How to know if you need a new battery?

[Mark27]

I am just wondering what are signs that my battery if not working as should be. I can't seem to get over a day battery life, I am ****ing with the phone a lot, so I don't want to pre-emptively think I need a new battery if I don't.

I get about 22-26 hours, some people are reporting 2 days with a new battery exchange. But without knowing how much/what they are using it for its difficult for me to guessestimate if I need a new battery or not.

Almost ALL of my battery use is from display too.

 

[VegasTouch]

I am just wondering what are signs that my battery if not working as should be. I can't seem to get over a day battery life, I am ****ing with the phone a lot, so I don't want to pre-emptively think I need a new battery if I don't.

I get about 22-26 hours, some people are reporting 2 days with a new battery exchange. But without knowing how much/what they are using it for its difficult for me to guessestimate if I need a new battery or not.

Almost ALL of my battery use is from display too.

With a Vibrant? Mine dont last the whole day. Mine says 24% left right now and i turned it on at 5am today and didnt use it as much as usual. I would be charging it by now normally.

Are you saying they should last longer? And where do you get a battery exchange?

 

[Mark27]

With a Vibrant? Mine dont last the whole day. Mine says 24% left right now and i turned it on at 5am today and didnt use quite as much as usual. I would be charging it by now normally.

Are you saying they should last longer? And where do you get a battery exchange?

Actually, I am getting 19 hours for a full day with moderate/light use. Yes, I will have to find the post but, someone said with a battery exchange they get 40+ hours with the same usage.

 

[VegasTouch]

Actually, I am getting 19 hours for a full day with moderate/light use. Yes, I will have to find the post but, someone said with a battery exchange they get 40+ hours with the same usage.

Hmmm, . What do you mean a battery exchange? You take it to T-Mobile and tell them your battery sucks and you get a new one?

 

[Mark27]

Hmmm, . What do you mean a battery exchange? You take it to T-Mobile and tell them your battery sucks and you get a new one?

I guess it works something like that. I haven't done it so I am not really sure how it works.

 

[lexluthor]

They should laugh you out of the store of you go in and say you get 24 hours and you want a new battery because that's not good enough.

 

[SamsungVibrant]

I am just wondering what are signs that my battery if not working as should be. I can't seem to get over a day battery life, I am ****ing with the phone a lot, so I don't want to pre-emptively think I need a new battery if I don't.

I get about 22-26 hours, some people are reporting 2 days with a new battery exchange. But without knowing how much/what they are using it for its difficult for me to guessestimate if I need a new battery or not.

Almost ALL of my battery use is from display too.

If you get a days worth of battery life out of the Galaxy S, Evo, Incredible, DroidX or any other super android phone, then your phones battery is working better than expected. Expect a max 7 hr battery life if you surf the web, make calls, check texts, check emails, have syncs on, etc. I take my phone off the charger when I get up, and by the time I get back in my car to drive home it needs to get charged ASAP.

There isn't anything wrong with your phones battery, this is just the nature of these phones.

If you want it to last 2 days on 1 charge, dont surf the net at all. have syncs completely off. Have your phone set to only 2g, have screen on low, and only use the phone as a phone, nothing else.

 

[Mark27]

If you get a days worth of battery life out of the Galaxy S, Evo, Incredible, DroidX or any other super android phone, then your phones battery is working better than expected. Expect a max 7 hr battery life if you surf the web, make calls, check texts, check emails, have syncs on, etc. I take my phone off the charger when I get up, and by the time I get back in my car to drive home it needs to get charged ASAP.

There isn't anything wrong with your phones battery, this is just the nature of these phones.

If you want it to last 2 days on 1 charge, dont surf the net at all. have syncs completely off. Have your phone set to only 2g, have screen on low, and only use the phone as a phone, nothing else.

I am getting 15 hours with 3g off, gps off, blahblah, only wifi on and low screen brightness with only samsung facebook widget and gmail sync.

Is that good? it seems so shit.

 

[SamsungVibrant]

I am getting 15 hours with 3g off, gps off, blahblah, only wifi on and low screen brightness with only samsung facebook widget and gmail sync.

Is that good? it seems so shit.

Yes, that sounds actually good, but it depends how you use the phone in that 15 hrs, thats like a full days charge, thats excellent if you are making phone calls, checking emails, texts.

If I use my phone constantly, like i'm surfing the web like crazy, I need a recharge in 4 hrs. Not just this phone, other super android phones are similar.

 

[Mark27]

Also, some guy mentioned getting a 3500mah battery, what are the cons of those? Are they bigger? How much do they cost?

 

[SamsungVibrant]

Also, some guy mentioned getting a 3500mah battery, what are the cons of those? Are they bigger? How much do they cost?

A 3500 battery... Umm first of all, that wouldn't fit, unless you want it to extend out of your phone like a bulky box, then you would need a custom fit battery cover for that.

On ebay there are some cheap hong kong batteries. You can get like 2 extra batteries and an extra wall charger, for under 20 bucks. I have no clue how dependable they are or safe, but worth a try maybe. Then you can carry multiple batteries around with you.

 

[Mark27]

A 3500 battery... Umm first of all, that wouldn't fit, unless you want it to extend out of your phone like a bulky box, then you would need a custom fit battery cover for that.

On ebay there are some cheap hong kong batteries. You can get like 2 extra batteries and an extra wall charger, for under 20 bucks. I have no clue how dependable they are or safe, but worth a try maybe. Then you can carry multiple batteries around with you.

Battery Life? - Page 5 - xda-developers

 

[SamsungVibrant]

Battery Life? - Page 5 - xda-developers

Oh no i totally believe you, of course extended life batteries exist. I'm just saying, many of them are big and builky and extend beyond your phones back cover.

 

[Mark27]

Oh no i totally believe you, of course extended life batteries exist. I'm just saying, many of them are big and builky and extend beyond your phones back cover.

So what battery life do you get, with what settings?

 

[SamsungVibrant]

So what battery life do you get, with what settings?

Well there is two ways to use the phone. Absolutely turn everything off when you need the phone to last you all day to make calls. Or enjoy all the functions on full capacity but get much lower battery life.

If I need the phone to last absolutely all day, I do the following.
Brightness lowest setting.
Turn off all syncs...except for email for me. NO weather, no news
Haptic feedback off
keypad touch tones off
Turn off live wall papers and instead turn on a full pitch black wall paper
set the phone to 2G, no 3g at all.
Wifi off
GPS off(this usually only uses power when actively used, but i turn it off anyway)
Bluetooth off.
I'm guilty of using ATK, but some say ATK doesn't do anything.
Make only phone calls, occasional text, email, no youtube, no music, very very minimal web browsing.
This will last me from morning, to like midnight.
Now, if I have these settings set,and I absoltely do nothing but a few occasional calls and email, then my phone will last 2 days(this is my current setting, havent charged since yesterday morning)


Usually though, I have live wallpaper on, full brightness, GPS, texting, surfing the net like crazy, youtube, maybe some mp3 songs or pandora..phone calls, the works. I get maybe 4 hrs, and I immediately plug into my computer to charge, plug into wall, or the car.


obviously you can find an inbetween pt, somewhere in the middle between those 2 extremes.

 

[E Double]

I definitely think my Battery is dodgy. I'm on my wife's iphone typing this because my vibrant is dead. The battery was full when I left the car and within 2.5 hours it was dead. This was with Bluetooth, wi-fi and gps off. I sent one message and took 14 pictures. Dead. And, the pisser for me is the car charger can't even hold the battery when using navigation. Now that I'm reading about folks contacting t-mo getting much better life than me (I've only had the phone since Wednesday but I'm by no means a power user.) I'm going to give them a call on Monday. I understand that this is superphone, but it's totally unacceptable that my core i7 Sony vaio laptop is lasting almost as long as my vibrant did today, and that thing is a battery pig. So if a battery exchange doesn't give me at least 4 or 5 hours away from a charger (hey, I'm not greedy) and more importantly allow me to do whatever the hell I want while plugged in it's going back.

 

[VegasTouch]

I guess it works something like that. I haven't done it so I am not really sure how it works.

Went to two T-mobile stores today and called the loyalty department. NOBODY offered me a battery exchange after i told them i thought my battery wasnt that good. They only offered solutions.

I shouldnt have to turn everything off to make it last a day. I didnt have to do that with my iPhone. But i did install advanced task killer today to see if that helps.

 

[MaxPowers]

very weird... When plugged in my phone is at 100% fully charged. I unplug it and it immediately drops to 96%... wtf?