Database Users

[Q] Tips to extend battery life? Anyone?

Hey guys,
Just got my Epic yesterday.. coming from the G1 with lots of experience loading and tweaking ROMs and dealing with same/similar battery issues.
After unpacking the Epic I used it and let it drain down to zero before recharging it; after a full recharge, I loaded up the 7 screens with widgets and ran a live wallpaper (fish). I didn't really use the phone much at all and the phone went from 100% battery down to zero in the span of only four hours!!! Geeze, you've got to be kidding me - four hours battery life?? WTF????!!
Back to the drawing board: I rooted it and ran SetCPU with some power saving profiles. Removed the live wallpaper and went to stock wallpaper. Set display power off at 30 seconds. Note that 4G remains off since there's no 4G in my area..
Couple of questions:
1. Is there any way to toggle 2G/3G like there was on my old G1? I know that was a power saver.
2. I didn't stop to read all the documentation yet (typical male, I know) but is there any way to wake this thing up from sleep mode besides pressing the power button? I can see that power button breaking for as much use as it's getting from me constantly having to wake this thing up!
3. My brightness setting is set to auto - since the display is usually the biggest drain on these things, is there a recommended manual brightness setting (percentage) that seems to work well for you and saves on battery power?
I'm waiting for the Seideo Extended Battery (just like many of you) and am wondering if I should keep the Epic since I'm on the Sprint 30-day Easy Return program.
Appreciate hearing from everyone!
Chris R.

I don't have 4G where I am. But, I have a all black wallpaper(uses less power) and unrooted. I easily get about 12-18hr out of my phone wit normal use(text, talk, and surfing the net with skyfire). Only thing that really kills my battery are games(Robo Defense can take over 30min to play one game).

Thanks for the reply - situation NOT improving
Thanks for the reply.. unfortunately, the situation is not improving...
I tried setting a Sleep Profile using SetCPU that would under-clock the CPU (using the stock kernel) once the screen dimmed and the phone went into Sleep Mode. Unfortunately, as mentioned in another thread here, the result was that the phone froze and required a battery-pull to reset.
I'm really starting to lose my enthusiasm for this device; as beautiful a display and as responsive a CPU/GPU, all of that doesn't mean much if you don't have good power management built into the firmware. At 6PM this evening I pulled it off the charger at 67% charged, it's now 8:35 PM, only 2.5 hours later and I'm down to 22%. I'm in a decent coverage area and get 2-4 bars of 3G strength so I don't think it's an issue of the radio being the culprit; in-fact if you check the battery stats it reports that that lovely Display is accountable for 78% of the battery usage! So I guess we're paying a hefty price for these 4-inch AMOLED displays!
I read somewhere else that the most recent update (DI07) has caused the battery performance to decrease; since my unit is brand-new it immediately went and installed DI07 shortly after the first boot-up so I have nothing to compare it to.. can anyone comment on that?
Thanks!
Chris R.

I'm sure custom ROMs will put performance / battery life on the top of the list but until then, I use JuiceDefender beta and have seen pretty good results with it. It shuts off data whenever the screen is off and since my screen is off a good amount (only use my phone if I need to check email, call, and / or text, which is rare when I'm at work). Other than that, yes, use black wallpaper, lower brightness to the min. in the OS and browser, and don't leave apps that constantly use 3G open (things like ebuddy, pandora, etc.). 3G really destroys battery life so minimal use of 3G data would maximize battery life. Maybe the devs can figure out a way to get at least one full day of battery life on this phone. I'm hoping that is the case.
As to your post, yes, DI07 has resulted in poorer battery life, for whatever reason. I was definitely getting a few hours more with the older firmware. I would not lose hope yet. As disappointed as you are (and all of us are, I can assure you of that), the devs are really starting to push out nice ROMs already, and in a few weeks to a month, I bet we will see some solid battery life. Hell, even 2.2 should yield much better results. Patience

Thanks for the tip!
nimaim said:
I'm sure custom ROMs will put performance / battery life on the top of the list but until then, I use JuiceDefender beta and have seen pretty good results with it. It shuts off data whenever the screen is off and since my screen is off a good amount (only use my phone if I need to check email, call, and / or text, which is rare when I'm at work).
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply! Also thanks for the tip regarding JuiceDefender! What a great app! will give it some more time and report results back here.
Thanks again!
Chris R.

nimaim said:
I'm sure custom ROMs will put performance / battery life on the top of the list but until then, I use JuiceDefender beta and have seen pretty good results with it. It shuts off data whenever the screen is off and since my screen is off a good amount (only use my phone if I need to check email, call, and / or text, which is rare when I'm at work). Other than that, yes, use black wallpaper, lower brightness to the min. in the OS and browser, and don't leave apps that constantly use 3G open (things like ebuddy, pandora, etc.). 3G really destroys battery life so minimal use of 3G data would maximize battery life. Maybe the devs can figure out a way to get at least one full day of battery life on this phone. I'm hoping that is the case.
As to your post, yes, DI07 has resulted in poorer battery life, for whatever reason. I was definitely getting a few hours more with the older firmware. I would not lose hope yet. As disappointed as you are (and all of us are, I can assure you of that), the devs are really starting to push out nice ROMs already, and in a few weeks to a month, I bet we will see some solid battery life. Hell, even 2.2 should yield much better results. Patience
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DI07 has hurt my battery life substantially. In fact, my battery drains very close to twice as fast now with the update. I don't understand what they did. My phone certainly doesn't seem any faster, my display is dimmer, and battery life sucks. I'm going to have to go back to DG27 so I can use my phone all day. With DI07 it always dies on me by mid afternoon. With DG27 it was still running by 11pm at night without even a battery low warning.

juice defender ftw
also, use advanced task killer with low security settings to kill all the background processes. Set the autokill to when the screen turns off. This keeps everything pretty well managed and helps with battery as well

JUICE DEFENDER BATTERY!!! Saved my phone from flying out of my car window at 10 in the morning........

here is a link to a thread I started.
Sharing my juice defender settings. I also use ultimate juice.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/sprint-epic-4g/133933-sharing-my-juice-defender-settings.html
I can get a day and a half (or slightly longer) out of a single charge.
YMMV.
Hope this helps

Advanced task killer + Juice Defender. You could also get some custom roms and Kernals that would help boost it.
But that's your best hope. Keep off 4g, wifi, bluetooth, etc.

compujock said:
DI07 has hurt my battery life substantially. In fact, my battery drains very close to twice as fast now with the update. I don't understand what they did. My phone certainly doesn't seem any faster, my display is dimmer, and battery life sucks. I'm going to have to go back to DG27 so I can use my phone all day. With DI07 it always dies on me by mid afternoon. With DG27 it was still running by 11pm at night without even a battery low warning.
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Click to collapse
Look here- try stopping the DRM service and see if that helps your battery life with D107

jimmyz said:
Look here- try stopping the DRM service and see if that helps your battery life with D107
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Click to collapse
Ah, the evils of DRM can strike in unexpected ways...
I wasn't really having a battery problem but I just turned DRM off, so we'll see if battery life improves anyway.
I had a whole long post here that got wiped with the xda disk array failure, so I'll just sum that up here too:
1) Use wi-fi if possible - it REALLY helps
2) 4G does not seem to use the battery any more than 3G, although hunting for 4G does and 4G coverage is not as extensive as 3G even in 4G areas. So it's still best to leave it off if you're moving around.
3) Dim your screen and use a dark, static background. AMOLED screens don't work like LCD's; they use more power the more pixels are lit and the brighter they are.
4) GPS also kills your battery - leave that off unless you need it too.
I think that's it. I get about 18 hours on DI07 (even before trying the DRM thing; maybe I can get to a full day!).
One thing I'm noticing after checking DRM - I've got Google Maps' LocationService popping up about every 10 seconds, and I can't seem to shut it off permanently. (I went into Lattitude and turned that off, not sure what else to do.) That can't be helping... anyone know how to get rid of that?

I'm using juice defender and a constant email junkie, but lite use on other aspects of the phone. It goes off charger at 5:30 am and I'm about 67% at around 3p. It then goes in the car charger on the way home. This has much better battery life than the Pre or the Hero as with both I had to turn off email to get it to last throughout the day.
I don't expect these phones to last days, but I expect any phone that I get to last the business day. I've always been one to charge overnight.

Wifi drains battery more from what I've read.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I've heard the opposite that wifi (as long as it's connected) uses up less battery than 3g/4g. Any of them will suck the battery dry if they're searching, so make sure you have a connection to one of them.

Hi everyone, new to the forum. Just started checking it out when the Epic was released and this is my first post. Anyways, here's my question. My phone's been off the charger for 7 hours and 17 minutes and it is now down to 15%.
Display 79%
Cell standby 7%
Android System 4%
Phone idle 2%
Swype 2%
I've gone into the display settings and I thought I had set everything up optimally. The brightness is always very low. The screen timeout is 15 seconds and the keyboard matches that. I don't know what else I can do to cripple the phone to get the battery to last longer.
I have had wifi on, 4g off, bluetooth off, gps off. Really all I have done this afternoon while watching NFL games is check my yahoo fantasy score, play 2 games of WordFeud, and check twitter and facebook. I purchased Juice Defender a week ago and it has been running all day.
Any suggestions for how I can reduce the drain from the display? My background is a black and white picture of a friend of mine, which I thought would help.
Don't get me wrong, I love this phone. But the battery life I've seen is just terrible. I'd love to buy the extended battery from Seidio whenever its available, at least that would make it last longer even if the settings aren't tweaked.

Do you have juice defender installed?

Yep. Its installed and running now.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

bagelicious said:
Hi everyone, new to the forum. Just started checking it out when the Epic was released and this is my first post. Anyways, here's my question. My phone's been off the charger for 7 hours and 17 minutes and it is now down to 15%.
Display 79%
Cell standby 7%
Android System 4%
Phone idle 2%
Swype 2%
I've gone into the display settings and I thought I had set everything up optimally. The brightness is always very low. The screen timeout is 15 seconds and the keyboard matches that. I don't know what else I can do to cripple the phone to get the battery to last longer.
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There are only two reasons for your display to be using that much battery:
a) it's too bright, or
b) you're using it a lot.
If you're using the phone a lot, your battery's going to run out pretty quick and there's no way around that. If you're using it a "normal" amount, which to me means maybe an hour *total* per day of having the display on, then the other culprit is going to be your brightness. (Some would argue that's less than a normal amount, but think about it... you get a new phone, you're going to play with it for a week or two until you've seen all the cool stuff. But at some point you're going to start putting it away most of the time and just using it when someone calls you, you get a message/email or maybe to play a game or two while waiting for the train.)
Set your brightness *all* the way down, just as a test for a couple days. Make sure all the "power saving" features of the display are turned *off* (auto brightness, and whatever that "picture detection" feature's called, I can't remember). You just want the display as dim as possible all the time, just to see what happens. See what the battery usage says after a day or two of this.
My bet is that you'll see a drop, and then as you get into a more normal usage pattern it'll drop further still. You can raise the brightness a couple ticks then as you learn how to stretch your battery out.
Personally, my display is rarely over 15% or so of my usage. Today it's 29%, but it's a Sunday and I don't have anything better to do but play around on my phone.
btw, it's still the first day I've tried this but that DRM thing might be working. It's almost 9PM and I'm still on like 80% battery, and like I said I have been using the phone off and on throughout the day.

That has helped tremendously. I installed it pretty much when I got the phone and I'm able to last the whole work day with 67% left. (10 hour day)

Epic battery performance after months of use

Hoping to get some good feedback from those who have used the epic for a couple months or more. Now that you're probably using the device normally, as in not attached to it all the time, how is battery life? I've heard initial reports that it's not so good... Also, for those of you who have updated unofficially to Froyo, does the upgrade help with battery life? Can anyone comment how Epic's battery compares to EVO's?
Thanks.

I usually get about 9 hours in my stock battery and 6-7 on my cheap eBay ones. Overall idea say meh, its about on par with most other android devices. I'm running the stock dk28 leak as well with no battery tweaks or mangers of any sort.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

On most of the DK28 roms I'm pulling a solid 10 hours with moderate use. For reference, If I leave the phone on standby all day in my house it's lasted 23 hours, if I recall correctly. Honestly that's pretty damn good for a smartphone.
EDIT: I don't use any battery-manager or powersaver either. Brightness = Auto, bluetooth/wifi/4g/gps = 1 is on at any given point in time usually. Google auto-sync = on as well as touiteur (twitter) and facebook notifications every 15 min.

I have been impressed by my battery life actually. I can't speak for the EVO(although maybe soon since my friend might give me his as a backup). I can usually get between 4-5 hours of play time(surfing, texting, apps, music, wireless tethering, movies, etc) The rest of the time it is usually idol. I usually charge it over night, unplug it around 7am, then plug it back in around 11pm. At 11pm, I usually have between 10- 30% battery left.
I just switched to a froyo ROM(bonsai, which is excellent) and so far the battery seems to be about the same. By lunchtime 12:30 it is usually between 70-80% and right now I am at 72% but I also had some extensive time testing the tethering feature.
To be honest, I had a blackberry, and the battery life was a little better, but the features were not nearly as good. It amazes me the battery these things get with that amazing samoled screen.
disclaimer: I do not play games outside of sudoku and spades, so my CPU does not really get challenged, which probably accounts for some battery savings. Oh and I use regular wallpapers, cause I don't really like the live wallpapers.

Im on 2.2.1,and I have to say I see a 40% increase in battery life compared to 2.1,and thats about 11-12 hours,no battery saving apps either,well except setcpu,which does help,but its set at 100mhz - 1ghz conservative.And I use it more now then when I got it,I havnt got tired of it at all.I have noticed the first 10% goes the fastest,and I have calibrated twice since moving to the ROM im on,and its the same in all,so if you get an Epic dont let that scare you.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I've had an Epic since a couple weeks after it was released and I think the battery is probably working the way they meant it to, which means a solid day. I charge it overnight, unplug it when I go to work, plug it in when I go to bed, and I'm usually at around 40% by that time with moderate use. I don't generally have problems with battery drain.
The exception to this is when using GPS with the screen on. It's really difficult to use this phone as a direct PND replacement even though it's basically made for it (especially with Froyo, which fixes the GPS lock issues), because the screen and GPS together will drain the battery from 100% to 0% in about 40 minutes. My dedicated PND, by contrast, will give me 8 *hours* of continuous use on battery power.
Also, I have a 1000mah car charger and even with that connected, the battery still drains when using GPS and the screen (it just drains slower). I have to just turn the screen off when I know I won't be needing to make a turn for a while.
The one thing I wish about the Epic is that it had a regular old LCD screen. The AMOLED screen is the one battery killer - you really need to watch how long you have it on. In normal use it isn't much of an issue, but you just can't do much of all the cool things they advertise that you can do with this phone (like GPS or watching movies).
I do also keep my screen turned way down, which makes a difference, but it's still a killer.

Well, I reported over in another thread that with Froyo, and basically having my phone sit around and do nothing with no WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, no "fixes" such as switching to airplane mode or killing the DRM service, and no "battery saver" programs, I was able to get 108 hours on a single charge with the stock battery (1500mAH). That was with the screen on time of about 50 minutes and talk time of about 40 minutes... (pictures here)
It all boils down to how you use your phone, but in a stock configuration, the power management seems to be better on 2.2 than 2.1 as shown by the large amount of "idle" time I was able to get on a single charge.

Koadic said:
Well, I reported over in another thread that with Froyo, and basically having my phone sit around and do nothing with no WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, no "fixes" such as switching to airplane mode or killing the DRM service, and no "battery saver" programs, I was able to get 108 hours on a single charge with the stock battery (1500mAH). That was with the screen on time of about 50 minutes and talk time of about 40 minutes... (pictures here)
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I don't disbelieve that - in my post above, when I'm talking about draining the battery with GPS and the screen on in 40 minutes, or when I'm talking about having 40% battery left at the end of a regular day, it's almost always with a screen on time of 30-40 minutes. So 50 minutes sounds about right to drain the battery completely, with nothing else on.
I'll bet if you had 0 minutes screen on time - just let the phone sit idle - you could have probably gotten 200 hours or more.

badasscat said:
I'll bet if you had 0 minutes screen on time - just let the phone sit idle - you could have probably gotten 200 hours or more.
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LOL, what's the point of having a phone then? 8-9 days without using it? I dont think I could hold out that long.
And I didn't even see your post until after I posted.

Koadic said:
LOL, what's the point of having a phone then? 8-9 days without using it? I dont think I could hold out that long.
And I didn't even see your post until after I posted.
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No I know, I was more just clarifying so it didn't seem like we contradicted each other. I think the important stat is really screen time and then any extra radios you have turned on. Just with the regular radio and nothing else, you could get ridiculous battery life on the Epic. It's the extra radios and screen that kill it.

My phone gets me through the day. About 20% down in 7 hours on standby, so thats decent. Heavy usage with full brightness on and live wallpaper starting in the morning, stopping at like 6 A.M...it'd probably die there, for me at least.
The battery is good; I'm running the dk28 rom but it really hasn't affected my battery life at all.

On phoenix kernel i was getting 20-36 hours moderate to light usage. With acs xtreme kernel I'm getting 12-20 hrs w/ moderate use.
That's about 3-4 hrs of screen on time, 45-60 min of talk time. Emails, text ing, twitter, xda, and some various forum reading. Angry birds if waiting in line somewhere..
Note: I leave background data turned off and manually sync/refresh mail/contacts/data. I have no need/desire to be alerted evrytime someone updates twit/fb. I also use juice defender.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I can barely look at my phone on full brightness - it hurts my eyes with beams of awesome.
I get between 13 and 16 hours depending on how much Angry Bird time I put in that day. If I'm doing normal browsing, facebooking, etc then I'll be closer to 16, but gaming drops my battery like a rock.

Thanks for the replies! I think I'm convinced a lot of it has to do with how you use the device. Pretty much how it went with the EVO when it first came out... lots of people complaining about battery and then it kind of faded once everyone settled down. All I need is to get from early morning to right before bed.
GPS with google nav is a killer on any Android with decent screen size and resolution I think. Anyway, I thought SAMOLED is supposed to save a little battery? Or is that only if the background is black? In any case, I usually dim my screen to 30%, keep GPS off, keep auto-updates down to a manageable size, and use some other tricks to save battery, so I should be good to go.
I tried to thank all of you with the new thanks button, but didn't realize there's a limit per day haha. I'll finish it up tomorrow.

As far as I am concerned the battery life on DK28 is amazing. I use overclock widget set at 1000/200 screen on and 400/200 screen off. I can pull more than 30 hours with multiple phone calls, texting, email, web and games for over an hour. Here's the screen shot I took today before putting the phone on the charger.

I've noticed a substantial improvement in battery life since upgrading to 2.2. However, I also began using the Epic Experience ROM shortly afterwards, which boosted it even further. That, plus Juice Defender nets me a perfectly acceptable battery life.
I used my phone heavily today and still got about 18 hours out of it before plugging it in before bed at a 35% charge. On top of that, my phone's never felt snappier.

whoa, is it normal for the epic to take 3.5 hours to charge? If so, any explanation? Past devices i've had tend to take an hour less... Running 2.1, does Froyo help?

Currently on Epic Experience with SuperPower installed. I unplugged the phone about 16 hours ago and it's sitting at 36% with light voice and moderate SMS/data use.
Battery life definitely improved after upgrading from 2.1, even with light use it would be dead in under 12 hours on stock 2.1/DI17.

How to get unbelievable battery life
I have some very VERY helpful hints of great battery life for the Epic 4g. (as i am on hour 26 to 28 and have 20% left with about 1 to 1.5 hours of screen on use.)
First off, use black, or almost black background. Our screens are superAMOLED. This means that if the screen is showing black... those particular black pixels... are simply not on. If you have the home screen black, and have no icons on it, then the status bar is all that is using power... maybe 6 or 8 percent.
Next, Lose the brightness. A few helpful hints on this. 1) uncheck the autobrightness in the display settings 2) turn the brightness down in the display settings 3) If you slide your finger from right to left across the status bar at the top, the screen will dim, if you slide your finger from left to right, it will brighten(this causes accidental brightness 4) cover this light sensor on the right side at the top (I believe) because the phone seems to have a problem always autobrighting even with the uncheck in the settings. This is done best with electrical tape, or perhaps finger nail polish. These things should ensure to always be at minimum brightness
Next, Install Frankenstein Froyo Rom(lightest rom=less cpu usage/blackest rom=less screen battery usage), And Genocide Kernel(undervolted)
Next, install task killer(keeps the rom at optimum efficiency meaning less cpu usage assuming you are killing the apps 3 or 4 times a day) install set cpu(This allows you to limit the cpu clock speed(400mhz is optimal usable and battery settings)
Things to remember, ALWAYS TURN THE SCREEN OFF.
If you pick it up every thirty seconds to see if you have a text, then just sit it down... whats happening now.. The screen is staying on for another 15 seconds probably. DUH!!! bye bye battery!!
TURN OFF THE SCREEN BEFORE YOU SIT THE PHONE DOWN!!!
Turn off gps when not in use.
Turn off wifi when not in use.
Turn off 4g when not in use
Dont use it as an mp3 player.
Dont talk on speaker phone.
Those last few were pretty obvious.. but some people need to be told.
I Hope this helps anyone looking to conserve battery. Follow these steps and i promise 24 hours plus ever time and often as much as 48 hours.
Enjoy
EDIT****
By the way, When you set yourself up with this rom, you are making your phone TWICE as fast... LITERALLY. Hard to believe that a ROM could be twice as fast.
With stock android2.1 this phone gets 800 to 900 in quadrant(benchmark tool/tell how fast your phone REALLY is) Stock android 2.2 quadrant score is a little better scoring as high as 1000.
With this setup, i have gotten as high as 1950 in quadrant. No joke. This is reflected as you cant even tell the phone is clocked down to 400mhz without heavy apps and REALLY paying attention.

I used to get about 8 hrs of use before having to charge. Battery would drain even when I wasn't using the phone. Since flashing to DI18 a few months ago battery life has been great. A good 15-17 hours of moderate/high use and minimal drain with the phone on standby.
I lower the brightness all the way, end the DRM process and do the TWS trick after a reboot. No fancy battery management app that disables all your phone for the sake of battery.
I expect 2 hrs of the screen being on before my battery gets down to 20-30%. Which I think is very reasonable for moderate to high usage.

Almost 30+ hours == EC01 + SuperClean 2.9.2

I again wanted to say thank you to all involved in making the Fascinate the best phone it can be.
I have instantly noticed a considerable battery life improvement using this radio.
Just thanks.
And juice defender doesn't hurt either..

You must not be using your phone at all, mine only gives my around 7 hours.

Really? Only 30 hours? My white fascinate could go for 3 days with light usage and 2 with moderate. I bet you it could last for 4 days if I didn't do anything but text or call people. Oh and don't use battery apps, they don't do crap honestly. The only thing that kills your phone is games and the screen being on. But if you use your stock Froyo task manager then you're good.

I am confused a little but mostly dissapointed in how people report usage and battery life around here. I think for the most part it is simply a result of how subjective the term "use" is defined in all it's various "states". For instance what I consider "heavy usage" might be beyond what a lot of people would consider to even be reasonably expected. On the other hand you can have another person who thinks using their phone once for a few minutes every hour is heavy usage. Some seem to be reporting standby time like it is normal usage, which depending on your definition could be true. Some people seem to be obviously "lengthening" their "epeen" for some unknown sad reason which is the part that is dissapointing.
I can say, once, I left mine on after using it all day Friday, set it on a table at home and I can't remember why but I didn't touch it again till Sunday afternoon. It literally only used a few percent battery life. This is abnormal usage to me. This might be "normal" for some people.
Some people like myself are device addicts. I don't go anywhere without my phone. I rarely make calls on it. I rarely use my powerful desktop for any casual pc use like web surfing, IRC, listening to music, personal gmail and work email via exchange. I do all of that on my phone. My day consists of picking up the phone fully charged at 7:30am, at work by 7:45, and then once in my cube the headphones get plugged in and between voodoo sound and power amp I get pretty lost in the tunes. All the while I am getting constant email delivery notices. I probably look something up on my phone a few times a day. It is on wifi all day at work and home.
Once home I stay on it after dinner....once the kids are away, the wife and I sit in the living room and she on her laptop and me on my phone we kinda watch shows together while surfing or whatever. So hours of constant use in the evening. My screen is on a lot because I don't go long without doing something on it.
I have recently been getting around 14-18 hours if I run it to dead on the 2.9.2 + latest Voodoo sound enabled kernel floating around but was on eb01 radio. I flashed ec01 radio tonight hopefully to see better battery life but there's no way in hell I would be expecting anything close to 30 hours or days!? Not unless I laid my phone down and walked away for a few days, then sure. I consider myself to be a fairly heavy user.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App

In my case Syn Ack is right about the screen. This past weekend I gave my phone a real test. I put EC01 on, got rid of most of the bloat and left the phone in that state. Didn't install any extra apps that would run in the background. Only had 1 home screen with nothing on it but a black wallpaper. The phone looks boring as ****. lol
From what I saw, the only things eating battery was having the screen on, a small bit of time with no signal, followed by android system and any other apps I may have used which didn't make up much compared to the screen.
I love the screen, but it's like a high maintenance girlfriend. Its sucking the life outta this phone.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

DeezNotes said:
I love the screen, but it's like a high maintenance girlfriend. Its sucking the life outta this phone.
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Click to collapse
That's pretty much par for the course. The screen is always the biggest battery drain in any phone out there, out of any piece of hardware in any phone. Trying to keep the screen's brightness as low as possible, and it off whenever you don't need it on, are probably the best things you can do to improve your battery life (followed by deleting crappy widgets like the Facebook one that keep your network up constantly).
Then again, I set my screen to have a 2 minute timeout, because the 15 or so second default way too often caused the screen to turn off on me while I was reading something and I generally use the power button to turn it off when I'm done. I figure, as long as I can make it till night, that's good enough for this phone 95% of the time (the other 5%, I can generally plan ahead).

I honestly don't see poor battery life as in issue for this phone.
Mine will last for 3 days of extremely light usage, 2 days with light-ish usage, and if I hammer on it and play some games, 14 hours or so, it'll beep at me.
IMO, this is not an issue. I have seen the battery life increase with the latest updates (OC Kernel from imnutz, SFC2.9.2, EC01 radio) - and I was happy before.
I also don;t think that you can really count on what other people see as anything but a hopeful ballpark figure. We all know that each of the phones HW is a little different. We all know that our setups vary greatly. We all know that we use the phone differently.
So, hoping that something will be a be all, end all guide as to how long your phone will stay powered depends on so many variables that you have to tweak it for your use.
FWIW, I run live wallpaper, 7 screens and use OC steps up to 1400 and I am very pleased, dare I say impressed with the life I get out of the phone. I also keep a spare battery fully charged - I guess this helps me care less and just ooh and ahh when it lasts more than a day.

Mine gets 150 hours...... Turned off.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

With the phone sleeping (screen off), my battery drops at MOST 2% per hour. I don't use but a couple of widgets, Facebook and weather. My sync time for Facebook is 1 hour and weather is 2 hours.
For me, when I was referring to my 2-3 days of battery life:
Light usage (3 days): a few phone calls a day, < 25 texts, no internet, no market, no games, no battery control apps except using Task Manager wisely.
Moderate usage (2 days): regular phone calls, < 50 texts, some internet, maybe a game or 2 but not for long, Task manager.
Heavy usage (1.5 days): regular phone calls, texting all the time, heavy internet, games, rom flashing, playing music a bunch.
Super ridiculously heavy (1 day): phone/text/internet/games/music, all nonstop heavy usage.
Super light (3+): Data (3G) off, a couple calls, light texting, using Task manager wisely. It can happen...
One thing I have come to find out is that not only your screen is the number 1 factor but if you live in an area that phases your phone in and out of 3G very often, your phone could easily drain 10% per hour. The IT building here on my campus has god awful reception and it drains at 10% per hour but when I go home I only see 1-2% not doing anything at all. Wifi is a battery drainer too.
There were a few nights where I remember hitting task manager and clearing out every single task and everything possible running, turning off data, and turning the screen off and the phone did not even lose 1% of battery over 9 hours. Perfect reception.
So if you see terrible battery, try using your screen a little less, or turn down the brightness. Try a *228 for your radio towers update. Cell standby can you get hard if you're in bad reception.
The best thing you could do to save your battery is kill all of your tasks, turn off data, turn your screen off, and change your sync intervals to 1hour+.

i'm on ec01 for about 12 hours now, sFc, in nemesis OTB kernal underclocked using volt settings gives me about a 8 hours with the amount of usage I put it through. Serious wifi, network usage, processor spiking and multi-tasking. Overall what one would expect from android.

jpaulwaite said:
i'm on ec01 for about 12 hours now, sFc, in nemesis OTB kernal underclocked using volt settings gives me about a 8 hours with the amount of usage I put it through. Serious wifi, network usage, processor spiking and multi-tasking. Overall what one would expect from android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heavy user, this seems about right. Your battery goes from 100% to what % before you recharge?

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

I read so many threads and comments complaining about "battery life"
Turning this off and that off, not using this app or that app. Dreaded enemy "wake locks". Turning brightness down and generally Not using all these great devices have to offer to squeeze out more battery life. Even to the extent of over 24 hours.
We have a phenomenal and powerful device that does a whole lot with a huge screen and a ton of great BG apps updating all kinds of information we enjoy these devices for.
MOST of all we all have the (getting rare) opportunity to swap out an inexpensive battery in less than 30 seconds be up and running for another 5-10 hours depending on our enjoyment and use.
Do people not have electricity? They cannot charge every night? They can afford a $600 phone (or $300 subsidized) and $600 plus a year for service but cannot buy a $20 battery in order to actually USE the device as designed and go through all kinds of contortions, apps, settings, and worse, anguish at running out of juice after (gasp) 8 hours?
People getting hung up on "benchmarking" and posting screen shots of phones on battery for 3 days...(of course rarely used) to squeeze and extra 30 minutes.
TURN IT OFF!! bet the battery lasts well over a month. You win!
I guess I just don't understand the "issue" with a device where batteries can be swapped out so easily.
I get maybe 10 hours normally with everything on and at minimum updating. I have infinite screen on and turn it off when I am done using it. (hate those timeouts while reading something). FB and news updates at minimum. Maps always running latitude. If its there its on BT, Screen rotation, GPS, I just don't worry about battery life as I would rather carry an extra battery in my desk at home auto or work and in my wallet than not USE the device as designed.
Personally I would never buy another phone without the ability to swap out a battery lest I would gain have to "ration" my use of such a great device which would be akin to a witnessing a gay man win a date with a single and seductive Angela Jolie . Why bother?
Am I alone here? Anyone else consider battery life as much a non issue as I do on these Samsung phones?

I'm with you on this one. Why do all of that stupid things if you can solve it with $20 battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

A lot of the battery life threads are related to abnormally high battery drain.
As an example, on GB I would about 1% battery per hour if the phone was idle.
When I upgraded to LPY, I was losing 2-3% per hour, and sometimes higher, because the phone was not going into deep sleep.
This might not seem much of a difference for just 1 hour, but over the course of a day, it is a huge difference.
Now I'm on LPF, my battery drain is about the same, or lower than GB when idle.

richlum said:
A lot of the battery life threads are related to abnormally high battery drain.
As an example, on GB I would about 1% battery per hour if the phone was idle.
When I upgraded to LPY, I was losing 2-3% per hour, and sometimes higher, because the phone was not going into deep sleep.
This might not seem much of a difference for just 1 hour, but over the course of a day, it is a huge difference.
Now I'm on LPF, my battery drain is about the same, or lower than GB when idle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess "abnormally high" is debatable. For me it would be a 80% battery crapping out before then end of a 2 hour movie.
A day is only 24 hours long and I assume people will sleep for 6-8 hours so Even a 5% drain per hour would mean more than 16 hours of standby with 20% remaining!! How can that be an issue? I doubt my phone "deep sleeps" I have BG apps running all the time with notifications. One extra battery solves all issues. No need for special apps, tweaking this and that, flashing this and that simply for battery life.
If people sleep 6-8 hours during a 24 hour period they can easily and consistently charge their batteries. A 3% drain per hour would not be an issue. If we watch movies and play games we already know the battery will drain within a few hours. Pop in another battery and brand new again.

You are assuming that people are always near a power source.
I am normally near a power source. I am either at work and charge via USB or in my car or at home.
The issue is the past 3 days I was out and about (malls, hotels, restaurants and so on) and was not near a power source for more than 10 minutes. My battery died in about 4 hours of usage. Mostly checking email, instagram and facebook.
I keep my brightness at full strength by the way (unless if the lights are off in bed).
Yes, so battery is an issue.
Not everyone is constantly near a power source.

So you think if I put my fully charged Note into Airplane mode when I go to sleep and wake up in the morning just to find out to my surprise that I lost 32 % of battery life in six hours is normal? In airplane mode? On official update via Kies, never rooted, never anything custom? That is normal to you? Wow, you are either stupid or work for Samsung. If you work for Samsung can you help me to get my GB battery life back? I have already spend good money for the phone, I am not willing to spend a dime extra for another battery on 6 months old phone.

If your phone is working as intended, battery life issues are not really an issue.
It basically means your phone sleeps when its supposed to.
However, some devices never go into deep sleep due to some issue with kernel or a rogue app. Thats where the battery problem comes in.

carlitos66 said:
So you think if I put my fully charged Note into Airplane mode when I go to sleep and wake up in the morning just to find out to my surprise that I lost 32 % of battery life in six hours is normal? In airplane mode? On official update via Kies, never rooted, never anything custom? That is normal to you? Wow, you are either stupid or work for Samsung. If you work for Samsung can you help me to get my GB battery life back? I have already spend good money for the phone, I am not willing to spend a dime extra for another battery on 6 months old phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats not normal.
I turn off data and wifi on my Note when I go to sleep (6 hours also) and I loose about 5 to 10 %.
This is with telephone signal only. No data or wifi.

to the post #7. So how come it didn't happened in stock GB previously? In GB I lost about 1 % overnight when in airplane mode. Reliability of batteries on this phone is a big deal, unfortunatelly.

Battery is always an issue. Nobody likes running to the charger every 3 hours. They want to charge and preferably when we are not using it, when we sleep.
So yes, it does not comply with expectatoin with continuous use. So yes its an issue. At least for me
Next to this having the enduser juggle with what wakelocks are or other battery eaters are dont help much. That counts for all smart phones.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

There is also the issue about well behaved v badly behaved apps. I've installed apps and my battery life has plummeted, normally due to the app writing tons to the system log as it doesn't run well on my device.
In that situation it's nice to know the phone generally isn't sucking masses of juice itself so you aren't caught out and about with no battery left.
As the OP says, I guess I could carry a spare battery, but I could also carry a spare phone (my old Nokia 6310 used to last weeks on a charge) - and I don't want to do either. I want the battery on my phone to survive general use and still be able to be used for calls if needed. For me, it's not about €20\$20 for a battery, it's about the hassle of having to carry another thing around with me all the time and make sure I'd remembered to charge the damned thing when I actually needed it.
Personally, I use my phone like a tablet and as a phone and generally get 1-2 days out of it no problem. That said there are definitely some battery drain issues with the official German ICS build and it's worth protecting yourself against unnecessary drain if possible.

carlitos66 said:
, I am not willing to spend a dime extra for another battery on 6 months old phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And there is your only problem.........it's not "airplane" mode while you sleep. You could charge while you sleep. Again problem solved.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

CorruptedSanity said:
You are assuming that people are always near a power source.
I am normally near a power source. I am either at work and charge via USB or in my car or at home.
The issue is the past 3 days I was out and about (malls, hotels, restaurants and so on) and was not near a power source for more than 10 minutes. My battery died in about 4 hours of usage. Mostly checking email, instagram and facebook.
I keep my brightness at full strength by the way (unless if the lights are off in bed).
Yes, so battery is an issue.
Not everyone is constantly near a power source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I happen to believe it's asking far to much of a device once used only as a phone and now as a notebook computer, music player, movie player,gaming platform, big screen, GPS, on and on to be able to operate without expecting batteries to wither within hours. I bought extra batteries so I can use all the functions without worry. There are performance issues people strive to enhance. I get that. But battery life is counter productive to enhancing performance.
I cannot understand all the teeth gnashing about battery life with all the options available Especially those of us who are power users. . not the least being charging while asleep. So many post battery loss while sleeping...... That's what chargers are for.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

tbong777 said:
I am assuming people sleep near a power source. Is that a reach?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes. I go to music festivals where we camp for up to 5 days at a time. I may have access to a powerpoint for 30 mins a day, but not always. I carry spare batteries, but that doesn't mean I want my phone sucking my battery like crazy.
When travelling around, I use my phone more often than normal (gmaps etc)... If I'm away from the hotel for 12 hours +, again, having decent battery life is not an unreasonable thing to want.
My Desire HD (yes I know, smaller screen, slower cpu), could pull over 30 hours out of a battery with conservative use (without turning the radios off).
I still wouldn't give up my Note, but having to recharge each time I get home is pretty annoying.

Ha, ha!
I find it funny that a post complaining about people complaining about battery life ends up with people's comments complaining about battery life!
Seriously, though, when those rogue apps steal my precious battery, I get annoyed. I paid for the damned thing, and I want to use it when I want to use it, not find it is half-drained.
I use it pretty normally, and charge it every day (new batteries are cheap). I carry a spare in my wallet too.
I sometimes spend four hours a working day on the phone, BT all day, plus an hour or two screen and WiFi on. If I have managed it OK (by killing battery stealing apps) I get about 50 to 60% left. If not, I can be down to 30% after that. That may not be enough for the rest of the day.
Why should it be a problem that people like to get a full day from one battery? It is not difficult, although you do need Root. Shame on Samsung that it is necessary, when it is clearly possible.

[
jeromepearce said:
I find it funny that a post complaining about people complaining about battery life ends up with people's comments complaining about battery life!
Seriously, though, when those rogue apps steal my precious battery, I get annoyed. I paid for the damned thing, and I want to use it when I want to use it, not find it is half-drained.
I use it pretty normally, and charge it every day (new batteries are cheap). I carry a spare in my wallet too.
I sometimes spend four hours a working day on the phone, BT all day, plus an hour or two screen and WiFi on. If I have managed it OK (by killing battery stealing apps) I get about 50 to 60% left. If not, I can be down to 30% after that. That may not be enough for the rest of the day.
Why should it be a problem that people like to get a full day from one battery? It is not difficult, although you do need Root. Shame on Samsung that it is necessary, when it is clearly possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I was seeking those who don't have issues. And was hoping for a discussion on how they deal with battery life without rationing or tweaking....not more complainers
It's a problem of unrealistic expectations.IMO When you look at the device it self and what it's capable of.
Yeah Samsung could have put a larger battery and fatter back on the phone but people would complain about that. Those solutions are available for power users as well. I think we are lucky to have a device where we have options to solve a basic issue other than not using functions. Apple and HTC do not have the same luxury.
Got to go........ battery is di

I'm a light user with the occasional call and sms and my battery last ~6 days. Phone is 3 moths old. However, I find that my battery usage is very dependent on signal strength. I usually get 4 bars and when that happens battery drains like 10% a day and when it is down to 1-2 bars then it can be 3 times that. I guess I'm fortunate that I get 4 bars most of the time in the office and at home.
I have a battery monitor widget installed and I must say that it makes me paranoid of using the phone and causing high drain. May uninstall it soon and use the phone as it should be used.

My expectations are pretty much met when it comes to battery life of the Galaxy Note. It lasts a whole working day. That's all I need. And for exceptional situations when I don't have access to a socket I have got a spare battery.
It's clear that the Note drains the battery really fast if it's in use. Just look at the screen . I also agree that it's annoying if the battery is empty after only 1/2 working day. But some people really have to blame themselves. If you don't turn off Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS when they are not needed it's no miracle that the battery is empty in no time. If you constantly check Facebook, Twitter and the like you have to accept that battery life will be significantly shorter.
For me the worst things are Bluetooth headsets. Not only is it annoying to have one more device that has to be charged but it also constantly drains the battery of the phone. Ok those wireless headsets are comfortable but you pay for it by faster battery drain.

hi guys, cool down.
the different opinions about the battery issue are resulting from the different way of using the phone along with the life style.
Some may need a bckp bat. Some can make sure they are always close to a power source ( if people spend a substantial part of the day in cars f.e.) Some even need an additional external power pack, as they are not close to power outlets all day.
That all makes sense to me but doesn't make me switching off all the nice features of that great phone. It is not an a piece for exhibition in a shopping window, it is for my personal use for business and/or leisure activities. It even connects me via video when I am far away from home, it connects me to the social networks and it let me professionally do my work and up or download all info I need from my corporation. I can log in via VPN to my workplace and edit documents by collaborating with colleagues through the cloud. It shows me the way through the GPS, if I need.
It entertains me in many different way if I want, It helps me to find a good restaurant.
I do not longer use a notebook computer or a tablet.
My Notebook computer could work hardly 2 hours with the same usage like my SGN.
So, I accept that this racing machine does need after some laps a pit stop for filling up the power.
Just love that tool, just love it

altae said:
My expectations are pretty much met when it comes to battery life of the Galaxy Note. It lasts a whole working day. That's all I need. And for exceptional situations when I don't have access to a socket I have got a spare battery.
It's clear that the Note drains the battery really fast if it's in use. Just look at the screen . I also agree that it's annoying if the battery is empty after only 1/2 working day. But some people really have to blame themselves. If you don't turn off Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS when they are not needed it's no miracle that the battery is empty in no time. If you constantly check Facebook, Twitter and the like you have to accept that battery life will be significantly shorter.
For me the worst things are Bluetooth headsets. Not only is it annoying to have one more device that has to be charged but it also constantly drains the battery of the phone. Ok those wireless headsets are comfortable but you pay for it by faster battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are the kinds of responses I was hoping people people would post rather than more whining about battery life. there are plenty of those threads already.
I was hoping for a POSITIVE thread people could read to calm their perceived issues with battery life. BTW I don't use BT head sets for Music. Yes another thing to deal with charging where you cannot simpy replace a battery. I prefer the far better quality wired earbuds.

[Q] Screen on time?

Hi!
I have a relatively new Nexus 4, which I got NIB about 6 months ago. The battery life is ok for a phone with these specs, it easily lasts 1.5-2 days, depending on usage. But my screen on time is really bad: I rarely get more than 3 hours, usually more like 2-2.5 hours when reading emails, Twitter and Facebook (no games). Everything is fully stock, I have very few apps, and other than really bad screen on time can't complain.
Reading about people having 4-6 hours of screen on time, I wonder what I could do to improve mine. I'm so upset because of this issue, that started thinking about selling my Nexus and buying a Motorola I would appreciate your suggestions!

kzakhar said:
Hi!
I have a relatively new Nexus 4, which I got NIB about 6 months ago. The battery life is ok for a phone with these specs, it easily lasts 1.5-2 days, depending on usage. But my screen on time is really bad: I rarely get more than 3 hours, usually more like 2-2.5 hours when reading emails, Twitter and Facebook (no games). Everything is fully stock, I have very few apps, and other than really bad screen on time can't complain.
Reading about people having 4-6 hours of screen on time, I wonder what I could do to improve mine. I'm so upset because of this issue, that started thinking about selling my Nexus and buying a Motorola I would appreciate your suggestions!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on who you ask. Some says flashing a custom rom will help, some says flashing a custom rom with a kernel, and others say just a kernel. As far as the best option, you will have to experiment to find the best configuration for you.
Sent with my Nexus® 10 minus 3

Are you saying that 2-3 hours of screen time are normal with stock ROM and I shouldn't expect any improvement?

kzakhar said:
Are you saying that 2-3 hours of screen time are normal with stock ROM and I shouldn't expect any improvement?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are the usual fixes:
Turn off as much syncing as possible
Turn off location / bluetooth / nfc
Turn down brightness (although auto is relatively smart)
Beyond that, not sure how you only get 2-3
You can try apps that monitor battery usage more closely to get a better idea of what is actually draining your battery so quickly

swiggins said:
There are the usual fixes:
Turn off as much syncing as possible
Turn off location / bluetooth / nfc
Turn down brightness (although auto is relatively smart)
Beyond that, not sure how you only get 2-3
You can try apps that monitor battery usage more closely to get a better idea of what is actually draining your battery so quickly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it would seem that the screen eats the battery, as I only get very poor battery life when the screen is on, otherwise the phone lasts ~2 days on a single charge with WiFi, 3G and GPS on. The brightness is set to auto, but I still get only 2-3 hours of screen usage with really simple apps (Chrome, Twitter, sometimes Facebook) and then the battery dies.

kzakhar said:
Well, it would seem that the screen eats the battery, as I only get very poor battery life when the screen is on, otherwise the phone lasts ~2 days on a single charge with WiFi, 3G and GPS on. The brightness is set to auto, but I still get only 2-3 hours of screen usage with really simple apps (Chrome, Twitter, sometimes Facebook) and then the battery dies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2-3 hours of screen time is normal.
You got to take into consideration;
this phones battery is NOT big, its small.
This phone has an LCD screen, the power is going to run out much FASTER than OLED screens.
Be happy you get 2-3 hours. Some people can barely get one.
I get 4+hour but with 6 hours total battery time. I can also get 1 1/2 days of light usage.
This phone isn't going to give you 5+ hours screen time on top of 12+ hours of battery life. Its just not gonna happen.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

kzakhar said:
Are you saying that 2-3 hours of screen time are normal with stock ROM and I shouldn't expect any improvement?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the most part, I don't keep up with the amount of battery life because my phone and tablet is never too far from a charger. Although I have watched the battery drain while charging when I watch a lot of videos on YouTube tho.
Sent with my Nexus® 10 minus 3

You might try a custom kernel that's optimized for extended battery life. You'll get small but noticeable improvement, just don't expect miracles!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Lol. I'm lucky if I break 1.5 hours
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Uhh, I see. Thank you, guys!
Looks like my Nexus will be replaced with a Motorola after all

I get about 4 hours of on screen time with moderate gaming with CM rom.
Biggest difference compared to stock is that a lot of the services that run on stock are not installed or turned on.
Apps that constantly check in email/facebook/etc.. can drain things as well. Increasing the interval between checks, or disabling it altogether and just doing it manually would help.
BetterBatteryStats can help you narrow down what is giving you the biggest drain.

jayRokk said:
2-3 hours of screen time is normal.
You got to take into consideration;
this phones battery is NOT big, its small.
This phone has an LCD screen, the power is going to run out much FASTER than OLED screens.
Be happy you get 2-3 hours. Some people can barely get one.
I get 4+hour but with 6 hours total battery time. I can also get 1 1/2 days of light usage.
This phone isn't going to give you 5+ hours screen time on top of 12+ hours of battery life. Its just not gonna happen.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i can agree with you: my girlfriend and me got both a nexus 4. she has to charge her phone every day when she comes from school and also get not more than 2,5h screen on time. her phone is completely stock and loaded with a lot of beauty-apps, lol.
i rooted my nexus 4 and run paranoid android beta 6 with the stock gapps package and the hells.core b44t3 at the stock settings and iam getting at least 5h screen on time when useing my phone for about 20h-30h. iam just useing whtsapp, messenger, facebook, instagram, web browsing and google+, not playing games with it. i also tunred 3g off and use only wifi or 2g, because these apps dont need 3g necessarily.