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I've got an issue and I'd like to know if anyone else is getting this. I've read the forum threads but I don't know what's considered "normal".
Well, simply put my battery power is pretty poor. With no GPS or push internet, my backlight on Auto, and “moderate” usage (8 hours standby, 90 mins on the phone and 3 hours “other” ranging from Internet to games to taking notes), my battery is almost wiped out! I can't get through the day!
This is a far cry from the specs on the HTC website (which claims up to 340 minutes’ talk time), and from reviews I’ve seen saying their phone lasted a few days without charging. Is this normal or do I need to get a battery replacement? My previous phone - an HTC Trinity - seems to have much longer-lasting power (beyond the simple difference in mAh).
I know, some people might consider the usage above to be "heavy" but as phones evolve to take on more and more functions, of course you're going to end up using those functions. I do have TF3D on (I know that appears to guzzle more power).
I am considering the 2200mAh battery but would prefer not to get it because of the thicker profile.
Comments or advice appreciated!
Thanks,
Wassim
Sounds pretty 'normal' to me.
Make sure you keep your phone on charge whenever possible as this will maximise the useable capacity when not being charged.
but as phones evolve to take on more and more functions, of course you're going to end up using those functions.
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You've summed it up - we use our phone with it's lovely screen much more than before.
3 hours “other” ranging from Internet to games to taking notes
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Click to collapse
This is where the battery goes, Internet and Games!
When you leave your phone overnight with nothing running, no push internet etc, the battery should only go down, say, 3-4% at a guess, which would indicate the battery's OK. If extrapolated, this indicates a few days standby only usage.
That's fair enough Pete. I'll test that out.
HTC website says the phone should last up to 360 hours on standby. Therefore 8 hours should use up 2.2% of the battery, say 3-3.5% to account for inaccuracy in the battery readings.
Unfortunately my battery only reads in increments of 10%, how do I display the remaining power to the nearest 1%?
Thanks,
Wassim
There's loads of free alternative battery metering schemes, my own fave is "Batti", which puts a coloured bar full width across the top of the screen which shrinks as the charge goes down. If you touch the bar with stylus, you get a page with charge shown 0-100% in 1% increments. Batti's very configurable too.
http://freewareppc.com/utilities/batti.shtml
Unfortunately the duration life of your battery is normal for the stock one.
I have these performance for the battery:
- half day for an intensive use
- one day for a normal use
- one day and half for a low use.
luigug said:
Unfortunately the duration life of your battery is normal for the stock one.
I have these performance for the battery:
- half day for an intensive use
- one day for a normal use
- one day and half for a low use.
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Click to collapse
I'll go with that, give or take...
LOL...you are actually having a better luck than I
I think I actually damaged my battery by left it in the car for too long =(
Ładowanie
14:22 19 lipca 2009
Standby: 16h 42m
Talk: 22m
Usage: 3h 33m
Ładowanie
20:23 22 lipca 2009
Standby: 11h 50m
Talk: 29m
Usage: 3h 45m
Ładowanie 2%
10:16 20 sierpnia 2009
Standby: 24h 55m
Talk: 1h 28m
Usage: 4h 4m
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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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.
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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.
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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....
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
Friend has a new Desire Z (bell, unlocked). Using it on AT&T network.
When at a house, and we use WiFI (30Mbps DL, 25Mbps UL), the speeds are VERY inconsistent. With my iPhone 4 using speedtest.net, it shows up as 20/15 each time. (WiFi is a little slower than the modem).
With the Desire Z, we get 15/10 (which is fine/acceptable). Then 3 minutes later we do it, we get 5/2. Without even moving the phone or touching the modem connection (not downloading anything on the computer), the connection just gets slower. Then it might be fast or slow, basically it's a toss-up.
The first time we noticed the issue is because when we are outside, we get HSPA speeds of 2.5/1.0, then randomly decreases to 0.1/0.05. HUGE difference. And VERY inconsistent. He is using a microSIM from iPhone 4, with an adapter, so we figured maybe the SIM card is getting loose at certain points? However, the WiFi is also inconsistent in addition to the HSPA, so it's probably not that.
What should I do? Is this the situation where I have to flash a new radio or something? (Please suggest others if I am wrong).
Thanks!
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Also, his battery is kinda weak. The battery health is apparently clean/healthy. He came from an iPhone 4, where he would have 3G, WiFi, and GPS on at night but not actually using them. Wake up, and 3% battery loss, maybe 5. WITHOUT using them, just having them on.
Now, with the Desire Z, we have the WiFi + 3G on, but NOT the GPS. He is losing 20%-25% in 8 hours without even using the phone.
Information about battery shows a high Cell standby (25%) and Phone idle (25%) percentage. When going into Spare Parts > Partial Wake usage, we didn't find anything really fishy. BUT we had rebooted so perhaps some info may have been lossed. Should he just go to sleep tonight and report the Partial Wake Usage statistics again?
We have a feeling it may be some apps refreshing at night.. But he clears all the apps with Advanced Task Manager except for like Facebook (2 hour interval refresh), GMail, and Google Voice.
I highly doubt a 20% battery decrease overnight is normal.. My mom's Atrix only loses about 5% overnight, with the same parameters I gave before.
I thought it may be a bad battery, BUT the phone idle + cell standby are abnormally high.
Thanks!
Why is this in General as well as Q&A?
Put this in Q&A, didn't get any answers. Went to General, saw that more people posted there, even for Q&A's. Have an actual problem that research didn't help much with, so made a thread. If necessary, I would be glad to remove the thread on Q&A.
By the way, thanks for the answer .
Would you be able to post your software specs? Radio version, rom version, android version? My Bell DZ only loses about 3% per night if I don't plug it in to charge. I, like you, have wifi, gps and hspa enabled with no huge I'll effect.
The stock battery is usually alittle weak. Being a 1350mA, it doesn't have the capacity either, but that is why it is user replaceable. I picked up the mugen 1800mA battery that gives the phone the stamina to last a full day of full use or 2-3 days of light use. I forget how much I spent on it but it was definitely an upgrade.
As for the signal issues, we would need to know what you are running. The latest .30 radio is recommended for AT&T if I remember correctly. Also, the type of rom (stock or custom) might give us abit more insight.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA App
I lost about 10% overnight today I believe, possibly 15 (don't remember exactly what I left off at).
Not sure on all the stats because I don't know how to check them but
Android Version 2.3.4
Cyanogenmod 7.1.0-RC-Vision (seller did it for me)
What is the radio version? I think that is baseband not kernel? If so its 12.52.60.25U_26.08.04.30_M3
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone knows about the sporadic data, that'd be helpful. It does seem that if I go into airplane mode a few times it fixes itself, but I doubt everyone does that to ensure fast HSPA speeds
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA Premium App
I've never used CyanogenMod Custom ROM's before, so I can't speak from that experience. I can, however, tell you that while running RMK (and team's) Custom ROM's (Virtuous, G-Lite, Unity) and now MIUI, battery life has been excellent, even with the stock battery. The current build of MIUI lasted for about 15hrs on a day of full use, RMK's ROMs would last about 12-15hrs of moderate to full use on the stock battery. Alot of the custom roms have different power management settings and tweaks, if you're comfortable with flashing, I would recommend another ROM and see if that helps with either of your problems.
If you like the Vanilla/AOSP look of android, try RMK's G-Lite ROM. It is very lightweight, fast and stable. I remember having one issue with it, but it was a very small issue and didn't stop me from using it for a few months.
I am currently on MIUI English 1.7.1 and with moderate use I am sitting at 50% charge spent over 2 days. Moderate for me is about 300 texts with about 10 phone calls and a total of about 4hrs of web browsing.
I can link you to those roms if you need, but they're all located in the Dev section. Your radio seems like it's on the right version, so perhaps it's not the issue. Try running another rom for a week and see if that helps to any degree.
I re-calibrated the battery, let it die, charged it up, let it die, charged it up. I followed the instructions to the letter and all that.
It was at 100% when I went to sleep. Woke up 8 hours later, 74%.
Settings > Battery shows nothing high 40% for cell standby and phone idle. Everything else (Facebook, etc.) REALLY low.
Then I went to Spare Parts > Battery Usage, Partial wake usage, everything incredibly low as well..
I will try Watchdog, but could it just be a bad battery? Or maybe should I try a different ROM?
Thanks!
JayXL14 said:
I re-calibrated the battery, let it die, charged it up, let it die, charged it up. I followed the instructions to the letter and all that.
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Click to collapse
NO! This is poor recommendation, and people need to stop perpetuating it. People keep recommending this, but its NOT a good idea to let the battery drain until it dies, just to calibrate the battery meter. While the protection circuit on the battery will USUALLY prevent over discharge, it is not 100% failsafe. There is a slight possibility that over-discharge of the battery will happen, and then the battery is no good, and will need to be replaced. Unless you have a special battery meter with a "boost" function (which most people do not have access to). See the following table on Battery University, where it says for Li ion batteries: Discharge: Prevent full cycles
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/do_and_dont_battery_table
Best practice is to charge to 100%, drain to about 20%, repeat a couple times. No need to go below 20%. The battery meter is not very accurate to begin with, so there is no value added going to 0% versus 20%, but you risk killing the battery.
Plus people keep abusing the terminology. You are just calibrating the battery meter, not "calibrating the battery". When people say this, I think its just a holdover from the old days of NiCad batteries, where you had to condition/discharge the batteries periodically to prevent memory effects (Li ion batteries do not suffer from memory effects, and require no period cycling).
Can't really speak to the Atrix or the iPhone. But the battery drain on the DZ described by the OP is right in line with what I've seen. I also have an unlocked Bell DZ on AT&T, and battery drain of 2-4% (on various ROMs and couple different radios) when the phone is completely idle, screen off is totally normal. Best I've seen on my DZ is with the Virtuous Unity ROM and the .30 Gingerbread radio, where I've seen somewhere around 1-2% drain per hour when idle.
One possibility, is that the different phones are not reporting % battery the same way. As I've mentioned above, the battery voltage meters on phones is not very accurate, maybe in the range of 5-10% accuracy (although, even with this, the drain on the DZ versus the ATrix and iPhone still sounds inconsistent). But what is more important is how many hours of usage you get before needing to charge.
Thanks for the info.. Ill try charging that way.
And I honestly think the battery is just reading it wrong. It honestly feels like it dies faster idle than not, go figure. Yesterday, at like 10% battery, I wanted to kill it off, and played a game for like 10 minutes straight, still 10...
Then I tried leaving the flashlight on for 10 minutes on and it maybe lost 1
How is that battery I recommended from dealextreme though?
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA Premium App
It's interesting to see all the troubles that people are getting on the DZ...
I've had my DZ for about 6months and never seen any of the reported problems.
My 1350mha will last me on a frequent usage near 24hrs and if I'm using it lightly like when i'm busy at work... almost 2days worth.
Mind you I'm running Cyanogen MOD7. No GPS. Wifi is on and I use JuiceDefender.
Cheers mates.
Last night, I charged my phone to a complete charge before going to bed to see what kind of drain I would see overnight. After 9.5 hours, my battery had only lost 2% sitting idle. That is with 3G on, but no Wifi or Bluetooth enabled.
The phone idle accounted for 47%, cell standby 48% and Android system 4%
While it seems remarkable, I'm still not convinced that its not my phone incorrectly reporting the battery level. On a typical day when I pull my phone off the charger, the first 10% is very slow to drain. Today, I have sent a few text messages and played maybe 3 minutes of word feud. That has drained 6% of my battery.
We will see where I'm at later in the day. I suspect that the actual level is lower than the 94% it is reporting. Typically, I get between 12-16 hours of usage, depending on how much I play with my phone.
Well I am at nearly 23 hours on this charge. Have used the phone rather lightly during the day. It sat idle for about 9 of those hours while I slept last night.
Conclusion: Idle drain is very minimal on my device and looks as though the percentage was being reported rather accurately. I'd say if you're having a lot of drain while sitting idle, do some digging and find what it is.
More info:
Facebook: update 1 hour
Gmail Sync: 1 hour
Fancy Widget update: 1 hour
Brilliant Quotes widget: update 1 hour
Light Bluetooth usage (about 15 minutes)
Wifi on all day (not overnight so about 14 hours total)
Screen brightness set at about 50%
Average signal strength: -100dbm
So, I had a situation where the first G4 i received was defective and I had another shipped, so for the weekend I had 2 G4's.
Considering all the back and forth I've read about the inconsistencies among phones, I decided to see if I could find any. The most glaring difference was between the screens on both. One had a cooler bias, while the other had a noticeable yellow tint. I much prefer the cooler bias screen. Second, I tested both phones for lag, stutter, missed touches, etc and couldn't find any difference between the two - both were basically flawless. Last was the most interesting though - battery run down. I ran 4 battery rundowns, switching the batteries back and forth so no consecutive test was run with the same battery. Both phones were charged with the stock charger (which BTW is definitely faster than a standard charger)
Tests were run in airplane mode, wifi ON, auto sync off, with a 1 hour YouTube Video on loop...
Rather than bore you with details, I'll leave you with a general summary...
-1 of the batteries continually got to 85% while the other was at 89% - this happened all 4 times.
-The battery which got to 85% first, took longer to 50% - enough so that it moved past the other battery which was between 47-49% at this point, and both batteries basically drained at the same rate for the rest of the time, and the battery with the faster initial discharge rate outlasted the other by approx 20 minutes each time.
-Each battery was tested at Auto, 50%, 25% and (using Lux) -10%, and here is what I found most interesting.... None of the brightness levels seemed to have any effect on battery life. That is, each phone, with each battery, drained at the same rate whether it was at 50% brightness, or at -10% brightness. The longest SOT I achieved was 7hrs 58min; again that's with all but WiFi off, looping the same 1hr YouTube video.
I'm guessing that's what LG means when they say the processor/GPU combo is "optimized" for this phone?? Now, I don't know if the same will hold true for 100% brightness levels, but the real world situation for 100% brightness is not really practical. I tested it on brightness levels I feel my phone would be at most of the time, then added the -10% as an experiment to see how much time it would add.
What are you guys seeing as "normal" sot? I know there are many variables but I also find that at the 2.5 hours the phone has been off the charger, I'm already at 75% with only 1 hour of sot. I am stock with power saver turned on even and no rogue apps listed in Gsam Battery Monitor. Bought the phone on Friday..... Call me confused.
I'm getting about 4 to 4 and a half hours SOT. Seems like the display on the HTC 10 is a major power hog.
In terms of optimization they did a fantastic job as my radio is only listed as using 3% of my total battery and app usage is only 21% according to GSAM, meanwhile Screen has used 72% of my battery, and I tend to run the display at a pretty low brightness (about 20-25% brightness) I have 22% battery remaining and screen on time so far of 3:38
Running full brightness all day without power saver, my record so far is 4.5 hours, generally though I only need about 3 hours or so out of it per day, and 3 or 3.5 hours is my average.
How's your signal strength?
I guess I am around a similar time frame then. I hit 5 hours yesterday but like you, the screen is pretty low and it still eats up the battery pretty good. I guess Ill have to "optimize" a little better.
Signal strength is not great. I do bounce around band 25,26, and 41 quite often but my signal strength meter under the battery settings is a mess of a rainbow. Here's to an update heading our way soon...