I've had my HTC Touch on CDMA/Bell Canada for about half a year now. I love the phone but the battery life just sucks. I can't get through a full day without having to plug in. Where I work and where I live the CDMA signal is weak. My phone is constantly flipping back and forth between X1 and EVDO and voice calls are not very reliable.
I know things like Push mail, GPS...and other data agressive applications will drain the battery, however even when I turn everything off except for the phone itself I can't get through a fully day.
I suspect my phone is constantly busy trying to maintain a connection to the cell network. Does anyone have any tips on how I could help get better battery life?
Leon.
lbloo said:
I've had my HTC Touch on CDMA/Bell Canada for about half a year now. I love the phone but the battery life just sucks. I can't get through a full day without having to plug in. Where I work and where I live the CDMA signal is weak. My phone is constantly flipping back and forth between X1 and EVDO and voice calls are not very reliable.
I know things like Push mail, GPS...and other data agressive applications will drain the battery, however even when I turn everything off except for the phone itself I can't get through a fully day.
I suspect my phone is constantly busy trying to maintain a connection to the cell network. Does anyone have any tips on how I could help get better battery life?
Leon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is very hard to provide you with any help when we really don't know what you have installed and running on your phone. Some plugins can drain your battery while they are running - EG - WeatherPanel - Try not to let this program keep running if you have it installed - especially with animated weather icons. Reduce the brightness of your display screen if you can manage that. Make sure that your display is shutting off as well. Keeping the display on will surely drain your battery. Set it to shut off after so many seconds of inactivity. Take a look at your task manager to make sure that you don't have many programs running in the background - and set your task manager to actualy close programs when you tap on the x as it is default setting to just minimize your apps and not close them. If they are all running in the backgroung, you will surely see battery drain.
With a bare bones configuration my battery would last around 10 hours before I had to plug in. All I had running was basically my phone and some light web surfing.
I've since loaded up my phone with a apps/plug-ins and my battery last about 5 hours now sometimes less. I am running some apps which do things in the background:
-Weather Panel, no animated graphics (Auto update every 6 hours)
-HTC HUB (Auto update every 6 hours)
-Push Email (Zimbra mail, looks like Exchange)
-Pull Email (Gmail) every 30 minutes
Even if I can get all these applications to be much less power hungry, I'll get at most 10 hours. I'm hoping to get multiple days of battery life, not just hours.
While on holiday I turned off the phone, went into Flight mode for a week, but still used GPS on occassion. My batteries then lasted days!
Thanks for your suggestions about those apps.
I can almost go more than half a day, which is enough to get me from my house, to work (or wherever I go), and back home. I'm thinking I should get a spare charger for my office though.
But I have running:
FlexMail, with 2 IMAP accounts, and Live account
Palringo or Live Messenger (depends which ROM I'm using !)
Some Opera browsing
Occasional GPS
Some MP3's
And the obvious phone calls
Ohh, and when I get bored, some Kevtris!
I leave work at 4pm, and when I arive at work the following day at 7am, I'm usually at 20% battery life, and that's with it being plugged in via usb for at least 3-5 hours during the evening. Barebones flash, with SPB Mobile Shell 2.0, and that's about it. It's a bummer, having to stay close to a usb port or wall outlet.
I did notice, my normal power consumption is 150-250mAH, however when I plug in to usb, it jumps to 400-500mAH, sometimes higher. That is with activesync or without, doesn't seem to make a difference.
Well, I don't know about Zimbra, but I know the SEVEN push service absolutely *destroyed* my battery life. I just set my phone to check my Gmail every 5 min, and it's good enough for me, with much better battery life.
That said, your problem is your location. Your phone will burn a lot of juice if you work in a basement or dead zone trying to find towers. There's not really anything you can do about it, other than turn off the phone radio when you know you're going to be out of range, but of course, that defeats the purpose of having a cell phone.
Get a new job, get a 2nd battery, or plug it in at work. Smart phones don't have great battery life to begin with, and if you are getting a weak signal, you are just out of luck.
[EDIT]
Or, you can try one of those Sprint base stations. You may not be able to set one up at work, but you can at least do it at home. Should help some.
I got an extended battery (Seidio 2000 mAh) and my phone lasts for more than 24 hours now, probably 2 days if i let it go without a charge long enough.
Like right now I have had a bunch of phone calls, done a bunch of texting, played some kevtris and my phone has a lot of stuff installed on it. It's been off the charger since 9:30AM and its 4:40PM now and the battery is at 81%.
Before I got the extended battery my phone would probably be at less than 50% at this point in time. The extended battery does make the phone A BIT bulkier, but its really not that big of a difference to me.
This happened a few years when I had my first battery.
When the charge gets to a certain level - in the first case, it was about 50% - the machine simply switched off and refused to boot until the battery was fully charged again. Of course, with 50% left, there should have been tons of juice to keep powering the thing.
The same is happening now - but when the charge has gone down to 70%. Why? There should be plenty of juice, but the machine once again seems to think that there is insufficient to run the machine.
I really love the Uni, of all the HTC devices I still think the world of it, and I am reluctant to waste even modest amounts of money on fake replacement batteries which only last a couple of weeks, so what do I do?
Is there some registry tweak which will stop this process happening? How do I tell the machine just to soldier on, ignore the fact that the battery may be a little weaker than before?
Any suggestions welcome,
rjstep3
You need to buy a new one, not much else to do. You could try battery reviving techniques (freezing etc.) but I doubt they'd be effective - I have a similar battery that dies on 85% and nothing works. It's not a software problem. I'd get a few from different sources so you'll have spares and at least one or two will work without problems.
I get what you're saying, I also love my Jasjar to death, though more as a PDA than as a phone. If only we could stick HD2's internals and screen in it
Edit : you've probably read this ,but in case you haven't : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=344264
Get a new battery 15-25US on ebay
thanks guys, it is something which seems to affect the Universal - I have never had this with other gadgets.
I am going to try to "recalibrate" the battery one last time, then if that doesn't work, off to ebay I go.
On the point of the HD2's screen - I actually like the Jasjar because it is still the old-fashioned VGA, I find some software doesn't run on the WVGA of the newer devices.
thanks again,
rjstep3
This is a guide I put together to help you guys identify all the battery draining features and settings that exist on your Note 2014 that rob you of that precious time with your tablets. Many of these features are enabled out of the box by Samsung and this causes people to not get the most out of their batteries. It can be confusing, because many of these settings don't have any explanations and others are just hidden from plain sight. This guide exists to enable you to get the most out of your investment and maintain a long life for your device.
Under the Connections Tab:
Wi-Fi: All you see here is the Wifi connections you have and that the tablet can see. However, hidden under this is an advanced section. Press the Menu button (On the bezel to the left of your home button), then tap "Advanced"
Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep: Make sure this is set to "Always". If this is changed then every time you wake the screen up it will go through the very slow process of connecting to your access point. It's been shown to save a lot of battery to keep this on "Always", not to mention it makes all your internet related activities quicker because you don't have to wait for it to connect. This should be set to "Always" out of the box.
Always allow scanning: Uncheck this. If left checked, then apps and location services will constantly scan and use nearby access points to determine your location. This is done even when your Wifi is off.
Bluetooth: Keep Bluetooth off, unless you're using it. It only takes a quick slide and tap to turn it on from the notification bar, when it's needed. Remember to turn it off when you're done using it.
Location Services:
Access to my location: Turn it off. If and when location services are needed by an app, such as Maps, you will be prompted to turn it on and conveniently taken to the correct settings page to enable this feature. A simple press of the back button will return you to your app, without disturbing anything. It can also be quickly engaged and disengaged in the notification bar. Aside from the fact that advertisers (Yes, Google is an ad company) use this information to track your every move, it's a major drain on battery all for the purpose of selling your location habits to advertisers.
My places: This can be be used to set a place for your "Home" or "Office" so apps and widgets such as your helpful weather app can use this information to show you relevant information, without having to access your GPS. This can also been done through the apps themselves, so check the settings of that individual app if you're not getting the desired effect.
Nearby Devices: Keep this feature off until you want to connect to another device to transfer files or share other content.
Screen Mirroring: Turn screen mirroring off. Screen mirroring is helpful when you want to use your tablet as a second screen, but during the 99% of the time that you're not using it, it's constantly scanning for a device to mirror. (Strangely, this feature once turned off, will turn back on when you leave this portion of the settings. This is possibly a glitch on Samsung's part that may need to be fixed)
Under the Device Tab:
Sound:
Vibration Intensity: The "Vibration Intensity" is used to control the strength of the vibration for haptic feedback or for rarer instances when vibration is needed. Play with this and put it on the lowest setting that you find satisfactory.
Haptic Feedback & Key-tap Vibration: Haptic Feedback & Key-tap Vibration is the small vibration you sense when you touch certain parts of the screen. Most of the time it's used when touching each key on the keyboard as you type. Turning haptic feedback off will increase the longevity of your battery, but it's a satisfying feature to have and won't cause too much drain on your battery. Of course, that all depends on how much you type. If you use your tablet like a type writer, consider turning this feature off.
Under the Controls Tab:
S-Pen:
Turn off pen detection: Check this. This feature exists to accept the use of a secondary stylus. It leaves the WACOM digitizer active and ready to accept inputs from another pen, while your original one is docked. If you have no intention of using a secondary stylus, then make sure this is turned off.
Motions: Used to control the contents of the screen through the gyroscopic sensors of your device. Tilt or pan the device to browse through a series of images or zoom in. Considered to be a gimmicky feature by many, it's also a major drain on battery life. Turn it off and use your tablet with your fingers like the rest of the population.
Palm Motion: Wave your hand in front of the screen and you can do a screen capture or mute/pause the video. Or you can just move your waving hand a few inches closer to the screen and just pause/mute by touching the device! This feature is achieved by activating a sensor on the front of your device that constantly watches for your actions and it's a major drain on battery life. Turn it off!
Smart Screen:
Smart stay: This feature will keep the screen on as long as you're staring at it. Great way to avoid tapping the screen every minute so it doesn't lock itself. But the cost at which it accomplishes this is considerable and doesn't always work right. I recommend you turn it off
Smart Rotation: Uses the mega draining sensor to watch the orientation of your face and adjusts the rotation of the screen. Like the other features it doesn't do it's job all that well at the expense of a lot of battery. Turn it off
Smart Pause: Similar to "Smart stay" but instead it watches your entire head to make sure you're facing the screen. Turn away and it pauses the video you're looking at. Battery drain galore. Off.
Smart Scroll: Watches the tilt of your head to predict when it should scroll up or down. Give me a break. Turn it off.
Under the General Tab:
Accounts: This is a doozy. Your device, if you don't change anything, will constantly, throughout the day, sync your information to the "Cloud." Even when your screen is off and you're not using it, 24/7. Aside from the privacy implications, because anything in the cloud ceases to belong to you under the law. This bleeds your battery on a whole different level because it's always working, at least once an hour, even when your not using your tablet. It's important to note though, that it also enables a considerable amount of convenience, so I will go through each bit of information it syncs and describe it to you so you can pick and choose what's important to you. Just uncheck whatever you don't need.
Google: You may have more than just Google under this section of the settings, but the one thing everyone has is a Google account under here. So tap on "Google" under "My accounts", then tap on your Gmail address, under "Accounts" and let's begin....
Sync App Data: The information you input into your various apps, the changes in each app's settings, or the progress you make can be backed up to Google's servers so when you switch devices and put that app on the another device you will be able to continue from where you left off.
Sync Calender: If you use Google Calender for appointments, reminders, scheduling or just organizing your life then you're going to want everything to stay up to date across all your devices and PC. Add an appointment to your calender while on your way to work, then make sure it appears on your PC and tablet as well. If you don't use Google Calender, then you do not need this.
Sync Contact: Turn this off. You're not on a phone. You're on a tablet. Unnecessary to say the least. However, if you were on a phone this would sync your contacts list and the changes you make to it so when the time comes to upgrade your Nexus 5 to the Nexus 6 your contacts will happily jump ship with you.
Sync Gmail: Uploads and downloads changes to your Gmail account. If you receive an email, it will alert you on your device and that email will be available to view in your Gmail app. If you compose an email on your tablet and save it as a draft it, will appear on your Gmail account when you login on your computer. In other words, it makes sure the things that happen and the changes you make in your Gmail account and Gmail app are synchronized.
Sync Google Photos: Backs up your Google photos to the cloud so you can have them on all your android devices, even future ones. Also, so you can view and have these photos on any device that has access to Google, like a PC.
Sync Play Books: Syncs information such as highlights, annotations, bookmarks and progress from your e-books so you can have those changes across all your devices. Stopped reading Catcher in the Rye on your phone? Just pick up where you left off on your tablet. (This won't effect purchases. Google will be fully aware of what books you have bought and they will be available on all your devices that use this same Google account. This goes for Play Magazines, Play Movies & TV, and Play Music)
Sync Google Play Magazines: Same as the sync for Play Books, except you can continue viewing Miss January's "assets" from another device without interruption.
Sync Google Play Movies & TV: Saves your progress in films and TV shows so you can continue on another device from the exact same spot.
Sync Google Play Music: Favorites & playlists created on your device will be viewable on other devices tied to your Google account.
Sync People details: Kinda confusing isn't it? Especially with Sync Contacts already an option. "People details" is a new sync service related to Google Play Games. It will be used to carry your username across all your games from a centralized location. So you can go and compare high scores and get achievements all from this service. Think of Google Play Games like PSN, Xbox Live or Game Center for your android devices, "Sync People details" will sync your progress, high scores, and achievements so they stay up to date everywhere else.
Sync Picasa Web albums: Picasa is used to organize, edit and share images. This will synchronize the changes you make to your Picasa images.
(I personally only have one of these checked and that's Gmail sync. Everything else is turned off.)
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Practicing Good Recharging Habits
In this short section, I want to share with you good recharging habits to extend the life of your batteries. A common technology most portable modern electronics share is Li-Ion batteries. Li-Ion batteries replaced the older Ni-Cad batteries and did away with a lot of the annoying disadvantages of that older technology, but it's not free of it's own annoyances.
Charge Cycles: Your battery, like everything on this planet, has a life span. For batteries it's measured in charge cycles, or how many times you can fully charge a battery before it can no longer hold a charge. Except, it doesn't just go from holding a full charge one day to being incapable of charging the next, it slowly degrades. The chart below shows you what you can roughly expect:
300 to 500 full charges before your battery can only hold 75% of it's original capacity
1,200 to 1,500 full charges before your battery is down to 50% of it's original capacity
2,000 to 2,500 full charges before your battery is down to 25% of it's original capacity
3,750 to 4,700 full charges before your battery can only hold 10% of it's original capacity.
If your battery lasted 10 hours when you first purchased your device, then 1,200 full charges later it will only be able to last 5. Now, it's important to note that the longevity of you battery depends on more than just charge cycles, heat also plays a role in degrading it. The cooler you battery stays the longer it'll live. Also, I want to clarify that if you were to charge your device from 50% to full, then that doesn't count as a full charge, but only half of one. In other words, if you charge it 10% every single time you plug in your device, then it will take 3,000 - 5,000 of your incremental charges before you're down to 75% of it's original capacity.
Leaving it Plugged In: You have two common ways of hurting the life span of your battery, aside from heat and charge cycles. One of which is to leave it on the charger once it has already hit the 100% mark. Li-Ion batteries don't do well with this. I can understand how difficult it is to remember to unplug your device once it's full, especially if you charge it at night, but leaving it on there isn't good. Take it off whenever you're able to!
Complete Discharge The second most common way of damaging your Li-Ion battery is to let it drain down to 0. Certain safety guards are in place to never allow the battery to actually be fully discharged, even though your tablet won't turn on and it read 0 before it turned off, because if it were to actually be completely discharged then your battery would never be of use to you again. Safety guards in place or not, DON'T let your battery level get too low before plugging it in. This will lower the life span, so make it a habit to charge your device before it gets lower than 30% or so.
The Exception There is, however, an exception to the No Discharge Rule. It is recommended, most famously by Apple, to allow your battery to fully discharge once a month. The reason behind this confusing bit of advice is that your battery has a smart sensor in it that relays the level of charge to your device. By allowing it to discharge completely once a month, it calibrates that sensor to ensure you're getting an accurate reading in your notification bar. I personally think once a month is too often and suspect that this advice may have an ulterior motive behind it, after all replacing batteries outside of warranty is big business for these companies, so I only let it do a full discharge once every 2 or 3 months.
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There you have it. Your Note 2014 guide to longer periods of enjoyment and shorter periods of charging. I hope you guys get a lot out of your device.
Feel free to share your experiences and expertise regarding everything I've written about in here. I'm all ears and look forward to shaping, editing and clarifying this guide to better serve us.
The description of the S-Pen detection is wrong, this has nothing to do with forgetting the S-Pen, the detdction cares shere the S-Pen is in its slot or not. If it is in his slot and the detection is rnabled, the digitizer is disabled thus saving battery. The detection needs to be switched off and thus digitizer always on if a second pen is used while the original is in its slot.
Erstellt mit meinem Note 10.1 2014 LTE
akxak said:
The description of the S-Pen detection is wrong, this has nothing to do with forgetting the S-Pen, the detdction cares shere the S-Pen is in its slot or not. If it is in his slot and the detection is rnabled, the digitizer is disabled thus saving battery. The detection needs to be switched off and thus digitizer always on if a second pen is used while the original is in its slot.
Erstellt mit meinem Note 10.1 2014 LTE
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Click to collapse
I just looked into this again and you're absolutely correct. I fixed that portion. I had it confused with the "Pen Keeper" feature from the Note 2 and 3. Thanks akxak.
Thanks for this! Already noticed a significant difference. Should easily last two days with regular mixed use.
Thanks a lot mate. Good tips.
I didn't know it was bad to leave the charger attached once the battery is charged. I assumed the battery electronics would ensure the battery didn't get overcharged.
I leave my laptop plugged most of the time.... Is this bad too then?
Great tips and tweaks. Thanks for the time care and knowledge sharing for us fellow owners. I used most of these.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
jack880 said:
Thanks a lot mate. Good tips.
I didn't know it was bad to leave the charger attached once the battery is charged. I assumed the battery electronics would ensure the battery didn't get overcharged.
I leave my laptop plugged most of the time.... Is this bad too then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah they dont overcharge but a battery needs to disharge. I still do leave my laptop on charge all the time and tbh in the last 6 years i have had to replace my battery twice considering I use it a lot atleast 6hours a day i dont think its that bad. At a mere £30 battery replacements from ebay am happy to keep my laptop on charge all the time....however with a tablet i will deffo be careful.
Geordie Affy said:
Yeah they dont overcharge but a battery needs to disharge. I still do leave my laptop on charge all the time and tbh in the last 6 years i have had to replace my battery twice considering I use it a lot atleast 6hours a day i dont think its that bad. At a mere £30 battery replacements from ebay am happy to keep my laptop on charge all the time....however with a tablet i will deffo be careful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My laptop has a sealed battery unfortunately. Could probably get it replaced though once the warranty has expired anyway...
Thing is if I keep discharging and charging it all day, a) it'll use up the limited number of charge cycles and b) chances are when I need to take it away somewhere the battery won't be fully charged... It's a samsung and it does have the option to never charge the battery above 80% to prolong its life - maybe I should switch that on...
Wonder why the tablets don't have that option?
jack880 said:
My laptop has a sealed battery unfortunately. Could probably get it replaced though once the warranty has expired anyway...
Thing is if I keep discharging and charging it all day, a) it'll use up the limited number of charge cycles and b) chances are when I need to take it away somewhere the battery won't be fully charged... It's a samsung and it does have the option to never charge the battery above 80% to prolong its life - maybe I should switch that on...
Wonder why the tablets don't have that option?
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Click to collapse
Yeah that is unfortunate, these days people use laptops like desktops so battery should never be sealed.
Although surely if the tablet had a 80% charge limit and the plug was left in surely that wouldnt be good for it either. To be honest I think theres soo much factors when it comes to battery life that sometimes I think its too much hardwork haha.
How does the S-pen alarm thing work? I didn't know there was a setting for that. I tested it with leaving the pen in my room and walking out with the note but there was no notification at all.
I have that s-pen detection setting unchecked and it seems like it doesn't even work.
You guys are all welcome. It was my pleasure.
Also, start posting pictures of your battery life and let's compare, see if we can't come up with more minor tweaks. Here's mine from my first rundown with those exact setting applied from my OP. I used it heavily for internet browsing that day.
C2Q said:
How does the S-pen alarm thing work? I didn't know there was a setting for that. I tested it with leaving the pen in my room and walking out with the note but there was no notification at all.
I have that s-pen detection setting unchecked and it seems like it doesn't even work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, I didn't see this feature on the Note 2014. I know my Note II has it and I know the Note III has it. I could be wrong as I'm not near my tablet, so someone else can confirm whether or not this feature is missing. The feature is called Pen Keeper on my Note II.
vdc530 said:
You guys are all welcome. It was my pleasure.
Also, start posting pictures of your battery life and let's compare, see if we can't come up with more minor tweaks. Here's mine from my first rundown with those exact setting applied from my OP. I used it heavily for internet browsing that day.
To be honest, I didn't see this feature on the Note 2014. I know my Note II has it and I know the Note III has it. I could be wrong as I'm not near my tablet, so someone else can confirm whether or not this feature is missing. The feature is called Pen Keeper on my Note II.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And screen on?
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
BooBoo_el_Locco said:
And screen on?
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Unfortunately, like an idiot, it didn't occur to me take that shot. But, it felt no different than my 4th generation iPad. I'm very happy with this tablet's battery life. Aside from my note 2, this probably has the strongest battery life of any android device I've ever used. Probably twice as strong as the nexus 10.
Yeah, the max i got was 6h screen on
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BooBoo_el_Locco said:
Yeah, the max i got was 6h screen on
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The maximum you got with these settings was 6 hours? Maximum? I don't know if your exaggerating with your use of the word maximum or have a defective unit? Some people on here and on Android central have these quick draining, slow charging defective units. That screen shot was from my first day with the device I did nothing but use it all day.
Here's my display on time from today from 100% down to 20%.
I'm telling you dude, there's something wrong with yours.
i've been getting about the same (9hrs+) without some of the things mentioned in OP but i keep my screen under 20% for the majority. i've seen some posts where they say to set it at 40 to make it useable, but damn 40% is just too bright for me in normal lighting!
Maybe i need to do a factory reset =/
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---------- Post added at 08:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 PM ----------
You get that screen on if you play alot plants vs zombies?
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Yeah I dunno, I thought the battery life was pretty good even without these tweaks. I was playing Trials for an hour or so the other day and it only drained like 3-4%. I've gone about 36 hours without charging it so far and its at around 45% - this is with moderate use and a lot of standby time. I will charge it when it dips below 30% as suggested in the post.
C2Q said:
Yeah I dunno, I thought the battery life was pretty good even without these tweaks. I was playing Trials for an hour or so the other day and it only drained like 3-4%. I've gone about 36 hours without charging it so far and its at around 45% - this is with moderate use and a lot of standby time. I will charge it when it dips below 30% as suggested in the post.
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Click to collapse
Can you post some screnshots from your usage?
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