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I've heard from droid users you should be getting 12 hours of hardcore use out of the cellphone; but there's no way my can manage to do that. Hey, I slept for a few hours, left it in standby and lost like 40% of power.

The other day I slept well through the night and lost the entire charge.

This is really unacceptable. I heard the droid's battery life got fixed in an update, I'm hoping for the same and hoping it happens ASAP.

And I use an app killer, so I'm not even sure how its being eaten away!
 
Here is what I found in testing with the milestone. If I left the Mobile networks running all the time, battery life was dreadful. But there is no real way to turn of mobile networks on the milestone like on my Hero. So what I did was write a new APN file which does not work for anything and told the phone to use that one. Battery life is better now. Now if I want to use the mobile network, I just change APNs to the ATT one. I think there should be a on/off switch for this. Its a tip on XDA for Hero and Magic phones as well.
 
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Over night I am loosing 10% off the battery.
I am getting 12 hours easily after 5 cycles of charging/discharging.
On the last phone (Hero) it was nearly impossible to reach 12 hours. My opinion that Milestone battery is way better than Hero. This is my experience with Milestone. WiFi is on all the time (when wifi nearby), GPS on, bluetooth off.
I never leave the battery to charge over night.
 
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Well after about 6 cycles of recharging, my battery is fine.
i leave the house on a full charge at 7am. i leave bluetooth on all the time throughtout the day (car pairing), make about 40 mins worth of calls, dozen or so texts and at least 50 mins web surfing. occasional music for 15 mins and a bit of playing around. All alerts and ringtones are set to maximum volume. i get home at 6pm and i always have 40-50 % left no problem.
my screen is using 55% of the battery and i dont use an app killer. im more than happy with the battery as its a big improvement over my HTC HERO by a long mile.
 
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A few things to try if you want to improve battery life:

1) Charge the battery fully and then run it to empty (until the phone switches itself off).

2) Disable auto-screen brightness and use the minimum setting. If the minimum isn't enough all the time, add the power widget as it allows you to cycle through min/50%/100% brightness easily when you need it.

3) Always use the power button to put the phone into standby when you are finished using it, don't wait for it to dim and lock itself automatically.

4) Consider disabling automatic sync if you get a lot of email / calendar updates.

I am getting 1.5 days of 'normal' use (a couple of short calls, 5-10 texts, email and calendar synced all the time, about 1 hour of music and 30mins of browsing via WiFi and 3G. However, I switch my phone off when I'm asleep.
 
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Here is what I found in testing with the milestone. If I left the Mobile networks running all the time, battery life was dreadful. But there is no real way to turn of mobile networks on the milestone like on my Hero. So what I did was write a new APN file which does not work for anything and told the phone to use that one. Battery life is better now. Now if I want to use the mobile network, I just change APNs to the ATT one. I think there should be a on/off switch for this. Its a tip on XDA for Hero and Magic phones as well.

If you want to be able to easily disable/enable mobile data to save power, try this:

APNdroid 2.0 Adds Automation to Android Battery Saving Tool - Android - Lifehacker
 
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1) Charge the battery fully and then run it to empty (until the phone switches itself off).

DO NOT DO THIS! THIS IS BAD INFORMATION!

LiPo batteries have a downside of having crystalisation deposits inside the battery. The lower your battery when you charge, the more crystals are deposited.

LiPo batteries have a certain (re)charge lifespan. If you do this you will wear it down! Keep it charged up to max as much as possible.

I recommend buying an emergency battery charger such as the Motorola P790. Whenever you use something battery intensive (such as games or 3G) pop that on to keep it topped up.

Proof: http://www.rchelisite.com/lipo_battery_charging_and_safety_guide.php
Do not fully discharge your LiPo battery pack. Discharging a LiPo beyond it
 
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DO NOT DO THIS! THIS IS BAD INFORMATION!

The Lithium ion polymer battery used on the Milestone (and all other mobile phones) contains circuitry that will stop you FULLY discharging. When you get to the stage your phone shuts off, there is still some charge remaining to prevent the battery from dropping below it's minimum voltage.

Charging lithium-ion batteries

Much attention is focused to avoid over-charging and over-discharging. Commercial lithium ion packs contain a protection circuits that limit the charge voltage to 4.30V/cell, 0.10 volts higher than the voltage threshold of the charger. Temperature sensing disconnects the charge if the cell temperature approaches 90
 
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