Related
So I read this fuzemobility.com article about battery life and thought I'd write a super long comment with sweet hyperlinks but it turned out to be too long for their blog configuration. So my XDA friends, here it is. I invite you to contribute any tips and insight you may have to the handful of gems I came up with about gems other people came up with:
WMLongLife by Chainfire, the venerable codemaster known most for wmwifirouter (even though his other work is awesomely impressive), drops you down from H*/3G to EDGE when your screen shuts off for a minute. It will also kill the data connection if inactive for a minute. When you turn the screen back on, it stays on edge, but if you start an app from a 3G whitelist you make, like including Opera and SiriusWM5 but not FlexMail, that app will kick it back into 3G. Switching from edge to 3G takes roughly six seconds he says but probably worth it if you like to save yourself battery (and your gonads from radiation).
Thread
Lumos by nik3r is a great replacement to HTC's included backlight adjusting system. It uses the light meter and you can specify how dim you're willing to go in dark conditions and how bright you have to have it in sunlight. You can tweak every point in between if you want, define what conditions you believe to be bright (and warranting full backlight juice) and dark (running low power). Very low cpu usage, low memory, no battery drain when not using the phone, no cpu involved with fluttering backlight levels, delightful gui frontend, fun to configure. Requires phone with a light meter like the Raphael and Diamond.
Thread
IMAP-Idle or push activesync or instant messaging or PocketPuTTy or PocketIRC or PornTube or anything that keeps the data connection open, even with very little throughput going on, drains substantially harder than having no data connection (just phone, SMS) so use that knowing you're sacrificing battery life (which I do). I'm not sure about this but if you like to use AIM and have an unlimited text messanging plan, using an sms-based IM client like OZ Messenger/Mobile IM may use less juice than something like Agile or IM+ which keeps the connection alive. What I am right about is insisting that you use Outlook Email Scheduler to specify Pocket Outlook synchronizing frequencies over peak and off-peak hours, brilliant program (also does imap idle!!). So with this, in addition to "push" mail which now supports gmail (it's actually called IMAP-idle with non-Exchange mail servers), you can set your phone to cycle pocket outlook synching, say, every five minutes during the day and every half hour after 10pm, whatever you want.
Thread, website.
This one is more for convenience than it is a miracle battery saver, but Touch InCall Screen Tweak by StevePritchard shuts your screen off when you take a call and put the thing to your head and, using the light and g-sensor, when you pull it away as if to dial in your calling card it lights it back up and when you put it back to your head, it dims it. Very handy. The NoSleepRaphael killer.
Thread.
I definitely do not recommend trying this if you are afraid of danger or bricking your phone but here are two links for you crazy underclockers. I can't tell so far if it does in fact successfully throttle my processor, I can't tell if I was able to get the speed back up either by setting it back or by uninstalling, I just don't know but here it is. Couldn't find much feedback so if any of you know how to test battery drain and also don't care about warranty compliance, maybe post results in this thread which I have no doubt will blow up into huge popularity . You must have a Qualcomm MSM7XXX(A)-based processor, so google first to double check:
nueDynamicClock, nueClockControl
Raphael/Touch Pro/Fuze users: Make sure you got the right radio with the right rilphone.dll properly installed. If you're AT&T grab 1.12.25.19, not 1.14.25.05 (I've only seen mixed reviews and I myself was not breathtaken it), and then Chainfire and P1Tater's 1.12.25.19/rilphone.dll combo cab. If you're not AT&T, I believe you want to stick to 1.11.25.01 (and grab the right rilphone cab accordingly). If you're fully Olipro-unlocked, you probably know enough about non-Raphael radios and don't need my advice.
Raph radios, Chainfire/P1Tater raph rilphones.
Rhodium Manila is badass, I know, and I have a lot of respect and appreciation for xboxmod and his posse (I'm really in awe) but don't use Rhodium Manila if you want to save battery life (or ram or storage or cpu) more than you want to be dazzled by TP2TF3D. Use pjc's ripped oldschool HTC Home (vga) with TodayAgenda underneath. Maybe SPB Mobile Shell's better than regular Manila, it's probably better than Rhodium Manila (in terms of battery at least) unless you're spinning the 3D stuff nonstop. I don't know about WM6.5's efficiency. Just flashed it. If you know, post. SPB Mobile Shell's trialware btw.
PJC's HTC Home thread, TodayAgenda's site, SPB's site.
If you try to do your own power tests to contribute your scientific studies to your local Ultimate Radio Thread, keep in mind that in lower signal areas your phone must crank out bigger radio waves to reach the tower. So you must be careful to keep everything constant except the variable, the radio, including the time-range during the day you do battery and bandwidth tests (including weekdays versus weekends when switching from one to the other) as in dense areas, capacity gets maxed out with carriers who don't have enough infrastructure to handle the loads. I get this all the time even in Manhattan where you'd think AT&T would get their poop together.
You could cruise through the Accessories forum of your phone (here's the Raphael's) to hunt down an extended life battery but those tend not to be cheap, they make your phone thicker, you have to recalibrate your phone's mechanism to measure battery power and the initial charging training is a ***** and there's a chance you'll get ripped off so consider just buying an extra OEM battery and maybe an extra charger for your office. They fit well in that little secret pocket of your jeans, unless you already use it for a zippo lighter.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no memory effect issue with lithium ion batteries. Don't do full discharges with this intent. Don't do that. Your battery's longevity diminishes over usage, including deliberate discharges. Best bet, for a phone you rely on, is to charge whenever you can charge. Yes a battery's longevity diminishes faster over time if you store it with a full charge (verus 50%) extendedly, but hey, you need that sucker ready to go so use it and buy another one eventually. Temperature and resistance also accelerates decline meaning if you use an equivilant amount of milliamp hours over a week with your phone on standby versus four hours using GPS or wifi, and you do this a lot, it takes a heavier toll on your battery. If you have two batteries and tether or GPS or wifi a lot and then are in situations where you don't do that, consider designating with a sharpie one battery for brutal use and the other for light use. If you're draining heavily over long periods of time while charging your phone, that eats away at your battery's long-term longevity the same as if you used it and then charged it. Actually probably a little more because charging your battery heats it up even hotter than tethering all your pr0n which hurts. Two batteries. Drop $45 at your local dealer or search on froogle to save a few bucks.
According to IRC, there is no idle drain difference between regular 3G and HSDPA (but there is between either of those and EDGE). It all comes down to throughput, not the protocol; however, if you're in a rural area where there is only EDGE, you probably want to shut off 3G as, I'm told, your phone eats up considerable juice by trying to search for a 3G tower. Note that charging on USB theoretically gives you 500mA tops (more like 400 at best) whereas your charger is 1A (at least for the TP). If your phone gets hotter than 43 degrees celsius (use BatteryStatus or this Battery.zip which is a ppc exe to monitor temperature and drain) it will, based on my studies, charge slower, and not at all at 47. ABCPowermeter, by the way, does not work on Touch Pros and I'm guessing on its cousins either.
That's it I'm done.
Doug
Very nice post. Thank you.
Thanks for the write up.
I really appreciate it and some of the methods actually works for me.
All the best!
check it
This dude bauerpavel made a pretty badass pimp tight post on batteries. I didn't really read it but I can tell at first glance that he knows what he's talkin' 'bout.
Thanks for the info. I found this really well written & concise
d0ugie said:
So my XDA friends, here it is. I invite you to contribute any tips and insight you may have to the handful of gems I came up with about gems other people came up with:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice roundup, well done! So, not much left to add. Still, this is my contribution:
Like Touch InCall Screen, cleanRAM isn't a miracle battery saver. But scheduling it and not letting it wake up your device to clean your RAM, could also increase battery life if it kills zombie battery draining processes. And managing your memory this way also keeps you from soft resetting, saving battery.
In Advanced Config, enable all the Power Management settings. And I have Network - Turn off Wi-Fi if no activity: set to Yes; Network - Wi-Fi auto off timeout: set to 1m; and in Menu - More settings - Connections, enable Disconnect after: set to 45s. I don't know how much impact the G-sensor and Light sensor polling intervals have on the battery. But it probably won't hurt if you increase them to a level that works for you.
Apart from all the nice sensor based (un)locking and launching features this lightweight application offers, I have TouchLockPro set to suspend my Diamond again after 5s, after it is woken up without unlocking it. Enough time for me to unlock it. Or just check the time or check whatever application running in the foreground at the moment of suspend. Because TLP has no foreground window like S2U2 or PocketShield.
Using a locking mechanism is already a battery saver by design, by the way. As it prevents unwanted key and touch screen actions that could possibly have an effect on your battery life.
I'm also used to suspend my device myself whenever I think I won't use it for some time. As long as it doesn't take too much time. So I've set the G-Sensor options in TouchLockPro to lock and suspend when I place it face down on any surface. And it also locks and suspends on top down. So I just have to put my Diamond upside down in my pocket, as I always do, and have it locked and suspended.
When it lies face up, I don't need to pick it up and rotate it in any way. I just keep the WinMo start button pressed for about 1s, because the QuickMenu option Long-press win logo is set to suspend.
Just in case I forget to suspend it myself I have the WinMo Settings - System - Power - Advanced options set to the lowest possible settings. Backlight off after 10s and Device off after 40s on battery power. And I have Backlight - Auto adjust backlight disabled for Lumos, of course. There's just one problem. Sometimes, somehow, Backlight - Auto adjust backlight is enabled and both Advanced - Turn off backlight and device are disabled. Without me knowing. I've noticed it a few times after a soft reset, but I can't reproduce it at will. Maybe I'll look for a way to force my power settings after soft reset.
d0ugie said:
ABCPowermeter, by the way, does not work on Touch Pros and I'm guessing on its cousins either.
Doug
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Click to collapse
acbTaskMan (which includes CPU and power graphing ability of acbPowerMeter) does have a version compatible with the newer HTC devices. I'm using 1.4.2 on my HTC Diamond.
Another Way of Switchiing Phone Band
Another way to switch phone band, based on MortScript and Vijay555's VJOKButt. Very lite but it works, check here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3726097&postcount=11171
Be careful with any automatic band switches as if it does it during a phone call it WILL drop the call. Also keep in mind that if you force things to EDGE you cannot do voice and data at the same time.
In my experience, there is zero power usage difference in EDGE and 3G/HSPA except when transferring data. If my phone is running its normal compliment of programs (GPSToday, S2U2 2.02, PhoneAlarm, KaiserNotification, AEButton Plus, GPSGate, CellID (uploads CID to predefined location if changed every 10m), etc, the phone runs <1%/hr battery. If I enable Flexmail, which has two online IMAP mail boxes and about 6 others it syncs every 6 hours, 7-8%/hr on 3G, 3-4% on EDGE. So as the OP mentions, it's data usage/throughput/type but not necessarily just being connected, has to be in use.
As for backlights, personally I can't stand those programs that autoadjust the backlight as it ALWAYS fails in my office where the phone gets in the shadows and then I can't read the screen because it's too dim. But perhaps still useful if you can set how low it can go, as long as it doesn't interfere with PhoneAlarm, which I use to set the backlight for some given profiles (night time, car daytime, etc).
Good post, hope some people learn from it.
Yep...
You're fricken awesome.... Need I say more?
I just thought I should point out that you can see a marked improvement in battery life when using TF3D2 if you go to the internet tab/menu/data settings and disable push pages!
where i tup your .exe ?
in internal folder ?
khaytsus said:
Be careful with any automatic band switches as if it does it during a phone call it WILL drop the call. Also keep in mind that if you force things to EDGE you cannot do voice and data at the same time.
In my experience, there is zero power usage difference in EDGE and 3G/HSPA except when transferring data. If my phone is running its normal compliment of programs (GPSToday, S2U2 2.02, PhoneAlarm, KaiserNotification, AEButton Plus, GPSGate, CellID (uploads CID to predefined location if changed every 10m), etc, the phone runs <1%/hr battery. If I enable Flexmail, which has two online IMAP mail boxes and about 6 others it syncs every 6 hours, 7-8%/hr on 3G, 3-4% on EDGE. So as the OP mentions, it's data usage/throughput/type but not necessarily just being connected, has to be in use.
As for backlights, personally I can't stand those programs that autoadjust the backlight as it ALWAYS fails in my office where the phone gets in the shadows and then I can't read the screen because it's too dim. But perhaps still useful if you can set how low it can go, as long as it doesn't interfere with PhoneAlarm, which I use to set the backlight for some given profiles (night time, car daytime, etc).
Good post, hope some people learn from it.
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Click to collapse
So, if I understand correctly, the option "disconnect data connection after xx min" will not change the battery consumption ?
I can let my Phone continuously on HSDPA or EDGE with no difference, only when I use the connection.
other question, wich one (EDGE or HSDPA) consume more power when transmitting ?
thanks
Maybe this Battery Guard application could prove handy for battery conservation fanatics
Thanks for this post. I am about to get a Touch Diamond and have heard about poor battery life. This post gives me some confidence that I should be able to tweak my device.
pwye said:
Thanks for this post. I am about to get a Touch Diamond and have heard about poor battery life. This post gives me some confidence that I should be able to tweak my device.
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Click to collapse
Its a HTC mate & the battery life will always be crap, its the price we pay to be cutting edge i guess
My test & results regarding the 60mA standby high battery drain in Android -PLS READ
Hi all. This is a continuation to the thread here but as that thread is full of theories and speculation I figure I'd start a new thread with 'real world' results when it comes to this battery drain issue in Android.
I've been trying hard this weekend to replicate that's been causing the seemingly spontaneous leaps to high battery drain in standby.
I can confirm, at least on my end (UK HD2, WM6.5 CleanEx, Android Darkstone SuperRAM 1.5) that enabling airplane mode in WM before booting android DOES NOT stop the high battery drain.
It seems, at least right now, that the battery drain in indeed caused by the GPS module either being or having been active in Android.
This morning I was having regular 5-9mA drain in standby. I enabled GPS on the way to work, took the phone off the charger and BAM... 60mA in standby thereafter (long after closing all GPS-enabled apps).
Rather than rebooting or anything like that, I plain disabled the GPS module via the Power Control widget (you can add it to part of your homescreen). Switched backlight off and on again a few seconds later... 5-9mA drain (and this is with WiFi enabled)
Here's a test I've just done.
Conditions:
- Loaded DarkStone's Froyo SuperRAM 1.5.
- WiFi, Data, Sync, Auto-brightness, 3G+2G enabled. Bluetooth isn't enabled.
- I won't be rebooting, using task managers or anything like that in between tests as I want to find a 'practical' solution to this issue until a fix is found. Rebooting, waiting for a GPS lock, etc every time you wish to put your phone in your pocket isn't practical.
- If I report ~5mA this is just what's being said by CurrentWidget. It may spike a few seconds later but we can, I think, safely assume that there is a major difference between ~5-30mA readings and ~59-90mA readings.
Results:
1. ~5mA to ~10mA in standby since disabling GPS in Power Controls.
2. Enabled GPS control again and we're up to ~59mA to ~90mA in standby.
3. Kept GPS control enabled but disabled "Use wireless networks" in Data and Security - ~59mA in standby (NOTHING LOWER!).
4. Disabled GPS from Power Control widget again and we're back down to ~9mA
5. Kept GPS disabled but enabled "Use wireless networks" in Data and Security, then opened Google Maps to get my location based on cell tower. Switched screen off. ~10mA in standby.
6. Enabled GPS again - ~60mA in standby
7. Disabled GPS again - ~9mA
Conclusion:
There seems to be a serious problem with the GPS module/driver/whatever under Android when it comes to power management!
SO - it seems, at least for me, that the only solution to this issue right now is to disable GPS altogether and renable it when I want to use a GPS-based application. This isn't great as these wonderful devices are heavily built around being able to keep track of your and friends locations, movements and all other GPS-orientated tasks.
So +1 for an urgent call out to the devs to took further into this issue! Please everyone keep posting your results as this is the biggest, if not only, thing keeping me and I'm sure others from saying Android is perfect for the HD2!
On another note - I also find that the battery discharges when GPS is enabled (e.g. running Google Navigation or Sygic Aura) even whilst plugged in to my car's 12v port via USB adapter. This isn't *always* the case, but it ALWAYS can only 'trickle charge' at best... i.e. An hour on the road using GMaps/Aura will, at best, have around 7% put back into the battery. Under WM with TomTom active the phone would have charged/held its charge quickly. This makes using Android on the HD2 for long trips pointless.
Hope these results help weed out this issue that's been driving me and many others insane for a long time!!
I'd like to elaborate on my last point a little more. The stuff about the battery drain / lack of fast charge in the car with GPS enabled.
I disabled GPS and plugged the HD2 into my 12v, it charged pretty quick. As soon as I enabled GPS and ran for example Google Navigation it would either lose %s despite being plugged in or just *barely* charge after being plugged in for a while.
Remember I have no problem charging and holding charge in WM with GPS active. I had a similar problem with my HTC Hermes in-car years ago.
So this again points to the GPS chip or driver putting excessive strain on the battery, under Android.
Who else has been using Android for Navigation in their car and noticed this?
I will switch radios but I've been though probably half a dozen radios since Android came to the HD2 and experienced this problem with all of them!
SMS92 said:
I'd like to elaborate on my last point a little more. The stuff about the battery drain / lack of fast charge in the car with GPS enabled.
I disabled GPS and plugged the HD2 into my 12v, it charged pretty quick. As soon as I enabled GPS and ran for example Google Navigation it would either lose %s despite being plugged in or just *barely* charge after being plugged in for a while.
Remember I have no problem charging and holding charge in WM with GPS active. I had a similar problem with my HTC Hermes in-car years ago.
So this again points to the GPS chip or driver putting excessive strain on the battery, under Android.
Who else has been using Android for Navigation in their car and noticed this?
I will switch radios but I've been though probably half a dozen radios since Android came to the HD2 and experienced this problem with all of them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check your hd2 if it is charging as USB (charge only) or as a regular charger. That happened to me when I used the wrong cable for the charger.
You should definitely try recalibrating your battery, and as jose mentioned, if you're using a charger\cable that isn't meant for your device it will slowly damage your battery.. so I would recalibrate and wipe batt stats. Also, using EBL set to 3 sec helps a lot and using SetCPU with correct profile settings.. the list goes on man, the quicker you boot from winmo to android the better. (switching to nand might be a good decision as well if your ready to lose WM.. huge difference)
There's quite a few battery threads now.. might want to take a peak
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9019755&postcount=29339
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734886
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8990839#post8990839
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10433749#post10433749
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881958
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=827355
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=819534
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=825989
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=796134
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=749753
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=737001
That should do it I think..
Scabes24 said:
... if you're using a charger\cable that isn't meant for your device it will slowly damage your battery..
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Click to collapse
Curious about this statement. What would define the wrong cable? Thickness? Aren't all micro usb connections the same?
My HD2, running Dutty FAM V24 ROM, SD card version android built 2.2.1 with Sense. I installed the current widgets which shows i have over 100 mA draining even when my phone is not used. Thank for your information disabling the GPS in Power Control Widget, I now have 6-8 mA during phone standby.
Looks like this make sense having the GPS disabling, compromising some features but having 2 OS in one phone is fairly acceptable. I can just switch back to WM6.5 when I need navigation.
Most of my droid using colleagues are quite impressed at how i manage to squeeze so much battery life out of my handset. I thought it was time to compile and share my tips and tricks with the community. I get about 20+ hours with relatively heavy use
First some caveats.
This is what I personally do - and I simply want to share if some of these tips and tricks can be useful for others. Your personal mileage will vary and not all of these tips will be applicable to all users. With that in mind, these are my personal requirements and phone capabilities which affect my strategy for longer battery life:
Some sort of data Connection Always On
At least 2,000 in quadrant after standard boot
Background Data Always On and AutoSync always on
WaveSecure and LBE Security Service Always On
Google Voice for sms and call forwarding/routing
1000 minutes + 5gb data grandfathered plan - so no use for major data monitoring and no use for wifi calling
Frequent use of bluetooth stereo headphones in conjunction with Amazon MP3 and Google Music Beta - music synced then listened to, rarely streamed
Infrequent use of Pandora
Required ROMS, Apps and Programs
Cyanogen Mod 7 Latest Nightly (kernel of your preference)
Tasker
Autostarts
Root Explorer
Titanium Backup (useful, not required)
Step 1: Remove CM Bloat
Before and after flashing a nightly I run Titanium Backup and backup all system apps just in case something gets ****ed up during what I do next. In general, I uninstall any apps i don't use and backup + uninstall any apps i use very infrequently.
I then uninstall the following:
File Manager (replaced by root explorer which is far more powerful)
Sound Recorder (keep in mind, im using GV for SMS and do not use MMS),
Music (replaced by the new google music from market and amazon mp3)
Voice Dialer (i've never understood the need for this when we have google voice search)
Home Screen Tips
Magic Smoke Wallpaper (if you don't use it)
Music Visualization Wallpapers (if you don't use it)
ADW Launcher (if you don't use it)
Gan Optimizer and Wifi Calling
Email (i only use gmail app and have it setup such that other accounts are forwarded, labeled, and gmail can SEND AS: other account)
FM Radio (people still listen to FM after howard stern went to satellite?)
Dev Tools (I never find a need for this)
Keep in mind all of these are backed up in case you decide you want them back or something breaks. Also, you might need to force close out of kineto/wifi calling before the uninstall through applications -> running services.
Step 2: Settings
I don't **** around with Render Effect for battery savings - it only helps on AMOLED screens (confirmed by c00ller here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14509485&postcount=4)
I have auto brightness disabled and use the status bar swipe brightness to adjust
CPU Governor: I prefer Smartass if available, if not then interactive, if not then on demand. I used to use Pershoot - but I think i now prefer Umaro or stock.
CPU Clock: I have this set to 1.2mhz. Honestly, its faster than most phones out there both in how it feels and quadrant score. 1.5 seems like overkill - and it will drain the battery faster. This really comes to personal preference though. Min should always be lowest frequency.
to make the system feel faster, i make all animations fast in spare parts. as a result, i do not use the screen on/off animations.
VM heap @ 32 mb
lock home in memory, use jit, enable surface dithering
GPS Always On
Step 3: Take control over startup
This where autostarts comes into play. Note that both After Startup and Connectivity Changed are triggered on boot - so this is where things need to be disabled. Here is what i have disabled:
xda premium
(Amazon) Appstore
Messaging (I only kept messaging so i can recieve t-mobile alerts)
Springpad
Maps (should be disabled unless you are a big latitude user)
Amazon MP3
Skype (keep enabled if you do sync and want to be signed in on boot)
Ebay (keep enabled if you have auction alerts on)
Touch Pal Dialer (still deciding if i like this or stock)
SyncMyPix
ROM Manager Premium License
DropBox
Netflix
Shopper
Firefox Beta (keeping this app around to see if it ever improves vs stock or dolphin)
(Google) Earth
(Google) Docs
Note that this isnt fully comprehensive for what u would want to disable - in general keep the google apps enabled and any apps u know should run at startup (for example those that receive push messages) or that you want to poll immediately.
Step 4: Automate with Tasker
I use tasker to do some automatic toggling of settings.
Primary battery savings: location based profiles that use location w/o tears (network location) that intelligently turn wifi on and off in locations where I know I have wifi access (for example in my apartment or near work + during work hours + not holiday + weekday). Under wifi settings -> advanced make sure the wifi sleep policy is set to Never.
I don't do this, but you may also want a profile that sets wifi off or data off or autosync off while at home during sleeping hours.
Secondary battery savings: when bluetooth is turned on, wait for connection for 3 minutes. if no connection is made, turn off. when bluetooth device is disconnected, check for another existing connection or new connection for next 3 minutes. if no connection is made, turn off.
Tertiary battery savings: Profile that alerts when battery is fully charged (with british higher pitched female voice) to prevent overcharging/battery damage (please correct me if this is a myth but ive found it to be true, anecdotally).
Additional Thoughts about Other Profile Apps and Tasker
I have found that apps like setcpu have a definite negative affect on battery life. Most kernel governors manage themselves properly and profiles are not needed unless doing heavy overclocking where you need high temperature failsafes.
Additionally, apps like juice defender seems to waste a lot of battery in their monitoring (versus Tasker) and I think the tendency for that app to toggle the cellular radio on and off (with that 20s delay) actually hurts battery. Again, I own these apps and have used them extensively and decided against them - but it does come down to personal preference. Still, an app like Tasker can do everything juice defender and setcpu do, if necessary albeit less intuitively, but with a smaller memory footprint.
A note on Bump Charging
See here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=871051
condensed: bump charging works but can weaken your battery in the long run. avoid it if you care about your battery longevity or have frequent access to chargers throughout the day.
Thanks to c00ler for the tip to byrong's research.
Open Questions that I have
Radio questions
If in a high 4g/3g penetration area - is it better to be on WCDMA Preferred or WCDMA Only?
If in constant wifi coverage - is it better to be on 2g only or a WCDMA setting?
If in constant wifi coverage - is it better to have cell radio off and make calls over wifi only?
Other questions
Is there any battery life correlation to USB PC charging vs Wall charging? What about stock charger vs other micro usb chargers?
Is battery weakened from extended time spent plugged in?
Is there anything else I am missing? I hope this guide is helpful.
Reserved for followup.
Great posts.
I recommend to freeze those system apps rather than to remove/uninstall them using Titanium Backup.
Considering that you 're using CM 7 nightly, there's a bit much work to do to uninstall the unnecessary system apps after flashing new ROMs.
Just don't know whether freezing a app would do more harm to performance than to just remove/uninstall them or not.
A few answers:
sundar2012 said:
Is battery weakened from extended time spent plugged in?
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Click to collapse
I do not know the exact answer but I will tell you that PC USB ports are limited to providing a typical maximum current of 500 mA while the wall charger that came with our device is capable of 1.0 A or 1000 mA. I use an app called Battery Monitor Widget and realistically I've seen numbers like 200-300 and 500-700 mA, respectively, as the charge current is a function of battery %. What I'm saying is USB charging for Wall charging is really more a matter of how battery life is affected by charge rate. I've read on the one had moving ions too quickly in a battery can lead to decreased lifetime while on the other, fast charging avoids crystallization of battery microstructure, which is good. Read more at batteryuniversity.com
sundar2012 said:
Is battery weakened from extended time spent plugged in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read this post.
sundar2012 said:
Does render effect only confer battery savings to AMOLED screens?
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Yes, it only affects AMOLED screens. Why? Because in an AMOLED, every pixel IS its own light source. Every pixel can turn itself on and off at will. Therefore, darker wallpapers, images, themes, etc will have more pixels at a low-power state and lead to decreased power consumption. On the other hand, LCDs have a backlight that is always on, even when looking at a "pure black" image. To produce the dark image, the LCDs have liquid crystals that polarize the light perpendicularly to each other so that (theoretically) none goes through. However there is always leakage, which is why blacks never look as black as they do on AMOLEDs (lower contrast ratio), which can literally turn off to produce true blacks. Basically for dark images, AMOLEDs are dynamic go into a lower power state while LCDs are static and maintain one relatively high power state at all times.
c00ller said:
A few answers:
I do not know the exact answer but I will tell you that PC USB ports are limited to providing a typical maximum current of 500 mA while the wall charger that came with our device is capable of 1.0 A or 1000 mA. I use an app called Battery Monitor Widget and realistically I've seen numbers like 200-300 and 500-700 mA, respectively, as the charge current is a function of battery %. What I'm saying is USB charging for Wall charging is really more a matter of how battery life is affected by charge rate. I've read on the one had moving ions too quickly in a battery can lead to decreased lifetime while on the other, fast charging avoids crystallization of battery microstructure, which is good. Read more at batteryuniversity.com
Read this post.
Yes, it only affects AMOLED screens. Why? Because in an AMOLED, every pixel IS its own light source. Every pixel can turn itself on and off at will. Therefore, darker wallpapers, images, themes, etc will have more pixels at a low-power state and lead to decreased power consumption. On the other hand, LCDs have a backlight that is always on, even when looking at a "pure black" image. To produce the dark image, the LCDs have liquid crystals that polarize the light perpendicularly to each other so that (theoretically) none goes through. However there is always leakage, which is why blacks never look as black as they do on AMOLEDs (lower contrast ratio), which can literally turn off to produce true blacks. Basically for dark images, AMOLEDs are dynamic go into a lower power state while LCDs are static and maintain one relatively high power state at all times.
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Thanks, will update thread to reflect information about bump charging and AMOLED.
Nuff Said
Dunno' about you, but after an year I started noticing the battery isn't as good as back then.
Try JuiceDefender, that's what I'm using right now and it's quite good.
Doesnt that waste more battery?
Cause it runs in the background?
Not really sure, but thats what i think.
I vote JuiceDefender as well. It has very minor battery impact for a decent amount saved (as long as the phone's on standby and not syncing a lot). You don't state what you've already tried, but with root & unlocked bootloader you can underclock and undervolt which helps save battery a lot. Delete unneeded apps, especially the stock crud. Make sure no apps are using partial wake locks (keeping the phone from going into deep sleep) by using BetterBatteryStats. Btw, BetterBatteryStats can identify a lot of things that might be draining your battery. Of course, the most obvious battery savers would be turning brightness down, turning off GPS, turning off WiFi, lowering volume, etc.
Auto Brightness on or off ?
Really? Xperia Play's been the only Android device I've ever owned where battery life WASN'T a concern.
...at any rate... here's some tips!
• Toggle Data to "Off" when it's not needed or switch to 2G/EDGE (or even Airplane Mode for dedicated gaming sessions)
• Enable Auto-Brightness
• Disable the notifications in any app that keeps your phone in a data retrieving cycle (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Weather, etc)
• Keep GPS/Location Data off whenever possible
• Stay away from process heavy battery destroying whores like Regina Launcher, GoLauncher, Xperia Home, Fullscreen Launcher and Claystone
• Use a minimalistic launcher (LauncherPro, Smart Launcher, Lightning Launcher, ssLauncher)
• If you like live wallpapers, that's fine - but fine-tune their options so that they aren't always murdering your battery
• Make sure your WiFi connection is set to disable mobile data (this is commonly set by default)
• Be very wise about your widget usage. If you're going to use them, fine-tune their settings so that they don't murder your battery
• Give your phone a complete battery drain, then recharge fully at least once every month.
• If you're in low-reception areas that have WiFi, save your phone a lot of battery-draining connection conflicts by keeping WiFi on.
I'm using almost everything TLR suggested plus set CPU with a profile for screen off that turns the CPU down to 340mhz. Battery seems to last pretty decent for me.
Sent from my R800i using xda app-developers app
TLR brightness option is diff than mine, instead of auto bright i just simply put it as low as possible. It totally savs more.
Im using a Mugen 1800 battery . Bought it last week and i easily get 20-40% more charge than with the standard one.
It lasted me for full 2 days of light usage (2 hours and 30 minutes of display time) .
Tried nearly everything on this page.BUT, does OC waste alot of battery??
Overclocking would make your battery worse. I don't know if it has a major effect though, depends what you overclock it to.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda app-developers app
CyberScopes said:
Nuff Said
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How much battery time are you getting now?
My advice, go back to 100% stock factory reset.
Then debloat.
If your phone is old, your battery probably lost some of its capacity, so you could try a new battery.
Sent from my R800x using xda app-developers app
My battery is fine now, tried all the tips and made massive difference. Thanks everyone!!
I don't know if battery is different here in Aus (BST41-1500mAh), but mine is 18 months old and just by turning off bluetooth and WiFi and controlling screen brightness and 3G as i need them, i got 2 days general use (10 calls per day 50 sms and 1hr 3G web browsing per day) R800i.
Last month i flashed JellyBean following these instructions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801983 and now I get 3-4 days use! With this mod I can leave it in 2G mode and for some reason it still gets data via EDGE so I can still get facebook + skype messages etc. This feature and i'm guessing better control of the CPU and tasks are obviously the main reasons for better life
I would really like that rom but i need camera.
Hi !
I'am interested in optimizing battery usage/life on my Note 3.
I want to know what functions is free to switch off or reconfigure to decrese battery usage
But I dont want to cut phone functonality too much...
I'am not interested to tips like:
- switch Wi-Fi OFF
- switch Bluetooth OFF
- switch GPS OFF
- disable synchronization
- disable background data
- disable S Beam, NFC, Air Gesture, Air View, Smart Stay
- disable vibrations
- switch phone OFF when not using
- turn Power Save mode ON
- turn Airplane Mode ON
- lower down CPU/GPU frequency
Because they make phone much less usable and fun because it's many nice and amazing functions wont work...
I've already applied following tips:
- disable Google Now
- disable raporting GPS position
- disable location history
- turn screen brightness to AUTO
- remove unused/unneccecary widgets (especially this with auto update/sync)
- turn off autostart of unnececary apps (with All-In-One Toolbox)
- turn off "notifications from server" in "Samsung Apps" settings
Because i know that following tips are working and have positive impact on battery life (about 20% more power in my case)
I can't root phone (MJ7 firmware...) so I cant use Greenify to make more battery life...
If somone know some more configs/tips/apps that can be applied to increase battery life I will be very interested
- turn screen brightness to AUTO
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This I believe is a myth, if anything AUTO uses more battery IMO. I set my brightness at around 40% or so and I get 30 hours (with 3-4Hours screen time) or so average out of my battery, Only other thing I disable is GPS.
It's more about how/what you actually use on your phone rather than what you can disable and not use.
I think you're looking for a reduction in "idle" battery drain as in use battery drain is kinda unavoidable.
There are tools like "Tasker" you can use to automate all the radios
you can use "app ops" to stop all the apps that push your location (this will do the most)
"autostart manager" allows you to stop apps from running all the time.
Do you have an n9005? If so the Snapdragon Battery Guru app definitely helps by switching your networks on and off based on usage, etc.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
dr.m0x said:
Do you have an n9005? If so the Snapdragon Battery Guru app definitely helps by switching your networks on and off based on usage, etc.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
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I never thought about that, I had that on my HTC One. But I didn't find that it helped much in all honesty. I'd be interested to know how well it's responding with the N9005 though, are you using it?
radicalisto said:
I never thought about that, I had that on my HTC One. But I didn't find that it helped much in all honesty. I'd be interested to know how well it's responding with the N9005 though, are you using it?
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Yes I am. It doesn't make a night and day difference but it definitely makes a difference. I even uninstalled it to double check that I wasn't imagining it, now I'm annoyed with myself because it's still learning again.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Without all you wrote.. rules are those:
1) NEVER close apps (if you close the app ram pages will be deleted, so, it's needed to re-upload those, it has an huge energy consuption
2) use the phone "slowly".. i'm meaning, the fingers moves
3) if you are reading a text, read all the page than slide to see the new text, it's to prevent an high ramp up of frequency for long time
radicalisto -> thx for tip
nakedtime -> App Ops is quite good app ! Thx But "AutoStart Manager" is not working on my phone (crashing)...
dr.m0x -> I need to test this app thx
It's npt a good way to install an app to controll emergy consuption..
App needs cpu usage.. cpu ramp up..
so, you disable the radios for little time, and energy spent to do it could me more by cpu ramp up frequency
i suppouse you have the snap version.. and.. as i can see, snap has a good ondemand sysfs setting, it means it doesen't grow up frequency too fast, so, more than this is quite impossible
Only with an huge undervolt
I've installed this "Snapdragon Battery Guru"... now it's in "learning mode" I will see if it will help or not...
I have better replacement for "AutoStart Manager" and it's called "All-In-One Toolbox" which have the option to chose apps for autostart (and has many more other features) - i'am using it for quite a while and it's working fine
iba21 said:
It's npt a good way to install an app to controll emergy consuption..
App needs cpu usage.. cpu ramp up..
so, you disable the radios for little time, and energy spent to do it could me more by cpu ramp up frequency
i suppouse you have the snap version.. and.. as i can see, snap has a good ondemand sysfs setting, it means it doesen't grow up frequency too fast, so, more than this is quite impossible
Only with an huge undervolt
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Snapdragon battery guru raplace the sysfs of the governor
First impressions from this Battery Guru are not so good... Battery is running down faster than without it... Maybe because its still in "learning mode"...
Yup just cause it's in learning mode, it'll settle once it's learnt everything
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I will wait until "learning mode" ends and see if it's working
I am not a heavy user so a battery last more than a day sometimes 3 days.If I was I would just get an extra battery and not obsess over trying to maximise battery life.One of the advantages the Note has over most other phones is a removable battery.Take advantage of this feature.It takes less than minute to change a battery.
Replacing battery requires switch off the phone and taking off back cover of the phone (i'am affraid that it will damage it after many opens... i'ts a plastic after all...) and then put back cover and switch on the phone... It's troublesome and not comfortable...
FPPfan said:
Replacing battery requires switch off the phone and taking off back cover of the phone (i'am affraid that it will damage it after many opens... i'ts a plastic after all...) and then put back cover and switch on the phone... It's troublesome and not comfortable...
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It doesn't take long to switch the phone off.Mine takes 10 seconds.Taking the back off and replacing the battery takes another 15 seconds.Turning it back on takes another 15 seconds.All up less than a minute.
I can imagine how some people might be reluctant to take the back cover off almost daily.The back cover feels a bit flimsy and it's reasonable to assume it won't be durable with that sort of usage.I have the Note 1 and after two years of almost daily taking the back cover off it is still fine.The Note 1's battery life is horrible and even with light use I don't get a full day from it.Most people replace their phone after 2 or 3 years anyway so I don't think durability is a problem unless maybe you plan to keep it for 5 years.
But I can understand why some people might be reluctant to repeatedly tear the back cover off their brand new pride and joy.
I guessed everyone had their own way of energy conservation. For me, I use dark wallpaper. For our screen (Super Amoled), Black = LED off. LED off = not using energy. So in theory, black wallpaper or black background should uses much less energy than bright sunny light wallpaper.
vandals01 said:
I guessed everyone had their own way of energy conservation. For me, I use dark wallpaper. For our screen (Super Amoled), Black = LED off. LED off = not using energy. So in theory, black wallpaper or black background should uses much less energy than bright sunny light wallpaper.
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This is very true for Amoled displays.The only time I notice my N3 drains the battery more than usual is when the display shows a lot of white such as internet surfing and using WhatsApp.Watching a movie does not display a lot of white and the N3 battery life becomes remarkable.
Battery
Go into the application settings and deactivate all samsung apps u dont need! Saves alot of Battery. Don't charge ur note if its Not empty. Just charge it if u are under 25%. You can also work with Tasker - it helps you to save your Power if u change yours settings automaticly. Also dont change ur brightness all the time
Hope it helps