutes sounds about right to drain the battery completely, with nothing else on.
I'll bet if you had 0 minutes screen on time - just let the phone sit idle - you could have probably gotten 200 hours or more.

badasscat said:
I'll bet if you had 0 minutes screen on time - just let the phone sit idle - you could have probably gotten 200 hours or more.
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Click to collapse
LOL, what's the point of having a phone then? 8-9 days without using it? I dont think I could hold out that long.
And I didn't even see your post until after I posted.

Koadic said:
LOL, what's the point of having a phone then? 8-9 days without using it? I dont think I could hold out that long.
And I didn't even see your post until after I posted.
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Click to collapse
No I know, I was more just clarifying so it didn't seem like we contradicted each other. I think the important stat is really screen time and then any extra radios you have turned on. Just with the regular radio and nothing else, you could get ridiculous battery life on the Epic. It's the extra radios and screen that kill it.

My phone gets me through the day. About 20% down in 7 hours on standby, so thats decent. Heavy usage with full brightness on and live wallpaper starting in the morning, stopping at like 6 A.M...it'd probably die there, for me at least.
The battery is good; I'm running the dk28 rom but it really hasn't affected my battery life at all.

On phoenix kernel i was getting 20-36 hours moderate to light usage. With acs xtreme kernel I'm getting 12-20 hrs w/ moderate use.
That's about 3-4 hrs of screen on time, 45-60 min of talk time. Emails, text ing, twitter, xda, and some various forum reading. Angry birds if waiting in line somewhere..
Note: I leave background data turned off and manually sync/refresh mail/contacts/data. I have no need/desire to be alerted evrytime someone updates twit/fb. I also use juice defender.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I can barely look at my phone on full brightness - it hurts my eyes with beams of awesome.
I get between 13 and 16 hours depending on how much Angry Bird time I put in that day. If I'm doing normal browsing, facebooking, etc then I'll be closer to 16, but gaming drops my battery like a rock.

Thanks for the replies! I think I'm convinced a lot of it has to do with how you use the device. Pretty much how it went with the EVO when it first came out... lots of people complaining about battery and then it kind of faded once everyone settled down. All I need is to get from early morning to right before bed.
GPS with google nav is a killer on any Android with decent screen size and resolution I think. Anyway, I thought SAMOLED is supposed to save a little battery? Or is that only if the background is black? In any case, I usually dim my screen to 30%, keep GPS off, keep auto-updates down to a manageable size, and use some other tricks to save battery, so I should be good to go.
I tried to thank all of you with the new thanks button, but didn't realize there's a limit per day haha. I'll finish it up tomorrow.

As far as I am concerned the battery life on DK28 is amazing. I use overclock widget set at 1000/200 screen on and 400/200 screen off. I can pull more than 30 hours with multiple phone calls, texting, email, web and games for over an hour. Here's the screen shot I took today before putting the phone on the charger.

I've noticed a substantial improvement in battery life since upgrading to 2.2. However, I also began using the Epic Experience ROM shortly afterwards, which boosted it even further. That, plus Juice Defender nets me a perfectly acceptable battery life.
I used my phone heavily today and still got about 18 hours out of it before plugging it in before bed at a 35% charge. On top of that, my phone's never felt snappier.

whoa, is it normal for the epic to take 3.5 hours to charge? If so, any explanation? Past devices i've had tend to take an hour less... Running 2.1, does Froyo help?

Currently on Epic Experience with SuperPower installed. I unplugged the phone about 16 hours ago and it's sitting at 36% with light voice and moderate SMS/data use.
Battery life definitely improved after upgrading from 2.1, even with light use it would be dead in under 12 hours on stock 2.1/DI17.

How to get unbelievable battery life
I have some very VERY helpful hints of great battery life for the Epic 4g. (as i am on hour 26 to 28 and have 20% left with about 1 to 1.5 hours of screen on use.)
First off, use black, or almost black background. Our screens are superAMOLED. This means that if the screen is showing black... those particular black pixels... are simply not on. If you have the home screen black, and have no icons on it, then the status bar is all that is using power... maybe 6 or 8 percent.
Next, Lose the brightness. A few helpful hints on this. 1) uncheck the autobrightness in the display settings 2) turn the brightness down in the display settings 3) If you slide your finger from right to left across the status bar at the top, the screen will dim, if you slide your finger from left to right, it will brighten(this causes accidental brightness 4) cover this light sensor on the right side at the top (I believe) because the phone seems to have a problem always autobrighting even with the uncheck in the settings. This is done best with electrical tape, or perhaps finger nail polish. These things should ensure to always be at minimum brightness
Next, Install Frankenstein Froyo Rom(lightest rom=less cpu usage/blackest rom=less screen battery usage), And Genocide Kernel(undervolted)
Next, install task killer(keeps the rom at optimum efficiency meaning less cpu usage assuming you are killing the apps 3 or 4 times a day) install set cpu(This allows you to limit the cpu clock speed(400mhz is optimal usable and battery settings)
Things to remember, ALWAYS TURN THE SCREEN OFF.
If you pick it up every thirty seconds to see if you have a text, then just sit it down... whats happening now.. The screen is staying on for another 15 seconds probably. DUH!!! bye bye battery!!
TURN OFF THE SCREEN BEFORE YOU SIT THE PHONE DOWN!!!
Turn off gps when not in use.
Turn off wifi when not in use.
Turn off 4g when not in use
Dont use it as an mp3 player.
Dont talk on speaker phone.
Those last few were pretty obvious.. but some people need to be told.
I Hope this helps anyone looking to conserve battery. Follow these steps and i promise 24 hours plus ever time and often as much as 48 hours.
Enjoy
EDIT****
By the way, When you set yourself up with this rom, you are making your phone TWICE as fast... LITERALLY. Hard to believe that a ROM could be twice as fast.
With stock android2.1 this phone gets 800 to 900 in quadrant(benchmark tool/tell how fast your phone REALLY is) Stock android 2.2 quadrant score is a little better scoring as high as 1000.
With this setup, i have gotten as high as 1950 in quadrant. No joke. This is reflected as you cant even tell the phone is clocked down to 400mhz without heavy apps and REALLY paying attention.

I used to get about 8 hrs of use before having to charge. Battery would drain even when I wasn't using the phone. Since flashing to DI18 a few months ago battery life has been great. A good 15-17 hours of moderate/high use and minimal drain with the phone on standby.
I lower the brightness all the way, end the DRM process and do the TWS trick after a reboot. No fancy battery management app that disables all your phone for the sake of battery.
I expect 2 hrs of the screen being on before my battery gets down to 20-30%. Which I think is very reasonable for moderate to high usage.

Battery life issues.

I know there have been many threads like this but I'm just looking for clarification as this is my first Android phone. At my house I usually get the Rogers H speed with 3/4 bars. When I browse the Internet for just an hour, 15% of the battery has been drained. Is this normal on these speeds?
I plan on leaving an IM client on 24/7 and using GPS/maps daily, so I am a bit worried because this may not last the entire day. I could switch to EDGE when I don't need it but apparently I heard that will disconnect once I start a voice call (and want to keep my IM on always). I checked my battery stats and apparently the cell standby (H) is taking most of the battery.
I am using CyanogenMod 6.1.1 with stock radio from Bell. I'm going to try to see if SetCPU makes a difference. And is there any program that can limit the HSPDA bandwidth so less battery is used? Thanks.

call *#*#4636#*#*

If you are at home or in a Wi-Fi accessible, Turn ON wifi - it uses wayyyyy less battery than the phone radio when it comes to Data....
you could get a extended battery.... Mugen Power has one for 1800 mAH and its the same size as the stock battery so no need of a bigger door.

What is your screen brightness set at? The screen is one of the top battery drain culprits. Try turning off auto-brightness, and turning the brightness down to as low as you find tolerable (depending on personal taste, and the lighting conditions in the places you use the phone the most). I recently just lowered my brightness to 35% (still plenty bright under many conditions) from 45%, and already noticing a significant improvement in batter life. Battery usage of the display dropped from over 70% to 45-50%. I haven't had the brightness set this low long enough to see how it translates to hours/days between charges, but we'll see how it goes . . ..

my battery life is retarded. probably less than yours. i swear i think i lose 1% of battery per minute of web surfing. battery is fine if you do not go on the web and have 2g on all day.

Yeah, it's pretty bad.
But that's the same for most smartphones nowadays I think...
Back to the days of game gear, the battery muncher.
6AA = 5 hours of gameplay.
I just bought some Chinese 1500maH batteries on eBay and I don't know if they're actually 1500maH. If I play with my phone a bit, I get 50% after 8 hours at work. Yikes!

Frostie123 said:
I know there have been many threads like this but I'm just looking for clarification as this is my first Android phone. At my house I usually get the Rogers H speed with 3/4 bars. When I browse the Internet for just an hour, 15% of the battery has been drained. Is this normal on these speeds?
I plan on leaving an IM client on 24/7 and using GPS/maps daily, so I am a bit worried because this may not last the entire day. I could switch to EDGE when I don't need it but apparently I heard that will disconnect once I start a voice call (and want to keep my IM on always). I checked my battery stats and apparently the cell standby (H) is taking most of the battery.
I am using CyanogenMod 6.1.1 with stock radio from Bell. I'm going to try to see if SetCPU makes a difference. And is there any program that can limit the HSPDA bandwidth so less battery is used? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming the screen was on the entire time, 15% drain for an hour of web surfing sounds pretty good to me. The main battery eater while using the phone is the screen, so I doubt messing with your connectivity is going to drastically change your battery consumption in this usage scenario. Changing connectivity to Wifi or EDGE would probably help more during those times when your phone is off but your phone is still connected to the internet.
On a side note, I had terrible idle battery life when I was using CyanogenMod 6.1.1 on my Desire Z. When I was using my phone, battery life seemed normal. But when the phone was on standby, it seemed like my phone was running even when it was supposed to be on standby. I suspect it might have been SetCPU constantly polling in the background. I switched to Virtuous and didn't install SetCPU/didn't do any overclocking and my life improved literally threefold.