Database Users

15 minutes of voice call eats 16% battery =/

I keep hearing some people claim how "great" their Vibrant's battery is. I am on my third Vibrant and battery life has been terrible on all of them. Just recently I noticed ~16% of my battery got drained for ~15 minute voice call. (The attached screenshot shows voice call using 27% but at that time my battery was at around 39%, which means the 15 mins took about ~16% total battery.) I just passed my 14-days buyer's remorse, so exchanging it (unless I want a "like new" one) or returning it are not an option. Any suggestions on how to improve battery life? I already keep the brightness on the screen to the lowest it gets.
Thanks!

Hmm that defintely is not normal. I would check with the store in getting another replacement. 15% drain on 15 min call is not normal for any phone.

There is a bug where if you power down the phone while it's charging, then the reported battery % is higher than actual. Perhaps the seemingly fast drain is a result of the reported value "catching up" to the actual level.

Edit: So I figured out where you're getting your numbers .
Still doesn't seem right though, did you notice the battery percentage before the call by any chance?

Chalup said:
There is a bug where if you power down the phone while it's charging, then the reported battery % is higher than actual. Perhaps the seemingly fast drain is a result of the reported value "catching up" to the actual level.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My rooted G1 had that same bug. Start charging it, power it down, power up and from completely dead it would show around. 24% in a couple minutes of charging. This phone I've noticed does it as well as newer blackberry's. Bizarre...
What I would suggest is draining the battery till it dies, charge it back up fully and see if you can have it happen again. Could've been a fluke.
Sent from my awesome Vibrant using XDA App

DarkAgent said:
I keep hearing some people claim how "great" their Vibrant's battery is. I am on my third Vibrant and battery life has been terrible on all of them. Just recently I noticed ~16% of my battery got drained for ~15 minute voice call. (The attached screenshot shows voice call using 27% but at that time my battery was at around 39%, which means the 15 mins took about ~16% total battery.) I just passed my 14-days buyer's remorse, so exchanging it (unless I want a "like new" one) or returning it are not an option. Any suggestions on how to improve battery life? I already keep the brightness on the screen to the lowest it gets.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
looks like a bad battery reading to me.
Complete charge, complete discharge, and complete charge should reset it.

Yeah the percentages do need to be calibrated and sometimes they are off a bit, say 100%-90% actually often goes faster than 80%-70%.
The batteries are also partly responsible since discharge Ah is not a completely linear relationship with voltage (which is why the percentages need calibration).
I would say unless you have a rogue application on your phone eating battery it is more likely just how it is being reported.

bchalk said:
Yeah the percentages do need to be calibrated and sometimes they are off a bit, say 100%-90% actually often goes faster than 80%-70%.
The batteries are also partly responsible since discharge Ah is not a completely linear relationship with voltage (which is why the percentages need calibration).
I would say unless you have a rogue application on your phone eating battery it is more likely just how it is being reported.
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Click to collapse
So if battery A has x% greater mAh than battery B it does not mean A has x% greater battery life?

Chalup said:
So if battery A has x% greater mAh than battery B it does not mean A has x% greater battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if the phones are identical.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I'm having same issue. Battery life on my Vibrant is just horrible. I can barely go half a day until it's fully discharged and that's about 30 min talk time an hr maybe browsing apps and internet and a little WIFI/BT. Just for example I charged it after complete discharge and took it out at 11.30 pm last night, drove my brother to the airport and back around 1.30 and while it was sitting in the car and a few calls I made, it already went down to 74%, I purposely left it without charge till morning.... at 8am it was showing 47%... WTF!!
I have rooted the phone with update.zip, I have installed ATK and have Crazy settings on it.... one thing I don't get is that after it kills apps, they keep coming back every few seconds. Also brightness is at the lowest and no live wallpaper...
UltimateJuice by the way is showing 1.58 times, which is BS... right now it's 10.30AM and its down to 38%....
Any help would be appreciated!

Try not using atk

Chalup said:
Try not using atk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

http://phandroid.com/2010/08/25/dro...roid-phone-battery-life-comparisons/#comments
Vibrant's battery life does suck, even with the supposedly power efficient processor and super amoled!!!!!!
Samsung has some more work to do. Hopefully, the froyo update can alleviate the problem!!!

M5devil said:
I have rooted the phone with update.zip, I have installed ATK and have Crazy settings on it.... one thing I don't get is that after it kills apps, they keep coming back every few seconds. Also brightness is at the lowest and no live wallpaper...
UltimateJuice by the way is showing 1.58 times, which is BS... right now it's 10.30AM and its down to 38%....
Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read this first.
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
Anytime the screen is on its eating battery. We have the best screen in the market. If you really want a conservative wallpaper use something almost all black or solid black. When a AMOLED screen is displaying black the LEDs are off.
For those "apps that keep showing up" those are due services that are running in the background. If you don't use the app often set the notifications to a lower time or set it to update manually.
If you've rooted there is a thread on "how to keep your phone quick and snappy" read it. Also fix your permissions through recovery. Rogue apps apps can drain battery.
after 3hrs of on & off hard using (minus extra long phone calls >45mins) I can pull 12-16 hours easily on one charge.
Look into things like eugenes vibrant 6 & JACs UV(under volted) kernel.
GL and car chargers are awesome!
Vibe the XDApp

Battery life on my Vibrant has been superb. You might need to change settings or something. This screen shot was for today with lots of calls and market shopping and I even watched a movie. I do not use a killer, yes I'm rooted with lots of tweaks to my notification bar. I'm using the spiritbomb lwp and its been great.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Unfortunately, the battery life on the Vibrant just sucks, compared to the iPhone.
I came to a Galaxy S and a Vibrant form the iPhone 3Gs.
With the same style of usage, the iPhone lasts at least 40% longer than the Galaxy/Vibrant.
I like the phone a lot, but am really unhappy to have to constantly think about how I use it, to avoid it dying on me before the end of the day.
Basically, with moderate use, it will last for a day, but if I go out after work and do a little texting or take a few pictures, it will die before I get home.
12-14 hours is really not good, since with my old iPhone I used to be able to last almost two full days without recharging.
Plus, the blocking of the camera at 15% of battery life is a truly idiotic decision by Samsung.

Thanks for your feedback! I am newbie in the Android world, as I come from the Apple planet. It just takes time to get used to it.
As for XDA App, where can I get it?

jesrazo said:
Battery life on my Vibrant has been superb. You might need to change settings or something. This screen shot was for today with lots of calls and market shopping and I even watched a movie. I do not use a killer, yes I'm rooted with lots of tweaks to my notification bar. I'm using the spiritbomb lwp and its been great.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am looking into the mod for the notification bar, specifically the battery. I have seen a circle battery with percentage, where do I get one?

XDA is your Friend
Search XDA for all ur app and theme needs, as for the Iphone being better on battery. I dont doubt its better, but from my experience and many family and friends showing me there iphones they are always tethered to a power source. Theres no better test than driving 300+ miles a day every day and coming back to the hotel and seeing my phone tell me i have been using it for 20+ hours and i still have 25% charge. I am constantly using my phone for calls, text, movies and such. Without my phone my wife would probably divorce me lol The amount of travel i do via plane, train and automobile is all the real world facts i need. Vibrant is a keeper.

Yes it sucks.
And under 15% it's not allowing me taking pictures!
Come on, I know I am under 15%, but I still want to take 1 or 2 pic!!

Battery life amazing now. Why? You tell me.

I have had the ultimate in crappy battery life since day one with my Vibrant. I have tried reconditioning, task killers, freezing apps, etc., etc. Very minimal gains and, in some cases, worse battery life. These things were draining just sitting on our pockets.
Here's where it gets weird. My wife also has a Samsung Vibrant and was getting the same horrible battery life. We were both charging dead Vibrants half way through the day. Granted, we are both moderate to heavy users but I expected more. A week ago, my wife was still sitting at 80% by lunch time while I was looking at 27%. Huh? I asked her what she did and she had no idea except that she had downloaded a battery monitoring app the day before. I thought it made no sense that this could have anything to do with it so I brushed it off. Over the next few days she was still getting killer battery life throughout the day.
So....I decided to give it a shot just to be sure it wasn't that app. Well, just before bedtime, my battery was it 7%. I downloaded the battery app, plugged in my Vibrant and hit the hay. By noon the next day I was still over 80% I have no idea why but I know it's working for both of us and it has to have something to do with this app.
I'm no programmer and I certainly have no vested interested in any android apps. We just stumbled on this and it works. Would anyone out there have a clue why?
I'm not sure if posting the name of the app breaks any xda rules so I'll wait.

Ever since i've been on JK2 Froyo my battery life has been excellent. But i'm interested in hearing which app you're talking about

Castle5665 said:
I have had the ultimate in crappy battery life since day one with my Vibrant. I have tried reconditioning, task killers, freezing apps, etc., etc. Very minimal gains and, in some cases, worse battery life. These things were draining just sitting on our pockets.
Here's where it gets weird. My wife also has a Samsung Vibrant and was getting the same horrible battery life. We were both charging dead Vibrants half way through the day. Granted, we are both moderate to heavy users but I expected more. A week ago, my wife was still sitting at 80% by lunch time while I was looking at 27%. Huh? I asked her what she did and she had no idea except that she had downloaded a battery monitoring app the day before. I thought it made no sense that this could have anything to do with it so I brushed it off. Over the next few days she was still getting killer battery life throughout the day.
So....I decided to give it a shot just to be sure it wasn't that app. Well, just before bedtime, my battery was it 7%. I downloaded the battery app, plugged in my Vibrant and hit the hay. By noon the next day I was still over 80% I have no idea why but I know it's working for both of us and it has to have something to do with this app.
I'm no programmer and I certainly have no vested interested in any android apps. We just stumbled on this and it works. Would anyone out there have a clue why?
I'm not sure if posting the name of the app breaks any xda rules so I'll wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe nothing is wrong with posting the name of an app. If it helps, then why not?

Yeah dude hook it up
Still flashing , thanks to odin & tw

mainevent3405 said:
I don't believe nothing is wrong with posting the name of an app. If it helps, then why not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I just didn't want to be seen as peddling a product here.
It's called BatteryTime. It's free although, I believe there is a pay version. I didn't adjust any settings. Just installed it, charged over night and I can't believe the difference nor understand why it made such a huge difference. I unplugged 4 hours ago and have 98%. Still a mystery to me but I'm not complaining.

There's like 4 of the same app on the market x)
What is the full name?
OH and thanks, I installed it, I'll report back with results.

draikz said:
There's like 4 of the same app on the market x)
What is the full name?
OH and thanks, I installed it, I'll report back with results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just Looked again and you're right. There are 4 versions there. I'm currently using the "BatteryTime Lite" version.

The only thing that I can think of to rationalize this huge difference is that the battery percentage was being reported incorrectly before. I may have had a charge that would last all day or longer but it was displaying an accelerated discharge rate which would kill my Vibrant prematurely. For one reason or another, this app appears to have corrected that and the indicator is (I hope) reporting the correct battery life now.
Does that make any sense?

Castle5665 said:
The only thing that I can think of to rationalize this huge difference is that the battery percentage was being reported incorrectly before. I may have had a charge that would last all day or longer but it was displaying an accelerated discharge rate which would kill my Vibrant prematurely. For one reason or another, this app appears to have corrected that and the indicator is (I hope) reporting the correct battery life now.
Does that make any sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing. I will give it a try.

Update:
I found this somewhat disappointing. I rebooted my phone for the first time in about a week and on boot up the indicator is displaying significant drain again. I was at 96% before boot and 56% after? I'm going to recharge to full again and see if I still enjoy the same battery life.
Now I'm really confused. Sent an email to developer.

judging by the app description and most of the comments - the app doesn't actually *do* anything. It merely reports the battery differently.
No amount of software will change how much charge a battery can hold. The only thing that's different is how it's being reported.

reuthermonkey said:
judging by the app description and most of the comments - the app doesn't actually *do* anything. It merely reports the battery differently.
No amount of software will change how much charge a battery can hold. The only thing that's different is how it's being reported.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, and that was my point to begin with. Originally, the battery indicator reported as critically low in no more than 6 hours. Soon after, the phone would shutdown until put on the charger. With this app I am able to get through the day reporting roughly 30% at bedtime around 10pm. Of course, that is subject to change on a reboot....until fully charged again. This is the mystery.

Yeah, there is funky stuff going on with battery meters. One that is included with the Obsidian Roms is Battery Left, currently, this is showing a 50% charge and 10:19 left. Next to it is Juice Plotter which is showing 21h 11m left. According to the system, i am at 71% Power and it has been unplugged for 6 hours. From experience, I know that the 21h remaining is actually accurate and Battery Left is completely dorked.
The point being, you can't always trust the battery meter.

So I installed a monitor also to try and figure out what was killing my battery 30+% over night and I had the same reaction....I woke up to a 10% loss. I realized what is probably happening is since this app is monitoring the phone all night...whatever app is draining the battery is probably a daemon that only runs when the CPU goes really idle for a certain period of time. More than likely that app inadvertently gave you better battery life because it runs in the foreground and marks your phone as being active so whatever app was killing battery never ran.

Castle5665 said:
The only thing that I can think of to rationalize this huge difference is that the battery percentage was being reported incorrectly before. I may have had a charge that would last all day or longer but it was displaying an accelerated discharge rate which would kill my Vibrant prematurely. For one reason or another, this app appears to have corrected that and the indicator is (I hope) reporting the correct battery life now.
Does that make any sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Since day one, I have had buggy battery reporting. For instance, if I reboot the phone while it is plugged in, the reported battery level changes dramatically.
Edit: your later post supports this idea even further.

I installed this on my phone. This program does not attempt to save battery life or control anything on your phone. It does offers "Tips" to save battery life. Its main purpose is to indicate, based on your current level of charge, how long your battery should last given different circumstances - ex. idle, talk time, video time, audio time, etc... Thus the name BatteryTime.
That's all that it does. Any perception of a longer lasting battery may have been an anomaly as does happen sometimes with our phones. One day you'll seem to be getting awesome battery life (and there is likely an underlying reason which we'll never figure out, but which jives with the battery) and the next day it is back to draining quickly as normal.
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and posts about battery life in smart phone forums.

Anyone have the issue where they charge the phone overnight, the phone reads 100% in the morning, you unplug it and you are immediately down to 7% battery? It seems to happen to me at least twice per week. It is a terrible bug.

i dont get it you said that before the battery wasnt being read correctly so it shut off fast but now with the app it reads correctly and last you the whole day with 30% left to spare?? wouldnt that technically mean it increased battery because you got it to last all day plus some? just by making the phone read the battery correctly.

Fixed the battery :D

So up until today I've been having fairly lousy battery life (understandably) its dual core and h+..its expected..
But I read a thread earlier today (I forgot who, sorry) suggested that you go into the Latitude application and disable it and log out - ever since I did that this morning my battery has been absolutely amazing with the same usage.
It was 16 hours since unplugged from it's AC charger still at 40% which I think is amazing..just wanted to share that with you guys and suggest that you try it!
*Clarification: I normally get 12 hours and it's dead, today with the same usage I got 16 hours and 54 minutes with 40% left
Sorry for the bad grammar I wrote this in a rush

I got similar results from letting it die and get a full charge. From 10 hours to a day easy.. This thing is seriously on steroids.
Sent from my Googletron

So up until today I've been having fairly lousy battery life (understandably) its dual core and h+..its expected..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not really expected, espescially from those two things you mentioned
(btw I am at 50% .. 22h 43m 35s since unplugged)

ChongoDroid said:
I got similar results from letting it die and get a full charge. From 10 hours to a day easy..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lithium Ion batteries are different to their predecessors in that they have no "memory effect". Other, older battery chemistry types had to be fully discharged before charging again for them to be effective and hold a charge. Lithium Ion batteries will not benefit from discharge, and are in fact ruined if you let them completely discharge. If it's a protected battery type it should shut off before it is fully discharged, thus not ruining it, but there is still no benefit. They are also very sensitive to temperature, and heat will kill them too. They will degrade at a much faster rate with heat. These are the two main reasons we have to replace cell phone batteries so frequently.

One annoyance about this phone is that it won't charge from usb worth a damn.
My previous phones I would let "slow charge" off a old powered hub overnight. With the Atrix you pretty much have to use the wall charger which charges much faster.
I swear I got better life out of my old phone when I charged it this way vs the fast charger.

Mine charges fine with USB from my laptop. I get easy 12-14 hours with 30-40% left depending on usage.

CaelanT said:
Lithium Ion batteries are different to their predecessors in that they have no "memory effect". Other, older battery chemistry types had to be fully discharged before charging again for them to be effective and hold a charge. Lithium Ion batteries will not benefit from discharge, and are in fact ruined if you let them completely discharge. If it's a protected battery type it should shut off before it is fully discharged, thus not ruining it, but there is still no benefit. They are also very sensitive to temperature, and heat will kill them too. They will degrade at a much faster rate with heat. These are the two main reasons we have to replace cell phone batteries so frequently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok seriously just google how android handles the battery stats and look for learn mode.
Sent from my Googletron

ChongoDroid said:
Ok seriously just google how android handles the battery stats and look for learn mode.
Sent from my Googletron
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't get your point!
Lithium Ion batteries do not change their chemical make up for Android, Linux, or any other operating system for that matter.
Android "battery stats" have absolutely nothing to do with how a lithium ion battery operates, and is designed to operate. I would love for you to enlighten me on how Android changes this, as your post seems to imply Android can manipulate the chemical makeup and basic design intent of lithium ion batteries!
Protected lithium ion batteries have "protection" circuits in them much like a mini computer which can be programmed to shut them off prior to full discharge, over charge, too much heat, etc. Android can utilize this "mini computer" to prevent problems with the batteries themselves, but not eliminate those problems!
Now, if you really want to argue this, stop quoting Google, (which you actually didn't, you just said Google it!) and we will dig into the full design intent, chemical balance and makeup, and actual results of tests which come directly from the engineers who gave us lithium ion batteries. You can produce your test data to substantiate what you are saying, and I will do the same! If you aren't willing, or can't as I surmise the case will be, stop Googling, and stop jumping up and down because someone has commented something contrary to what you believe or have said. I simply pointed out FACTS relative to lithium ion batteries so people wouldn't be confused thinking the best thing to do is let the battery drain out and then charge it, because if the battery doesn't have a protection circuit, it will die!
<edit> BTW...........If you seriously want to argue this, don't comment back with something childish like a WiKi link............lets get down to the nitty gritty nuts and bolts of this subject!

btw I am at 40% .. 26h 06m 02s since unplugged

1day 10 hours 33 minues 39 seconds since unplugged,
30% left
just plugged in

I'm currently at around 46 hours with like 25% left lol. I guess that's pretty good!
Obviously I'm not having too many problems battery wise, but I was wondering, how do I disable this latitude application? When I click on it in my app drawer, it just takes me to maps... However, I installed GingerBlur, and the latitude app isn't even in my drawer anymore? Is it just an add-on of sorts to the Maps app? If so, if I've never actually signed in or anything does that mean I don't need to worry about disabling?

If you can deal with the lagged connection after unlocking and periodic checks for stuff like email rather than near instant, then JuiceDefender really does seem to go a long way in terms of battery saving.

CaelanT said:
Don't get your point!
Lithium Ion batteries do not change their chemical make up for Android, Linux, or any other operating system for that matter.
Android "battery stats" have absolutely nothing to do with how a lithium ion battery operates, and is designed to operate. I would love for you to enlighten me on how Android changes this, as your post seems to imply Android can manipulate the chemical makeup and basic design intent of lithium ion batteries!
Protected lithium ion batteries have "protection" circuits in them much like a mini computer which can be programmed to shut them off prior to full discharge, over charge, too much heat, etc. Android can utilize this "mini computer" to prevent problems with the batteries themselves, but not eliminate those problems!
Now, if you really want to argue this, stop quoting Google, (which you actually didn't, you just said Google it!) and we will dig into the full design intent, chemical balance and makeup, and actual results of tests which come directly from the engineers who gave us lithium ion batteries. You can produce your test data to substantiate what you are saying, and I will do the same! If you aren't willing, or can't as I surmise the case will be, stop Googling, and stop jumping up and down because someone has commented something contrary to what you believe or have said. I simply pointed out FACTS relative to lithium ion batteries so people wouldn't be confused thinking the best thing to do is let the battery drain out and then charge it, because if the battery doesn't have a protection circuit, it will die!
<edit> BTW...........If you seriously want to argue this, don't comment back with something childish like a WiKi link............lets get down to the nitty gritty nuts and bolts of this subject!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Caelan I'm not trying to be a **** or argue about liion batteries, I know that draining it affects battery health. What I'm saying is that I read back in my n1 days that theirs a way to enter "learn mode" from plugging in your phone while the shutdown process (chimes, and the "shutting down phone") note this was all from xda and all for the n1 so I have no idea if its as simple on the atrix. I was going to attempt this but I fell asleep and it completely discharged and on the next charge it has calibrated itself and I'm experiencing much better results.
I know its not placebo because nothing has changed usage wise. Same apps same deal.
I only told you to google it because thats what I did and I can't remember what article. Cheers
** on a side note I did this on my xoom because I was having problems with bad battery after using oc kernels and continual bad battery after flashing back. And I can report 3 days uptime so far so theirs something to this.
Sent from my Googletron

And yes I agree that if you are simply a power user and you have a lot of weak internet connections and run your screen on full brightness you will experience very little affect from calibration but if your a moderate user that is having problems getting your phone to sleep properly and still getting 10 hours then something is wrong.
No android does not chemically change batteries but it does control how much juice is used for certain activities. I noticed that my battery would drain rapidly from 100 to 60 with little usage and having my screen off didn't seem to slow it down. From 60% it would be better but at the 20% it would take a long time to drain. After I calibrated my battery it drained only with usage and would practically stop if the screen was turned off. Hopefully that can help someone... I know how annoying an unconditioned battery can be.
Ps what caelan is saying is true so if you do calibrate don't do it often because this leads to shorter battery life in the long run.
Sent from my Googletron

I run gingerblur 3.5 on my atrix and it more than doubles my battery life over stock. Just plugged mine in and was 1 day and 23 hours since last plugged in. I don't do a lot of stuff with it besides text and try not to have a TON of apps running.

ChongoDroid said:
Caelan I'm not trying to be a **** or argue about liion batteries, I know that draining it affects battery health. What I'm saying is that I read back in my n1 days that theirs a way to enter "learn mode" from plugging in your phone while the shutdown process (chimes, and the "shutting down phone") note this was all from xda and all for the n1 so I have no idea if its as simple on the atrix. I was going to attempt this but I fell asleep and it completely discharged and on the next charge it has calibrated itself and I'm experiencing much better results.
I know its not placebo because nothing has changed usage wise. Same apps same deal.
I only told you to google it because thats what I did and I can't remember what article. Cheers
** on a side note I did this on my xoom because I was having problems with bad battery after using oc kernels and continual bad battery after flashing back. And I can report 3 days uptime so far so theirs something to this.
Sent from my Googletron
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we go for a few beers? I think we would have some f**ked up conversations followed by more beer drinking! LOL
Sent from WinBorg 4G via XDA premium app

roharia said:
So up until today I've been having fairly lousy battery life (understandably) its dual core and h+..its expected..
But I read a thread earlier today (I forgot who, sorry) suggested that you go into the Latitude application and disable it and log out - ever since I did that this morning my battery has been absolutely amazing with the same usage.
It was 16 hours since unplugged from it's AC charger still at 40% which I think is amazing..just wanted to share that with you guys and suggest that you try it!
*Clarification: I normally get 12 hours and it's dead, today with the same usage I got 16 hours and 54 minutes with 40% left
Sorry for the bad grammar I wrote this in a rush
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now I am at 1 day and 10 hrs @ 40%.
Download Elixir and load up a 7x1 widget on your home screen. add in Wifi and GPS switches. These will save your battery life the most.

do any of the users that get well above 16 hours of battery life want to elaborate on what applications may be running, widgets, etc? I have my brightness set to 11%, have 5 homescreen pages, mostly widgets that refresh hourly or longer, and hardly ever have wifi on.

basically you had your gps reporting your location all day long. No wonder you got a lousy battery life. You should have seen the gps icon on and the app being listed on the battery manager.

Just wait till exchange corporate sync goes nuts and drains your battery in 3 hours flat.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

Battery seems to drain fast when 50% or less, is this normal?

When my phone is fully charged or has 70 or 60% remaining battery it seems to drain as normal, around 2-5% over a 10 hour or so period...
However, I've noticed once the battery decreases below 50% it drains FAST, why?
Anyone else noticed this? Test it for yourselves, monitor the TIME it takes to decrease from 100 to 50% and then from 50% to 0.
Yesterday I forgot my phone in the car whilst going to work. It was turned on however it was sitting all day in the car.
Once I returned from work I was shocked to find the phone would not turn on.
At first I thought there was a problem or some kind of fault. Once I plugged in the charger it started to charge, the battery cut and the phone automatically turned off!
I remember the phone had around 48% battery remaining, no wifi or 3g or data turned on. It was simply idling...
So the question is HOW can the battery drain from 48% to 0% over a 10 hour period without being used???
Should my battery of been ANYTHING over 50% it would only lose a few percent...

Same thing for me. (Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 - stock Android 2.3.6)
Battery slowly decreases from 100% to ~50% and then ~2x faster.
I charged the note on my computer and then switched to the charger (at ~60% of charge).
I'm no expert of battery charging etc. but just remembered my iPhone 3GS discharging faster when charged on the computer than with the charger.
If it's the same for the note, some cells could discharge faster because charged on the computer.
Can someone confirm this (or not) ?
How did you charge your phone ?

boubou2k said:
Same thing for me. (Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 - stock Android 2.3.6)
Battery slowly decreases from 100% to ~50% and then ~2x faster.
I charged the note on my computer and then switched to the charger (at ~60% of charge).
I'm no expert of battery charging etc. but just remembered my iPhone 3GS discharging faster when charged on the computer than with the charger.
If it's the same for the note, some cells could discharge faster because charged on the computer.
Can someone confirm this (or not) ?
How did you charge your phone ?
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Same thing happnd with me, and charging my phone thru electric charger..

So it seems this behaviour happens to several other Note users, why?
It's a problem knowing that having around 50% left in your battery will struggle to make it through the day with little to no use...

Have you people set the wifi to turn of while the screen is off? This is unnoticeable in the daily use, but increase the batterytime massively. The setting for this is hidden, you have to push menubutton while in the wifi-settings.

Here I thought I was only imagining things about the battery life dropping faster once it has reached 49% or less.

EarlZ said:
Here I thought I was only imagining things about the battery life dropping faster once it has reached 49% or less.
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Haha, nice to know I'm not the ONLY one facing this bug...
I can only hope Ice Cream Sandwich solves this battery drain issue.

Hmm, i think i have the same problem, but i'm not sure. Will get back to this thread when i've investigated a little bit.

This may be a typical samsung issue.
I remember when i had the spica , the battery percentage lining in kernel was totally wrong. I think its done on purpose so you would feel like you have more battery life. 75 % of the battery drains slow. And the rest 25 super fast. Can be fixed within kernel.
Sent from my LG-P990 using Tapatalk

I believe its just a placebo effect. Battery usage always depends on so many factors its a pain to even consider starting looking for the issue.
Being on stock KK5 not rooted, i cannot report the same. I only see "fast battery drain" at the last 4-5%. If you feel its an issue, could you post the firmware version you are on and the battery stats graph just for reference?

Placebo or not its something I can definitely feel on my Galaxy Note.

EarlZ said:
Placebo or not its something I can definitely feel on my Galaxy Note.
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When you get the chance, could you post the battery stats graph please? what we should see is a (lets say) 30 degrees angle and at about halfway it gets steeper.
I know its quite hard to demonstrate the issue, but if you lets say use wifi to browse the first 50% in text only sites and then visit youtube for the last 50%, it won't help the test.
A nice way to test it would be to charge it to 100%, then load up a long movie and repeat playing it till the battery is 2-3%. Then post the results.

roxxy said:
Have you people set the wifi to turn of while the screen is off? This is unnoticeable in the daily use, but increase the batterytime massively. The setting for this is hidden, you have to push menubutton while in the wifi-settings.
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Click to collapse
When the Wifi is disconnected, the 3G scanning will get on. Isn't that defeating the purpose?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

Hey there!
I would suggest to load the battery 100%, plug it out, go into recovery and wipe battery stats.
I have to admit that I don´t know exactly what this workaround does, but I read about it in another forum...and it worked for me, my battery status is much more accurate now!

JulyDerek said:
When the Wifi is disconnected, the 3G scanning will get on. Isn't that defeating the purpose?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Wifi will continue to scan for wlans near it every second or so
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

I'm back. I've had the Diagnosis app running for the past hour, and i got some interesting results.

---Wiping battery stats does not help---, a full charge automatically causes battery stats reset.
I full charged mine with the electric charger after fully discharging it without turning it on.
This time i didn't notice any change in discharge speed between 100%-50% and 50%-0%.
Last time I charged the phone it was not fully discharged. Charged it from 30% to 50% then 50% to 75% on the computer, and 75% to 100% using electric charger.
It's just a supposition, but maybe doing several partial charges while using the phone makes the battery % information inaccurate (wrong battery stats?).
[Edit]In this case, wiping battery stats should show accurate battery %. [/Edit]

I had a similar problem, and I think it is to do with some incorrect scaling or measurement.
I was down to 28%, and it seemed to be draining fast even though I was not using it. I rebooted (I love how quick that is after my Arc was so slow). On restart it was at 17% ! The usage graph just did an instant drop.
I also had another occasion where it remained at 100% for 2 1/5 hours of use.
I assume some calibration issues caused the meter to read the battery wrong. I am turning off on the w/e overnight (when I do not need the alarm) to see if a slow (180 mA) charge while off will help. I may even get a decent alarm clock so I can turn the phone off at nights and charge. I spend too much time in the morning checking my email and reading news!

What is more consistent on mine is that when the battery drops to 9% or less the loss is like 1% per ~10-15% and this is with wifi/3g off, phone locked.

I'm back again. I've had some serious battery drain the last couple of days, but i noticed that Auto Sync was enabled. Once i deactivated it it got much better. Pulled the phone from the charger 9 hours ago and i'm at 90% battery left. I've sent some SMS, a few calls and that's about it, but it doesn't drain while it's in standby now, so i'm happy with it.

WTF my battery is insane... any ideas?

Ok so I can't figure this out. My battery is kind of "retarded" for lack of a better word.
I can charge it up to 100%, reset battery stats (even if I don't the same will happen)... then let it drain. It will drain insanely fast... I mean from 100 to dead in maybe an hour sometimes...
Then I go ahead and plug it into the charger... for just 15 seconds... when I take it off the charger and turn it back on it'll have another 50% battery life, sometimes more sometimes less....
It's almost as if the battery isn't reading correctly and then the phone can't detect how much battery is left so won't let me turn it on unless I plug it in really quick...
Tried another battery and that one does the same thing.... What in gods name could be going on...
and yes.. I searched... before I hear the hit the search 2000x times.

Here is the instructions from the ExROM thread, they worked perfect for me:
Code:
--> For battery life: I think that you have to calibrate your battery.
- Run the device down until it turns itself off.
- Turn it back on and wait for it to turn itself off again.
- Remove the battery for 10 seconds.
- Replace the battery, but leave the device off.
- Charge the device until full and then for another hour.
- Enter recovery and go to advanced -> wipe battery status. Apply it.
- Run the device’s battery down until it turns itself off.
- Turn the device on and charge for at least 8 hours.
- Unplug the device, turn off, then charge for another hour.
- Unplug the device, turn on, wait 2 minutes.
- Turn off again and charge for another hour.
- Restart and use as normal.

I shall try those but who knows...
I've literally been turning the phone on, it dies the minute it hits the lock screen. Plug it in now for just 3 seconds until it says VIBRANT, it will load up shut down.. have down this about 30 times...
I'm lost on how the phone has enough juice to boot and shi*.... it's driving me nuts doing this over and over and over.. oh wait just turned on again and it's at 5%. This is stupid....
lol i will post back after I try these instructions I guess....

You MUST calibrate your battery every time you see a weird behaviour or install a new kernel. You wrote that you tried another battery, so we can exclude a premature death of the battery.

are you able to get into RECOVERY mode and stay there without it rebooting? Or even Download mode?

yo i dont understand.. didnt a google employee go out and make a public statement that batterystats.bin has NOTHING to do with battery calibration, its only used to keep the data from the settings>battery use graph throughout reboots? In the same statement, i think i remember she told aandroid users NOT to let their batteries die and charge em full cause that will damage the batt.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.

I made a nice detailed post about this a while back, it took a google employee for people here to believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_effect
(Keep in mind, this applies to NiCad... but the effects are the same)
Bad news bro, your battery is bad. If you full discharge/recharge all the time, it will just hasten its death. Deep cycle charging when the battery is that far gone doesn't really have the same effect.
Try coaxing it back to life by recharging it to 100% then hitting the charger again at 75% a few times. This will increase the capacitance of the battery if there is hope of life. If it doesn't improve, its life is almost over.

younix258 said:
yo i dont understand.. didnt a google employee go out and make a public statement that batterystats.bin has NOTHING to do with battery calibration, its only used to keep the data from the settings>battery use graph throughout reboots? In the same statement, i think i remember she told aandroid users NOT to let their batteries die and charge em full cause that will damage the batt.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
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Click to collapse
Correct. According to her Calibrating does pretty much nothing except make you THINK your battery is better/worse/same.
Haxel said:
I made a nice detailed post about this a while back, it took a google employee for people here to believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_effect
(Keep in mind, this applies to NiCad... but the effects are the same)
Bad news bro, your battery is bad. If you full discharge/recharge all the time, it will just hasten its death. Deep cycle charging when the battery is that far gone doesn't really have the same effect.
Try coaxing it back to life by recharging it to 100% then hitting the charger again at 75% a few times. This will increase the capacitance of the battery if there is hope of life. If it doesn't improve, its life is almost over.
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Click to collapse
thanks for the interesting read, i love reading things that the mind thinks as something for a weird reason.. Placebo effect etc.
Putting your battery down to an absolute 0% will do nothing but hurt your battery. This would have worked if we were still in the 80s and 90s, but these are Li-on batteries, they work differently and it actually hurts them.

Ok so I have RESTORED the battery...
Here is what was going on after further looking. I downloaded a battery stat/drain program to see what exactly was going on...
Under a load the battery mV will change drastically, then once it settles down the mV will actually rise making the % rise...
So I completely killed the battery, I mean dead.. Restarted the phone, plug it in for just a second.. I took it to the point that I killed the SOB battery.
I then charged it up, and while charging I would use the battery drain program. the mV would change drastically and I did this every 10%.
So far so good, the phone has been on for 4 hours now and i've only drained 8%... I will see how it continues.
I've also been resetting my battery stats not because I believe it relates the phone to the actual battery % but the % would fluctuate on the phone, and I thought the phone was saying "batterys dead don't turn on" kind of thing...

Ok. Again.
Here is a more in-detail article with a quick google.
http://www.atomicmods.com/Categories/QandA-Batteries.aspx
How long will these batteries last?
Lithium-based batteries have a lifetime of 2-3 years. The clock starts ticking as soon as the battery comes off the manufacturing line. The capacity loss manifests itself in increased internal resistance caused by oxidation. Eventually, the cell resistance will reach a point where the pack can no longer deliver the stored energy; although the battery may still contain ample charge. Increasing internal resistance is common to cobalt-based lithium-ion. The speed by which lithium-ion ages is governed by storage temperature and state-of-charge. Figure 1 illustrates the capacity loss as a function of these two parameters.
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Although, there has been arguments for years about Li-ion "memory". Li-ions are not afflicted with the "memory" issues of other chemical types. What they are afflicted with is the inability to hold a consistent current under stress/load with age/oxidation (aging effect of the Li-ion batteries). This is where your battery sits. On the precipice of death. You may get another year or two out of it (if you're lucky.. really more like a few months) with a few correct charging cycles, but that is it.
Bringing a Li-ion to near 0 and back does not help the battery, it is 100% a placebo effect with short term gains at best. A common cause of your particular problem...
Lithium-ion batteries are often exposed to unfavorable temperatures, and these include leaving a cell phone in the hot sun or operating a laptop on the power grid. Elevated temperature and allowing the battery to sit at the maximum charge voltage for expended periods of time explains the shorter than expected battery life. Elevated temperature and excessive overcharge also stresses lead and nickel-based batteries. All batteries must have the ability to relax after charged, even when kept on float or trickle charge.
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http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_store_batteries
I'm giving random googling as I know it's difficult to believe a random person on the internet. No two type of manufactured batteries are created/engineered the same, but I'm basing my statements of chemical composition and the basic fundamentals of the Li-ion battery tech.

younix258 said:
yo i dont understand.. didnt a google employee go out and make a public statement that batterystats.bin has NOTHING to do with battery calibration, its only used to keep the data from the settings>battery use graph throughout reboots? In the same statement, i think i remember she told aandroid users NOT to let their batteries die and charge em full cause that will damage the batt.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA

Most of these battery calibration techniques sound like a practical joke.
the only way you'll truly get a perfect idea of what your battery life is going to be is to drop the phone in the toilet.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using XDA