Is it just me or is it getting old with everyone CLAIMING "best battery life" when you usually end up with the same or worse than a stock HTC kernel?
I have tried NetArchy, KingKilck, and a few others only to have my phone die in the same amount of time or even sooner. Why is this? Well what you all don't do is take into account the MANY different variables that affect battery life.
The thing that tanks my battery the fastest is the fact that I work in places with low (10-30%) signal. This kills the battery because it is constantly searching for a signal and talking with the cell tower. I am willing to bet most people that have bad battery life are in low coverage areas. I simply have learned to put my phone into airplane mode and have people text me on Google Voice as I still have a WiFi connection. WiFi uses FAR less power then the cell radio in low signal areas and you can still maintain connections if you have everything setup right.
I am NOT in any way bashing the work and effort that has been put into these kernels but with the latest HTC kernels having unlocked FPS and great battery life why would I want to even mess with a custom kernel? The only reason I could see is for overclocking. I wouldn't even run one for underclocking as I have found this to NOT be an effective way to prolong battery.
Just thought this needed to be said. What I have said here also applies to collin_ph tweak. There have been many reports of the "tweak" killing the battery even faster and I have verified this.
Mostly true, but I think it really depend on what rom, and kernel you are using, plus your signal strengh.
I've flashed very often since the day I got the phone to get maximum battery life out of it, and netarchy's usually worked for me.
I've also tried stock/default that came with Myns 2.2, and best combination that worked for me are Myn's 2.2 and Netarchy's 4.2 cfs havs smartass more agressive kernel.
there are too many kernels out there and you just have to find a working combo that works for YOU at the end of the day buddy.
Oh and I totally agree with you on this thread that it does get annoying/frustrating to see these threads, and you decide to go with it, and it turns out to be a crap.
I've tried a lot of things and never really gotten better battery life than stock, but I have gotten about the same with better performance, which is good enough for me.
The only thing that really improved battery life for me was butchering the phone - turning off background data and auto-sync and using JuiceDefender (disable mobile data when the screen is off, turn it on for 1 minute every 15 mins). But I decided I prefer using my smartphone as a smartphone.
I've come to accept it. My average battery life on weekdays is 8-10 hours. I wish it were 12-14, but I can live with it. When I stay at home on weekends, where I have Wifi and good cell signal strength, I generally get 20-30 hours with moderate use.
I live with plugging my phone in at work, and I got some of tuttoit's cheap batteries off eBay. It works well enough for me.
Anytime you flash a custom kernel you have to give your cpu time to adjust to the new stuff included (havs,bfs,cfs,voltage...etc..)your battery life gets better days after using these new kernels not immediately after flashing...
i have flashed myn's 2.2 and using setcpu to underclock when in black out mode and using titanium backup to "freeze" apps that somehow start themselves. my batt life has gotten way better than what it was on stock os and settings. ive also tried to do the *#*#4636#*#* and cant get into testing mode to change from gsm to cdma but im willing to bet its on cdma anyway.
houseofbugs said:
The thing that tanks my battery the fastest is the fact that I work in places with low (10-30%) signal. This kills the battery because it is constantly searching for a signal and talking with the cell tower. I am willing to bet most people that have bad battery life are in low coverage areas. I simply have learned to put my phone into airplane mode and have people text me on Google Voice as I still have a WiFi connection. WiFi uses FAR less power then the cell radio in low signal areas and you can still maintain connections if you have everything setup right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use Roam Control to force roaming in those areas, if they have good signal strength with another carrier.
It's the same power usage as in good signal strength Sprint areas.
im still trying to find the reason for my battery drain, i get an ok battery life with heavy use, but even at idle it varies, the other day battery stated 80% all day long, i ran it down as best as i could and got it to read 10% at 4:30 in the morning, i set it to charge, wake up, unplug it, go back to sleep, wake up only a few hours later to see that my battery reads 60%, im sure that nothing out of the ordinary was running, i cant seem to figure it out, and i have done 3 hard resets to try and find out whats draining the battery, seeing how it varies and is seemingly random at times, im starting to think it may be the radio
I would highly suggest buying a extended battery. I have complained about the battery since day one. Got the extended battery at sprint for $54. I went 8 full hours.. I mean 8 FULL hours hard usage. I turned the screen off 3 times. Wanted to see how the life would be since I used to be on my for for aboutt 3 hours and it die.. today tturned on phone at 9. Its almost two.. 93%.. I did have my brightness all the way up yesterday and overclocked at 113 on interactive.. tomorrow ill turn everything on and run it hard again.. ill turn my airwave off also. I will get worse reception than u would at work.. -115 to -120.. I hit -125 already but I heard -120 is no service..
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Sorry but I like my evo to stay thin. X)
Same here.. but the extra thickness isn't really much a bother to me as much as charging and carrying 2 extra batteries. 6 hours now and at 75%.. I love it.. and glad I got it. Just hope when I get a different phone I can use my extending for it. Like I had tp2 and same batteries as the evo..
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Related
Sorry if this has been asked already but what is the battery life on the nexus one,
My new one is on its way from america
I find the battery on my htc hero very poor,
Is this going to be the same
Thanx
I unlocked my phone, and in SetCPU I used the "profiles" setting and set the Sleeping mode to 245/245.
This way when my screen is "off" the processor is running slower. There is NO noticeable lag when turning the screen back on... and I am getting CRAZY battery life, even after pretty heavy use.
Search is your friend. From earlier this week:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=612741&highlight=battery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=613756&highlight=battery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=614450&highlight=battery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=614450&highlight=battery
The consensus seems to be (VERY generally): better than the G1, not quite as amazing as the i3GS, but above all highly dependent on what features of the phone you use.
][
Definitely depends on use, and how many hours are good for you? Whats your hero get?
Well if honest I am a heavy user,
Music and Internet always on so anything which is improvement is good,
*********8
I unlocked my phone, and in SetCPU I used the "profiles" setting and set the Sleeping mode to 245/245.
This way when my screen is "off" the processor is running slower. There is NO noticeable lag when turning the screen back on... and I am getting CRAZY battery life, even after pretty heavy use.
***************
Wouldnt mind doin that
How many do you get right now on your Hero and whats your ideal amount?
Where is setcpu ?
SetCPU is an app, i think you can find it on here for free if you dont have a credit card or get it on the market for like a buck(just buy it and support the dev).
i dont want to root. Im guessing theres no option for non rooted users to adjust similar to the setcpu app? If not, I wonder why htc/google wouldnt want people to have access to that, seems incredibly important
I've been amazed at what I'm getting.. even with lots of stuff enabled I'm lasting more than a day. Just idling it was well on track to do 3 days+*.
Beats the pants off any other smartphone I've ever owned. Certainly not anything to worry about (assuming most people charge overnight.. if your usage pattern allows it to last 18 hours you're sorrted).
* But that's boring of course.. might as well leave it powered off at that point
DMaverick50 said:
i dont want to root. Im guessing theres no option for non rooted users to adjust similar to the setcpu app? If not, I wonder why htc/google wouldnt want people to have access to that, seems incredibly important
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When the phone is idle it spends most of its time downclocked anyway. I'd be surprised if you could save *that* much through setcpu but would be interested to see benchmarks.
Cycle the battery, mine lasts a whole day and is still half way by the time I get home after a full day of tinkering, receiving calls, emailing and playing games. You should let it discharge all the way then charge it up, all the way. Turn off apps you aren't running.
I think my issue previously was with it searching for a phone signal in a place where there was on. I tried today with my phone wireless off (in airplane mode) with wifi on, and used it extensively throughout my shift as necessary. After 13 hours, the battery only drained to 70%. That is downright amazing to me.
I also used it a couple days ago with the phone wireless on the entire day, 3G, as well as wifi. The phone that day lasted a good 20 hours before draining down to 10% remaining.
These two instances are both after I fully drained the battery and charged the battery twice.
UPDATED MY SETTINGS
So as many other users I've been having lots of problems with battery life. I've done so many things in an effort to try to improve battery life but it doesn't seem to improve as much as it has for other people
This is what I have done:
Installed Baked Snack 9.7
Have brightness set to automatic
Changed the preferred network type GSM Auto (PRL) to CDMA Auto (PRL)
Installed Juice Defender
Installed SetCPU and have it so that my phone is under clocked to 245mhz when screen is off.
Turned haptic feedback off
Turned Off Auto-Sync
Manage my running applications with Advanced Task Manager and have it so that it ends apps every 30 minutes.
Flashed the newest Radio
Reconditioned my battery like HTC representatives suggested
Even with all these changes I'm lucky to get 10 hours of battery with moderate use. Far below the 16-20 hours that other users claim to get.
I don't understand why my battery life is so bad. Any tips? Maybe something I did wrong?
rockethot said:
So as many other users I've been having lots of problems with battery life. I've done so many things in an effort to try to improve battery life but it doesn't seem to improve as much as it has for other people
This is what I have done:
Installed DC 3.2.3 and have it set to the Battery Saver Profile
Have maximum Brightness Set to 25%
Changed the preferred network type GSM Auto (PRL) to CDMA Auto (PRL)
Installed Juice Defender
Installed the OverclockWidget and set it so that when the screen is off the processor runs at 245 mhz.
Turned haptic feedback off
Turned Off Auto-Sync
Manage my running applications with Advanced Task Manager
Even with all these changes I'm lucky to get 10 hours of battery. Far below the 16-20 hours that other users claim to get. I use my phone mainly for texting, send maybe 200 per day. Connect to the marketplace for about 20 minutes in total and and never watch youtube videos or surf the web. I spend around 20 minutes a day on the phone at most.
I don't understand why my battery life is so bad. Any tips? Maybe something I did wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perform the HTC suggested battery cycling.
Charge until full, unplug, recharge, unplug, recharge, turn off, recharge, turn on, recharge for a few times.
No comment on the battery life as I have no problems but why did you want this phone in the first place if you only text and don't use the internet? I would own a Blackberry or Nokia E71 if I used my phone in that way.
Minjin said:
No comment on the battery life as I have no problems but why did you want this phone in the first place if you only text and don't use the internet? I would own a Blackberry or Nokia E71 if I used my phone in that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I expected someone to say that, I used the internet heavily for the first few days and saw the horrible battery life so I started limiting how much I went on and this is how much battery I'm getting now. I do use apps sometimes though
jerryparid said:
Perform the HTC suggested battery cycling.
Charge until full, unplug, recharge, unplug, recharge, turn off, recharge, turn on, recharge for a few times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, it worked on the first day but then battery went back to normal the day afterwards
Try running dcpowertop via ADB to see if something is causing a lot of wakes and preventing your phone from sleeping. Also try running Systempanel monitoring to see what is using up the CPU time and draining the battery.
Also, this does nothing unless you are running a custom kernel (You didn't mention if you were, so just sayin'):
Installed the OverclockWidget and set it so that when the screen is off the processor runs at 245 mhz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, even so, you should be well above 10hrs battery life with the other changes you made.
rockethot said:
I expected someone to say that, I used the internet heavily for the first few days and saw the horrible battery life so I started limiting how much I went on and this is how much battery I'm getting now. I do use apps sometimes though
I tried that, it worked on the first day but then battery went back to normal the day afterwards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bad luck? Could try replacing battery and getting a 1750.
DanBergundy said:
Bad luck? Could try replacing battery and getting a 1750.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's better off with this deal really, many members have purchased them (including myself) and they perform near as well, or just as well as the OEM battery - but you get 2 of them, AND a charger:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715739
Most batteries above 1500mAh do not even perform close to what they say they should. Check out batteryboss.org for details.
Philosuffer said:
Try running dcpowertop via ADB to see if something is causing a lot of wakes and preventing your phone from sleeping. Also try running Systempanel monitoring to see what is using up the CPU time and draining the battery.
Also, this does nothing unless you are running a custom kernel (You didn't mention if you were, so just sayin'):
But, even so, you should be well above 10hrs battery life with the other changes you made.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give dcpowertop a try.
I just uninstalled overclockwidget and installed SetCPU instead, the new version has the perflock disabler which should allow me to underclock.
If you are in a sketchy service area, your battery will drain fast.
How much do u use your phone? That's right there the key when other people say ILL GET 16-20 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE. Yes cause they don use it as much as i do, maybe u use.ur phone hardcore too, texting mms back and forward like no joke. Lots of them. I do over 600 just the morning. So my battery die around 2 then i use my hero battery that i have as back up. Its BS when other ones say that they get crazy amount of battery. Yes it can be but cause they don't use the phone as much, my buddie has a iphone 4 and we tested it against the evo and yes he's better but not crazy better like when i was on 50% left he was on 62-65 % my phone died first he was on 10% left. ...
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Ok, so SetCPU does actually work and I have successfully downclocked my phone.
If you send 200 texts per day and do little else, as smart phone is not for you. Get a more basic phone that would give you 3-4 days of heavy usage.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
That's very strange especially with how little you use it now to try to get more battery life.
Only other thing I can't think of that's not on your list is disabling Google Talk auto sign-in. Not that I think that will make up the difference you are seeing, but it's something else to try. You seem to be doing everything right, maybe try a clean ROM install?
redditor01 said:
If you send 200 texts per day and do little else, as smart phone is not for you. Get a more basic phone that would give you 3-4 days of heavy usage.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started limiting myself to try to squeeze as much battery life as I could.
rockethot said:
So as many other users I've been having lots of problems with battery life. I've done so many things in an effort to try to improve battery life but it doesn't seem to improve as much as it has for other people
This is what I have done:
Installed DC 3.2.3 and have it set to the Battery Saver Profile
Have maximum Brightness Set to 25%
Changed the preferred network type GSM Auto (PRL) to CDMA Auto (PRL)
Installed Juice Defender
Installed the OverclockWidget and set it so that when the screen is off the processor runs at 245 mhz.
Turned haptic feedback off
Turned Off Auto-Sync
Manage my running applications with Advanced Task Manager
Even with all these changes I'm lucky to get 10 hours of battery. Far below the 16-20 hours that other users claim to get. I use my phone mainly for texting, send maybe 200 per day. Connect to the marketplace for about 20 minutes in total and and never watch youtube videos or surf the web. I spend around 20 minutes a day on the phone at most.
I don't understand why my battery life is so bad. Any tips? Maybe something I did wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im running "bakedsnacks" latest version, try that. Ive been having insane battery life. It already has the undervolting kernel in it. Give it a try, u have nothing to lose. But you have to remember that the Evo is a beast .
What is your dcpowertop
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Follow the Battery Recalibration instructions in the cyanogenmod wiki.
Doing this, I was at 73% after 26 hours unplugged. Yes, I was using the phone: 20 Text messages, about 20 minutes of pocket empires, 20 minutes of another game, WiFi enabled for most of those hours, and I even ran the "Relax and Sleep" app for half an hour when I went to bed.
DC 3.2.3 with the Balanced profile.
brownmc77 said:
Im running "bakedsnacks" latest version, try that. Ive been having insane battery life. It already has the undervolting kernel in it. Give it a try, u have nothing to lose. But you have to remember that the Evo is a beast .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give baked snack a try
You don't need to turn off all those features to get better battery life.
If you really have trouble, simply downclock the cpu to something like 460 Mhz and you battery life will double.
Then have someone make an undervolted kernel for you, and your battery life will triple.
When you say managing your apps with ATM? Are you using it to kill your processes? You probably don't need to manually or even schedule task killing with the lowmemkiller in DC.
One thing you didn't mention is what your signal strength in the area is. My 3g reception is utter trash in my office, so I have an extra cable to keep it charged. Overall, my phone drops about 1% while idle and I don't have any task management or cpu throttling apps going.
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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)
I had searched previously and read some things about this "bump" charging stuff supposedly getting you many more hours of usage on a normal schedule.
Actually, guess I should preface with some background info. This is my first android phone, but I've been watching since 1.6 came out. So, the day I got my Epic it was rooted and I flashed Nebula ROM on it. I also tried out Epic Experience, but was more pleased with Nebula. Of course I'm running DK28 with the modem fix.
On to my question. What can be done to increase battery life on a fairly undemanding schedule, without causing the device itself to operate less smoothly?
I tried several of the bump charging methods I saw, but I'm sitting at 33% battery after 5:45.
I'm going to feel dumb if this is actually average and I'm just expecting too much, haha.
Thank you, kindly.
Kanojo said:
I had searched previously and read some things about this "bump" charging stuff supposedly getting you many more hours of usage on a normal schedule.
Actually, guess I should preface with some background info. This is my first android phone, but I've been watching since 1.6 came out. So, the day I got my Epic it was rooted and I flashed Nebula ROM on it. I also tried out Epic Experience, but was more pleased with Nebula. Of course I'm running DK28 with the modem fix.
On to my question. What can be done to increase battery life on a fairly undemanding schedule, without causing the device itself to operate less smoothly?
I tried several of the bump charging methods I saw, but I'm sitting at 33% battery after 5:45.
I'm going to feel dumb if this is actually average and I'm just expecting too much, haha.
Thank you, kindly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try calibrating your battery. If you don't know how, well here's some instructions:
To do this, all you have to do is let your battery completely drain. Then while the phone is off, charge it for around eight hours straight without turning the phone on (have it just showing the battery icon).
Since you are already at 33% or so, I'd suggest just letting it drain today, and have it just charge overnight.
I, too, am running the Nebula Rom, but I haven't tested it for a full day without charging it yet. So, you can try calibrating the battery if you would like to see if you would get any improvement, but in my opinion, 33% at 5:45 sounds great. I'd be satisfied with that.
Please let me know how it all turns out.
Hope this helps!
acer1096xxx said:
You can try calibrating your battery. If you don't know how, well here's some instructions:
To do this, all you have to do is let your battery completely drain. Then while the phone is off, charge it for around eight hours straight without turning the phone on (have it just showing the battery icon).
Since you are already at 33% or so, I'd suggest just letting it drain today, and have it just charge overnight.
I, too, am running the Nebula Rom, but I haven't tested it for a full day without charging it yet. So, you can try calibrating the battery if you would like to see if you would get any improvement, but in my opinion, 33% at 5:45 sounds great. I'd be satisfied with that.
Please let me know how it all turns out.
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the speedy reply, I will try that.
I wasn't really expecting 33%, but more around 50%. I've only sent three texts today on it (as I was trying to see how well it'd hold up) and so I assumed battery life would be fairly high. But I am also living in an area with extremely poor coverage, so bad that it'll start searching for signal if I move the phone 2 feet away. So maybe it is trying to acquire a signal often.
I'll report back in the morning. Any other advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Kanojo said:
Thank you for the speedy reply, I will try that.
I wasn't really expecting 33%, but more around 50%. I've only sent three texts today on it (as I was trying to see how well it'd hold up) and so I assumed battery life would be fairly high. But I am also living in an area with extremely poor coverage, so bad that it'll start searching for signal if I move the phone 2 feet away. So maybe it is trying to acquire a signal often.
I'll report back in the morning. Any other advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there's basic things as well.
Check to see if Data Roaming is on, make the brightness Auto, no live wallpaper, no bluetooth, no GPS, No background data/Accounts Sync.
But you shouldn't have to do ALL of those. Just a couple if you haven't already to boost the battery a little.
And yes, searching for a signal could be the problem.
And only three texts? Nothing else? Maybe there is something wrong.
Tell me the results tomorrow after calibrating the battery.
I'm using midnight rom and I'm at 20h26m and 33% with moderate usage. You can try recalibrate and wipe 3x b4 install the rom. It might help. Good luck.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Alright, it's 9:20 EST and I'm starting off with 96% battery life. I'll gauge how it holds up through "normal" usage, which is somewhat less conservative. Wifi will be on nearly constantly, my signal will be weak unless I leave, autosync is set to hourly with background data.
I normally get about 12-16 hours on what I call moderate use.
I leave gps on all the time. I make ~6-10 calls a day for 5-30 minutes. I send and receive ~30 texts a day. I'll put an hour or two worth of internet time per day. (not watching videos)
I kill the drm and friend locator services on every boot. This helped my battery life a lot.
It does help to train your battery dragon occasionally.
ntime60 said:
I normally get about 12-16 hours on what I call moderate use.
I leave gps on all the time. I make ~6-10 calls a day for 5-30 minutes. I send and receive ~30 texts a day. I'll put an hour or two worth of internet time per day. (not watching videos)
I kill the drm and friend locator services on every boot. This helped my battery life a lot.
It does help to train your battery dragon occasionally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, that's the kind of performance I'd like. Are you running stock or do you have a rom installed? Also, what DRM and Friend Locater? Never heard of the latter.
acer1096xxx said:
Well, there's basic things as well.
Check to see if Data Roaming is on, make the brightness Auto, no live wallpaper, no bluetooth, no GPS, No background data/Accounts Sync.
But you shouldn't have to do ALL of those. Just a couple if you haven't already to boost the battery a little.
And yes, searching for a signal could be the problem.
And only three texts? Nothing else? Maybe there is something wrong.
Tell me the results tomorrow after calibrating the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying to turn Data Roaming on or off? I could come up with a reason it would help either way, so do tell.
Same thing with Auto brightness, I would think that actually uses more battery than a fixed lower/medium brightness.
Do people on here really leave Sync and GPS off?
Compared to these settings, I'm completely lazy, and still get good battery life.
AndrewZorn said:
Are you saying to turn Data Roaming on or off? I could come up with a reason it would help either way, so do tell.
Same thing with Auto brightness, I would think that actually uses more battery than a fixed lower/medium brightness.
Do people on here really leave Sync and GPS off?
Compared to these settings, I'm completely lazy, and still get good battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn off Data Roaming. The reason being is that with it on, your network will constantly search for data, and that drains the battery. The brightness I am actually not sure on. I have had better results with auto rather than, say, 0%.
If you get good battery life already, that's fine. But auto-sync isn't really necessary in my opinion.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Alright, it's been 5:33 since it's been unplugged and I'm sitting at 68%. This is with wifi on the entire time, brightness set to auto, and data roaming off (no need for it to be on, I was considering toggling it based on my location in Tasker). Sync is on and I rarely have use for GPS in my day-to-day so that is off.
So I think the calibration as recommended by Acer1096xxx has effected the life of my battery for the better. Thank you, once again.
Hopefully this thread will help others out in the long run. I'll continue to monitor my activity and battery life.
EDIT: 57% as of 5 o'clock. Had to plug it in because I'd be going out tonight doing things. Overall, this is about the performance I was hoping.
I have read many other threads about improving battery life and such but I am still at a loss. My battery in my Epic is only lasting about 5 hours(9AM~1:30PM). I have a moderate signal the whole time and I am using the phone but I only have the screen on about 10% of the time according to Battery Stats(forget where I found this info, maybe spare parts?)
I have turned off Wifi, bluetooth, 4g, GPS only turns on when I open an app that needs it. I really have no idea what I am doing wrong since this seems to be completely terrible battery life. I have also killed the drm service and have found that it did not help my battery life much.
I am rooted and running Syndicate Rom 1.0.2(not froyo since I use a Mac and have not gotten my hands on a pc). I am using Xtreme Kernel clocked at a max of 1ghz.
Any other tips? Should I take the phone to Sprint and ask for a new battery? The phone at this point is only about 3 months old. If this seems to be normal for battery life then I am pretty sure I will be jumping ship and getting a new phone.
Zach
mttallaczach said:
I have read many other threads about improving battery life and such but I am still at a loss. My battery in my Epic is only lasting about 5 hours(9AM~1:30PM). I have a moderate signal the whole time and I am using the phone but I only have the screen on about 10% of the time according to Battery Stats(forget where I found this info, maybe spare parts?)
I have turned off Wifi, bluetooth, 4g, GPS only turns on when I open an app that needs it. I really have no idea what I am doing wrong since this seems to be completely terrible battery life. I have also killed the drm service and have found that it did not help my battery life much.
I am rooted and running Syndicate Rom 1.0.2(not froyo since I use a Mac and have not gotten my hands on a pc). I am using Xtreme Kernel clocked at a max of 1ghz.
Any other tips? Should I take the phone to Sprint and ask for a new battery? The phone at this point is only about 3 months old. If this seems to be normal for battery life then I am pretty sure I will be jumping ship and getting a new phone.
Zach
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only advise I have is to toggle airplane mode after every boot and switch from the extreme kernel to pheonix 1.43, it has the best battery life by far as will any of the phenix kernels but 1.43 is the best
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I got 25 hours of a charge the other day. Had to grab a screen shot real quick before it **** down. Might frame it. On stock dk28 with moderate use, lots of pics...it was on christmas so it was prety well used, trying to escape conversations with in laws.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I'm having the same exact problem. Same ROM and everything. I'm getting absolutely terrible battery life, maybe 5hrs on a full charge. Its ridiculous especially seeing how the nexus s is basically the same phone and gets nearly 20 hrs with no problem. WTF!!!??
Would bet a dollar that your phone is not entering sleep mode properly. Download Spare parts, charge your phone up, unplug it and turn the screen off and wait for like 10-20 minutes and then turn it on and open spare parts and look under Battery History. You will see that it will say Running 100% or something high like that.
This is probably because of something you set up. Either facebook updating every 30 seconds or maybe push email. I dont know.
I pretty much always get at least 24 hours and I work in a basement where I barely get a signal. I leave wifi on all day. I talk for about 20-45 a day on average. I listen to music for a couple hours a day. I play games for a good half hour of my lunch break and sometimes for an hour or two at night. Sometimes I forget to turn my gps off for half the day while I'm in the basement.
I have killed a battery in 6 hours when I spent the entire time downloading and playing games. And I had a battery last 42 hours a couple weeks ago when I was helping a buddy work on a car. We used it to drive some crappy pc speakers for music for about 8 hours in those two days and I spent a couple hours over those two days looking for info to help us diagnose his car.
I have been on Mammon's DK28 for a few weeks and have mostly been on the latest FroYo roms since the leaks starting hitting the public. I ran the same rom and kernel as you guys for a couple weeks, and I don't remember the battery being that bad. IIRC, I was overclocked and still saw 18+ hours of battery life with normal usage.
What are we doing differently? That is the question. Do you have a bunch of widgets and a live wallpaper? I don't. I try to keep my widgets pretty minimal. I have TWC on one screen, a flashlight widget on my main screen, and Pandora and PowerAmp on a third. I generally use a pretty dark wallpaper, too. Something simple and easy on the eyes as well as the amoled. I also keep my wifi on and set it to never sleep wifi. Why? So it doesn't search for a 3g data connection. I have wireless networks I can connect to in the places where I spend most of my time, so I might as well use them. Sure it has to power up the wifi radio, but the wifi radio seems to use very little power when you're sitting somewhere with a good signal. Also, read "How to Train Your Dragon" in the dev section. I have three batteries and generally reset the battery stats on one of them every two weeks. If you only have one battery, every 3-4 weeks is suggested. I always charge my batteries in the charger and almost never plug my phone in (because I don't have to) and about half the time I bump charge the battery after it is finished. Be careful with bump charging as it can reduce the number of charge cycles your battery can take, but can net you 10-15% more capacity in the short term. I rarely discharge my batteries below 15% except for when I'm recalibrating them. If you discharge your battery to too low of a voltage it can reduce capacity. And if voltage is reduced too low, it won't charge at all, but may be fixable with a cadex machine.
Be sure to go find that thread on how to train your dragon. There are some links in there that will teach you a good bit about how lithium ion batteries work and what you can do with them. After that, you need to see what is running on your phone to use that much battery. Is some process or group of process eating your processor?
edit: Look Mom, I wrote a book!
I will try changing kernels and updating to froyo(maybe hijack my dad's netbook).
If this doesn't work then I am going to go to sprint and see if they will swap out my battery. I tried the thing with spare parts and it says time running is 18% since last unplug which seems a bit high but not too ridiculous.
I have read and followed the instructions in how to train your dragon. I am really starting to think it is a faulty battery. I will report back, thank you everyone for the advice.
ok, thank you all for the advice. I am able to get through a whole day now on a charge since changing to Phoenix. Maxes out at about 10 hours as long as I am not constantly on it.
Updating to froyo later today.
Not really going to be helpful for you, but just my observation:
DK28 has MURDERED my battery life. Lots of people have issues with DK28, but the GPS, accelerometer, etc but all that stuff works fine for me - the only problem is the mega hit battery life took.
Let's hope the official release isn't as bad.
DK28 probably murdered your battery life because you forgot to do one of the battery saving techniques that you were using on your previous DI18 rom. Pretty much everyone else is seeing battery improvements with DK28.
I don't think so. I never use GPS, 4G or Wifi and I've always had the brightness auto adjust on.