Database Users

[Q] Battery life comparison for each WM/Android combination

Hello folks,
This is my first post here so I am glad to be here. I just installed the Autoboot program for my build as specified below. I was testing the ChuckyDroidROM (which I really love for its simplicty) with both Matt's Froyo with Sense UI (which I enjoy quite a bit) and the Cyanogen Mod version with shubCRAFT 1.4 and I am finding that I am getting a much better battery life with the latter.
So basically I would like to get a reference for battery life with the tweaks here for each type of combination out there so that we can get an idea of what people are getting.
After all, I am sure that we can get longer battery life that of the EVO can we?
Thanks, Albert

as long as you put the android on sdcard, the answer is no

battery
qingcai said:
as long as you put the android on sdcard, the answer is no
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't matter so much if it runs on sd, because mainly it's running on memory of the phone and it's same as other android phones.
In ways it's even better/faster than phones nand if you have quick sd card.

Android need to access to sdcard to launch and work. Sdcard access has a power consumption ... So Power consumption is higher in Android, but when a Nand Version of Android will be released, it'll be proximately the same between Android and Wm.

agree with the other posts, but if your new here, read the posting guidelines. This section is for development only, not really a q&a section. If you click top left, HTC Leo: HD2 that will back you out to the main Leo section, from that point you can see the different sections and have a better idea where to post..welcome to XDA, this is one of the most knowledgeable forums I have come across.

I'm not convinced NAND will help battery life all that much, my battery use is dominated by cell standby when I'm not using the phone, and screen when I am. NAND won't reduce either of those.

I'm using TMOUS Energy Reference, Leo_Radio_2.12.50.02_2 and Xcelsior's with great results. Battery easily lasts an entire day.

I tested it out with the build in my signature and got about 12 hours of heavy use using 3G but tomorrow I plan to use only EDGE and hopefully get better life for sure.

There are too many variables in everyone's configuration to do a comparison of battery life(twitter, Exchange, POP, IMAP, Facebook, web usage, talk time, WM ROM, Android build etc). However, it might be useful to show what works for individuals and share ideas.
I don't buy into the "NAND saving battery" too much. It's still memory that needs to be accessed. It will be faster on NAND, but better battery life? I don't have the specs on power consumption per access but I would think an Android build that utilized hardware more efficiently would have bigger impact.
Take for instance your example.... why is your shubCRAFT using less battery than mattc?

battery won't improve very much in final versions, maybe -10% or so (+sleep)
but will never get as good as in WM, because android doesn't have very good optimized PM (even when they finish as much as it can be done). look at any android vs. WM device with comparable internals and you'll see that wm has much longer stand-up time
but hey if you take into consideration hd2's tiny batt i think htc has done some great job with hardware

I plan to downgrade my radio from 2.12 to 2.11 and I suspect will increase battery life a lot. Will post more later.
Testing the Xcelsior Sense build and loving it.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Why does Android on the HD2 eat up so much battery

Hi Guys,
I was wondering why Android on HD2 eat up so much battery. Earlier I was thinking, that android is running of SD card...so its the case. However this is not true as in Android HD2 NAND thread its been mentioned many times...that battery won't increase significantly even after NAND install of Android, so where lies the problem...is it because power management drivers on hd2 android not good enough...just curious?
Regards

There must be a problem with your android build or you are not properly managing your battery life. To enjoy good battery life you need to disable radios via power control, and keep screen brightness low.
Current widget tells me that in standby my hd2 uses 3-7 mA. This draw is fine when compared to similar android devices.
Please provide some details on your build and your reading from current widget.

I think he was asking about how much the HD2 life in android is shorter when compared to WM6.X
If this is the case, this has much to do IMHO about how Android works in its innards.
The Android OS has a way of controlling the apps installed in it, to know which apps do which kind of stuff. Like, when a new app is installed it has a file that tells the OS all features it does, and which of those features can be called by other programs (an example is the gallery 3d, that can be used to open pictures of certain types, every time a file that it can open is accessed android asks [if you have more than one type of gallery] which app you want to use to open the picture).
With this kind of control being done by the system in real time in a way totally different from windows (register??) the OS probably need more awake time and probably use more battery.
With the same amount of time spent using similar stuff in windows mobile and android, WM really rulez in terms of Battery Life. BUT I really prefer the new life Android is giving me in HD2. I'm really happy again, feeling like I have a brand new toy again.
P.S: I'm oversimplifying the way this works, without even mentioning the services, widget services, and several other stuff that are running in the background all the time.

i get about the same battery life in winmo n androud. make sure u have a good radio n compatible rom.

mini_robot said:
i get about the same battery life in winmo n androud. make sure u have a good radio n compatible rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People always say those things...
Well, let me just say that I'm using one of the best combos out there, and yes I have tested almost all combos you can imagine by my self in my own phone, so I wouldn't rely on someone else's idea of a perfect combo.
Tested more than 10 roms (the list is long so, I wont bother saying all of them, but the most used ones are there, Chucky, Miri's, VBNrom, Dutty's, and several others.
About radio... 2.10, 2.11, 2.12 and now 2.14 I have used all of them too and combined them with each rom...
Right now the best combo FOR MY PHONE and in my opinion is VBN 3.14 and radio 2.14
Multi boot, autoboot android 6sec.
I really think that what is most important is the build, with the same builds, almost all WM roms made for android, and Miri, have the same effect for me, the radios I must say that 2.12 and 2.14 are the best, and 2.14 has better reception in my country, for me.
So, as I have said, FOR ME, the best combo is resumed to VBN 3.14, radio 2.14 and any android build, right now using Desire HD 3.1 from Mdeejay with several different kernells (still testing them)
The kernels and the build are the MOST important thing after you find a good combo.
With the best build/combo and a good WM rom, doing similar things (surfing the net for the same amount of time, phone in sleep mode for the same amount of time,same time talking and etc. the best battery life is surely for WM 6.X hands down.
BUT if you are really getting the same Bat life, you are a lucky guy keep the settings you have, because I must say that I have constantly near me 5 HD2 (from friends), all of them with android now, and every single guy says that the bat life is nowhere near WM 6.x
I could go a full day in WM6.5.3 and have 50-40% remaining in the end of a day with heavy usage. Android, with moderate to heavy use, I'm happy if I can reach the end of the day, and even happier with some bat left
Greetings, Santroph.

I agree battery life is not comparable to WM6.x. People who claim they get the same battery life most likely have a buggered up WM6.x setup or they don't know how to manage power/settings.

Which App are you using to monitor power consumption?
Currently I use PowerTutor.
One time I wondered how 30% of power were lost over night?!
So battery lasts maximum one day until it's empty.
On WM 6.5 it lasts for about 2 days, like santroph already said, too.
A friend of me told me, his HTC Desire has about 80% in the evening. Do they have a better battery?
In usage I have about 540-600mW
He has got 550-650mW
So seems the same power consumption.
Regards
----
HD2

I actually get around the same amount of battery life as well. Just running the stock Froyostone 2.1 without tweaks (don't even know how to do tweaks if my life depended on it). Current Widget shows 0mA when waken up from screen off and hovers at 3-4mA with screen on and idle. Battery drop 1-2% per hour over night.

polo735 said:
There must be a problem with your android build or you are not properly managing your battery life. To enjoy good battery life you need to disable radios via power control, and keep screen brightness low.
Current widget tells me that in standby my hd2 uses 3-7 mA. This draw is fine when compared to similar android devices.
Please provide some details on your build and your reading from current widget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have TMO US HD2 and I'm using NRGZ 21916 18Sep ROM with 2.14 radio. For android I'm using pongster's HyperDroidSense V1.1. I'm using only 2 widgets HTC Analog clock and Weather channel. I have set the screen brightness on automatic and to tell u its quite dull, not at all bright. I've also disabled all Background sync's and no WiFi or bluetooth is enabled...
I do like to fiddle with my phone every now and then...but its not heavy use, I would say its moderate.
Battery life i'm getting is by the end of day, the battery is drained and have to recharge.
Before this android ROM i tried warrenb213 CM6 9/6V1.5a which is claimed by some user's to give best battery life on TMO HD2. Its stock android rom with CyanogenMod...battery life was little better, but it was slow and it didn't had instant wakeup...it took 2-3 seconds after pressing the button to wake...and personally I prefer HTC Sense UI to stock...
On WinMo my phone easily last 2 days with some battery % (about 20-30) left and can easily give me third day too with light use on 3rd day. And by no means i'm using a minimalist WinMo setup...I have CHT v1.8.5 and the same analog clock with seconds hand enabled.
So battery life on Android << that on Winmo. About the argument that Android uses more battery due to how its build. I don't think its the reason, because HTC's other phone like Desire or Desire HD have the same 1230mAh battery and have similar specs...but there battery life is similar what HD2 gives on WinMo.

Also, you must bear in mind that comparing the HD2 to the desire with battery life, the desire is obviously going to win. The desire has been made by HTC to run Android, unlike the HD2. The desire does have a slightly larger battery (i think) but the desire has been optimized by HTC so that it uses the least amount of battery possible I.e when in standby etc.
I don't know all the specifics but this is what I've found out
Hope this helps
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

^^ya, i do understand...but to me its happening like battery life on hd2 w/ android is like 15 hours from 7am in morning to 10pm in night....WinMo give easily gives like 50-60hours depending on use...desire has similar as i've heard...
Agreed not optimized, but I expect it to give 40hours with full charge?

It is not optimized I guess? I get 6-7 hrs on winmo but 5-6 on android.

We can't compare with Desire, even if the hardware are really similar when looking at CPU/GPU, RAM, radio and stuff like that, we have e HUGE NORMAL LCD screen, that really takes way much more battery than Desire's Smaller Amoled screen.
Recent tests have shown that the new desire with Super LCD (thats way better than ours) do waste more energy than the AMOLED one (despite what HTC has to say about it).
I think that we should compare it with our own phones with WM, and probably with the new Desire HD or Evo 4, which have the same Case/Screen and very similar hardware too (despite Evo beeing CDMA).
IMHO...
P.S: People say that the SD card doesn't have anything to do with the battery drain, and that nand should be the same. Well I can say that this IS and IS NOT true... It all depends on which card are you using. I have 4 MicroSD cards, and they all have different behavior with the same combo/build/kernel/battery, even when in sleep mode with everything else (connections and all) disabled.
I have used WatchDog to see if any program was strangely making this happen, and I didn't find anything at all different when the Hungry SDcard was using that much battery, it was all it's fault.
2GB class 4 -> 5-7ma stable
16gb class 2 -> 3-7ma stable
8gb class 2 -> 5-9ma stable
8gb class 6 -> 5-80ma not stable (can be ina 5-7ma for hours and suddenly be in more than one hour in 40-80ma)
I prefer to use the 16gb class 2 for more battery, since the performance is not that better with the class 6 in android.
I've tested this a lot, and retested.
Greetings, Santroph.

I think that the HD2 battery is shortened by the display (Samsung Vibrant is awesomer in that respect) as well as the processor. If I throttle the processor down to 384mhz and keep the screen at 33% (automatic backlit) then I can get pretty decent battery life from 15-24 hours?

Android on hd2 battery life

Hey guys. I'm a bit new to this, and I have a few questions. 1. Does having a faster microsdcard worsen the battery life of android running on an hd2? 2. With set CPU clocked back to 576 MHz Max 245 min, and all the settings toned back, I barely make it through a days use on my nexus one 2.2 build. Is this normal? Does battery vary greatly from build to build? Is there a build known for good battery life?
Sent from my Hd2 using XDA App

Android builds will always use much more power than WinMo, reverse engineering the drivers is not ideal nor efficient. Some builds use less power than others, best try a few with the current widget installed.
This is a thread on SD card power, I'm not sure it makes a huge difference. If you check the power usage app you will the OS is using 2 or 3 times the power that the screen is - this isn't good for battery life.

Hi lads, iam new to this myself I got my hd2 about 2 weeks ago and havnt had out of my hand since.. the only changes I have made was download hspl3 & flash radio 2.14 and I am currently running darkstones froyo 2.2 and I love it.. the only prob I had for my self was battery it was eating it.. when screen was off I was getting around 168ma and using phone was was up to about 600ma.. after about a week of searching I found out a few things and now I get a full day wit heavy usage. I downloaded setcpu,advanced task killer,green power free,changed a few settings on my phone and now I have a battery tats just as good as running WM.. ill get the exact settings up for u later if u want... hope it helps

after doing a task29, i loaded "vbn reloaded" (minimal winmo rom) ;
use EBL android loader and load mdeejay EvoSense 2.0 revolution ;
using "currentwidget" my battery usage is only 7mA idle with four email
accounts getting updated in the background.
Been using android as the (only) daily OS
z
ps just did a rm /data/system/batterystats.bin
need to see if it charges to "100%"
if only battery usage GOES DOWN WHILE ACTUALLY USING ANDROID,
that would be penultimate
(ultimate obviously is NAND boot )

skimask2006 said:
Hi lads, iam new to this myself I got my hd2 about 2 weeks ago and havnt had out of my hand since.. the only changes I have made was download hspl3 & flash radio 2.14 and I am currently running darkstones froyo 2.2 and I love it.. the only prob I had for my self was battery it was eating it.. when screen was off I was getting around 168ma and using phone was was up to about 600ma.. after about a week of searching I found out a few things and now I get a full day wit heavy usage. I downloaded setcpu,advanced task killer,green power free,changed a few settings on my phone and now I have a battery tats just as good as running WM.. ill get the exact settings up for u later if u want... hope it helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would love to know what your settings are, after 3 hours lite use i lost 45% battery, my gps is off and background update is also off....

2.12.50.xxxx radio.img
it has a lot to do with radi youre using, i found this one really good, have good bttery life, 3g, hdspa, wifi, gps, mms and all working really good...

Hello to all, iam using the android shubcraft version on my hd2 and i cant charge my device 100%. It stops on 85%. Did you guys have an idea??
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

I've been testing 2 different batteries fully charged with phone off. Using current widget they get the same readings about 7ma with screen off and average 200 on. One battery drains at about twice the rate of the other. Im pretty sure one is defective. I've cycled both to make sure. Also running on wm I get the same experience. If your lucky enough to catch a battery problem in the first 3 months of purchase from t-mobile they may send you another like they did for me.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

heres a good thread on conditioning the battery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=827355
as far as sd card speed, a faster card will use less system rescources due to faster read/write speeds, ie: the cpu is under less load for a shorter period of time.
faster io performance = better battery life.
side note, underclocking to far will hurt battery life. this is due to it takeing longer to complete tasks. so if your like me and do a lot of turn the screen on, check some thing , turn it off, then the longer the screen's on the more your draining it.

Android?

Hell all!
i considering to go over to android on my HD2.
Have try some SD version, but always go back to WM 6.5...
Are there some NAND version for daily use, with no problem and less powerdrain?
The speed are not so important, but i´m not happy to charge the battery every day.....
Tnx for Your answer.

Yes, most of the current NAND builds (ie the later ones) are very stable and if set up right can draw even less power than wm.
The one I'm using is linked in my signature if you want to give it a try.

leffep said:
Hell all!
i considering to go over to android on my HD2.
Have try some SD version, but always go back to WM 6.5...
Are there some NAND version for daily use, with no problem and less powerdrain?
The speed are not so important, but i´m not happy to charge the battery every day.....
Tnx for Your answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I am using Android on nand since MAGLDR has been released. What can I say is works better at this stage of development better than WinMo ever, at least for me. The rom I use (link in my signature) is super fast and stable, no problems so far. Also the battery drain in my case is lower than on WinMo. With 3G, GPS, background data, weather sync every 30min, facebook sync every 30min, emails sync every hour I get 5-6mA on standby which is very low. Battery drain depends also how you are using your phone, if its a lot of gaming and browsing over 3G it will drain faster. I charge almost every day, cause I play a lot on my HD2 There are so many different types of roms, you have to choose from. I need to mention about some minor bugs as well, but they are not big issue. Usually dev or chef writes about bugs in his rom in firsts posts of his thread. As always decision belongs to you.

Using "MDJs_CyanogenMod7_v.2.6_NAND_A2SD+" ROM. Music, internet, Jabber, calls, camera. CPU is overclocked 245-1420 MHz by SetCPU. Have no problems with excessive battery drain. What I'm doing wrong?

There's really not much difference in performance between nand builds and sd builds. Battery drain is the same... I get 3-5ma power drain on standby with most recent sd builds. Main bonus with nand builds is you can use clockwork recovery and you can switch sd cards while running android. If you are not going to use winmo anymore, you might as well put android on nand... but if you still want to use winmo, there's not that much gain by running android from nand. I prefer having 2 OS's on my phone that to have just one. I used nand android for a month or so, but I'm back to using sd card builds because I put wp7 on nand... and performance and battery life are just as good with sd builds as they were with nand builds. With either nand or sd builds, if you put your settings right, you can get decent battery life... it's just as good as winmo (maybe better if set up right) if you casually use your phone and leave it on standby most of the time, but with intensive use, android, both sd and nand, on the hd2 eats batteries quicker than winmo did.

Try the jaws-miui, it's awesome.

Android Nand or SD boot. Which is better?

I haven't tried any nand android yet, but i'm start thinking of using full android w/out winmo. The reason for that its just that the performance of my android sd build is getting slower in these few days. Laggy sometimes. Not just that, even my battery is kinda drain quite fast too.. the average battery usage now is like 9ma - 20ma on idle. It used to be like 1 - 4 ma on idle.. I don't know exactly why. 3rd party software problem or maybe i got too many of software/games which leads to a high transfer rate on SD which affect the OS operation (laggy) and drains the battery.
So from your experience:
1. Which is better nand or sd? why?
2. What is the advantage and disadvantage using nand and sd boot?
3. Any difference between nand n sd build in terms of performance?
4. What would you suggest for me in order to remove the lag and high battery consumption on my android sd build?

jzack said:
1. So from your experience, which is better?
2. What is the advantage and disadvantage using nand and sd boot?
3. Any difference between nand n sd build in terms of performance?
2. What would you suggest? Fix the battery leaks and the laggy thingy? How? I'm currently using SD Sandisk 16Gb class 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1/ can't say cause if you have 1-4mA at idle it's good.
2/ no WinMo (advantage if you don't want it, faster boot time, no risk to receive calls or SMS in WinMo.. disadvantage if you want to go to WinMo sometime)
3/ I imagine NAND is better for battery consumption... but your 1mA at idle show me the opposite.
2/ don't understand your question...
Don't understand your SD comment. 16Gb is good, class4... hum never feel a noticable difference between classes... but all is in NAND for me.

truc007 said:
1/ can't say cause if you have 1-4mA at idle it's good.
2/ no WinMo (advantage if you don't want it, faster boot time, no risk to receive calls or SMS in WinMo.. disadvantage if you want to go to WinMo sometime)
3/ I imagine NAND is better for battery consumption... but your 1mA at idle show me the opposite.
2/ don't understand your question...
Don't understand your SD comment. 16Gb is good, class4... hum never feel a noticable difference between classes... but all is in NAND for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the suggestion and answering the question.. i edited something on the thread to make it more understandable.

Ok, I never made some "serious" measurement regarding anything, so my advices will be based only on my feeling.
I tried Android on SD until I convince myself that I prefered Android.
So I choose the NAND to:
- boot faster (I gain the WM boot time)
- reduce my battery consumption (I put all in NAND to reduce the SD access)
- have the ability to remove the SD with OS booted
- performance difference... I really don't know. I don't know the memory techno of the two. RAM is faster... but NAND and SD, for me the techno are close so...
What i'm close to be sure is that even if you don't put an OS in NAND it will be always powered by the phone. So waste of energy. If the OS is not stupid, I hope it has the ability to cut the power of the SD when not in use. If it's the case... less consumption. If not, the dev is stupid... and my consumption will be the same.
My feeling is that the battery life is now very close to what I had with WM.
My advice... test a NAND.
Don't judge the battery life before few days. the first days it's not very good, you can feel it only after few days (looks like auto calibration of the system...).

Second advice. If you don't want a Sense build, test this one:
HyperDroidGBXv4.0
I don't say it's the best. Comparison between build/dev are stupid as a build match a "need". The best build for me may not be the best for you.
So I like this one, that's all.

truc007 said:
Ok, I never made some "serious" measurement regarding anything, so my advices will be based only on my feeling.
I tried Android on SD until I convince myself that I prefered Android.
So I choose the NAND to:
- boot faster (I gain the WM boot time)
- reduce my battery consumption (I put all in NAND to reduce the SD access)
- have the ability to remove the SD with OS booted
- performance difference... I really don't know. I don't know the memory techno of the two. RAM is faster... but NAND and SD, for me the techno are close so...
What i'm close to be sure is that even if you don't put an OS in NAND it will be always powered by the phone. So waste of energy. If the OS is not stupid, I hope it has the ability to cut the power of the SD when not in use. If it's the case... less consumption. If not, the dev is stupid... and my consumption will be the same.
My feeling is that the battery life is now very close to what I had with WM.
My advice... test a NAND.
Don't judge the battery life before few days. the first days it's not very good, you can feel it only after few days (looks like auto calibration of the system...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah same goes for sd boot. The battery life is kinda great in 1st month.. but idk why it started to lack in these few days.. the phone should be like 2 days or 3 on my average usage.. but now it only survive in just 1 day.. thats why i was thinking about moving fully on android since i used it daily..
truc007 said:
Second advice. If you don't want a Sense build, test this one:
HyperDroidGBXv4.0
I don't say it's the best. Comparison between build/dev are stupid as a build match a "need". The best build for me may not be the best for you.
So I like this one, that's all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah well thanks.. rom is not the issue.. its okay with any rom.. i actually just wanted to know the difference in terms of performance and battery life between nand n sd.. u really get my point.. so there is.. guess i'll go for nand then.. thanks.. really appreciate it..

You missunderstood what I said regarding battery life with NAND. Just after flashing you will be disappointed. The battery will not be good.
After few days only you will have the real one.
I never encounter what you describe with SD build. I think I never keep one long enough (I was a flash addict).