BiPolar Battery? Maybe Not

[coasterman927]

So, the battery that came with my phone barely lasted 8-10 hours with VERY light usage, and coming from a little phone that lasted at least 3 days, I was disappointed. I tried it all-disabled MOTOBLUR widgets, un-synced all accounts lowered brightness, everything. And to no avail. What was weird though, was that on the weekends when I was home, the phone lasted throughout the day with plenty of life to spare.

I had had it, so I called up T-Mobile and told them my battery life was more unpredictable than a pregnant woman's mood, and they sent me a new battery, free shipping too (thanks T-Mo!). In the few days it took to get here, that software update came along. I downloaded it and still, I felt very little difference.

The new battery came, I charged it up overnight, and used it the next day. It was the same situation as before. Ugh. Let it die, charged it the next night, and slightly better performance. It made it all the way to when I got home!

Then, last night, I decided to play around with it a little. First I changed my battery mode to "power saver", but instead of 15% brightness, I kicked it up to 40%. I synced up my accounts again, and added the Messaging widget back, since it wouldn't drain anymore battery than if I had it off. I mean, I would receive all those messages through the notifications bar anyways, right? Then I went a little crazy and put the Social Status and Weather widgets, and even the News widget back in, and synced up with a few tech feeds (Phandroid!).

So I charged it up last night, and it was out of the wall outlet by about 10 this morning. All widgets on my homescreen, e-mails and Facebook synced up, news widget running. It's now a little over exactly 12 hours from when it was last pugged in, and the battery level is 58%. And I think I know why:


The problem isn't with the phone, or was it with the battery. It's the network. Today, all day, I was in an area with full signal. On other days when by battery would die unexpectedly, I realize I'm in dead zones for a few hours. I'm a college student and my college campus is huge-a city in itself. So huge that I get perfect signal some places (like where I was all day today), and no signal across campus (where my classes are on the days the battery drains). Now I feel a little better knowing that my phone and its battery are perfectly normal, and that its the network that's killing it.

I'll just have to remember to switch to airplane mode (or shut it off completely) when I'm in those dead zones. Hopefully this will help others who are also experiencing inadequate battery life understand why it's happening. If you find yourself in dead zones often, switch to airplane mode for the time being. It's not like you're going to be receiving any calls/texts anyway, since there IS no signal.

And plus, a bright side, I got a spare battery out of it. =]

 

[Mamahnita]

You know when we buy a phones there is no telling how long the battery sits and from what I'm told the longer it sits the more cells die in it and then again someone else told me that if you use your battery completely the first time that it will last longer. That didn't work or make sense to me. It may be that the battery wasn't all that good to begin with.

 

[coasterman927]

I read somewhere that the whole logic with charging and discharging completely is outdated and doesn't apply to lithium ion batteries. if you use 50% of your battery one day, then charge it to 100% overnight, and use 50% again the next night, then fully charge it again, its as if you charged it from 0 to 100 once. leithium ion batteries are smarter than old school batteries. they're built not to overcharge, and not to drain totally.

what I'm trying to say is.. those who say "oh you should train your battery to last longer" are misinformed. it has nothing to do with it. if I can find my source ill post up a link here later,

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it was a pretty interesting read.

 

[Mamahnita]

OMG thank-you for that info so now I can tell ms know it all a thing or two