Help "Display" using too much battery

[HeavyFD]

I watched all 6 droid battery save videos on youtube for the bionic. my regular battery was just awful...it would lose 50% overnight if i didnt plug it in. figured it was the battery and bought the extended battery. its alright i guess...been messing with the phone for 4.5 hours now and its gone from 100% to 17%. did ablot of tweeking with those videos so maybe the next time around it will be better. my question is...and the guy in the videos even said...that under the battery usage stats..."display" should be one of the lowest users because of the pentile screen....but mine is steadily in the high 30%. just checked before i logged onto here and it said 39%. my wifes phone...even after heavy usage...is under 10%...usually around 7%. why is my display draining so much battery. animations are off. screen timeout is at 30 seconds. it is set to auto brightness. even if it sits there asleep all night..."display" is always the top battery user. i dont get it. my brother got the extended battery and is able to play games all day at work and use the heck out of his phone...and he says he still will have 50% when he gets home. any ideas why MY "display" is burning so much battery?...thanks for any help in advance

chris

 

[HeavyFD]

oh...another thing...me and my wife both got our bionics on opening day....her battery has always been fine...and mine has always sucked...even with stock settings on both...maybe i just got a lemon?

 

[PowerBomb]

Could be that you got a crappy battery but really it's hard to make those types of comparisons, we may assume that we use our phones exactly the same as a friend or family member who owns the exact same phone, but unless you watch them 24 hours a day you don't really know, maybe your wife just uses hers a whole lot less.

I would experiment for a day and take your phone off of auto brightness and try just leaving it on the lowest brightness setting. On one hand auto brightness sounds like it should save battery by adjusting to the ideal brightness level, but on the other hand, the phone is using energy to constantly judge the ambient lighting through the light sensor, make adjustments to the screen brightness, etc etc, I think it might be more of a battery drain than a saver.

I'm not familiar with those YouTube videos you watched but in terms of general battery life I assume they mentioned the obvious like leaving GPS and WiFi off until you absolutely need it, don't have too many widgets on home screens, don't set stuff to update every 5 minutes, etc.

The single biggest battery saving tip for the Bionic is to turn off 4G LTE when you don't need it and just run CDMA mode until you want to download something or watch a video, then turn 4G back on. This can literally make a difference of multiple hours in your battery life.

 

[xmr405o]

I don't have my display on auto brightness but my display percentage is always on the top of my battery usage. Around 40-45% but I still get at least 11 hrs of usage. If I stream vids, play smurf village or I browse for more than 1.5 hrs in a day then my battery doesn't last more than 9 hrs on my standard battery.

 

[PowerBomb]

I should have mentioned that as well, my display is also at the top of my battery usage list, almost always is.

 

[dave1812]

I watched all 6 droid battery save videos on youtube for the bionic. my regular battery was just awful...it would lose 50% overnight if i didnt plug it in. figured it was the battery and bought the extended battery. its alright i guess...been messing with the phone for 4.5 hours now and its gone from 100% to 17%. did ablot of tweeking with those videos so maybe the next time around it will be better. my question is...and the guy in the videos even said...that under the battery usage stats..."display" should be one of the lowest users because of the pentile screen....but mine is steadily in the high 30%. just checked before i logged onto here and it said 39%. my wifes phone...even after heavy usage...is under 10%...usually around 7%. why is my display draining so much battery. animations are off. screen timeout is at 30 seconds. it is set to auto brightness. even if it sits there asleep all night..."display" is always the top battery user. i dont get it. my brother got the extended battery and is able to play games all day at work and use the heck out of his phone...and he says he still will have 50% when he gets home. any ideas why MY "display" is burning so much battery?...thanks for any help in advance

chris

The display percentage is based on usage and is computed until you recharge the battery to 100%, at which time the calculations begin anew. Currently my phone shows 29% display. Don't get hung up on that number. I don't know if you have a bad battery or anything else for that matter, but you are barking up the wrong tree regarding the percentage of Display usage.

 

[HeavyFD]

it's not supposed to be...and it really doesnt matter if you have it on auto brightness or not...something to do with the pentile screen...it uses a lot less power than other phones' screens. should be under 10%. like i said...mines routinelh in the high 30s..just checked and its at 46%. my wife does use her phone as much ad me...and hers is at 4%....somethings up.

oh yeah...gps isnt on..no widgets...i'm really just wondering why my Display is draining so much juice when it shouldnt be

 

[dave1812]

it's not supposed to be...and it really doesnt matter if you have it on auto brightness or not...something to do with the pentile screen...it uses a lot less power than other phone
s' screens. should be under 10%. like i said...mines routinelh in the high 30s..just checked and its at 46%. my wofe does use her phone as much ad me...and hers is at 4%....somethings up.

oh yeah...gps isnt on..no widgets...i'm really just wondering why my Display is draining so much juice when it shouldnt be

BALONEY!!! You are absolutely incorrect. The percentage depends on the relative time the screen is on, in relation to all other processes. Sheesh! (this is my LAST comment on your confusion)

 

[doogald]

Right, a high percentage for display just means that you have fewer other things that are draining the battery. If you have the phone set up the same as your wife - exactly the same, and you have the display actually lit the same amount of time and have less battery life - then something is up. If that was the case, and it was me, I might decide to try a factory reset and then reinstall only my critical, absolutely essential apps and run for a few days to see if things changed. If not, then perhaps you have a bad handset, and you should call for a warranty exchange.

 

[PowerBomb]

OP you're basing a lot of your concerns on what these YouTube videos told you.

I've never heard that the display should be towards the bottom of the usage statistics on a Bionic. Yes it is true that the pentile display type has pixels set up in such a way that it should use less battery than other screen types, and maybe that's what the guy in the video was making reference to, but that's all.

As others have pointed out, the percentages you see on the battery list are all relative to each other, so if I install some power draining application that starts using a ton of battery, I'm sure I could get my display % down into the single digits too. I don't have a lot of other stuff installed on my phone, so my display registers as a fairly high battery drain. Maybe your wife has other things installed on her phone that make her battery usage "appear" lower.

 

[xmr405o]

OP, I'm pretty sure you've updated your bionic. Did your wife update hers? I remember prior to any updates, the bionic's battery stats always showed cell stand by and phone idle at the top then display was the next highest percentage.

The battery life series was created prior to the updates so display should be on the top of battery usage especially if you use your phone a lot.

But you still might need to have your battery exchanged if you feel that your battery life I'd not right.

 

[HeavyFD]

it is set up the same...i watched the videos because a lot of other posts i read prior to posting this...said to watch the videos...the guy in the videos said specifically that the display percentage should always be below 10%...no matter how much you use it...due to the pentile display...this is my second battery..an extended one...and its still not up to par. since i set our phones up the same...and the only difference is that my display uses 10 times thebamount of perceng of battery...i figured its something to do with my handset. her stock battery will last as long as my extended battery if we are side by side both playing the same game. guess im just gonna replace the handset and see if that fixes it. i do also have problens with my phone dropping the 4g a lot...so also from what ive read...is it could be a bad radio...who knows....sorry to inconvenience you dave1812...i was under the the impression that the forums were for questions...lol

 

[Thom]

Since you have two Bionics and one has apparent bad battery use and the other doesn't ... swap batteries. If the problem remains unchanged then the battery is not the problem.

The most lily culprit in battery drain that is not readily apparent (like WiFi usage) is GPS. In particular Social Location being called in the background buy the other social apps. Do you use that stuff and your wife doesn't?

... Thom

 

[doogald]

guess im just gonna replace the handset and see if that fixes it.

If you are going to replace the handset and start from scratch anyway, why not try a factory reset first and see if that solves the problem?

Settings->Privacy->Factory Data Reset

 

[dave1812]

it is set up the same...i watched the videos because a lot of other posts i read prior to posting this...said to watch the videos...the guy in the videos said specifically that the display percentage should always be below 10%...no matter how much you use it...due to the pentile display...this is my second battery..an extended one...and its still not up to par. since i set our phones up the same...and the only difference is that my display uses 10 times thebamount of perceng of battery...i figured its something to do with my handset. her stock battery will last as long as my extended battery if we are side by side both playing the same game. guess im just gonna replace the handset and see if that fixes it. i do also have problens with my phone dropping the 4g a lot...so also from what ive read...is it could be a bad radio...who knows....sorry to inconvenience you dave1812...i was under the the impression that the forums were for questions...lol

I am not "inconvenienced". but your comment about the display always having to be under a certain value is simply W-R-O-N-G. You keep believing that though--there's apparently no bounds on bogus information that is passed around. good luck!!

 

[HeavyFD]

gps is never on thom...unless i wanna use it for directions and then i turn it off...doogald...i did a factory reset about 2 weeks ago because my phone wouldnt get a connection even after a bunch of battery pulls...the tech at the store sakd my last option would be the factory reset. that fixed the connection issue. must be a radio problem with the phone. i also read from a few different places that there was a bad batch of bionics with radio issues that were also draining battery. been at home all day and have had company so i have barely been on my phone today...and it is down to 47% from 100 with very light usage and this is after all of the settings i changed last night to extend the battery. has to just be a bunk handset...good idea though about switching batteries with my wife for a day....i'll do that tomorrow to check it out...i guess it is possible to get two bad batteries in a row...thanks for the suggestion

 

[HeavyFD]

and sorry about being W-R-ON-G dave...but thats why i'm here...to try to figure this out...i don't know shizz about all the technical aspects of the phone...when i went to highschool we took typing....on typewriters...lol...i didnt get the jumpstart on these kinds of things like the kids do nowadays...just tried to do some research in these forums before asking a question thats been asked 100 times and tried fixing it on my own...when that didnt work...i decided to ask

 

[wildkitten]

Heavy, think of it this way. If your wife has 3 apps that use 90% total of her battery, then the most her screen can use is 10% of the battery usage. But if you aren't running those apps, it will have your screen usage as higher.

Thom I think had his example backward. If your wife's screen is using less relative percentage of battery use, then she probably has more background stuff going on than you do. Honestly, if your screen is using more of your battery, that means your phone is having almost no background apps running which means the CPU isn't being used up. Honestly, that is what you want.

One thing you have to learn about a smartphone is that it will drain the battery FAST. I had to learn this as well. I would get about 3 days on my old enVee Touch on a single charge, but I have to recharge my Bionic overnight every night and I am not a heavy user. I even have it on my car dock for a bit each day too.

Remember, the percentage can not be guaranteed to be at a certain percent. All a percentage means is how much of the battery's resources is being taken up. And unless your wife uses the exact same apps, uses them for the exact same amount of time as you do, and has her settings identical, her numbers will never be identical to yours.

 

[doogald]

If your wife's screen is using less relative percentage of battery use, then she probably has more background stuff going on than you do. Honestly, if your screen is using more of your battery, that means your phone is having almost no background apps running which means the CPU isn't being used up. Honestly, that is what you want.

However, he is also reporting that her Bionic has longer battery life than his does. Something isn't right.

In light of the fact that this had a recent factory reset, if swapping batteries does not work, I would call Verizon and see about a warranty replacement.

 

[Thom]

Clarification ... didn't get it backwards ... I was ignoring the percentage question entirely.

Spoiler

He wants to have longer battery usage and is how he got in on this in the first place. Swapping batteries will simply prove (or disprove) the health of his battery. He is not his wife. She more than likely is not using some app that he is that is eating the battery or he has a bad ssssssssssssssss or he has a bad Bionic.

There is an excellent source of battery information that can be Google-ed from the battery institute.

The bottom line is that it is all relative and fairly subjective.

The overall battery usage reported is an approximation. That approximation is accurate around 10%. (Charged to 100% when you unplug it from th charger really means 90-something% to 100%). That is the reason they don't report 1% increments.

The report of usage is also misleading.

The whole reason any of this stuff is reported is to "give you a feeling" for what is happening. You are likely to draw the wrong conclusion.

It is all relative and based on an initial estimate.

How about ...
He doesn't leave GPS on.
Hotspot usage?
Task killer app usage?
HDMI usage?
Poorly written video-centric app that continues in background after leaving?
Bad battery?
Malware?

... Thom

 

[wildkitten]

Clarification ... didn't get it backwards ... I was ignoring the percentage question entirely.

Spoiler

He wants to have longer battery usage and is how he got in on this in the first place. Swapping batteries will simply prove (or disprove) the health of his battery. He is not his wife. She more than likely is not using some app that he is that is eating the battery or he has a bad ssssssssssssssss or he has a bad Bionic.

There is an excellent source of battery information that can be Google-ed from the battery institute.

The bottom line is that it is all relative and fairly subjective.

The overall battery usage reported is an approximation. That approximation is accurate around 10%. (Charged to 100% when you unplug it from th charger really means 90-something% to 100%). That is the reason they don't report 1% increments.

The report of usage is also misleading.

The whole reason any of this stuff is reported is to "give you a feeling" for what is happening. You are likely to draw the wrong conclusion.

It is all relative and based on an initial estimate.

How about ...
He doesn't leave GPS on.
Hotspot usage?
Task killer app usage?
HDMI usage?
Poorly written video-centric app that continues in background after leaving?
Bad battery?
Malware?

... Thom

That's why I thought you had your example backward as you asked if he had more background stuff running than his wife. If his display is using a higher percentage of battery use than his wife's that would suggest his wife actually has a lot more things going on in the background than he does.

 

[wildkitten]

However, he is also reporting that her Bionic has longer battery life than his does. Something isn't right.

In light of the fact that this had a recent factory reset, if swapping batteries does not work, I would call Verizon and see about a warranty replacement.

Yeah, but considering his battery doesn't seem to be draining overly fast I am wondering if that really is the case unless he watches his wife's cell phone use 24/7.

I know that if you mess with the phone for 4.5 hours you will go from 100% to 17% pretty easily, even faster depending on the app. I also know that leaving my phone on, even on standby, with 4G on and no wifi or many background apps will still drain the phone a good bit over the same number of hours as a typical overnight will be. I really didn't get the impression anything was wrong the battery, just that he has the same surprise I did moving to a smartphone from a regular phone when it comes to battery usage.

 

[Thom]

That's why I thought you had your example backward as you asked if he had more background stuff running than his wife. If his display is using a higher percentage of battery use than his wife's that would suggest his wife actually has a lot more things going on in the background than he does.

Yes the whole issue is subjective ... at best.

The absolute battery percentage numbers are useful under a very small set of circumstances. Soft reset, plug in charger, remove from charger run test A. Record the values. Soft reset, plug in charger, remove from charger, run test B. Record the values. Now compare the results.

Anything else is so full of subterfuge you could spend the rest of your life debating its meaning.

Maybe he uses live wallpaper and his wife doesn't.
Maybe he plays a game and his wife doesn't;t

... Thom

 

[doogald]

Maybe he uses live wallpaper and his wife doesn't.

I think that would increase the percentage for "Android System" and, of course, decrease the percentage for "Display" (since "Android System" is going up.)

The only other things that I can think of (regarding the drain when he is sleeping, though I always take this time to actually charge my phone - why do people avoid charging while they sleep?) besides a bad handset is that:

1. His wife's phone has "Nighttime saver" and he has "Performance mode"
2. His wife is using WiFi and he is using LTE/mobile data, or he has WiFi set to sleep when the display is off, so his phone starts using LTE when it is off rather than WiFi for background data connections
3. They are both on LTE/mobile data rather than WiFi and his wife's phone has Data saver on, and his does not

All seem like unlikely explanations for a dramatic drop of battery capacity while the phone is not being used at all, particularly for the display to be such a high percentage of battery use while the phone is draining a lot of battery.

GPS only uses battery when an app on the phone is actively looking for a location. I guess if you had a weather widget that was set to get weather data for your current location every 5 minutes and was set to use GPS for location would be hard on the battery, but it shouldn't be that hard. Bluetooth would burn a little battery while it was on and not connected, but that wouldn't report as "Display" for a high battery drain. A bad radio that requires the handset to actively seek a signal would drain battery faster, but that would report "Cell standby" as a high percentage battery user.

He hasn't said if his phone appears brighter than his wife's or his brother's, but it may be that the backlight LEDs are bad and are just always on full brightness. Or the ambient light sensor is bad and is reading a high level of light always, leaving the brightness always high. Or it may be that the battery sensor is bad or is reporting incorrectly.

Well, we'll see if swapping battery packs with his wife makes a difference...

 

[Thom]

Good points.

Apparently various social apps call Social Location in the background and it uses GPS. It is rather hidden from view.I have observed other apps using GPS and the GPS icon never shows up. (He said he generally has GPS off.)

I pulled my Bionic off the charger and it shows that the display accounted for 75% of the battery usage the first 60 seconds. This repeats the statement that WildKitten made earlier.

... Thom