Getting the most out of your Battery

[Mitchell4500]

Iv seen lots of diffrent tips and stuff so I decided with all the people worrying about battery life this might be a nice spot to get information.

1. Use a 5v charger at 1 -2 Amps - The thunderbolts OEM charger is 5v at 1amp. Its inportian to use a charger thats 1 amp or even two. This can help the phone charge better and faster and will help the battery.
   
   
2. Turn off Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS when not using them. Even when not active they are still using power. GPS can be a big power drainer too. When at home use WiFi for data.
   
   
3. Use auto brightness, the phone will adjust to the light in the room and this can help save power as the LCD Screen uses a large amount of your phones power.
   
   
4. Bump Charging - This is when you charge your phone to 100%. After this you restart the phone and remove the power cord when it turns off. After it turns back on youll notice the battery life has dropped about 5-10%. You can charge the phone again now and get that power back. Its an issue with android reporting the power levels. If you do this lots eventually the battery will adjust and you probably wont need to do this anymore.
   
   
5. Drain the battery before charging - If you can let the battery get as low as possible then charge your phone, this helps the battery break in.
   
   
6. Wait - The battery is new and on many phones new battery's have to break in or condition. After a while you will start getting longer life.
   

If I missed anything or you have some ideas just post below.

 

[Odinist]

Li-Ions don't have a break in.

Letting Li-Ions fully decharge can hurt their long-term performance.

Setting your brightness low-ish and leaving it there is MUCH less taxing than the auto-brightness.

 

[Cavemansol]

Just disable 4g, it makes a huge huge difference.

 

[finzisa]

Iv seen lots of diffrent tips and stuff so I decided with all the people worrying about battery life this might be a nice spot to get information.

1. Use a 5v charger at 1 -2 Amps - The thunderbolts OEM charger is 5v at 1amp. Its inportian to use a charger thats 1 amp or even two. This can help the phone charge better and faster and will help the battery.
   
   
2. Turn off Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS when not using them. Even when not active they are still using power. GPS can be a big power drainer too. When at home use WiFi for data.
   
   
3. Use auto brightness, the phone will adjust to the light in the room and this can help save power as the LCD Screen uses a large amount of your phones power.
   
   
4. Bump Charging - This is when you charge your phone to 100%. After this you restart the phone and remove the power cord when it turns off. After it turns back on youll notice the battery life has dropped about 5-10%. You can charge the phone again now and get that power back. Its an issue with android reporting the power levels. If you do this lots eventually the battery will adjust and you probably wont need to do this anymore.
   
   
5. Drain the battery before charging - If you can let the battery get as low as possible then charge your phone, this helps the battery break in.
   
   
6. Wait - The battery is new and on many phones new battery's have to break in or condition. After a while you will start getting longer life.
   

If I missed anything or you have some ideas just post below.

1. You need to make sure you are using a rapid charger to get the full 1 amp (data pins need to be shorted together), if it is not you will only get half of that.

2. GPS will only turn on when in use (you will see the icon in the notification bar), when not in use it will not use any CPU

Just disable 4g, it makes a huge huge difference.

That will negate the reason for buying this phone. If I wanted a 3g phone I already have the Incredible.

 

[Cavemansol]

That will negate the reason for buying this phone. If I wanted a 3g phone I already have the Incredible.

It takes 2 seconds to reactivate it. You really dont need a 4g Connection when the phones in your pocket...Just sayin...

 

[theacoustician]

It takes 2 seconds to reactivate it. You really dont need a 4g Connection when the phones in your pocket...Just sayin...

Is there a 4G on/off widget?

 

[Mitchell4500]

Li-Ions don't have a break in.

Letting Li-Ions fully decharge can hurt their long-term performance.

Setting your brightness low-ish and leaving it there is MUCH less taxing than the auto-brightness.

My LG Ally was a Li-ion and it definitely had a break in period. Just ask anyone who owned one.

Sure brightness at low is a good option but I personally cant stand a dim screen.

 

[Mitchell4500]

1. You need to make sure you are using a rapid charger to get the full 1 amp (data pins need to be shorted together), if it is not you will only get half of that.

2. GPS will only turn on when in use (you will see the icon in the notification bar), when not in use it will not use any CPU

Good point and Sometimes apps like weather bug will turn on the GPS in your pocket. Thats why id turn it off completely.

 

[Frisco]

Iv seen lots of diffrent tips and stuff so I decided with all the people worrying about battery life this might be a nice spot to get information.

1. Use a 5v charger at 1 -2 Amps - The thunderbolts OEM charger is 5v at 1amp. Its inportian to use a charger thats 1 amp or even two. This can help the phone charge better and faster and will help the battery.
2. Turn off Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS when not using them. Even when not active they are still using power. GPS can be a big power drainer too. When at home use WiFi for data.
3. Use auto brightness, the phone will adjust to the light in the room and this can help save power as the LCD Screen uses a large amount of your phones power.
4. Bump Charging - This is when you charge your phone to 100%. After this you restart the phone and remove the power cord when it turns off. After it turns back on youll notice the battery life has dropped about 5-10%. You can charge the phone again now and get that power back. Its an issue with android reporting the power levels. If you do this lots eventually the battery will adjust and you probably wont need to do this anymore.
5. Drain the battery before charging - If you can let the battery get as low as possible then charge your phone, this helps the battery break in.
6. Wait - The battery is new and on many phones new battery's have to break in or condition. After a while you will start getting longer life.

I don't recommend very much of that for Li-Ion batteries.

Have a (long ) look here:

How to prolong lithium-based batteries – Battery University

 

[Cavemansol]

Is there a 4G on/off widget?

Not one that works yet, though im sure someone will come out with it soon.

For now, to kill 4g, just go to your dialer, and do the following:

Dial: (*#*#4636#*#*) --> Phone Information -->change CDMA+LTE auto to CDMA Auto.

Now your on 3g. Just change it back to CDMA+LTE if you want 4g again.

Sounds like more work than it is. Literally takes about 4 seconds.

And like i said before, I bet there will be a working 4g widget out by the end of the weekend.

 

[TomXP411]

Li-Ions don't have a break in..

Based on my experience, that's simply not true. I've gone through dozens of LiPo batteries in various devices: phones, PMP's, and radio control vehicles (capacities from 3 to 10 amp-hours.)

There is DEFINITELY a break-in period on LiPo cells, somewhere around 3-5 charge cycles. There's also a period where the battery indicator on the device and the battery itself are getting used to each other; this affects the "fuel gauge" on the display. That the battery gauge is always right at "full" and "empty", but anything in the middle is a guess.

Having said that, once a battery is broken in, and the charge gauge is showing a reasonably accurate figure, your battery will have the longest service life if you keep it topped off, rather than run it down in to the red. To that end, I usually plug my phone in to the charger when I'm driving or when I'm at my desk at work, especially if I'll be using it during my lunch break (which is typical.)

 

[theacoustician]

Had anyone thought to use Tasker to help out with some power settings? For instance, you could turn 4G and GPS off when the screen is off and then back on when the screen comes back on? Or you could only turn on 4G when certain apps start up (youtube, web, etc.) and leave it off the rest if the time since you don't ned 4G for text or sync.

 

[ska.t73]

Not one that works yet, though im sure someone will come out with it soon.

For now, to kill 4g, just go to your dialer, and do the following:

Dial: (*#*#4636#*#*) --> Phone Information -->change CDMA+LTE auto to CDMA Auto.

Now your on 3g. Just change it back to CDMA+LTE if you want 4g again.

Sounds like more work than it is. Literally takes about 4 seconds.

And like i said before, I bet there will be a working 4g widget out by the end of the weekend.

There is an app on the market called phone info by sc@taiwan that will allow you to access the phone info menu without having to dial. Saves even more time

 

[Cavemansol]

There is an app on the market called phone info by sc@taiwan that will allow you to access the phone info menu without having to dial. Saves even more time

Good deal, at least we have options!

 

[ska.t73]

Good deal, at least we have options!

Exactly, the app is pretty nice too. It lets you access a good amount of information from one screen too.

 

[TomXP411]

I finally found it; there are a bunch of apps with the same or similar titles.

Here's the link: https://market.android.com/details?id=myc.phone.PhoneInfo&feature=search_result