Poor battery life? Read this

[Requiem87]

I noticed that the mini at times has quite poor battery life. for me, the main offender, according to battery usage in settings, was "Phone Idle".

I do not know exactly what is causing this, so if any of you know, let me know

Anyways, i noticed that in wifi-settings, if u press the option key, and tapp advanced, the Wifi was set to be enabled even when the screen was off. This can be changed to improve battery life.

What helped the most on my battery life was an app called Juice Defender.
There you can set that APN and Wifi should be disabled during the night, when the screen is off, and many other conditions.

For me, theese things together, made my battery life go from half a day to 2-3 days battery life.

Anyone have good battery life without this? Anyone with sync enabled?

 

[f1ddy]

i just use the default widget power control, altho im guna give it a go

 

[sublow]

I'm looking for something like juice defender but I'm finding it almost unusable on the small screen.

I'm just looking for something to stop data over night as I'm getting close to my 500Mb limit (and it's only been a week since I got the phone)

I did think about switching it off but the alarm doesn't work if it's switched off.

 

[MiniDroid]

@Requiem87
"Phone Idle" is not using your battery.
It indicates battery usage when you're doing nothing.
Let's say you've got 50 hours "uptime" on your phone since last charge.
If you don't play games, are online, texting or doing anything else - the phone still drains battery. And how much it does that is represented as "Phone Idle". So if you've not used your phone actively for more than half the time, the phone idle would be around 50%.
It's not 50% of you battery, but 50% of what has been used in those 50 hours.
Hope that explains it for you.



@sublow
You wrote : "the alarm doesn't work if it's switched off."
The alarm has nothing to do with the data connection, unless you're syncing alarms from your computer/server?
You should use wifi as long as/if possible to do any syncing.

 

[sublow]

Thanks MiniDroid but I was going to switch the phone off to stop data sync and save battery over night. My wifi doesn't reach the bedroom.

All my previous phones you could still set the alarm when the phone was switched off but not this one.

 

[MiniDroid]

@sublow, sorry I see that I misunderstood - I thought you ment the data connection, not the entire phone.
But over the night in standby you should see little or no drain in battery usage by the phone.

 

[sublow]

Not to worry I can switch on airplane mode to limit data, reduce battery drain and still use the alarm over night.

Just got to remember to switch it off in the morning.

 

[knudsen81]

Not to worry I can switch on airplane mode to limit data, reduce battery drain and still use the alarm over night.

Just got to remember to switch it off in the morning.

My data and sync is allways on and my phone last over 2 days

 

[Requiem87]

My data and sync is allways on and my phone last over 2 days

Interresting.
How many percent does "Phone Idle" show in the battery usage page?
Do u have many apps installed? I am not able to get 2 days at all!

 

[Requiem87]

My data and sync is allways on and my phone last over 2 days

Interresting.
How many percent does "Phone Idle" show in the battery usage page?
Do u have many apps installed? I am not able to get 2 days at all!

 

[knudsen81]

Interresting.
How many percent does "Phone Idle" show in the battery usage page?
Do u have many apps installed? I am not able to get 2 days at all!

phone Idle is 28 % and 15 apps installed

 

[sublow]

I've found a fix for my poor battery life.

eBay! I've just had two mains chargers and a car charger delivered.

I get 29% screen and 28% idle.

 

[spatuluk]

It's weird how some people can get over 2 days out of their phone without trying, and others struggle to get a days use with almost everything turned off.

I reckon either the batteries vary a lot in their capacity, or maybe it's to do with the quality of the 3G networks. I think I'm gonna switch back to my old network to see if it improves the life of my battery!

 

[MiniDroid]

I usually disable the data connection, disadvantage is that I'm not able to recieve mms but do get notifications of them and can download them later.
Don't get much of them either so really no big deal for me.
I use ca one-two hour wifi a day, mostly to get new apps to test.
Half an hour I guess is used to play games each day (few minutes here and there).
Ca 1 hour in the phone and around 30-40 sms a day.
A couple of pictures taken the last few days as well.
Alarm turned off, not in standby as I think that "pulls" the phone and drains battery.
And for the moment not in use untill I can manage to lower the volume.
Call Meter NG used to track calls/data traffic, so that's draining battery all the time.
Screen auto-off is sett to 1 minute but I usualle turn the display off when done.
So, I'm no heavy user of my phone, but I get around 3-4 days between charges.

 

[kirukp]

Battery performance is really poor. I had to charge twice a day. I always carry the USB cable to office for this reason. Frustrated!!

It seems the problem is with the charger rather than the battery! The charger has got the GreenHeart symbol on it. I think this charger is not fully efficient!

 

[mdinisoae]

The same for me, I'm usually recharge the phone every 4-5 days:
- Disabled the data connection
- From time to time WiFi (youtube, messanger, Android Market)
- During the night I switch off the phone

 

[knudsen81]

The same for me, I'm usually recharge the phone every 4-5 days:
- Disabled the data connection
- From time to time WiFi (youtube, messanger, Android Market)
- During the night I switch off the phone

hello and welcome to the forum......

thats is nice you only charge every 4-5 days, the batterylife will always depend on how much people use there phone.

I use my phone much and i charge only every 2 days

 

[mdinisoae]

Thank you knudsen81, I'm beginner for Android OS but old user of SE (I start in 2001 with Ericsson R320). Since then I changed lot of battery for my phones but the quality was not the same.
On the other hand switching off the phone during night will increase the battery life (I have great experience with my W810i, after 3,5 years I'm recharging the phone every 6-7 days like in the first year).

Most of the time I'm using my laptop for (internet, email, contacts, calendar, news) - it's part of my job .
One day I will make a test to see how long will work my phone on WiFi (news - it's hard to read it because of screen dimensions, youtube, chat).

 

[knudsen81]

Thank you knudsen81, I'm beginner for Android OS but old user of SE (I start in 2001 with Ericsson R320). Since then I changed lot of battery for my phones but the quality was not the same.
On the other hand switching off the phone during night will increase the battery life (I have great experience with my W810i, after 3,5 years I'm recharging the phone every 6-7 days like in the first year).

Most of the time I'm using my laptop for (internet, email, contacts, calendar, news) - it's part of my job .
One day I will make a test to see how long will work my phone on WiFi (news - it's hard to read it because of screen dimensions, youtube, chat).

Yes thats right but i use my phone like i would on my computer and the small screen is not a problem for me

 

[janette2005]

I think most battery problems is the new 2.1 update. Also a good solution for web browsing, tho minor, is using the mini opera web browser. It doesn't kill my battery as bad. Tho I got to say this phone should be trashed. But tht is jus my personal opinion.

,

 

[yosoyines]

It's weird how some people can get over 2 days out of their phone without trying, and others struggle to get a days use with almost everything turned off.

I reckon either the batteries vary a lot in their capacity, or maybe it's to do with the quality of the 3G networks. I think I'm gonna switch back to my old network to see if it improves the life of my battery!

It didn't helped me much to switch to 2g network, I still have to charge it twice a day, and I don't even have a medium use (no wifi, no gps, only 1 min call per day, 10 sms per day, I don't play with it or even listen music with it, only using the alarm, no animated bg).

After 2.1 improvement, Battery Improver crashed me tons of background SE apps, and I couldn't use it anymore, since I had to reboot phone over and over after using it.

It doesn't have 1 year (purchased it on 2nd Nov, 2011).

 

[Shiro313]

After 2.1 improvement, Battery Improver crashed me tons of background SE apps, and I couldn't use it anymore, since I had to reboot phone over and over after using it.

Sorry I didn't understand that, did 2.1 improve your battery use?? it seems to have killed mine...