why is battery drain so different - Galaxy S II General

hi
this is not question, just more a thought
now i have read on several post on different forum, about the battery drain on the galaxy s 2.
and my big "concern" is why is there sooooo big different on the battery drain. some people can last for 2-3 days and some only 5-8-10 hours. from what they are telling they are using the phone almost equally..
for an example this first post here, he still have 50 % left, although he saw video,playing , surfing and call http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1055164
mine last for about 10-12 hour with moderate use.. and i have killed all unused apps/task/services, wifi ,only 3g, low brightness, wipe batt state.. and installed villainrom
it sounds to me that some people get a really good phone/battery and some not.

Everyone's idea of light, moderate and heavy use varies. It really only comes down to a few major things. How long the screen is on, how often the device is awake, and how intensively the device was operating while awake.

If people know what to do (search the bloody forums for a start)they can achieve good battery life, too many fools are too quick to come on here and complain about poor battery life without even searching the forum, also anyone who gets 2-3 days clearly isn't using the phone that much, i usually get a full day out of medium/heavy usage and you cant complain about that, this is a smartphone and if people are that obsessed with battery life i suggest they use an old Nokia

jonny68 said:
also anyone who gets 2-3 days clearly isn't using the phone that much, i usually get a full day out of medium/heavy usage and you cant complain about that, this is a smartphone and if people are that obsessed with battery life i suggest they use an old Nokia
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Click to collapse
Very true. I can easily get 2-3 days if I just used it for calls and text.
Heck, I can get it to last 1-2 weeks. Just put it in flight mode and don't touch it except every couple of days to check %.
Why people don't just buy spare batteries is beyond me. I bought 3 spares + a wall charger off eBay for around $10. When I'm low I just pop the used one in the charger and replace with a full one. From 0% to 100% in 30 seconds. I even leave one in the car in case. Did the same thing with the S1.
BTW, to the OP why leave it on 3G? I'm assuming you switched off H. For me I use the 2g-3g widget and select GSM only. When I need 3g/H for data I turn it on.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

My 2 cents
I will tell you this. For what its worth.
I've had 4 friends get the GS2. 2 of them are white, 2 are black (the phones, not them.)
In all four cases with the stock ROM They came and complained to me how they love the phone but the battery dies before they can get home.
All four cases I've done this update for them via ODIN
- ROM Update: XWKI4 (UK XEU, android 2.3.4 to support google video chat)
- Kernel: XWKJ3 (stock)
- Modem update: XXKG5
Each and everyone has told me they're getting literally exponentially better battery life, snappier response and stable usage.
Take it for what its worth. But i recommend your combo.
I think usage pattern is definitely important but i've experienced idle drain and gone through months of struggling with this. not all roms/kernels have the idle drain issue. The above combo should work well for you. Good luck

fischerben said:
hi
this is not question, just more a thought
now i have read on several post on different forum, about the battery drain on the galaxy s 2.
and my big "concern" is why is there sooooo big different on the battery drain. some people can last for 2-3 days and some only 5-8-10 hours. from what they are telling they are using the phone almost equally..
for an example this first post here, he still have 50 % left, although he saw video,playing , surfing and call http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1055164
mine last for about 10-12 hour with moderate use.. and i have killed all unused apps/task/services, wifi ,only 3g, low brightness, wipe batt state.. and installed villainrom
it sounds to me that some people get a really good phone/battery and some not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well there are differences in software and usage, but thats it. use a clean up to date rom, good kernel and do not install crappy apps like facebook which drain the battery. Using a modem which suits your provider does make quiete a noticeable difference, especially with hspa activated, idle aswell as using the data connection. Battery life of 12 hours or less is clearly a use or apprelated problem.

Related

What is everyone's problem w/battery life?

Maybe it's because I just came from a G1 and don't have any widgets other than the weather application and Handcent, but I have been online, texting, and calling all day since 12:30pm CST and I'm still in the "green" on my phone and it's 3:11am CST here.
This is PHENOMENAL
PS.. I am a T-Mobile user so not sure if this issue is related only to AT&T but this phone ROCKS!
Not everyone has a battery life problem, there is a poll about it somewhere... I find it fine.
Not a problem anymore, I got used to recharge three times a day
People with battery problems are in the minority. They just complain over and over in order for their voice to heard so it seems like a lot more people have the problem than is true. If battery runs low get a spare to make sure it lasts all day.
Watch, you can hear some of them coming right now to say the sky is falling, I am wrong, and how most people have battery issues...
Some people expect their phone to run games/video/navigation/sync/whatever 24/7 on battery and hold the charge for at least 24 hours. They don't even bother to check the reasons for fast drain (if they have it), and think the phone battery has a flux capacitor inside it. Then, when their hopes aren't fulfilled, they cry in every possible thread on the internet. That's how a wrong impression is made.
Personally, no complaints. Running undervolted kernel, so I have some help with battery life, but still, for the same usage as my old WinMo phone with a battery 1.5 times the size and screen 1/2 the size, Nexus works longer.
Battery life is fine here....and I have 2 spare batteries that stay charged in my fridge (read the article about Li-Ion batteries if you wanna know why I keep them in my fridge - that and if I've been pushing the phone hard and it's really warm, it creates a built-in heat sink when I swap batteries)
I sometimes find my phone draining fast but then stop and think about it and usually I remember some mad wifi browsing, movie watching or gaming I did earlier in the day. I think people too quickly forget about how they've used the device and cry when it's running down.
I have the overclock/undervoltage kernel and with SetCPU to ramp down to 245 on standby, it seems to last ages if I can keep my grubby hands from playing with it all day
Battery life is great for me. And most people in the latest battery life thread aren't upset with what they get. But I am always interested in improving it. And the latest technique posted here does wonders. I expect to get at least 2 days of battery now. It really helps the idle battery usage. Overnight last night my phone only used 6%.
i only have a weather app running along with my gmail 2 accounts and google talk. i am connected to wifi. my battery does drain and needs to be charged at least 1 time per day because if i dont charge it the phone will be dead in the monring. i am testing the network as people say its helping then going to see if the wifi is killing me. i dont see why it MUST be charged daily when it doesnt have much use besides a few messeges and very little calls.
i dont know about other people complaing just because but it is a problem for me and swaping betteries just to send a few messages is out of the question. with all this technology i still have to carry around an extra battery to use it? i think not. im sure it has something to do with the networks on my end.
Running latest Cyanogen. I use the phone mostly for surfing, email and chat. Not so much to call with and very little sms. I live in an area with no 3G but i run it on Wi-fi all the time.
never tried to discharge it through the whole day but i can image a 20-24 hour lifespan on my Nexus with my use.
Think im gonna do a full discharge today. 8 hours passed since last charge.. 72% left on it as i write.
Running latest Cyanogen. I use the phone mostly for surfing, email and chat. Not so much to call with and very little sms. I live in an area with no 3G but i run it on Wi-fi all the time.
never tried to discharge it through the whole day but i can image a 20-24 hour lifespan on my Nexus with my use.
Think im gonna do a full discharge today. 8 hours passed since last charge.. 72% left on it as i write.
Some people expect the phone's battery to be a 1000MWatt power station...
Well for what it's worth, it is now 2:36pm CST and I'm stilllllllllllll going! Going to wait until it dies completely and then charge it up fully.
It all depends on what they had previously for a phone. People who went from a dumb phone that lasted for a week on standby and more likely 3 days with regular use will get all sorts of uppity. With smart phones, it turned into getting it charged overnight as the norm, at least it was with the last two WinMo iterations I had before getting the N1. The theory goes that it should be the same with the N1 but consider exactly how much more you actually do with an N1 vs WinMo.
The battery life is comparable with the iphone if not just a bit worse due to the N1's ability to actually multitask. Ask any iphone user and I'll bet there's the ever so spiffy tiny little wall charger handy or readily available.
If you go the route of CM and a UV'd kernel as well as making sure you're not searching constantly for any cell network(ie: get off WCDMA Preferred), then you can realistically get back to that charge only overnight routine.
Everyone's mileage will vary on this one. Adapt to what YOUR standard use is and move on. If that's not good enough, then seek out the services of fleabay and Craigslist to recoup your losses and go back to a dumb phone.

[Q] I get about 4 hours of usage out of a full charge - how about you?

I have been on here a couple of times complaining about my lousy battery. Well, today I decided to see exactly how far I can take this thing before it conks out on me. Here are my results.
The phone up-time was just over 19 hours, with 14% battery left. (I took my results at 14% because I didn't want the phone turning off on me thus losing all data.) About 49% of the battery was used by the screen, which was on for a total of 3 hours and 20 minutes during this 19 hour period. The rest was split up among other activities, but the most notable/concerning area is 43 seconds of voice took up almost 2% of total battery usage.
I could probably pull out another half-hour or so usage before the phone's battery totally dies, so my final number is 4 hours of usage out of a full charge. This is total usage, i.e. the screen was on for 4 hours.
The phone was at lowest brightness all day except for 10-15 minutes where I had it on full 'cause I was using it outside. I am not using any CPU throttling apps, or such. Background is not fully black. I use one widget, rest are icons. I have Advanced Task Killer which I routinely use to kill tasks, but to be completely honest, unless there is a rouge task ATK does not increase battery life by much. Phone was on 3G primarily, although there were times during the day when I was on EDGE because of weak signal.
All in all, the battery on the Vibrant is pathetic for what it has (Super AMOLED, 45 nm, etc.) but I am glad I can at least last a day. Hopefully Samsung has addressed battery issues in Froyo.
Feel free to post your results on how long you can make your battery last below, so we can all get a better idea. Please do not post "my battery lasts XX days" - give details on your usage, like how I mentioned the battery was at 14% after 19 hours up-time, but actual usage was 3 hours and 20 minutes. Often times it seems like many people brag about how "great" their Vibrant's battery is, but really they rarely use the phone all day hence the "great" battery life.
I completely feel your pain. I had the same issues with my vibrant also. I personally do not believe it is the battery any more because after I applied the ryanza one click lag fix my battery life practically tripled. I kept a very close eye on my usage and settings for the first few weeks. I would get about 12 hours out of a full charge and I would barely use the phone. Frustrated me to no end because I would hear people say that 12 hours with a powerful phone like vibrant is expected. To me it was not acceptable.
I never changed any settings or installed any programs after doing the lag fix but it certainly had a drastic effect. Ill get more statistics when I get home, im at work right now.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I got a good deal on eBay for a 2batteries and a charger for 10 bucks . . Go find out. And about the battery I get around 3/4 day of pretty heavy use, wifi on all day and such.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
get Juice Defender if you want to squeeze even more out of it
but having the display on almost 4 hours....that's gonna suck the battery no matter what phone you have
mine has superb battery life. I am always confident it will get me pass the day and more. obviously, if I game and web a lot, it will drain faster. For my typical day, it's perfect. I went on to over 2 days with this charge. What an awesome battery!
I get about 5 hours of usage. On wifi it goes up a like a hour .
hydrogenman said:
get Juice Defender if you want to squeeze even more out of it
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Click to collapse
Have to agree with this. I tried it out and got quite a boost. I didn't keep as good of details as the OP on my battery use but prior to juice defender a was struggling to make a day. Now a day is not a problem. My typical usage is probably pretty high, lots of internet, lots of tinkering right now plus working on morphs and things, I do keep my screen all the way down except when outside (rarely use my phone outdoors so not much of that), no widgets, no task killer. When I installed juice defender I used the stock settings with the exception of allowing gmail and chat to sync anytime. Juice defender says I'm getting an average of 1.7x the battery life. I think almost all of that comes from when the phone is asleep.
Edit. Checked on details.
Pulled my phone off the charger at 6 am it was at 100%. Used to to do some reading on my way to work (about 30min on the train) worked on some morphs, checked some emails, downloaded some stuff. I'm at 82% and it's 12:20.
Cell standby 39%
Display 33%
phone idle 23%
Various 5%
I use my phone for quite a bit during the day and pull about 13 hours before it starts blinking at me. I personally have zero problems with that amount of battery life from a device of such caliber. My best friend was complaining about her battery in her Vibrant and like I tell everyone else, it's probably some rogue app somewhere. She didn't believe me so we swapped batteries 3 days ago and I still get the same usage times out of her battery as I did mine and her battery life has improved significantly as well.
I don't know what is is that people are doing to get 4-5 hours but 13+ with average use (text, moderate browsing, syncing all day, screen at full brightness all day) is to be expected with this phone. I will post a screenshot of consistency over the course of this weekend to visualize my point.
Also I do not use a task killer of any kind except the Android built in one and I removed hers as well
boodies said:
mine has superb battery life. I am always confident it will get me pass the day and more. obviously, if I game and web a lot, it will drain faster. For my typical day, it's perfect. I went on to over 2 days with this charge. What an awesome battery!
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Click to collapse
You mean if you actually use the phone it will drain a lot faster. Your post is a perfect example of what I mean when I said people post very misleading results. For those ~40 hours that your Vibrant has been up, your display has only been on 1, maybe 2 hours (hence only 8% battery usage). Your result is not accurate at all - you aren't using the phone. Anyone can get great battery by letting it sits for hours on in.
hydrogenman said:
get Juice Defender if you want to squeeze even more out of it
but having the display on almost 4 hours....that's gonna suck the battery no matter what phone you have
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I will look at Juice Defender, but I am not too sure what it will do to help improve my battery which I am not doing already. (I leave GPS off, WiFi off when im not using, have applied lagfix, etc.)
The Droid X is known to get 7-8 hours; and considering the Vibrant has power-friendly hardware, the Vibrant should be getting the same.
bdveteran18 said:
I use my phone for quite a bit during the day and pull about 13 hours before it starts blinking at me. I personally have zero problems with that amount of battery life from a device of such caliber. My best friend was complaining about her battery in her Vibrant and like I tell everyone else, it's probably some rogue app somewhere. She didn't believe me so we swapped batteries 3 days ago and I still get the same usage times out of her battery as I did mine and her battery life has improved significantly as well.
I don't know what is is that people are doing to get 4-5 hours but 13+ with average use (text, moderate browsing, syncing all day, screen at full brightness all day) is to be expected with this phone. I will post a screenshot of consistency over the course of this weekend to visualize my point.
Also I do not use a task killer of any kind except the Android built in one and I removed hers as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say 13+ hours, do you mean total up-time or total usage time? Because, as I mentioned in my post, my total up-time was ~19 hours, but usage was actually ~4.
DarkAgent said:
When you say 13+ hours, do you mean total up-time or total usage time? Because, as I mentioned in my post, my total up-time was ~19 hours, but usage was actually ~4.
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Click to collapse
I apologize for being unclear before. total usage time is about 6.5 hours of consistent usage. Such as watching movies, playing games, and browsing the web. I will post some battery usage screenshots a little later.
bdveteran18 said:
I apologize for being unclear before. total usage time is about 6.5 hours of consistent usage. Such as watching movies, playing games, and browsing the web. I will post some battery usage screenshots a little later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for clearing that up! Well, it sounds like you are fairing better than me, but without actual data it is hard to say.
Oh, and an FYI: I just called up T-Mobile and had them send me a new battery. FWIW, I am not being charged anything (not even shipping) and I don't have to send back my current battery. I love the retention department .
Can someone post up what they do/what settings they use for juice defender? I installed it but I really don't see how it could save me any more battery seeing that I keep wifi, gps, and all that off, plus my screen is on the lowest setting at all times
Hi all,
What I found out that works best for me is, no task killer, no juice defender, lowest display setting possible, and turning off 3g. 3g ready drains the battery. Task killers are pretty worthless. Do some research on that topic. Android kills programs all by itself. And task killers run in the background, using up battery. My phone is rooted, so I run autostarts to control what starts at boot. My uptime isn't great, but its adequate enough to last from morning to night. I do agee that the battery life when using the phone itself for voice calls is sub part at best. I do believe froyo will help with a lot of these problems. Just my 2¢.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
DON'T use task killer. Vibrant has really good system resource management. With task killers constantly killing core system processes, the phone has to use more power to keep restarting them.
You can read more about it here: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
And only turn on active sync for apps that you absolutely need to have them syncing all the time.
This should make your phone last for a whole day with decent usage. If you are still getting very short up time, you probably have a bad battery. Call T-Mo and ask for a replacement.
It all depends on usage. The first days when I got my Vibrant, I was downloading apps all day, or browsing websites, so the battery barely lasts for a day. I usually leave my phone plugged in to my laptop when going to sleep, and set the laptop to auto-shutdown in 4 hour, so the phone gets unplugged at about 4:30 am. With that heavy usage, I needed to recharge at about 7 pm.
However, now that I'm not playing with it that much, the battery life improves greatly. Now I usually do 10-20 text messages and about 30 minutes voice call everyday, also some browsing on the xda forum, and maybe reply several emails. The battery is usually at 40 percent at 10 pm. The only thing I can complain about is that with 40% battery left, I don't want to do a complete recharge, but it won't last the second day either.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
DarkAgent said:
Thanks for clearing that up! Well, it sounds like you are fairing better than me, but without actual data it is hard to say.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I forgot to take pics lol. (busy with my fantasy draft). I will take some today. Rebooting my phone right before I leave for work and some throughout the day.
It still will be hard to say why my battery life exceeds yours but you will at least be able to compare the two.
Sent from my awesome Vibrant using XDA App
I get around 5 hours display. Using wifi sporadically, juice defender paid version, lowest brightness. Our screen is too bright. Lol on lowest it looks like the evo's middle.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Reasonable battery life expectations after Rooting

So sorry for adding to the battery life threads, but I'm pretty frustrated.
I've seen people posting screen shots with 18 hours uptime, 7 hours wake time and 50% battery on custom roms. I've seen people getting about 24 hours on a single charge.
I've had my evo 2 weeks now, and I've tried about 3 different ROMS and 4 or 5 different Kernels all of which promised LONG battery life. I'm currently running BakedSnack 1.7 with Kernel #5. My phone has been on 10 hours, 2 hours of wake time and it has only 35% left. Couple of short phone calls, 10 mins Pandora and a bit of browsing and texting here and there. I was expecting more after rooting, yet it seems almost the same as it was before I rooted.
Am I expecting too much ?
I've gone through the full discharge/recharge cycle about 4 times so far. Bad battery perhaps ?
will the phone charge get you through a day say 10 hour work day ( includes travel time )
imho your expecting to much with 10 hours in to your charge and still have 35% left is pretty damn good imho
Baked Snacks is a great rom ! its no the battery check your TWS
Depends what you are doing, some things (3d games, flash) will drain the battery faster than others.
If you are at 10 hours and 2 hours awake with 35% left, thats not too bad. You should end up around 16-17 hours with 4 hours of awake time.
If you are talking on the phone, that will drain your battery the fastest.
Make sure you completely condition your battery as well (as many posts show)
Sporkman said:
will the phone charge get you through a day say 10 hour work day ( includes travel time )
imho your expecting to much with 10 hours in to your charge and still have 35% left is pretty damn good imho
Baked Snacks is a great rom ! its no the battery check your TWS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will make it through but usually by 5pm its around 30%. I almost have to make an effort to use it sparingly though. I really like the Baked Snack Rom, its very slick probably the best I've had so far. TWS was 3% today.
Bielinsk said:
Depends what you are doing, some things (3d games, flash) will drain the battery faster than others.
If you are at 10 hours and 2 hours awake with 35% left, thats not too bad. You should end up around 16-17 hours with 4 hours of awake time.
If you are talking on the phone, that will drain your battery the fastest.
Make sure you completely condition your battery as well (as many posts show)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't even gotten into playing games or watching video on it yet to be honest and my phone calls are usually short.
30% by 5 stop please be happy with that lol
goon3r said:
So sorry for adding to the battery life threads, but I'm pretty frustrated.
I've seen people posting screen shots with 18 hours uptime, 7 hours wake time and 50% battery on custom roms. I've seen people getting about 24 hours on a single charge.
I've had my evo 2 weeks now, and I've tried about 3 different ROMS and 4 or 5 different Kernels all of which promised LONG battery life. I'm currently running BakedSnack 1.7 with Kernel #5. My phone has been on 10 hours, 2 hours of wake time and it has only 35% left. Couple of short phone calls, 10 mins Pandora and a bit of browsing and texting here and there. I was expecting more after rooting, yet it seems almost the same as it was before I rooted.
Am I expecting too much ?
I've gone through the full discharge/recharge cycle about 4 times so far. Bad battery perhaps ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried SetCPU? I have stock rooted with SetCPU (Perflock Disabler ftw) and without a signal 13-25% of the time (meaning the phone is searching for a signal), I end a 10-12 hour work day with about 45-50% left. Underclocking to 250 while the screen off has helped a lot.
This seems to be a common concern. first please remember to take everything with a grain of salt when it comes to people reporting there battery times. There are just to many factors to say ok if you use this rom and this kernel you will get 20 hours of battery life. Also many of the people reporting battery life exaggerate. sure they may ahve gotten 50 hours between charges on stock battery... but they surely didn't have moderate use ... or any real use during that no matter what they claim.
from another post it seems the majority of people in that post (with everything tweaked calibrated and set up) were getting roughly 13-18 hours of battery life out of there phone with normal use. normal being defined by actually using your phone as a phone as well as using its other capabilities. So my feeling if you are a moderate user you should expect to fall into this area as a goal. Things to help would include setCPU, making sure you turn off data when you shut off screen (or getting a program to do so for you - juicedefender) and making sure you calibrate your battery and battery stats of your phone.
it seems like you are getting close to this range however you are having to watch your use to do so. as others have said the first thing i would do is get setCPU and set up a battery saving profile. read through some of the battery threads if you havent and look for setting changes that wont impact you tremendously but will help save battery (for example if you dont use landscape mode a lot you can turn off autorotation and save some battery). If you are using froyo and are running a task killer uninstall it since it doesnt work any way. While most settings will make a small impact together they should help get you to where you can use your phone moderately through out the day with out worries.
Sporkman said:
30% by 5 stop please be happy with that lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't get me wrong here, the thread wasn't about me complaining, more about setting my expectations.
2 Years ago I had the first Touch Pro which would be dead by 3pm regardless of usage. At one point I had 4 batteries. I got the Touch Pro 2 a year later and it could go 2-3 days on single charge with normal usage. It was like night and day.
Granted this is a much more powerful device than either of those, but I feel like I've taken a step backwards with the battery situation.
ritzbrie said:
Have you tried SetCPU? I have stock rooted with SetCPU (Perflock Disabler ftw) and without a signal 13-25% of the time (meaning the phone is searching for a signal), I end a 10-12 hour work day with about 45-50% left. Underclocking to 250 while the screen off has helped a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried out SetCPU but the phone was slugglish for me at times and once or twice I had to reboot.
I'm probably just gonna grab an extra battery and a desktop charger so I can charge one battery while the other is in use.
omegasun18 said:
Things to help would include setCPU, making sure you turn off data when you shut off screen (or getting a program to do so for you - juicedefender) and making sure you calibrate your battery and battery stats of your phone.
it seems like you are getting close to this range however you are having to watch your use to do so. as others have said the first thing i would do is get setCPU and set up a battery saving profile. read through some of the battery threads if you havent and look for setting changes that wont impact you tremendously but will help save battery (for example if you dont use landscape mode a lot you can turn off autorotation and save some battery). If you are using froyo and are running a task killer uninstall it since it doesnt work any way. While most settings will make a small impact together they should help get you to where you can use your phone moderately through out the day with out worries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks alot for those tips, I'll give SetCPU another go.
I haven't tried out Juice Defender but I'll look into that as well. Turning off Data when the screen is off might be just the thing I need!

Acceptable Battery life?

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.

Battery life.......Does it really matter?...uhhh NO!

I read so many threads and comments complaining about "battery life"
Turning this off and that off, not using this app or that app. Dreaded enemy "wake locks". Turning brightness down and generally Not using all these great devices have to offer to squeeze out more battery life. Even to the extent of over 24 hours.
We have a phenomenal and powerful device that does a whole lot with a huge screen and a ton of great BG apps updating all kinds of information we enjoy these devices for.
MOST of all we all have the (getting rare) opportunity to swap out an inexpensive battery in less than 30 seconds be up and running for another 5-10 hours depending on our enjoyment and use.
Do people not have electricity? They cannot charge every night? They can afford a $600 phone (or $300 subsidized) and $600 plus a year for service but cannot buy a $20 battery in order to actually USE the device as designed and go through all kinds of contortions, apps, settings, and worse, anguish at running out of juice after (gasp) 8 hours?
People getting hung up on "benchmarking" and posting screen shots of phones on battery for 3 days...(of course rarely used) to squeeze and extra 30 minutes.
TURN IT OFF!! bet the battery lasts well over a month. You win!
I guess I just don't understand the "issue" with a device where batteries can be swapped out so easily.
I get maybe 10 hours normally with everything on and at minimum updating. I have infinite screen on and turn it off when I am done using it. (hate those timeouts while reading something). FB and news updates at minimum. Maps always running latitude. If its there its on BT, Screen rotation, GPS, I just don't worry about battery life as I would rather carry an extra battery in my desk at home auto or work and in my wallet than not USE the device as designed.
Personally I would never buy another phone without the ability to swap out a battery lest I would gain have to "ration" my use of such a great device which would be akin to a witnessing a gay man win a date with a single and seductive Angela Jolie . Why bother?
Am I alone here? Anyone else consider battery life as much a non issue as I do on these Samsung phones?
I'm with you on this one. Why do all of that stupid things if you can solve it with $20 battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
A lot of the battery life threads are related to abnormally high battery drain.
As an example, on GB I would about 1% battery per hour if the phone was idle.
When I upgraded to LPY, I was losing 2-3% per hour, and sometimes higher, because the phone was not going into deep sleep.
This might not seem much of a difference for just 1 hour, but over the course of a day, it is a huge difference.
Now I'm on LPF, my battery drain is about the same, or lower than GB when idle.
richlum said:
A lot of the battery life threads are related to abnormally high battery drain.
As an example, on GB I would about 1% battery per hour if the phone was idle.
When I upgraded to LPY, I was losing 2-3% per hour, and sometimes higher, because the phone was not going into deep sleep.
This might not seem much of a difference for just 1 hour, but over the course of a day, it is a huge difference.
Now I'm on LPF, my battery drain is about the same, or lower than GB when idle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess "abnormally high" is debatable. For me it would be a 80% battery crapping out before then end of a 2 hour movie.
A day is only 24 hours long and I assume people will sleep for 6-8 hours so Even a 5% drain per hour would mean more than 16 hours of standby with 20% remaining!! How can that be an issue? I doubt my phone "deep sleeps" I have BG apps running all the time with notifications. One extra battery solves all issues. No need for special apps, tweaking this and that, flashing this and that simply for battery life.
If people sleep 6-8 hours during a 24 hour period they can easily and consistently charge their batteries. A 3% drain per hour would not be an issue. If we watch movies and play games we already know the battery will drain within a few hours. Pop in another battery and brand new again.
You are assuming that people are always near a power source.
I am normally near a power source. I am either at work and charge via USB or in my car or at home.
The issue is the past 3 days I was out and about (malls, hotels, restaurants and so on) and was not near a power source for more than 10 minutes. My battery died in about 4 hours of usage. Mostly checking email, instagram and facebook.
I keep my brightness at full strength by the way (unless if the lights are off in bed).
Yes, so battery is an issue.
Not everyone is constantly near a power source.
So you think if I put my fully charged Note into Airplane mode when I go to sleep and wake up in the morning just to find out to my surprise that I lost 32 % of battery life in six hours is normal? In airplane mode? On official update via Kies, never rooted, never anything custom? That is normal to you? Wow, you are either stupid or work for Samsung. If you work for Samsung can you help me to get my GB battery life back? I have already spend good money for the phone, I am not willing to spend a dime extra for another battery on 6 months old phone.
If your phone is working as intended, battery life issues are not really an issue.
It basically means your phone sleeps when its supposed to.
However, some devices never go into deep sleep due to some issue with kernel or a rogue app. Thats where the battery problem comes in.
carlitos66 said:
So you think if I put my fully charged Note into Airplane mode when I go to sleep and wake up in the morning just to find out to my surprise that I lost 32 % of battery life in six hours is normal? In airplane mode? On official update via Kies, never rooted, never anything custom? That is normal to you? Wow, you are either stupid or work for Samsung. If you work for Samsung can you help me to get my GB battery life back? I have already spend good money for the phone, I am not willing to spend a dime extra for another battery on 6 months old phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats not normal.
I turn off data and wifi on my Note when I go to sleep (6 hours also) and I loose about 5 to 10 %.
This is with telephone signal only. No data or wifi.
to the post #7. So how come it didn't happened in stock GB previously? In GB I lost about 1 % overnight when in airplane mode. Reliability of batteries on this phone is a big deal, unfortunatelly.
Battery is always an issue. Nobody likes running to the charger every 3 hours. They want to charge and preferably when we are not using it, when we sleep.
So yes, it does not comply with expectatoin with continuous use. So yes its an issue. At least for me
Next to this having the enduser juggle with what wakelocks are or other battery eaters are dont help much. That counts for all smart phones.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
There is also the issue about well behaved v badly behaved apps. I've installed apps and my battery life has plummeted, normally due to the app writing tons to the system log as it doesn't run well on my device.
In that situation it's nice to know the phone generally isn't sucking masses of juice itself so you aren't caught out and about with no battery left.
As the OP says, I guess I could carry a spare battery, but I could also carry a spare phone (my old Nokia 6310 used to last weeks on a charge) - and I don't want to do either. I want the battery on my phone to survive general use and still be able to be used for calls if needed. For me, it's not about €20\$20 for a battery, it's about the hassle of having to carry another thing around with me all the time and make sure I'd remembered to charge the damned thing when I actually needed it.
Personally, I use my phone like a tablet and as a phone and generally get 1-2 days out of it no problem. That said there are definitely some battery drain issues with the official German ICS build and it's worth protecting yourself against unnecessary drain if possible.
carlitos66 said:
, I am not willing to spend a dime extra for another battery on 6 months old phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And there is your only problem.........it's not "airplane" mode while you sleep. You could charge while you sleep. Again problem solved.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
CorruptedSanity said:
You are assuming that people are always near a power source.
I am normally near a power source. I am either at work and charge via USB or in my car or at home.
The issue is the past 3 days I was out and about (malls, hotels, restaurants and so on) and was not near a power source for more than 10 minutes. My battery died in about 4 hours of usage. Mostly checking email, instagram and facebook.
I keep my brightness at full strength by the way (unless if the lights are off in bed).
Yes, so battery is an issue.
Not everyone is constantly near a power source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I happen to believe it's asking far to much of a device once used only as a phone and now as a notebook computer, music player, movie player,gaming platform, big screen, GPS, on and on to be able to operate without expecting batteries to wither within hours. I bought extra batteries so I can use all the functions without worry. There are performance issues people strive to enhance. I get that. But battery life is counter productive to enhancing performance.
I cannot understand all the teeth gnashing about battery life with all the options available Especially those of us who are power users. . not the least being charging while asleep. So many post battery loss while sleeping...... That's what chargers are for.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
tbong777 said:
I am assuming people sleep near a power source. Is that a reach?
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Click to collapse
Sometimes. I go to music festivals where we camp for up to 5 days at a time. I may have access to a powerpoint for 30 mins a day, but not always. I carry spare batteries, but that doesn't mean I want my phone sucking my battery like crazy.
When travelling around, I use my phone more often than normal (gmaps etc)... If I'm away from the hotel for 12 hours +, again, having decent battery life is not an unreasonable thing to want.
My Desire HD (yes I know, smaller screen, slower cpu), could pull over 30 hours out of a battery with conservative use (without turning the radios off).
I still wouldn't give up my Note, but having to recharge each time I get home is pretty annoying.
Ha, ha!
I find it funny that a post complaining about people complaining about battery life ends up with people's comments complaining about battery life!
Seriously, though, when those rogue apps steal my precious battery, I get annoyed. I paid for the damned thing, and I want to use it when I want to use it, not find it is half-drained.
I use it pretty normally, and charge it every day (new batteries are cheap). I carry a spare in my wallet too.
I sometimes spend four hours a working day on the phone, BT all day, plus an hour or two screen and WiFi on. If I have managed it OK (by killing battery stealing apps) I get about 50 to 60% left. If not, I can be down to 30% after that. That may not be enough for the rest of the day.
Why should it be a problem that people like to get a full day from one battery? It is not difficult, although you do need Root. Shame on Samsung that it is necessary, when it is clearly possible.
[
jeromepearce said:
I find it funny that a post complaining about people complaining about battery life ends up with people's comments complaining about battery life!
Seriously, though, when those rogue apps steal my precious battery, I get annoyed. I paid for the damned thing, and I want to use it when I want to use it, not find it is half-drained.
I use it pretty normally, and charge it every day (new batteries are cheap). I carry a spare in my wallet too.
I sometimes spend four hours a working day on the phone, BT all day, plus an hour or two screen and WiFi on. If I have managed it OK (by killing battery stealing apps) I get about 50 to 60% left. If not, I can be down to 30% after that. That may not be enough for the rest of the day.
Why should it be a problem that people like to get a full day from one battery? It is not difficult, although you do need Root. Shame on Samsung that it is necessary, when it is clearly possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I was seeking those who don't have issues. And was hoping for a discussion on how they deal with battery life without rationing or tweaking....not more complainers
It's a problem of unrealistic expectations.IMO When you look at the device it self and what it's capable of.
Yeah Samsung could have put a larger battery and fatter back on the phone but people would complain about that. Those solutions are available for power users as well. I think we are lucky to have a device where we have options to solve a basic issue other than not using functions. Apple and HTC do not have the same luxury.
Got to go........ battery is di
I'm a light user with the occasional call and sms and my battery last ~6 days. Phone is 3 moths old. However, I find that my battery usage is very dependent on signal strength. I usually get 4 bars and when that happens battery drains like 10% a day and when it is down to 1-2 bars then it can be 3 times that. I guess I'm fortunate that I get 4 bars most of the time in the office and at home.
I have a battery monitor widget installed and I must say that it makes me paranoid of using the phone and causing high drain. May uninstall it soon and use the phone as it should be used.
My expectations are pretty much met when it comes to battery life of the Galaxy Note. It lasts a whole working day. That's all I need. And for exceptional situations when I don't have access to a socket I have got a spare battery.
It's clear that the Note drains the battery really fast if it's in use. Just look at the screen . I also agree that it's annoying if the battery is empty after only 1/2 working day. But some people really have to blame themselves. If you don't turn off Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS when they are not needed it's no miracle that the battery is empty in no time. If you constantly check Facebook, Twitter and the like you have to accept that battery life will be significantly shorter.
For me the worst things are Bluetooth headsets. Not only is it annoying to have one more device that has to be charged but it also constantly drains the battery of the phone. Ok those wireless headsets are comfortable but you pay for it by faster battery drain.
hi guys, cool down.
the different opinions about the battery issue are resulting from the different way of using the phone along with the life style.
Some may need a bckp bat. Some can make sure they are always close to a power source ( if people spend a substantial part of the day in cars f.e.) Some even need an additional external power pack, as they are not close to power outlets all day.
That all makes sense to me but doesn't make me switching off all the nice features of that great phone. It is not an a piece for exhibition in a shopping window, it is for my personal use for business and/or leisure activities. It even connects me via video when I am far away from home, it connects me to the social networks and it let me professionally do my work and up or download all info I need from my corporation. I can log in via VPN to my workplace and edit documents by collaborating with colleagues through the cloud. It shows me the way through the GPS, if I need.
It entertains me in many different way if I want, It helps me to find a good restaurant.
I do not longer use a notebook computer or a tablet.
My Notebook computer could work hardly 2 hours with the same usage like my SGN.
So, I accept that this racing machine does need after some laps a pit stop for filling up the power.
Just love that tool, just love it
altae said:
My expectations are pretty much met when it comes to battery life of the Galaxy Note. It lasts a whole working day. That's all I need. And for exceptional situations when I don't have access to a socket I have got a spare battery.
It's clear that the Note drains the battery really fast if it's in use. Just look at the screen . I also agree that it's annoying if the battery is empty after only 1/2 working day. But some people really have to blame themselves. If you don't turn off Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS when they are not needed it's no miracle that the battery is empty in no time. If you constantly check Facebook, Twitter and the like you have to accept that battery life will be significantly shorter.
For me the worst things are Bluetooth headsets. Not only is it annoying to have one more device that has to be charged but it also constantly drains the battery of the phone. Ok those wireless headsets are comfortable but you pay for it by faster battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are the kinds of responses I was hoping people people would post rather than more whining about battery life. there are plenty of those threads already.
I was hoping for a POSITIVE thread people could read to calm their perceived issues with battery life. BTW I don't use BT head sets for Music. Yes another thing to deal with charging where you cannot simpy replace a battery. I prefer the far better quality wired earbuds.

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