VERY BAD battery life - HTC Desire 'not fit for purpose'

[skudman]

I have had my Desire now for about a week, Battery is useless. I have attempted to charge only when flat to condition battery (All new batteries need to be conditioned regardless on chemistry - i know as im an electronics engineer that has to play with such devices day in day out). Battery life has improved the first charge lasted about 4 hours, but i was playing. after that it lasted less than a day, and so the problem persists, I have now reduced display brightness and retrieval times for gmail and facebook. I have also disabled the always on internet. Wifi kills the battery in about 2 hours flat.

Pretty disappointed and tempted to return it.

 

[mbatson89]

Wi-Fi is killing your battery in 2 hours? Somethings seriously wrong there, i can surf the net, make calls, play games and send emails through the day and still have around 40% battery charge left when i go to bed. Perhaps there's something stopping your phone entering sleep properly, have you checked the up-time/awake time figures for the battery?

EDIT: should say, phones usually off charge for around 16 hours before being plugged back in when i go to sleep.

 

[skudman]

Wi-Fi is killing your battery in 2 hours? Somethings seriously wrong there, i can surf the net, make calls, play games and send emails through the day and still have around 40% battery charge left when i go to bed. Perhaps there's something stopping your phone entering sleep properly, have you checked the up-time/awake time figures for the battery?

EDIT: should say, phones usually off charge for around 16 hours before being plugged back in when i go to sleep.

I'm new to Android and the Desire, I had a N96 before and was disgusted that only lasted 3 days, after coming from Sony Ericsson lasting a week, I haven't downloaded any apps, the phone is how it came from the box. I think HTC should have created a user profile when you start up allowing you set up the phone better to avoid so much running. For all i know its running stuff i dont need and never will.

Is it right i should have to come on here and diagnose the causes when it should work better from the box?

 

[nx1977]

But people buy phones like the desire to do everything, so its understandable its all on from the box.

 

[mbatson89]

Smartphones by nature will not last as long as long as a non-smartphone, like your old Sony Ericsson. There isn't a smartphone as powerful as the Desire out there that'll last a week, not even close. I'd be surprised if there's any high end smart phone that can even last two full days with moderate use.

On a typical day i can happily do what i want on my phone and still have battery left at the end of the day and simply just re-charge the phone when i sleep. It's not a dig at you in anyway, but i don't understand why people are so hell bent on having a phone that will last for days on end when, no doubt, you sleep with a power socket in your room that you can simply plug it into whilst you sleep.

 

[skudman]

The Nokia N96 lasted about a day, everyday, then discovered that there was a power saving mode usually activated by 25% battery status. Well needless to say i ran it in this mode all the time after that, and hey presto it lasted 3 days then. I dont need everything running on the desire and much like the nokia when i got it, I will probably change lifestyle to deal with the charging. however digging around there are some better capacity batteries around for the desire but cant see how the charge circuit is going to identify the increase in capacity.

 

[Jim255]

@skudman - Your N96 power saving mode probably did no more than cut the bitrate on speech quality, so you get what you pay for.
@mbatson89 - Quite agree. I have always charged my phone every night, so it's always at maximum at the start of the day. I tend to keep the Desire topped up on a USB lead at work (may as well, as I am stuck at a keyboard anyway), so it's fresh when I go out after work. Then, if I hammer it for a few hours, I carry a spare battery in case I need to bung it on.
I have noticed that if I am out and about all day doing other stuff, the battery easily lasts the day, so light use battery consumption aint a problem either.

I don't see what the fuss is about. There are clearly some faulty phones (or batteries) out there, and that's what warranties are for.

 

[partridge]

Is this topic still rumbling on? There is one very simple solution: Turn off auto synching when you're out and about.

Do you really need the apps to update themselves every hour? Why is manually updating such a problem?

I turn off auto sync using the built in Android Power widget and my battery, after a charge up last night, is showing about 90% full.

If I want to check my emails or update the weather, I just tap the widget and it updates, simple.

I spent 5 days at Glastonbury last week and used the Orange free charging tent 3 times and only on one occassion was the phone in the red, the other two visits were to top it up, escape the heat and read my book. Auto sync was off, but I used the phone fairly heavily for videos and plenty of photos as well as twitter updates.

If your battery really is that bad it must be faulty. I don't even charge every day and I've had the phone for 3 weeks. Some of you must be caning the thing every minute of every day!

 

[videoassist]

Chrisjb,

You are lucky!
6h?
I

 

[vanperski]

Is this topic still rumbling on? There is one very simple solution: Turn off auto synching when you're out and about.

Do you really need the apps to update themselves every hour? Why is manually updating such a problem?

I turn off auto sync using the built in Android Power widget and my battery, after a charge up last night, is showing about 90% full.

If I want to check my emails or update the weather, I just tap the widget and it updates, simple.

I spent 5 days at Glastonbury last week and used the Orange free charging tent 3 times and only on one occassion was the phone in the red, the other two visits were to top it up, escape the heat and read my book. Auto sync was off, but I used the phone fairly heavily for videos and plenty of photos as well as twitter updates.

If your battery really is that bad it must be faulty. I don't even charge every day and I've had the phone for 3 weeks. Some of you must be caning the thing every minute of every day!

I think you'll find the majority of people that are having this issue have tried many things to fix it, including turning off auto-sync. I do not wish to cause any alarm to HTC Desire owners but I operated this phone problem free and with 'long' battery life for 2 months before this issue surfaced. I have now decided it has to go back to HTC as the 14 hours (if im lucky) standby time i get makes this phone useless to me

 

[mbatson89]

2 hours? Send it back and get it replaced under warranty mate. If your only getting two hours then something is very wrong...

 

[b0ng0]

Most people I know with smartphones (iPhones, various HTC devices, Samsung) usually charge up every day due to leaving 3G on.

I turn off 3G and get 2 days which is quite reasonable. That includes downloading, browsing, sometimes games, etc.

 

[skudman]

here is an update on my problems:

Im now only sinking when i open the applications. Gmail, Facebook, weather, turned screen brightness right down and turn off wifi when not at home. been doing a lot of WAP browsing and guess what? im managing 2.5 Days on single charge now. So all is well after all.

Whats the point you may ask? well im in front a Computer most of the time so dont need to have email and FB notifications as i can see them on the PC.

 

[juliank]

"The one area that really is a problem with android is the lack of quality control in the market. There are far too many dodgy, poorly tested apps out there that are causing issues like the one you guys are seeing."

So true. I've used Yahoo Messenger on Blackberry without any detriment to battery life. Installed Hi Yahoo when I got my Desire and couldn't get past 6-8hrs battery life for the 1st 4 days. Then I discovered the 'code' to check battery stats and found that Hi Yahoo had been running 100% of the time since installation. So I uninstalled it and installed the official Yahoo Messenger app and now I'm getting 36hrs+ on one charge.

 

[karlcoot]

Then I discovered the 'code' to check battery stats and found that Hi Yahoo had been running 100% of the time since installation.

How does one go about finding out what apps are using the battery the most?

 

[furious duck]

How does one go about finding out what apps are using the battery the most?

Download Spare Parts from the Market.

 

[juliank]

How does one go about finding out what apps are using the battery the most?

Go to your phone panel and type *#*#4636#*#* and check partial and other usage under battery statistics. Whatever is running constantly apart from Android is preventing your phone from going to sleep properly.

 

[jimlad]

does having things like gmail talk on all the time play a big part in battery draining?

 

[Kryten2k35]

I've been using fairly heavily this last week. My battery health is "good" via the testing panel.

I must admit, after my first charge I drained the thing in around 4-6h. God knows what it was, but I was using it all morning until around 3pm, then I headed out at 5pm and took my USB with me to charge it up.

I think the battery life should be much higher. I wouldn't be opposed to having to charge it nightly, but I shouldn't have to stop midday to charge it. However, it's been getting better and better day by day, so I'll hold out. I may as well get a new official HTC battery anyway.

 

[jauhari]

Wi-Fi is killing your battery in 2 hours? Somethings seriously wrong there, i can surf the net, make calls, play games and send emails through the day and still have around 40% battery charge left when i go to bed. Perhaps there's something stopping your phone entering sleep properly, have you checked the up-time/awake time figures for the battery?

EDIT: should say, phones usually off charge for around 16 hours before being plugged back in when i go to sleep.

Play arround with HTC Desire from morning until night you still got 40% battery left? wow that interesting... can you tell... what currently used apps?

 

[kopkiwi]

For the first 2 weeks my battery was rubbish. 6 hours with LIGHT/NO use. Now I can go a good 2 days with solid use.

Advanced App Manager is a friggin god send!!!

 

[michalurban]

For the first 2 weeks my battery was rubbish. 6 hours with LIGHT/NO use. Now I can go a good 2 days with solid use.

Advanced App Manager is a friggin god send!!!

So, for the first 2 weeks it sucked ... then it began to improved ... so, when should I expect to get lets say 12 hours? Approximately ...

 

[mattyswe]

So, for the first 2 weeks it sucked ... then it began to improved ... so, when should I expect to get lets say 12 hours? Approximately ...

You need to manage your apps, syncing etc and then you will easily get 2 days mate.

 

[Zarch]

Try these tips I put together.... might work for you, they do for me.

Zarch's Blog: HTC Desire Battery Saving Tips

 

[Stretlow]

Does the location settings option consume more battery?