Before you ditch your Eris...

[BiggusDiccus]

After reading some comments on this board...I am really concerned for society. I am not being mean I am totally serious.
IT'S A PHONE!!!!
It's not going to do everything exactly the way you want it to. It does a hell of a lot of things and does most of them very well. If you wan't the perfect phone, buy HTC and make one for yourself. I am amazed at the way people are so quick to dismiss a new piece of technology so quickly over almost nothing. It's like the writers from Seinnfeld are posting here.
The phone is not "sponge worthy"
Are we as a society really this addicted to instant gratification that we can't be bothered to LEARN how a phone functions and MAYBE settle for a few meaningless flaws (heaven forbid) in an otherwise great piece of equipment? You know there are starving people in Africa that don't even HAVE 3G lol.
Look, I went from a razor to a BB 4 years ago...and for the first TWO MONTHS I absolutely hated it...until I got familiar with how to use it, then I loved it. I have had my Eris for a week now and I love it more now than I ever did my BB. When I think back to my first Nokia brick in the mid 90's, I am pretty amazed at how far this technology has come.
But...if you don't like it, return it. Do you really need to go on some forum to tell people how much THEIR phone sucks just because YOU don't like it? If there was just one phone that everyone loves, there would just be one phone!!! Just like there would be one kind of car, one kind of dog and one kind of ice cream.
Geez people stop hate posting and go outside and live your life.
IT'S JUST A PHONE!!!!

 

[canrunin]

+1

 

[mrtrinh]

+1 Amen brother... came from a palm treo 800w, eris blows it away

 

[Needsdecaf]

I can respect that people like their phone and do not find fault.

However, this is a forum for constructive criticism and problem solving. Not every post is going to be sunshine and roses.

Useless bitching, like the <ahem> gentleman who signed up to bitch about how crappy his phone was and why he was returning it, serves no one.

 

[BiggusDiccus]

I can respect that people like their phone and do not find fault.

However, this is a forum for constructive criticism and problem solving. Not every post is going to be sunshine and roses.

Useless bitching, like the <ahem> gentleman who signed up to bitch about how crappy his phone was and why he was returning it, serves no one.

I completely agree, my post was not directed toward those of us with questions, but rather those, like the one you mentioned, that just complain and seem to seek attention at the same time lol.

 

[droid-dohrk]

I agree. I found this forum when it just had 3 pages of topic in the HTC Droid Eris, it has 46 pages now. It was nice, friendly and informative. In the past 3-4 weeks, it's been overrun with constant complaining and fighting and I'm about to stop coming back. I was worried about the battery life and found it could be fixed, so I ordered it. It's been great for me. I don't text, so I didn't need the Handcent fix, just google talk. I unchecked the Enable always-on Mobile when I first got it, set the Network to Automatic and my battery will easily last 1 day even with playing with it a lot and an hour or two of shoutcast over wifi. Last week I just left it idle, no calls, no playing with it, no Touchdown Exchange mail push, I was on vacation but stayed home, and the battery should go 5+ days easily. My youtube app doesn't work on 3g anymore either, but there is a work around for now and I explained how in one of these topics. This is my first "smartphone" and I think it's great. Yes, they still have a few things to fix, but I can do the things I want with it. Oh, one thing I would like is GPS Navigation to work. I tried Nav4All and wow, I can't figure it out. I can't seem to figure out how to tell it a destination.

 

[hrbib21]

I couldn't agree more. Good post.

 

[smittythepig]

I agree. I found this forum when it just had 3 pages of topic in the HTC Droid Eris, it has 46 pages now. It was nice, friendly and informative. In the past 3-4 weeks, it's been overrun with constant complaining and fighting and I'm about to stop coming back. I was worried about the battery life and found it could be fixed, so I ordered it. It's been great for me. I don't text, so I didn't need the Handcent fix, just google talk. I unchecked the Enable always-on Mobile when I first got it, set the Network to Automatic and my battery will easily last 1 day even with playing with it a lot and an hour or two of shoutcast over wifi. Last week I just left it idle, no calls, no playing with it, no Touchdown Exchange mail push, I was on vacation but stayed home, and the battery should go 5+ days easily. My youtube app doesn't work on 3g anymore either, but there is a work around for now and I explained how in one of these topics. This is my first "smartphone" and I think it's great. Yes, they still have a few things to fix, but I can do the things I want with it. Oh, one thing I would like is GPS Navigation to work. I tried Nav4All and wow, I can't figure it out. I can't seem to figure out how to tell it a destination.

does disabling always-on mobile network prevent the phone from using data entirely? if so, doesn't that totally defeat the purpose of the smartphone? just wondering because i think i may not be understanding what the mobile network toggle actually does. thanks.

 

[hrbib21]

^No it does not.

 

[thelion]

If this phone works for you, great. I am glad. Take my experience.

My display is turned down all the way
Standby is set at 30 seconds
I have a task manager that kills apps periodically
I have nothing on auto sync
I have it set to have bluetooth, wifi and gps off.
I turn off the mobile network when not using the phone.

Today, I unplugged my phone at 8am. It had charged all night (8 hours roughly). I made a phone call that lasted about 1 minuted (VM). The phone got put into standby until 12:30. At this point the battery was < 50%. By 2pm it was yellow and by 3:30 it had turned off due to no power.

So, in 7 1/2 hours, with only one very short call and no use my battery died completely. This is typical for my experience with the Eris. And this is a new battery, I had the original replaced because I feared that was the issue. It seems not.

So now tell me - why should I keep this phone?

 

[droid-dohrk]

does disabling always-on mobile network prevent the phone from using data entirely? if so, doesn't that totally defeat the purpose of the smartphone? just wondering because i think i may not be understanding what the mobile network toggle actually does. thanks.

If you turn off Mobile Network and wifi off, you can't send or read new email or browse or do internet stuff, but you can still send/receive text messages and make phone calls. Turning off Mobile Network is a quick way to disable the internet stuff and stop the beeping alerts and save a lot of battery when you don't need the internet.

The part I was talking about was Menu > Settings > Wireless controls > Mobile network settings > Enable always-on mobile. Uncheck that. I think that always keeps your mobile network on and always updating in the background while your phone should be sleeping. With that setting unchecked, you still get email alerts if you have the Mobile Network or wifi on. I also get Touchdown Exchange alerts. I don't use facebook or any other stuff, so I don't know if those update still while the phone is sleeping. This has been discussed a lot, but I don't know if there was a definite conclusion, but I think that while the phone is sleeping, I think the 3G is periodically checking for new mail, but it doesn't drain the battery near as bad as using the always-on setting. Some people think it stops the sync and other things when you uncheck always-on. I'm not sure, but I know that unchecking, seems to keep working correctly for the stuff I use and saves a lot of battery. My weather will update sometimes when I wake it back up. Sometimes the weather is an hour behind, but the clock will update immediately, and you can always refresh it if you want.

 

[Caddyman]

If this phone works for you, great. I am glad. Take my experience.

My display is turned down all the way
Standby is set at 30 seconds
I have a task manager that kills apps periodically
I have nothing on auto sync
I have it set to have bluetooth, wifi and gps off.
I turn off the mobile network when not using the phone.

Today, I unplugged my phone at 8am. It had charged all night (8 hours roughly). I made a phone call that lasted about 1 minuted (VM). The phone got put into standby until 12:30. At this point the battery was < 50%. By 2pm it was yellow and by 3:30 it had turned off due to no power.

So, in 7 1/2 hours, with only one very short call and no use my battery died completely. This is typical for my experience with the Eris. And this is a new battery, I had the original replaced because I feared that was the issue. It seems not.

So now tell me - why should I keep this phone?

this is not normal, you have a bad phone, a bad app, a bad something. i would get a replacement. my phone could last probably 3 days or more with that kind of usage....seriously.

 

[SuperStuff]

I say get a Blackberry if you want battery life. I think my brother-in-law said he gets good battery life on his blackberry. The Android OS & hardware hand shaking is in it's infancy right now. Android is still working out the improvements for future smart phones. I never had a blackberry, but I'm sticking with my Droid Eris. My brother-in-law was drooling at all the cool apps I had on it over Christmas.

 

[droid-dohrk]

If this phone works for you, great. I am glad. Take my experience.

My display is turned down all the way
Standby is set at 30 seconds
I have a task manager that kills apps periodically
I have nothing on auto sync
I have it set to have bluetooth, wifi and gps off.
I turn off the mobile network when not using the phone.

Today, I unplugged my phone at 8am. It had charged all night (8 hours roughly). I made a phone call that lasted about 1 minuted (VM). The phone got put into standby until 12:30. At this point the battery was < 50%. By 2pm it was yellow and by 3:30 it had turned off due to no power.

So, in 7 1/2 hours, with only one very short call and no use my battery died completely. This is typical for my experience with the Eris. And this is a new battery, I had the original replaced because I feared that was the issue. It seems not.

So now tell me - why should I keep this phone?

Hello,

Something is obviously keeping your phone awake and draining the battery bad. A lot of other people, including me, have been able to get a long time out of our batteries. Something is not right with your phone or apps. If I don't touch my phone, I can go many hours and only go down like 5%.
Was your voicemail checking by calling or did you try Youmail or something. The youmail Visual Voicemail is confirmed by many to eat your battery fast.

What apps have you installed?

I would try getting rid of any automatic task killer, task panel, (I read on howardforums that TaskPanel was killing people's batteries and once uninstalled, those people said they are good now)etc. I have Advanced Task Killer free installed, it's still installed, but I stopped playing with it a week ago. I just leave it alone and my phone runs smoothly for me. I can browse, I use Dolphin, when I'm done with it, I long press the back arrow and choose Exit so it closes the browser. I can use the Market to install, update, remove things, I do that about every other day still to play with it. I send some gtalk IM's, I play shoutcast with tunewiki for an hour or so a day, usually over wifi (that saves battery over 3G too), I don't do much else. I use either gmail or Touchdown for mail, but not that often. I don't use the builtin email program or text messaging.

"I removed my TaskPanel app, and my phone's battery life has almost doubled!
I went from 7:00 a.m. to 11:30 PM (light-moderate usage -- texting, checking email, Facebook) and still had some juice."

I thought I read something about Widgets that keep your mail and IM's open will keep the apps running and checking a lot and burning a lot of battery too. Since I don't use the default mail and IM, I immediately remove those Widgets from the homescreens. I don't use the Favorites or Bookmark widgest either. However, I do have the Pandora and Tunewiki widgets, the HTC battery widget and ScreenModeWidgets and the default Clock/Weather widgets. I'm just trying to describe how I have my phone setup and how I use it.

 

[thetomlin2]

Great post BiggusDiccus ... I agree 100%. When I first got my Eris I came here asking questions and reading the thread to help improve battery life. As I have learned how to use the phone better I have helped answer the questions of others. Thats what this site is for ... and thats what this site does well. Like Needsdecaf said, the useless bitching helps no one. If your not happy with your phone and have decided to return it ... go for it and move on. We dont need to hear your reasons.

 

[nekoki]

If this phone works for you, great. I am glad. Take my experience.

My display is turned down all the way
Standby is set at 30 seconds
I have a task manager that kills apps periodically
I have nothing on auto sync
I have it set to have bluetooth, wifi and gps off.
I turn off the mobile network when not using the phone.

Today, I unplugged my phone at 8am. It had charged all night (8 hours roughly). I made a phone call that lasted about 1 minuted (VM). The phone got put into standby until 12:30. At this point the battery was < 50%. By 2pm it was yellow and by 3:30 it had turned off due to no power.

So, in 7 1/2 hours, with only one very short call and no use my battery died completely. This is typical for my experience with the Eris. And this is a new battery, I had the original replaced because I feared that was the issue. It seems not.

So now tell me - why should I keep this phone?

You shouldnt IMO. What's your awake time? I unplug my phone at 7 am or thereabouts. I have my brightness on about 25% during the day and set it at 0% when I lay down and tinker on it before I go to sleep. I leave WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS off most of the time. I leave Mobile Network on most of the time but occasionally turn it off. Standby is set at 2 minutes. I use my phone for about 10-15 minutes of calls per day, about 2 hours of web browsing, several texts per day, and probably 30-45 minutes of games. I am usually at about 25% battery left when I plug it in but it has been as high as in the 40's and as low as 15%. It's okay battery life. I wish it were better but it'll do for me.

 

[thelion]

this is not normal, you have a bad phone, a bad app, a bad something. i would get a replacement. my phone could last probably 3 days or more with that kind of usage....seriously.

No apps are not the issue. I had the same problem with no apps on it. The phone is not the issue and neither is the battery - both have been traded out and the issue remains.

Hello,

Something is obviously keeping your phone awake and draining the battery bad. A lot of other people, including me, have been able to get a long time out of our batteries. Something is not right with your phone or apps. If I don't touch my phone, I can go many hours and only go down like 5%.
Was your voicemail checking by calling or did you try Youmail or something. The youmail Visual Voicemail is confirmed by many to eat your battery fast.

What apps have you installed?

I would try getting rid of any automatic task killer, task panel, (I read on howardforums that TaskPanel was killing people's batteries and once uninstalled, those people said they are good now)etc. I have Advanced Task Killer free installed, it's still installed, but I stopped playing with it a week ago. I just leave it alone and my phone runs smoothly for me. I can browse, I use Dolphin, when I'm done with it, I long press the back arrow and choose Exit so it closes the browser. I can use the Market to install, update, remove things, I do that about every other day still to play with it. I send some gtalk IM's, I play shoutcast with tunewiki for an hour or so a day, usually over wifi (that saves battery over 3G too), I don't do much else. I use either gmail or Touchdown for mail, but not that often. I don't use the builtin email program or text messaging.

"I removed my TaskPanel app, and my phone's battery life has almost doubled!
I went from 7:00 a.m. to 11:30 PM (light-moderate usage -- texting, checking email, Facebook) and still had some juice."

I thought I read something about Widgets that keep your mail and IM's open will keep the apps running and checking a lot and burning a lot of battery too. Since I don't use the default mail and IM, I immediately remove those Widgets from the homescreens. I don't use the Favorites or Bookmark widgest either. However, I do have the Pandora and Tunewiki widgets, the HTC battery widget and ScreenModeWidgets and the default Clock/Weather widgets. I'm just trying to describe how I have my phone setup and how I use it.

I have very few apps on my phone right now, only Bloo and Google Sky Map. No widgets are on my screens - I only use one screen. I don't use Visual Voicemail or Youmail or anything of the sort. My email doesn't sync to my phone. My data package is useless because if I actually use those features my phone dies quicker.

As for the Task Killer. I have tried with it and without it and seen no change in battery life negatively. There was minimal improvement with it as I can shut down apps after I use them.

You shouldnt IMO. What's your awake time? I unplug my phone at 7 am or thereabouts. I have my brightness on about 25% during the day and set it at 0% when I lay down and tinker on it before I go to sleep. I leave WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS off most of the time. I leave Mobile Network on most of the time but occasionally turn it off. Standby is set at 2 minutes. I use my phone for about 10-15 minutes of calls per day, about 2 hours of web browsing, several texts per day, and probably 30-45 minutes of games. I am usually at about 25% battery left when I plug it in but it has been as high as in the 40's and as low as 15%. It's okay battery life. I wish it were better but it'll do for me.

My awake time hovers between 8-15%.

Funny, I get a kick out of it when people say "oh that's not normal." HTC tells me it is normal. VZW tells me it is normal. The sales reps tell me it is normal. Three co-workers that have the phone tell me it is normal. My cousin across the country has the same issue with hers. A buddy down in Cali does too....

I think it might be a very real issue with this phone. If yours works, awesome. Neither of mine have and so I am ditching it. I won't pay for a data package I cannot use do to poor planning on the part of HTC.

 

[Caddyman]

yeah we are all lying for no good reason, you are right.....my phone actually only last like 2 hours...

 

[nekoki]

My awake time hovers between 8-15%.

Funny, I get a kick out of it when people say "oh that's not normal." HTC tells me it is normal. VZW tells me it is normal. The sales reps tell me it is normal. Three co-workers that have the phone tell me it is normal. My cousin across the country has the same issue with hers. A buddy down in Cali does too....

I think it might be a very real issue with this phone. If yours works, awesome. Neither of mine have and so I am ditching it. I won't pay for a data package I cannot use do to poor planning on the part of HTC.

I seriously think you should get rid of it. If mine were like that I would raise holy heck if necessary until they took it back.

 

[thetomlin2]

yeah we are all lying for no good reason, you are right.....my phone actually only last like 2 hours...

2 whole hours???? WOW!!!! Mine only lasts 18.5 minutes

 

[droid-dohrk]

Well, I'm sorry to hear that your phone is bad or maybe the cell coverage is bad that it pumps up more RF power to contact the tower. I know that many people have a good experience with the phone and I also know a lot of people don't. When I first started reading this forum, one person said they had to charge it 3 times a day, someone said 2 times, others said it lasted fine from 7am to 11pm. Then more people found that if you use Handcent for IM instead of the default IM, and you uncheck the Mobile always-on, that fixed it for them. My wife and I have very good luck with ours, although hers locked up today after using K9 mail, which she's had that installed a week or two and that's the first lock up.

Well, I tried to help, but if your phone just isn't working out, I would get rid of it too. There is no way I would keep a phone that wouldn't last a full day between charges. I'm coming from a Moto Razor v3m, which would easily go 3-4 days with light usage, or 2 days if you talked an hour each day. I never use text messaging. However, I do kind of find it sad that you have to charge these every day if you actually play with it. If I just talk about 10 minutes for a few phone calls, seriously, I can get 2 days out of this, but that is no IM or web or shoutcast. If I do all that, I can easily make it a full day with a good amount of battery left each night.

 

[hrbib21]

Get rid of it, Lion. Get yourself a new (different model) phone.

yeah we are all lying for no good reason, you are right.....my phone actually only last like 2 hours...

That's funny because I had the exact same response to him/her in another thread. Those of us who don't have the issues he/she has are liars. Gotta love it.

 

[thelion]

yeah we are all lying for no good reason, you are right.....my phone actually only last like 2 hours...

I don't believe I said that at all. However, a good bunch of these phones DO in fact have battery life issues. That cannot be denied. Just because yours does not does not mean mine and others do not.

Does that make sense to you? Both parties can be telling the truth. Or were you unaware? It is said you seem to think either they are all bad or all good. Phones come in batches. Some batches are better than others. I am just not willing to bet on a good batch this time when it seems so many were bad.

 

[jciangiotto]

This is my first post in this forum. I personally love the first post in this thread and agree 100%. I have had my Eris for about 1 month now and don't have any fo the problems that I have read about in here. To thelion, dude quit your whining and just get another phone and go away.

 

[BiggusDiccus]

I don't believe I said that at all. However, a good bunch of these phones DO in fact have battery life issues. That cannot be denied. Just because yours does not does not mean mine and others do not.

Does that make sense to you? Both parties can be telling the truth. Or were you unaware? It is said you seem to think either they are all bad or all good. Phones come in batches. Some batches are better than others. I am just not willing to bet on a good batch this time when it seems so many were bad.

Wow I guess I got two of the good ones. I unplugged mine yesterday morning, made about 5 or 6 calls, downloaded an app and left it unplugged last night all night (left it on my nightstand after downloading the app). This morning I used it at work, checking skyscape a few times and checking my e-mail a couple times, as well as making 3 or 4 more calls. I used bluetooth a couple times for about 10 minutes total, but did leave the bluetooth off the rest of the time. Tonight at a friends house I was showing off the phone for several minutes, including watching several min of video at max brightness and volume. I just got home and I still have about 20% battery left on the phone, after being off the charger about 38 hours and with all that use.
My wife's phone has lasted 36+ hours without charging also.
Are these phones freaks of nature? Were they activated on an ancient indian burian ground?