Help Battery Life _ Info Re: Desktop Dock

[AnnihilationPrinciple]

What sort of Battery Life are you getting on your Samsung Epic 4G?

I ordered my Epic on Tuesday morning. I received it on Wednesday midday. I charged it to full immediately before I used it or activated it.

The first full day of use (Thursday) I didn't pay much attention to battery life, but it seemed very fast to drain, but of course, I was doing a lot of messing around and such.

Friday I barely used it at all and it died on me (to shutdown) after about ten hours.

Saturday I monitored the phone and used it barely (not at all)- these are my battery use statistics from "battery monitor":
- Uplugged 12H 16M 58S
- Cell Standby- 42% Time without Signal 64%
- Phone Idle- 24%
- Display-13%
- Voice Calls- 11% (about 2m 30s)
- Android OS 4%
- Dialer 3%

I took one call, and did not use any functions or features of the phone. Additionally, the screen brightness is turned all the way down, and I have turned off WiFi, 4G, GPS, etc.. No apps were running in the background. It was in "standby" mode the majority of the time. I do live in an area that has interesting sprint cell phone coverage/service.

ALSO- Take Note. If you are thinking of buying the Desktop Dock, it IS NOT usable with a cover (such as the red/black cover) sold by Sprint.

I am interested if everyone's battery life is as bad as mine, or I am having an annomoly or problem.

Thank you very much-
COOP

 

[neomedic]

Is there an app for the batter monitor or is there one built-in to the Epic?

If built-in, how do I access it and see what my battery drain looks like?

 

[sleipner]

Your time without signal is really high, that drains the battery pretty quickly. I haven't had the problem with this phone yet because I haven't traveled this last week, but my last smart phone would die without signal in about two hours.

 

[pflol]

http://androidforums.com/epic-4g-tips-tricks/168577-fix-fast-battery-draining.html#post1529619

Please do this fix if you haven't already, it will drop your time without signal under 10% giving you a TON more battery life.

I recently did this and after 3 hours I have lost only 7% battery life and I was gaming for over an hour in that time frame.

 

[icemanjs4]

http://androidforums.com/epic-4g-tips-tricks/168577-fix-fast-battery-draining.html#post1529619

Please do this fix if you haven't already, it will drop your time without signal under 10% giving you a TON more battery life.

I recently did this and after 3 hours I have lost only 7% battery life and I was gaming for over an hour in that time frame.

Agreed. Well of course, because I posted the thread... But it has made all of the difference the in world. I was literally panic-stricken at how bad my battery life was.

Since I turned on/off Airplane mode, the battery has lasted a full day, with pretty decent usage and is still around 30% nearly 24 hours later.

 

[Pitbull329]

One thing you'll want to check.. if youre charging the phone while its turned on. When you get the batt. is full notification. Turn the phone off and unplug it. Plug it back in, but don't turn it on. More than likely your battery will show different. Today, when I got the battery is full notification, I did the steps I mentioned... battery showed up maybe 85% charged. Left it charging until it got full while it was off. Atleast now, youll know you were actually at 100%, instead of "full" but like 90% in reality.

 

[AnnihilationPrinciple]

Juice Defender was recommended to me. I got 24 hours out of my Epic befor I had to put it on charge. Having the 3G turned off except when I was actually using it saved a lot of juice.

To find the Battery Monitor, go to Settings>Phone Info>Battery Monitor then you can find how long you've been connected by clicking on each individual item.

 

[neomedic]

Are you suppose to power off and then charge again so that it reaches 100% for the first time you charge it? Or is this a every time you charge it kind of deal???

 

[Pitbull329]

Are you suppose to power off and then charge again so that it reaches 100% for the first time you charge it? Or is this a every time you charge it kind of deal???

The battery icon on top will show that its full. If you turn it off, plug it in, more than likely it'll show otherwise.

I do it when I truly want the maximum out of the phone. If I'm going out for a while and not going to be doing much with the phone, I don't do the power off/plug in method.

The few times I've done it, its shown different battery percentages. Most of the time, its (im estimating) around 94%, so I plug it in and it fills up pretty quickly. One time though, it showed battery around 85%.

So to answer your question, its something you should check out every time you fully charge your phone if you want. Since the battery icon on the top right doesn't truly read accurately, it seems to think its fully charged but when you shut off your phone and plug it in, the battery icon that comes out shows about 5%-10% less than 100%. Hopefully, the battery bug gets fixed sometime soon.

Other that little issue, my battery life is great!!

 

[neomedic]

So what is the best battery widget for the epic???

 

[mannyhernz]

Tried couple of widgets..none are accurate...please give some info as to which ones are accurate

 

[neomedic]

Yes...some advice on battery widgets please!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks.

 

[Pitbull329]

I doubt any will be accurate. I mean, the phone itself doesnt even know when it is fully charged

 

[madiom]

Juice Plotter is pretty good battery widget. It may not be anymore accurate than the others but you can use the graph to track when your phone is draining the quickest and possibly isolate what the problem is. I also like that it shows when the phone is charging, temperature, and when the screen was on, all items that effect battery life.

I also use system panel which will tell you which apps are using the most CPU cycles (and therefore the most battery). The free version is enough but once you use it you will want the paid version for the historical info.