Want incredible battery life? (OFFICIAL HTC INCREDIBLE BATTERY THREAD)

[ChiTownJim]

best tip to save battery: "turn off 3g when not needed." not just for the incredible but for every device

Agreeded , when I know I won't be able to answer emails or texts anyways I always try to shut off 3g and over the 3hrs it's off I maybe drain 2-5% of the battery as oposed to probably more like 10-15% if I had 3g on

 

[Eloquence]

I don't know if it's exactly the same, but it IS a 1300mHa battery, which is the same one the Eris has. could be a different shape, though.

It's exactly the same. I checked both manuals as well as numerous pictures of the OEM batteries on reviewer website for both phones. The voltage is 3.7V and the the amps is 4.8 wHrs for both.

My only concern (after dropping $40 on Seidio's 1750mAh extended Eris battery) is found here at BatteryBoss Calls Out False Capacity Claims!. If this is true, which it looks to be, then I just got totally duped and should've gone with the (cheaper) Touch Pro2 1500 mAh battery.

However, the TP2 has 3.7V but 5.5 wHr... does anyone know if that would hurt the Eris/Incredible?

-Elo

 

[patrickisfrench]

It's exactly the same. I checked both manuals as well as numerous pictures of the OEM batteries on reviewer website for both phones. The voltage is 3.7V and the the amps is 4.8 wHrs for both.

My only concern (after dropping $40 on Seidio's 1750mAh extended Eris battery) is found here at BatteryBoss Calls Out False Capacity Claims!. If this is true, which it looks to be, then I just got totally duped and should've gone with the (cheaper) Touch Pro2 1500 mAh battery.

However, the TP2 has 3.7V but 5.5 wHr... does anyone know if that would hurt the Eris/Incredible?

-Elo

the batteryboss article can't explain these customer reviews... Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Seidio Innocell 1750 mAh Battery for HTC Droid Eris

and jcharris08 posted 30-40% increases in battery life with a seidio 1750mAh here ---> seidio battery? - Android Central Forums

seems to me if batteryboss was as accurate as he states with his tests than opinions of these batteries across the board would be unanimous. however, instead you're getting a majority of users experiencing a decent increase in performance with said Seidio "hoax" batteries. they seem like a pretty reputable company and I don't see them out there to screw anyone. You may get a bad battery from any manufacturer and quite frankly even OEMs have been tainted every now and again.

I would like to know how your results go, Eloquence, when you receive, test, and use that 1750 you ordered! I'm banking on that 1750 myself until I know further specs on the 2150 HTC oem extended battery and how much larger it will make the width of the phone overall. Love a thin device too but if I can scoot by through a day of moderate/ heavy use and charge at the end of the night then I'm happy, honestly.

 

[nkk]

It's exactly the same. I checked both manuals as well as numerous pictures of the OEM batteries on reviewer website for both phones. The voltage is 3.7V and the the amps is 4.8 wHrs for both.



-Elo

a watt x hour (Whr) is not a form of current (amperes, or amps, is the correct unit for current), but a unit of energy. A watt is a Joule per second, so a watt hour is 3600 joules. Just to clear that up.

-Nkk

 

[Lars]

All chargers have voltage regulator but the phone does all the work in controlling the speed of the charge. The sure way to fry a battery is to literaly leave it in the car. I have instantly cooked several headsets that way from the California sun. Doesn't take much the lithion ion batteries hate the heat.

If I set the email to manual instead of a time interval like 15 min will the phone automatically send receive when I open the mail app like the iPhone does or do you have to press a button separately like win mobile? Not having it check email automatically in background is a big battery saver. Just have it check when I open the mail screen. I get so many emails daily that I ignore the constant bleating so there's no reason to auto check often.

 

[Eloquence]

a watt x hour (Whr) is not a form of current (amperes, or amps, is the correct unit for current), but a unit of energy. A watt is a Joule per second, so a watt hour is 3600 joules. Just to clear that up.

-Nkk

Thanks for clearing that up. Then that means that our best bet is to go with the HTC Touch Pro 2 battery. It has the same voltage, same size as the Eris one, a little less in the mAh department (1500 vs. 1750), but 5.5 wHrs.

Wouldn't that lead to better battery life?

-Elo

 

[GreenLantern]

i know on my storm 2 it has the option for the gps to be on for 911 only. I wonder if incredible will have this option?

Yes, the Incredible does have that option:

Settings > Location > Location setting

"Location setting must be changed to "LOCATION ON" or most location based applications to work poperly. This enables access by third parties to the location data of this device. Do not select this setting if you want to block access to GPS data."

Choices are:

- LOCATION ON
- 911 ONLY

 

[gener1c]

Ok, So the eris battery and Incredible batteries are the same size and rated at 1300mAh 4.81|Whr... and the seidio 1750 battery fits the incredible perfectly.... should I use it or not?

 

[nkk]

Thanks for clearing that up. Then that means that our best bet is to go with the HTC Touch Pro 2 battery. It has the same voltage, same size as the Eris one, a little less in the mAh department (1500 vs. 1750), but 5.5 wHrs.

Wouldn't that lead to better battery life?

-Elo

No. You should also see a mAh (milliAmpere hour) unit on your battery (1500 or 1750 as you previously stated). This is actually an indirect unit of energy, as it equals the number of Watt hours divided by the voltage of the power source.

What is the Whr rating of the 1750 battery? It should be higher than that of the TP2 battery. Or I could have misremembered something. Lets both check and repost if you do not mind, so we can clear the discrepancy in your numbers and my math.

Ok, So the eris battery and Incredible batteries are the same size and rated at 1300mAh 4.81|Whr... and the seidio 1750 battery fits the incredible perfectly.... should I use it or not?

I am going to say yes, but could you tell me the number of cells in each battery? If one has 2 cells and the other 1, the 1 celled battery will see 2x as much current draw per cell and this could greatly alter the lifespan and/or make unsafe conditions. If you email Seidio and HTC, please post the results so others can see. Although it should be fine, please get that info before you try it.


NOTE:

Although I stand by what I say and only say things I know to be correct and safe, you accept the information in this post to have no warranties or guarantees. This advice is something that you listen to and apply at your own risk. I have no problem sharing my knowledge, but I cannot take on the responsibility of insuring it in every situation in which it may be applied.

 

[Stevo_Cali]

Thanks Kappy, NKK, et al.

BTW, I just wanted to see if either of you had much experience with the 3rd party batteries and how they might perform in comparison to, say, the 2150mAh (or similar battery) that VZW will have for the Inc.?



.

 

[nkk]

Thanks NKK, Kappy, et al.

BTW, I just wanted to see if either of you had much experience with the 3rd party batteries and how they might perform in comparison to, say, the 2150mAh (or similar battery) that VZW will have for the Inc.?



.

My mother has a Seidio in her Palm Pre Plus, and it seems to work well. She says she gets another couple of hours. It is pretty straightforward--more mAh = more Wh = more energy = better battery life. As far as construction goes, I would go with a name brand.

There have also been claims about third party batteries not holding up to the published specs, and although finals coming up means I am not in the lab at all, I can test that later this summer on lab grade equipment, and if I can get time on a stress cycle machine I will plot how they degrade, too. But that is at least 1 month off.

-Nkk

EDIT: I do not feel like fixing it, but I do in fact know that last paragraph is one huge run on sentence.

 

[Eloquence]

What is the Whr rating of the 1750 battery? It should be higher than that of the TP2 battery. Or I could have misremembered something. Lets both check and repost if you do not mind, so we can clear the discrepancy in your numbers and my math.

The Whr of the 1750 is 4.81. The same as the stock Incredible and Eris battery. I don't know how to find out how many cells each battery (Seidio vs. stock eris/incredible) has.

Hope this helps -- thanks for the clarification of energy in the posts earlier!
-Elo

 

[MooN]

F this battery life stuff. Is it going to kill you to buy a replacement/spare battery from Amazon for $5.00?

This phone is wicked fast and a whore house load of fun. I'm going to ride this puppy raw and put it away wet.

+1

You guys worry about this too much. Enjoy your current phone and have fun, because there will always be a better phone right around the corner.

 

[bbinkley]

I have used a great deal of the above tricks and I must say the big battery savers are turning off the GPS, WIFI & Mobile Network when not using them. I went from 4% drop per hour down to 1/2% per hour.

I find that I use my phone mostly for a phone and texting. With all these turned off I can still use the phone for my those functions.

When I need the other functions I simply use one of the widget to turn on what I need.

I fully charged my phone to 100% at 8am Tuesday Morning and still have 68% battery life left.

 

[DigitalGuru]

1. Does anyone know about how long it takes the DINC to charge the first time? I'm looking to start the charging here at work, and hoped that it would be done by the time I left.
2. If I do have to leave and its not fully charged, does anyone think it would be a problem to take it off the charger, move it to my car and continue to charge on the vehicle charger?

EDIT: I heard that it usually takes about 2 hours for the first charge to full. No info on switching from AC outlet to DC vehicle yet.

 

[marcelob]

How do I view the battery %? It seems the battery bar is really inaccurate for any type of precise measurement. My battery went from Full to Half in the bar graphic in about an hours' time.

 

[phositadc]

Is it possible to turn off JUST 3G -- as opposed to turning off the entire mobile network?

E.g., if 1xRTT (2g) uses less battery than 1XEVO (3g), and you are only going to be receiving emails for a few hours, is it possible to force your phone to use the 2g mode?

I have not located any such functionality on the Incredible. I've only found the widget to disable mobile network (which disables both 2g and 3g data).

 

[daveydog]

1st time you charge the battery, is it "done" when the green light comes on or are you supposed to leave it charging for awhile? I know they used to say in the letter that it needed to stay on the charger and that it wasn't done... it often hits green in like 2 hours...

 

[jamor]

I'm getting a lot of conflicting opinions.

Matchup:

1. This site strongly recommends that you charge your battery before activating it.

2. Other sources have noted that you should start it up and use it until it is mostly drained before charging it.



Does anybody have any scientific evidence to support one theory over the other?

What are the consequences of letting it drain before charging if you side with #1?

 

[sortsol]

Haha... I think people are way overthinking this whole battery thing. Get the phone, plug it in, charge it, and use it. At the end of the day, charge it again. From there, you should be good. With my current phone ((Blackberry storm)to be replaced as soon as the fedex truck gets here), I just plug it in when I get to work every morning, even if it's not very discharged and let it charge up... And the battery has actually lasted me quite a long time and still holds a very good charge.

My point is I don't think what you do the first day of getting the phone and charging or not charging it is going to make any difference whatsoever on the life of the battery.

 

[MrPinstripe]

I'm still trying to come up with a good stripper name for my incredible. I will be slipping dollars into her g-string case as soon as she arrives.

Having worked "ahem" security - - yeah, I went there - - at a few "clubs" in college. . . some 15 years ago now - - damn, I'm that old? - - I might recommend the following:

Cinnamon (red tie in? always have the SINamon option, here too)
Sky
Sable
Echo (yes....yes....seriously...sly...sly...sl...)
McLovin (from a recent trip to a bachelor party in vegas. she was hot, too)
Epic
Jade
Diamond (cuz like, giggle, they're the best! also acceptable emerald, sapphire, ruby, etc)

 

[Echo17121]

Since I can't seem to get an answer on the main board and it has to do with my battery anyways, I'll ask it here. Is it ok that the android system is using 98% of my battery and the other 2% is used for standby? Earlier it was 96% android, 2% standby and 2% idle.

 

[nkk]

As promised, here are a couple of tips to start out with your battery correctly. Keep in mind that Lithium based batteries do not need break in. However, they should be drained and charged to 100% once to calibrate the digital sensor.

So, here is what I do when I get a new battery:

-It usually comes at about 40% (the optimal storage charge for Lithium batteries), so I drain it. Then charge to 100% (you can use it during this), and discharge to auto off again. Now, the sensor is calibrated.

-from here on out, lithium batteries like small charges instead of total drains. So charge whenever you can. As a note, when the specs say it has a lifetime of 500 cycles. It means 500 0% to 100% cycles. Although the relationship is complex and not totally linear, you can assume that if you charge the battery at the end of the day when it only has 30% left, it is not a full cycle. It is about 70% of a cycle. In the same way, charging from 80% to full is about 20% of a cycle. Not exactly, but good enough of an approximation.

-Every month or so (45 days?), you can recalibrate the sensor by draining until auto off and then charging to 100% and draining again. That way your battery indicator will be as accurate as it can be.

Also, I was PM'ed some questions. Here they are:

What is the difference between a lithium ion and a lithium polymer?

Lithium ion uses an ion soaked porous electrolyte, whereas lithium polymer uses a solid polymer one. Polymer batteries have a very high internal resistance which prevents high currents, and as such are usually soaked with some gel type substance to increase the conductivity. The chemistry (and even physical structure after the gel soaking) of Polymer is very similar to that of Lithium ion.

Polymer batteries are can also be smaller (credit card sized). They are also a lighter weight and more resistant to being overcharged. However, they cost more to make and have a lower lifetime than their ion counterparts.


Do I really need to charge the battery first before I use it the first time?

No. See above. This is an old habit from older battery technologies and chemisries.

I know it was mentioned earlier that the batter does not come partially charged, but I thought this was standard that they did...

It does. At 40%, as stated above. Not fully charged, and they tell you it is not charged so that you do not expect it, but it is. 40% is the best charge to store lithium batteries with.

How do you recommend proper battery calibration?

See above

Also, letting it sit overnight (assuming it gets charged in 2-3 hours) is said to be not good. however, I thought the phone was smart enough to know when the battery is full to discontinue charging, even if connected? Not so?

Modern batteries have circuitry in them to prevent overcharge. Normally they charge to about 4.2 volts per cell. At about 4.3 V/cell, it stops.

There is more in depth stuff to come, but I am currently asking the mods how to handle it. If I go in depth, I feel that that information should be consolidated to the first posts of a thread for easy access. By in depth I mean 6 or more posts going into the chemistry and other things, for those who are interested. It will also include non technical advice. At the same time I do not want to upstage Kappy and this helpful thread he has created. I am also planning another couple of things, but they need community involvement and I am asking for the mods' advice on how to proceed. Look for more useful information in the next couple of weeks and months.

-Nkk

 

[Quintessence]

Having worked "ahem" security - - yeah, I went there - - at a few "clubs" in college. . . some 15 years ago now - - damn, I'm that old? - - I might recommend the following:

Cinnamon (red tie in? always have the SINamon option, here too)
Sky
Sable
Echo (yes....yes....seriously...sly...sly...sl...)
McLovin (from a recent trip to a bachelor party in vegas. she was hot, too)
Epic
Jade
Diamond (cuz like, giggle, they're the best! also acceptable emerald, sapphire, ruby, etc)

Whoa, you just named all the HTC phones coming out in the next year!

 

[constant.repetition]

is it bad that i powered the phone on, activated it, and used it for a while while it was charging for the FIRST time? like the other poster above me said, the manual states to do a full complete charge before you even turn it on =0