Battery life tips (30% after 40 hrs unplugged)

[PhilipVanLuke]

I received my droid X on launch and been loving it. but battery life was not as amazing as I had read. I would unplug at 5 in the morning when i got up for work, and would need the juice by the time i got home at 7. while this basically worked for me i would have liked more battery life so i did some research and messed with some settings. now i dont need to charge every day if i dont want to.

1. set the power management to battery saver. all this does is shut down the 3G radio if it is unused for 30 mins.

2. on power management also set screen to minimum default brightness, no auto. do this in both the battery saver screen and the regular display setting, dont know why it mattered but it did.

3. I brought up the droid power widget and turned off auto sync. just manually sync your contacts, calendar and email, saves alot of life.

4. lastly i gave up live wallpaper.

these four things and i have more than doubled my battery life, and you can too. cheers!

 

[Rockaholic]

Thanks! I'll guide it a try.

 

[ghdtpdna]

I received my droid X on launch and been loving it. but battery life was not as amazing as I had read. I would unplug at 5 in the morning when i got up for work, and would need the juice by the time i got home at 7. while this basically worked for me i would have liked more battery life so i did some research and messed with some settings. now i dont need to charge every day if i dont want to.

1. set the power management to battery saver. all this does is shut down the 3G radio if it is unused for 30 mins.

2. on power management also set screen to minimum default brightness, no auto. do this in both the battery saver screen and the regular display setting, dont know why it mattered but it did.

3. I brought up the droid power widget and turned off auto sync. just manually sync your contacts, calendar and email, saves alot of life.

4. lastly i gave up live wallpaper.

these four things and i have more than doubled my battery life, and you can too. cheers!

For me,
1. I have to be able to respond to email instantly and need 3g at all times
2. Good idea.
3.I need autosync always
4.I used Mario for a week and now I am back to regular one.
This is good if you don't need email/internet constantly.

 

[007E]

I received my droid X on launch and been loving it. but battery life was not as amazing as I had read. I would unplug at 5 in the morning when i got up for work, and would need the juice by the time i got home at 7. while this basically worked for me i would have liked more battery life so i did some research and messed with some settings. now i dont need to charge every day if i dont want to.

1. set the power management to battery saver. all this does is shut down the 3G radio if it is unused for 30 mins.

2. on power management also set screen to minimum default brightness, no auto. do this in both the battery saver screen and the regular display setting, dont know why it mattered but it did.

3. I brought up the droid power widget and turned off auto sync. just manually sync your contacts, calendar and email, saves alot of life.

4. lastly i gave up live wallpaper.

these four things and i have more than doubled my battery life, and you can too. cheers!

Are those the only things the autosync feature affects? Will I still receive sms and mms ?

 

[PeaceMaker]

I've done all this from day 1 and get a day tops... My day starts at 7:15AM w/ my phone (iheartradio). Then at work all day with these settings playing with it on and off (mostly not playing with it). I'm usually at 30% by the time I get home...

 

[Szadzik]

Turning Auto-sync does nothing because instead you will go to your email app and sync it manually and it will take more juice than the auto-sync. IMAP was created to save battery life, so you are completely wrong turning it off.

As for turning off anything in Android - I see it as pointless. It is a phone that is made to work online and having it offline is like not having it at all.

 

[awells527]

As for turning off anything in Android - I see it as pointless. It is a phone that is made to work online and having it offline is like not having it at all.

Indeed.

Mine lasts all day, which is enough for me because it goes on the media dock every night. Plus, I have a charger in my bag and a portable USB battery when in a pinch.

 

[ghdtpdna]

Best way to save battery life.
1. Keep the phone turned off.
This way my battery lasts about 5 years.

 

[mxsjw]

Best way to save battery life.
1. Keep the phone turned off.
This way my battery lasts about 5 years.

 

[007E]

Best way to save battery life.
1. Keep the phone turned off.
This way my battery lasts about 5 years.

bwaahahaha lol

 

[thecrock0984]

I just think too many people have unreal expectations from this battery. I mean come on. Its still a phone. Just seems like some expect it to never die. Kinda silly.

 

[nickstanley]

I dont understand why you would not use the best features of the phone just to save battery!?!?!

Turn the brightness all the way down? Have you seen how glorious this screen is? Why would you not want to enjoy it?

Syncing contacts and 3G is essential for getting emails and notification. Not taking advantage of it would be silly in my opinion.

Listen, no smart phone gets amazing battery life. How do I deal with battery with my X, I have a charger at home, at work and in my car. I would rather keep it plugged in at work and in my car then to not be able to enjoy the phone as it was intended.

 

[aleis]

I dont understand why you would not use the best features of the phone just to save battery!?!?!

Turn the brightness all the way down? Have you seen how glorious this screen is? Why would you not want to enjoy it?

Syncing contacts and 3G is essential for getting emails and notification. Not taking advantage of it would be silly in my opinion.

Listen, no smart phone gets amazing battery life. How do I deal with battery with my X, I have a charger at home, at work and in my car. I would rather keep it plugged in at work and in my car then to not be able to enjoy the phone as it was intended.

I agree.
i just have a car charger, a usb cord for transferring data at work and a home charger. i dont worry about the battery. tips help but...these tips take all the fun out of the phone. no thanks!
and what really saved your battery life is just the sync thing.

 

[Mojorisen]

I dont understand why you would not use the best features of the phone just to save battery!?!?!

Turn the brightness all the way down? Have you seen how glorious this screen is? Why would you not want to enjoy it?

Syncing contacts and 3G is essential for getting emails and notification. Not taking advantage of it would be silly in my opinion.

Listen, no smart phone gets amazing battery life. How do I deal with battery with my X, I have a charger at home, at work and in my car. I would rather keep it plugged in at work and in my car then to not be able to enjoy the phone as it was intended.

I couldn't agree more. Me personally, I didn't buy this phone to turn off all of the features and have nothing more than a paper weight with a screen. If you're really concerned with battery, get one with a larger capacity...

 

[Steven58]

Since the OP said "tips" I moved it to "Tips."

(Steven daydreams about the day when people READ THE DIRECTIONS BEFORE THEY POST!!)

 

[bersh]

Although some seem to get worse battery life than others, one thing I've yet to see mentioned is the ability to just use a micro USB cable to charge the phone during the day if need be. I spent a whopping $3 at a local computer place to get another USB cable to keep at work. If for whatever reason I need to charge it, I just hook it to my computer and I'm good to go.

 

[Davoo]

Not everyone works at a computer. I make carbon fiber aircraft parts and do not touch a computer all day. For me turning the screen down to the minimum is worth it because I just want to stream music while I work. Question: Has anyone noticed a difference in battery life when listening to music with headphones vs built in speakers? I start work at 7 and by 2 its just about dead streaming most of the day using the built in speaker.

 

[PeaceMaker]

Not everyone works at a computer. I make carbon fiber aircraft parts and do not touch a computer all day. For me turning the screen down to the minimum is worth it because I just want to stream music while I work. Question: Has anyone noticed a difference in battery life when listening to music with headphones vs built in speakers? I start work at 7 and by 2 its just about dead streaming most of the day using the built in speaker.

That's pretty good I would say... Motorola's website shows the phone should last 8hrs of usage... Streaming & playing music via the speaker for 7hrs sounds about right.

 

[BLK MAJK]

When I stream on pandora, my battery drops about 10% an hour. Haven't seen any difference with headphones or speakers

 

[veeeee]

Everyone uses their phones differently. Not everyone wants to have to lug around a charger or extra battery or want the extra bulk that a higher capacity battery would add. I want to be able to unplug my phone in the morning and not have to plug it back in until I goto bed. Heck, some nights I might not even make it to my own bed so it would be nice if my phone is still working the next day on the same charge. And the last thing I ever want to worry about when I use my phone is if my battery is gonna die on me.

As for leaving auto sync on, unless you are checking your emails constantly whats the point? I want my phone accessing data and using battery when I am actually using it, not when it is sitting idle in my pocket or on my desk.

 

[PeaceMaker]

Everyone uses their phones differently. Not everyone wants to have to lug around a charger or extra battery or want the extra bulk that a higher capacity battery would add. I want to be able to unplug my phone in the morning and not have to plug it back in until I goto bed. Heck, some nights I might not even make it to my own bed so it would be nice if my phone is still working the next day on the same charge. And the last thing I ever want to worry about when I use my phone is if my battery is gonna die on me.

As for leaving auto sync on, unless you are checking your emails constantly whats the point? I want my phone accessing data and using battery when I am actually using it, not when it is sitting idle in my pocket or on my desk.

I agree 100% up until the last part. I got used to it w/ my BB and I like knowing when I get new emails.

In regard to the first half, yes the phone can make it to the end of the day; but thats w/ the user constantly being conscious of how much battery they are using. I am not hating on my phone, but I think this is a problem that most smartphones face. I think our battery efficiency and CPU/mobile electronics efficiency is still a little young and will take some time before we get smartphones lasting a few days. Apple has managed to do it, but with some restriction... you can't do as much with your phone.

 

[nickstanley]

So let me ask this. When you shut down data, does is stop twitter and facebook notifications too???

 

[Travisimo]

I plan on getting the larger capacity battery when it comes out next month. Then I'll just swap batteries at some point during the day if I need to. I'm not turning off the things I want to do just to save battery life... otherwise, I might as well just go back to my iPhone! The thing I love most about Android is being able to have all of this stuff connected and easily accessible. I like turning on my phone and seeing recent weather data right on my unlock screen. I like getting push e-mail and notifications. I like the brightness of my screen turned up quite a bit. And sometimes, I like to use Live Wallpapers just for the sheer pleasure of it.

At least we can swap out batteries if we need to!

 

[sorka]

I agree 100% up until the last part. I got used to it w/ my BB and I like knowing when I get new emails.

In regard to the first half, yes the phone can make it to the end of the day; but thats w/ the user constantly being conscious of how much battery they are using. I am not hating on my phone, but I think this is a problem that most smartphones face. I think our battery efficiency and CPU/mobile electronics efficiency is still a little young and will take some time before we get smartphones lasting a few days. Apple has managed to do it, but with some restriction... you can't do as much with your phone.

There must really be a wide range in battery quality. Mine will go a solid 24 hours with lots of surfing, email, and youtube watching. This is with the default smart mode settings except that I'm leaving my data on 24 hours a day as I have to be able to get email in the middle of the night.

BTW, I leave me GPS and bluetooth on always.

Since I've had my phone, there was a 2 day period where I barely touched it except for voice calls and the battery was 50% after 48 hours. We just charged my wife's for the first time since getting it 2 days ago. It went 48 hours with 30% at the end of that period and she's been doing lots of social networking on facebook.

Her GPS has been left on so that I can track the phone with mylookout.com as latitude won't use the GPS unless it's running the foreground.

Her bluetooth has been off, but I'm about to turn it on to pair with the Prius

 

[mahers]

There must really be a wide range in battery quality. Mine will go a solid 24 hours with lots of surfing, email, and youtube watching. This is with the default smart mode settings except that I'm leaving my data on 24 hours a day as I have to be able to get email in the middle of the night.

BTW, I leave me GPS and bluetooth on always.

Since I've had my phone, there was a 2 day period where I barely touched it except for voice calls and the battery was 50% after 48 hours. We just charged my wife's for the first time since getting it 2 days ago. It went 48 hours with 30% at the end of that period and she's been doing lots of social networking on facebook.

Her GPS has been left on so that I can track the phone with mylookout.com as latitude won't use the GPS unless it's running the foreground.

Her bluetooth has been off, but I'm about to turn it on to pair with the Prius

PLEASE! No more posts like this. It just depresses the rest of us who don't get this type of phenomenal battery life! How the hell are you getting this kind of life? Just doesn't make sense!