Nexus S Batt Life

[MartinS]

The bars turn green when you're connected to Google's services. It doesn't have anything to do with signal strength; that's just shown by the number of bars.

The post was referring to the colours in the battery statistics graphs.

 

[quantumrand]

The post was referring to the colours in the battery statistics graphs.

Ah, good point. I forgot about that.

 

[falconeight]

I use to struggle to make it through a day with my nexus one my nexus s is way better.

 

[metajames]

My first day out with the phone and battery life was absolutely miserable, I barely made it 9 hours today but usage was pretty heavy.

I noticed a odd thing here, I started charging the battery then I had to do a battery pull for other reasons and when I stuck it back in the batt level jumped from 3% to 30% or so. You can see it at the end of the graph, perhaps that reset the stats somehow? I will charge it up, use it tomorrow and see how that goes.

 

[kerryburn]

and I will evaluate too, keep you posted

Kerry

 

[No_Nickname90]

My first day out with the phone and battery life was absolutely miserable, I barely made it 9 hours today but usage was pretty heavy.

I noticed a odd thing here, I started charging the battery then I had to do a battery pull for other reasons and when I stuck it back in the batt level jumped from 3% to 30% or so. You can see it at the end of the graph, perhaps that reset the stats somehow? I will charge it up, use it tomorrow and see how that goes.

Don't phones charge significantly faster when they're off? That's probably why you got the huge boost in battery.

Oh and another major thing. I don't think I saw it here. Check your screen brightness. If you have the brightness all the way up, expect mega battery drain. LoL!! Turn it on auto brightness or maybe a low brightness, below half at least. I know if I have my brightness all the way up, I get no battery life in my phone, ipod, DSi and other electronic devices. LoL!!

 

[czechplastik]

Oh and another major thing. I don't think I saw it here. Check your screen brightness. If you have the brightness all the way up, expect mega battery drain. LoL!! Turn it on auto brightness or maybe a low brightness, below half at least. I know if I have my brightness all the way up, I get no battery life in my phone, ipod, DSi and other electronic devices. LoL!!

I get that but what's the point in having super bright SAMOLED screens if you turn the brightness down? I've always had my screen on max and still get well over a day easily.

 

[metajames]

Don't phones charge significantly faster when they're off? That's probably why you got the huge boost in battery.

Oh and another major thing. I don't think I saw it here. Check your screen brightness. If you have the brightness all the way up, expect mega battery drain. LoL!! Turn it on auto brightness or maybe a low brightness, below half at least. I know if I have my brightness all the way up, I get no battery life in my phone, ipod, DSi and other electronic devices. LoL!!

Battery pull was for like 2 seconds, I pulled it out to rest a stuck bootloader and put it right back in and turned the phone back on.

Screen brightness was on auto.

Also happy to report that I had much better battery life today. I did use it less since I had real work to do

When I pulled the battery the phone was charged to 3%, unplugged and in recovery. I don't know if that reset something but when I put it back in and rebooted the phone the battery was up to 30% instantly.

 

[kerryburn]

Update

Well I am not sure what has happened but the Batt life on this new phone is nothing short of stunning, I have switched off location on the maps app on mobile signal, not using background IM other than the GTalk account but everything else is running and it is clearing 15 - 18 hours without any trouble. This is with an hour or more of talk time, intermittent wifi access and plenty of reading of news and twitter.

Thanks again to all of you for the testing, as I write this, the phone has been on for 12 hrs and is still over half full. This is with an hour of calls, and nearly two hours of on time for the screen!

Any questions please shout, thanks once again guys

Kerry

 

[czechplastik]

That's more like it! Glad you got it sorted!

 

[falconeight]

Im getting 2 full days out of mine, I am so happy with this phone its not even funny.

 

[czechplastik]

Phone has been running 24hours on battery, screen brightness at 100%, all widgets, mail and facebook set to update as frequently as possible. Battery showing 30% left. Really impressed!

 

[Anthony1]

After a few days with this phone I'm pretty impressed with the battery life. It's looking better than my Desire used to be, and I haven't even performed any optimisation on it.

 

[tamirw]

Update

Well I am not sure what has happened but the Batt life on this new phone is nothing short of stunning, I have switched off location on the maps app on mobile signal, not using background IM other than the GTalk account but everything else is running and it is clearing 15 - 18 hours without any trouble. This is with an hour or more of talk time, intermittent wifi access and plenty of reading of news and twitter.

Thanks again to all of you for the testing, as I write this, the phone has been on for 12 hrs and is still over half full. This is with an hour of calls, and nearly two hours of on time for the screen!

Any questions please shout, thanks once again guys

Kerry

Just to make sure:
You're getting these results after replacing the phone, right? Did you get it right away or did you have to spend a few days "calibrating" it, as a few people suggested?
The reason I'm asking is I'm having similar issues with my Nexus S...

 

[Aria807]

I noticed my phone's battery life wasn't as great compared to other ppls. Mine was lasting maybe like 12 hours. I asked my friend since he just got a Captivate and he said to drain the battery to like way close to empty then charge it back up to full. He was able to get his phone running on battery for > 24-48 hours after doing so.

So I did the same and I just turned on an internet radio app and streamed music all night till my battery ran out then I charged it back up.

So now after I did that, I basically used the phone unplugged from the charger from 8am, streamed music while driving to work for ~1 hour, occasional txts / phone calls / messing around on the phone installing apps or w/e, and streaming more music driving home from work. At around 7-8pm at night, my phone still had ~60-70%

 

[manastir]

This morning I noticed something unusual, last night I left the phone with 26% on the battery, however this morning when I woke up the battery was showing 28%. I am attaching pic

 

[smileman]

Update

Well I am not sure what has happened but the Batt life on this new phone is nothing short of stunning

interesting. i'm also not making it through a full day and think i may want to look into getting a replacement.

i purchased at best buy in the u.s. and i'm wondering if i can replace it in the u.k.?

 

[jake_the_brash]

I too had a bad experience (to put it mildly) with the battery discharge life of my Nexus S.... until about a week ago!

I purchased a power supply adapter that had slightly different specs on it from the one that came in the box.

The output specs of the new adapter are: 5.0 volts and 1000 mA (1.0 A).
The stock adapter output specs are: 5.0 volts and 700 mA (0.7 A).

**Notice the difference in the amperage.

The difference was amazing.

In all the following cases I have 3G and WiFi turned off (I only turn them on when I need them then immediately turn them off right after.)

It took the same time to re-charge from dead, but now when I unplug it and then check the battery status in the settings, I see 99% instead of 97%.

I now charge overnight and unplug it at 8:15 am. and after an hour of listening to music and half an hour of reading with Kindle and some 30 minutes' worth of phone calls, I still see 70-73% at about 11 pm.

I admit, I am not working the phone all that much, but the Kindle app does use up juice considering that it continuously lights up the background.

By the end of the second day (11 pm again,) and doing the same activities, the battery status is still at 30-34%.

The third day is the same. By 11 pm, the status is at about 3% (+/-). I then charge it overnight again.

So, now, with my pattern of phone usage, I go 3 days with one charge using the higher output adapter.

I am not suggesting you do the same, I am just giving you the outcome of my experience.

Hope this helps.

jake

 

[ianr]

Try setting the kindle app to a black background using night mode, this apparently reduces power usage significantly.

 

[smileman]

The output specs of the new adapter are: 5.0 volts and 1000 mA (1.0 A).
The stock adapter output specs are: 5.0 volts and 700 mA (0.7 A).

**Notice the difference in the amperage.

i'm not an electrician so can you (or someone) explain what's going on here and whether there are any risks to over-amping your battery?

 

[jake_the_brash]

To ianr,
The Kindle app is not presenting a problem. My point was that despite using the kindle app (with light background) I am still getting good battery life.

To smileman,
A valid point to be sure, and one that I anticipated; but to preface my answer, those were my observations, not my suggestions.

At any rate, what transpired was that I happened to purchase a generic, universal adapter as an extra one to keep at work, used it, and noticed a better battery life, so I set out to see why.

I highly doubt I am "overamping." If anything, I suspect that the stock adapter is "underamping," so to speak, but of course, I can't be sure.

Even though I "kinda" know why the amp difference makes such a difference in battery life, not being a proper engineer precludes any half-hearted attempts at explaining this technically.

Anyhow, if any are listening, among the people that fared better when they replaced their units (including the adapter,) it would be nice to let us know the specs of the replacement adapter.

 

[Parttimer]

I too had a bad experience (to put it mildly) with the battery discharge life of my Nexus S.... until about a week ago!

I purchased a power supply adapter that had slightly different specs on it from the one that came in the box.

The output specs of the new adapter are: 5.0 volts and 1000 mA (1.0 A).
The stock adapter output specs are: 5.0 volts and 700 mA (0.7 A).

**Notice the difference in the amperage.

Usally with Lipo & Li-ion batteries like used in most things now-adays you are ok to charge upto 1C, which means if you have a 1500 ma battery you can charge upto 1.5 amp a 1200 ma 12.amp. The higher the current the faster the cell will charge and the more heat and these batteries do not like heat and over charging.

 

[jake_the_brash]

To Parttimer,
Well, the phone does not get hot at all during re-charging. And, also, according to your explanation, and taking the fact that Nexus S comes with a 1500 mA battery into account, I am well within range with a 1000 mA adapter.

Although, charging time is still the same with the new adapter. Don't know how to explain that.

 

[BryanS]

I've just bought a new Nexus S and battery life is pathetic, even with Juice Defender ultimate installed. I take it off the charger at 8.00 and by 18.00-20.00 the battery is flat. I have screen on low and hardly ever use it, apart from 30-45 mins of Angry Birds.

What is the point of having a phone with great features if they can't be used! My wife's iphone 4 battery lasts a lot longer and she uses it a lot more. And why do we need to buy apps such as Juice Defender, the program should have built in energy saving as standard. It's a shame to say, but it's put me off android and I was originally enthusiastic, opting for android instead of iphone - what a mistake!

 

[B2L]

I've just bought a new Nexus S and battery life is pathetic, even with Juice Defender ultimate installed. I take it off the charger at 8.00 and by 18.00-20.00 the battery is flat. I have screen on low and hardly ever use it, apart from 30-45 mins of Angry Birds.

What is the point of having a phone with great features if they can't be used! My wife's iphone 4 battery lasts a lot longer and she uses it a lot more. And why do we need to buy apps such as Juice Defender, the program should have built in energy saving as standard. It's a shame to say, but it's put me off android and I was originally enthusiastic, opting for android instead of iphone - what a mistake!

It's most likely just the way you have it set up. I use mine constantly, I take it off the charger around 9 am and use it frequently through out the day. By the time I go to bed at around 12 its still at about 45 percent. And honestly I have tried juice defender before and it did absolutely nothing to help me save battery life.

Although I have found playing angry birds really dominates your battery life.