Actual Use Battery Life?

[revtime]

Took my Hero off the charger at Noon today and now at 10 pm showing 69% not too bad in my opinion. This is just a fun phone for me though, I don't use it for work. couple texts, 2 calls, and some web browsing maybe 1/2 hour all told. So light use.
My battery is getting better with some charge cycles under its belt.

 

[jah8551]

I have been using task manager. I disabled the stock texting application and installed handcent sms. Apparently the stock messaging app is constantly running so disabling it helped alot, and I have been getting about 1.5 to 2 days on a single charge.

 

[HardKore]

Jah Is right! There was a whole other thread about this issue with the stock SMS messaging keeping the phone on awake mode the whole day after sending a message even though the screen is off or the phone is locked and appears to be sleeping! I too downloaded the free handcent SMS app which is awsome BTW and disabled the stock sms. My battery life is amazing now! I promise this is what the issue is. go to your settings and check your awake time. If its a high number then you are being affected by this!

 

[Sabre66]

Yea my battery life has been extended greatly by switching to ChompSMS and using a task killer.
Yesterday my battery only dropped from 100% to 65% after 14 hrs of light use. Still not stellar, but much better than before for same use (4-5 hrs). I have noticed that below 50% it drains a little quicker. All in all I'm very happy with it though.

 

[deadsoccer]

First few days battery life was very poor. 6 days later battery lasting much, much longer. I have no tasKiller or task manager apps installed.

 

[ItsDon]

How do you disable the stock SMS? What's the difference between handcent SMS and ChompSMS?

I came from WinMo (Treo Pro) and am loving the Android experience. Can't wait for 2.0 as it looks awesome. Off topic but do you install a new ROM on the Hero similarly to how I did it in WinMo land?

 

[dcdttu]

SMS fix doesn't do anything for me. My phone is in the 30% range by 6pm after charging all night. Every day. No matter what I do. Background data on/off. Stock SMS/Handcent. Heavy use/light use. Doesn't matter.

I thought 1500mAh would make this phone awesome, but CDMA networks take a LOT of juice, which is why the Sprint Hero has a bigger battery to begin with.

The Pre's battery life was a joke. It was abysmal. The iPhone 3G would at least get me through the day. I assume the 3Gs would have been more than acceptable, as I only wish a phone would make it through one day without needing to be recharged. The Hero is inbetween the Pre and the iPhone 3G. It will almost make it through a day, but not quite.

It's sad. So much customization and live data, but you can't use any of it if you want your phone to make it until 6pm.

I hear Sprint is working on a patch for it that should help. I hope so.

 

[quentinfisher]

Handcent wasn't helping my battery life either mate, I'd give chompsms a try though, 21% awake time, while handcent is 100% for some reason on my hero =/

 

[dcdttu]

Additionally, whether my phone says 100% uptime or 20%, the battery drain seems to be the same...

 

[sir_knoxalot]

Anyone want to comment on how long it takes to charge?

I woke up this morning ~640 am to less than 10% left and plugged it in right away. It's been charging ever since then and right now at 840 it's at 90%.

So two hours for not even a full charge. My pre used to charge way faster.

 

[gixxerman]

I use my Hero for work. NOT GETTING MUCH WORK DONE.......... PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!! Just tried the Handcent, not sure what type of results I'll get.

 

[Heroic Lover]

Geez, what a bunch of crybabies.

 

[gixxerman]

Damn, just joined this site and allready there is a member that probably is unemployed and on welfare, telling me that I'm a crybaby because I want my phone to make me money. **** U!!!!!!!

 

[GoofyGirl]

I did the switch to Handcent and now my awake time rarely hits 20%!! Incredible improvement in battery life. I unplugged my phone yesterday at 7:45 a.m. used it all day - texting, calls, internet - some on 3g some not and I didn't reach the 'red' zone of battery life until 10:45 p.m. last night! I'd say that's pretty good!! I just switched from the Pre and I would have been hunting my charger for it by dinner time with that kind of use!!

 

[bruceo]

Got the phone on lauch day and so far the battery life seems amazing. I have used pocketPCs for over a decade and the last phone I had was a Touch Pro which I was lucky to get 4-6 hours battery life in standby. I live in a very low signal area all day and the TP would burn up quick.

I have been using the heck out of the Hero and easily get 12-14 hrs. I got my wife the Pre and I put her wifi on full time and she goes to work at 7:30 AM and when she goes to bed at 10PM it still has juice left. I did install the recent update on it so maybe that makes a difference. he is not a heavy user and is loving the pre, but the pre seems to have a terrible radio it drops a lot of calls where the hero will maintain the signal....

I wish the Hero had the same transflective screen as the Pre and Iphone, where even in direct sunlight you can see it almost as good as indoors. At least the Hero performs better than the TP in direct sunlight. The TP was impossible to see in direct sunlight.