Help HTC ONE battery discussion (usage, charging, etc.)

[EarlyMon]

Probably a runaway app, most likely what we call a race condition. Apps naturally parallelize using constructs that we call threads. Think of it this way - for listening to music, the app may have a thread for the display updates, a thread to sense inputs and one for actually playing music. (That's an insanely simplified fictional example, but good enough for the idea - threads can run in parallel.)

And quite often, threads will rendezvous with one another for control purposes.

Every so often, you get a bug where they won't, they just hang waiting for each other.

Or, you can get the condition where they spin out of control missing the rendezvous at top speed - and Android will automagically distribute threads across CPU cores. And spinning threads racing each other can and will do that across multiple cores at top speed. Drawing max power and dissipating it as heat.

If it comes back, you have a flakey app somewhere.

If it doesn't, you could have just had a single bit in ram stuck for a while, and coincidentally at the point that would induce the race condition.

 

[LoyalServant]

Race conditions vs. battery... battery loses

While (1) { } can be bad if your not careful

 

[BillyODU]

Ive gotten hooked on a new game which only allows me about 10 hours of battery life haha, but without the game I was getting 19-20 hours easy.

 

[sean76]

Well this is a weird one...I'm a minimalist, no social media, no real syncs going on, screen brigjness is about 50%.

I just finished watching a video with my phone fresh of the charger and at 100% and now after this roughly 20min video my phone is at 84%?

Is this normal ONE owners?

 

[Rose4uKy]

Well I don't get near as good of battery life as some on here but it's still better than my Evo LTE so I can't complain. I don't have good signal at work but as soon as I get there I get on wifi which isn't the best sometimes and my phone stays in my pocket. Yesterday I was at 15% at only 7 1/2 hours and I didn't use my phone much except on dinner break and a couple other quick breaks. But I always had to charge mine phone at work using my Anker or plugging it in on dinner break but now I leave with about 30% and then charge it when I get home. But It last longer than my EVO LTE SO I'm good. But not at work and being out for a day I would love to get 10-12 hours or more. We don't have 4G here and my signal isn't always that great. Now I got an air rave in my house and phone not plugged in over night went from 90 something to 85 while sleeping. Phone was on wifi but before I had left phone unplugged overnight and it had been dead by morning on one of my EVO's.

But I love this phone and I am always near a plug usually or have my Anker so I'm good.

 

[KOLIO]

This article echoes the notion that an otherwise identical phone,a GSM equipped model typically fares better than its CDMA counterpart & is one of the reasons I moved from SPRINT to T-MOBILE (BTW,SPRINT is COOL,just doesn't have the coverage that T-MOBILE has in my area):

HTC One for AT&T and Sprint: what's different?

 

[Mello_Asian]

I have a question about the batteries. So I've heard reviews of how good the batter is for the One, and how it lasts people a day and even a bit more but I'm not sure if it's just my phone.

Basically, I charge my phone overnight. When I wake up at 6:00, its fully charged. Throughout school, however, I notice the battery percent lowering after every period of time. By the end of school, which is around 2:30, it would have around 50ish% (yesterday) to 25% (today) left and I don't even use it that heavily. The reason for the 25% today is because I've been using Snapchat during classes, but the battery percentage being that low after school contradicts what other reviews are saying about the One's battery life, which can supposedly take heavy usage and last a day.

Is there something wrong with my device, or is this normal for everyone else?

 

[KOLIO]

I have a question about the batteries. So I've heard reviews of how good the batter is for the One, and how it lasts people a day and even a bit more but I'm not sure if it's just my phone.

Basically, I charge my phone overnight. When I wake up at 6:00, its fully charged. Throughout school, however, I notice the battery percent lowering after every period of time. By the end of school, which is around 2:30, it would have around 50ish% (yesterday) to 25% (today) left and I don't even use it that heavily. The reason for the 25% today is because I've been using Snapchat during classes, but the battery percentage being that low after school contradicts what other reviews are saying about the One's battery life, which can supposedly take heavy usage and last a day.

Is there something wrong with my device, or is this normal for everyone else?

Without knowing everything that's going on w/your phone,the best thing you can do is download a battery app such as BETTER BATTERY STATS or GSam BATTERY MONITOR,run it for a few days,as prescribed per each app,& then post some screenshots here for troubleshooting by the community.

 

[clsA]

Without knowing everything that's going on w/your phone,the best thing you can do is download a battery app such as BETTER BATTERY STATS or GSam BATTERY MONITOR,run it for a few days,as prescribed per each app,& then post some screenshots here for troubleshooting by the community.

Agree ...seems you have a leak I recommend GSam also.

 

[PilotBob]

I have a question about the batteries. So I've heard reviews of how good the batter is for the One, and how it lasts people a day and even a bit more but I'm not sure if it's just my phone.

Basically, I charge my phone overnight. When I wake up at 6:00, its fully charged. Throughout school, however, I notice the battery percent lowering after every period of time. By the end of school, which is around 2:30, it would have around 50ish% (yesterday) to 25% (today) left and I don't even use it that heavily. The reason for the 25% today is because I've been using Snapchat during classes, but the battery percentage being that low after school contradicts what other reviews are saying about the One's battery life, which can supposedly take heavy usage and last a day.

Is there something wrong with my device, or is this normal for everyone else?

Battery life really depends on many things. If you are at the edge of reception (week signal) the phone uses much more battery trying to stay connected cause it keeps looking for a better signal. Also, is your WiFi and Bluetooth on when they are not connected to anything? If so, they can use batter too.. you may want to toggle them of during the day.

Also, the more services you run that are syncing, like, twitter, facebook, news, etc, the more battery it will use. Also, the brighter you keep your screen the more batter is used. Set you screen dim time to dim quickly so it isn't on very long when you stop using it.

I assume snapchat uses data and not SMS?

I highly recommend Juice Defender... it will manage turning your data off and turning it on every 15 minutes to allow for sync. But, if you need up to the second chat notices, then you probably won't like that.

BOb

 

[LordTumnas]

I am aware that the one is rated for 5volts at 1amp
However, will the phones battery be adversly affected by using chargers rated for different amperages (i.e. my old phones 500ma or a note 2's 2.1a)

 

[KOLIO]

I'll answer this one,as EarlyMon so kindly educated myself & others here on the subject:

It won't hurt either way.The .5amp charger will take longer,but,the 2A charger will not charge your phone any faster than the one provided w/your phone (1A).

The 2A charger is safe to use,been using the GN2 2A charger on my HTC ONE since day one.

 

[LordTumnas]

I'll answer this one,as EarlyMon so kindly educated myself & others here on the subject:

It won't hurt either way.The .5amp charger will take longer,but,the 2A charger will not charge your phone any faster than the one provided w/your phone (1A).

The 2A charger is safe to use,been using the GN2 2A charger on my HTC ONE since day one.

Thanks! I was worried the different amperages could fry something :/
Changes in voltage are a whole other beast though arent they?

 

[KOLIO]

To say my expertise in ALL THINGS ELECTRICAL is lacking would be an understatement.....

Here's the quote I was referencing Earlier

Here's the rules -

Voltage is force pushed by the charger.

Current (in amperes or milli-amperes) is drawn by the device.

If the device is designed to draw a maximum of 1 A, then giving it a 2 A supply changes nothing, it will only draw 1 A.

If it's designed to draw more than 1 A, then giving it more than the standard HTC charger (what crafty and all other HTC owners get) will let it charge faster.

Battery degradation is largely a function of heat and charging cycles. If it stays cool charging, then the battery lifetime isn't materially changed, regardless.

 

[Tlicious1020]

Yeah, it's nice that you can change the background and text color to text messages. If you are a heavy texter, using a black background instead of white should save a ton of battery juice. I thought that I knew jelly bean well. Guess I didn't explore the new OS or is this a new feature HTC added?

 

[SuperC142]

Hi Tlicious1020- I thought I'd mention an unexpected/non-intuitive thing about LCD screens. Believe it or not, it actually takes a little more power to make black (as opposed to white). This is because, the way LCD works is, there a light source and, in front of that is the LCD components. To make black, the pixels on the LCD screen must fully-block all of the light coming from behind that point (by having two, perpendicular, polarized layers, one of which is permanent). Doing this requires the maximum voltage. To make pure white, the LCD is simply "open", allowing all of the light to shine through (requiring no voltage). For some shade in between, some other voltage (between 0 and max) is used. This is why some LCDs are better at making black then others (the better ones are more efficient at blocking all of the light).

Anyway- to sum up: it may be a little unintuitive, but a completely black screen consumes the most power whereas a completely white screen consumes the least amount of power.

 

[SolApathy]

...Just to clarify, that would be a completely black screen with the backlight on, and it also depends on the resting state of the pixels, which I don't know for the new super LCD 3 technology (some LCD's have the resting state with the pixel off, some have it with the pixel on)

The actual shutter for the LCD use so little power you would never notice the difference though...

However it is completely the different for AMOLED screens, since each pixel produces its own light.


Here is a fun little site to look at, made by someone that has way too much time on their hands...

http://stevemould.com/phone-battery-save-black-wallpaper/


And here is a page from Nokia regarding AMOLED screens vs older TFT screens with a nice picture graph

http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Blogs/blog/long-live-your-mobile-battery/2010/06/07/color-makes-a-difference

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

I was very frustrated when I found this out while using my Eris years ago. If it hasn't already been clarified, the screen brightness setting does still have a significant impact on battery life.

 

[damstr]

How does this phone compare to the iPhone 5 battery wise? I currently have a 5 and its a great phone. I'm just tired of the boring OS that I'm wondering if Apple is ever going to change.

Anyway I'm looking to jump ship from Verizon (and unlimited data) and move over to AT&T to get the One. Just curious about battery life as I am no where near WiFi during work hours.

I had an S3 before and really hated the poor battery life which lead to me trading it for a 5.

 

[KOLIO]

The two common denominators for battery life are on-screen time & quality of data/network connection.

If it were me,I'd stay w/VZW & the unlimited data,provided the network quality is up to par in the area(s) you'll be frequenting.

Phones come & go & are only as good as the network you're on.

With that said & if you've already decided to jump ship to AT&T,GSM network (AT&T/T-MOBILE) phones are reportedly better on the battery VS their CDMA counterparts (VZW/SPRINT).

ENGADGET has a review comparing the different networks performance,including battery life & the AT&T version fared well in their test:


HTC One for AT&T and Sprint: what's different?

Here's the excerpt from the review regarding battery life:

One of the reasons Engadget runs separate mini-reviews for US versions of phones is that while the overall design and camera performance might remain the same, battery life can often vary from one network to another. Indeed, we noticed some slight differences after putting the US models through their paces. While the 2,300mAh battery in the global model lasted six and a half hours in our usual rundown test (video looping, brightness fixed at 50 percent, etc.), our AT&T review unit lasted an average of seven hours and 29 minutes, besting the global model by about an hour. As for real-world use, the AT&T model carried on like a champ, lasting through a full day of maps use, podcasts, photo-taking, Facebook, Twitter, app downloads and speed tests. Even after eight hours, we still had about half a charge left. On the Sprint model, meanwhile, we achieved similar runtime of seven hours and five minutes in the same standardized rundown test.

After getting a production model of the SPRINT variant,ENGADGET updated the review to add the following:

Update: After testing a final, production-grade version of the Sprint model, we've updated our review with conclusive battery life results. It lasted seven hours and five minutes in our standard rundown test, similar to both the AT&T and global versions.


Please keep us posted & visit the actual users thread for your thoughts on the HTC ONE:

http://androidforums.com/htc-one/700339-real-world-reviews-comments-actual-users.html

 

[damstr]

Spoiler

The two common denominators for battery life are on-screen time & quality of data/network connection.

If it were me,I'd stay w/VZW & the unlimited data,provided the network quality is up to par in the area(s) you'll be frequenting.

Phones come & go & are only as good as the network you're on.

With that said & if you've already decided to jump ship to AT&T,GSM network (AT&T/T-MOBILE) phones are reportedly better on the battery VS their CDMA counterparts (VZW/SPRINT).

ENGADGET has a review comparing the different networks performance,including battery life & the AT&T version fared well in their test:


HTC One for AT&T and Sprint: what's different?

Here's the excerpt from the review regarding battery life:

One of the reasons Engadget runs separate mini-reviews for US versions of phones is that while the overall design and camera performance might remain the same, battery life can often vary from one network to another. Indeed, we noticed some slight differences after putting the US models through their paces. While the 2,300mAh battery in the global model lasted six and a half hours in our usual rundown test (video looping, brightness fixed at 50 percent, etc.), our AT&T review unit lasted an average of seven hours and 29 minutes, besting the global model by about an hour. As for real-world use, the AT&T model carried on like a champ, lasting through a full day of maps use, podcasts, photo-taking, Facebook, Twitter, app downloads and speed tests. Even after eight hours, we still had about half a charge left. On the Sprint model, meanwhile, we achieved similar runtime of seven hours and five minutes in the same standardized rundown test.

After getting a production model of the SPRINT variant,ENGADGET updated the review to add the following:

Update: After testing a final, production-grade version of the Sprint model, we've updated our review with conclusive battery life results. It lasted seven hours and five minutes in our standard rundown test, similar to both the AT&T and global versions.


Please keep us posted & visit the actual users thread for your thoughts on the HTC ONE:

http://androidforums.com/htc-one/700339-real-world-reviews-comments-actual-users.html

Wow thanks for all that info was a good read!

I haven't committed to switching to AT&T yet. Although in my area AT&T does have better service.

I really really like the phone from playing with it. I got bored with my old S3 really fast. I didn't even have it a month before switching back to the iPhone. I hated battery life on it. Ended up getting the extended battery for it. Anyone that had an S3 before how does the battery life compare to it? A lot better or about the same?

Thanks

 

[KOLIO]

I had the S3 on SPRINT before making the switch to the HTC ONE on T-MOBILE.

I switched for the better coverage in my area, so, it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but, perhaps similar to your situation switching from VZW to AT&T.

The better coverage makes all the difference in battery life, as I'm getting 3-4 hrs more life.

A co-worker has an otherwise identical S3 on VZW & never needs to charge up during the day. I had to plug-in after about 7 hrs when on SPRINT w/the S3 & ended up getting extended batteries to make it through the day.

So, depending on how you use your phone during fhe course of the day will be the biggest factor in determining whether you'll be able to make it through a day w/o looking for an outlet to plug-in to before making it home for the day.

If a typical (work) day consists of having multiple email accounts syncing/sending-receiving texts/voice calls & light-to-medium on-screen time, you should be able to make it all day. But, as w/any smartphone, if on-screen time is high w/heavy use (gaming/videos,etc) you'll want to have access to a wall outlet/external battery pack, or, perhaps an extended battery case such as the one that MOPHIE or i-BLASON offers for an added sense of security for battery life.

In summary, I believe battery life is better than the S3,but, w/o having both phones side by side on the same network to perform an identical battery life test, I can't give a definitive run time comparison, only an educated guess based on past experience, & I'd say YES, the HTC ONE has a better battery life w/estimated 20% improvement over the S3.

 

[Tlicious1020]

I work in an old military building that was an alert facility during the Cold War era. This building has pretty thick walls and some made out of concrete. Seemed as though most of the iPhone users had to keep their phones plugged into an outlet due to pretty much zero signal strength in our building using AT&T. Since I was on Sprint my EVO 3D would jump back and forth between Sprint/Verizon due to the location of my office. This strains the battery a bit. However, my HTC One doesnt jump between the networks as often and I prefer it that way. Is it possible that HTC added this type of feature to the phone in some way? Basically, the phone does not search as often for a network signal or quits attempting after so many attempts. When I go outside all of my test messages start to come in and this doesn't bother me one bit because the phones battery does well inside of my building despite virtually nill coverage.

 

[KOLIO]

I work in an old military building that was an alert facility during the Cold War era. This building has pretty thick walls and some made out of concrete.Sine I was on Sprint my EVO 3D would jump back and forth between Sprint/Verizon due to the location of my office. This strains the battery a bit. However, my HTC One doesnt jump between the networks as often and I prefer it that way. Is it possible that HTC added this type of feature to the phone in some way? Basically, the phone does not search as often for a network signal or quits attempting after so many attempts. When I go outside all of my test messages start to come in and this doesn't bother me one bit because the phones battery does well inside of my building despite virtually nill coverage.

This scenario was exactly what I was experiencing @ work on my S3 & was the main reason I switched to T-MOBILE. It's good to hear that this 'smart search' prevents battery drain. Perhaps I might have stayed w/SPRINT another 2yrs had I known the ONE would behave in this manner.

 

[Tlicious1020]

This scenario was exactly what I was experiencing @ work on my S3 & was the main reason I switched to T-MOBILE. It's good to hear that this 'smart search' prevents battery drain. Perhaps I might have stayed w/SPRINT another 2yrs had I known the ONE would behave in this manner.

I've heard of people going into subways or areas with low coverage and the battery of their phone taking a hit. The phone should know where these areas are and take corrective action not to drain the battery. Now in an emergency, you hope the phone will jump like hell between the networks so you can receive reception to place a call and get help if necessary.