They weren't joking about the battery.

[vincentp]

First day with this phone that I basically bought as an emergency replacement to my now dead OG Droid.

This battery is no joke. How do you guys do it? 4 hours with VERY minimal use, only 3g on, all possible background notifications turned off, screen at 10% brightness, no task killer. GPS, BT, auto brightness all off.

Battery is at 50%. My old phone would have been around 80% with heavier usage at this point in the day. Is there a break in period for this battery, or is it really just that awful?

 

[AustinTech]

That ain't typical. I get 12 hours with medium use, 4G on and poppin', screen brightness 100%, blah blah.

 

[woodworthjohnca]

I run with 3g only (CDMA Auto (PRL), gps on, wifi on, BT off, display on auto brightness...similar to you and I would be at about 90% in 4 hours with minimal use. In my case, battery use seems dominated by the display (or by phone at about 10%/hr) unless I am in an area where the radios are constantly searching. Actually, I was in Rochester, NY last week and my TB functioned normally allowing me to return to the hotel late at night after 14 to 20 hours with 40% battery remaining even after moderate use. So, there is something different about your phone and the question is what.

Have you downloaded any apps?
How frequently and what do you synch?
Have you tried a battery pull?

 

[nateap87]

The battery isn't an issue for me. But I did still buy a spare and external charger for 15 off eBay. Something's wrong with your phone, man.

 

[DroidSuks]

I miss my OG .. ;(


Damn thing was awesome!... dammit.

 

[vincentp]

I run with 3g only (CDMA Auto (PRL), gps on, wifi on, BT off, display on auto brightness...similar to you and I would be at about 90% in 4 hours with minimal use. In my case, battery use seems dominated by the display (or by phone at about 10%/hr) unless I am in an area where the radios are constantly searching. Actually, I was in Rochester, NY last week and my TB functioned normally allowing me to return to the hotel late at night after 14 to 20 hours with 40% battery remaining even after moderate use. So, there is something different about your phone and the question is what.

Have you downloaded any apps?
How frequently and what do you synch?
Have you tried a battery pull?

I've downloaded a couple of apps, but I don't keep automatic updates or sync on for anything really. Display is my biggest culprit, even at 10% and screen off most of the day, which leads me to believe that the battery is either defective or needs to break in. Remember this is only my first day of full use. I have not tried a battery pull yet. I'm going to give it a few days I guess.

 

[dm33]

First day with this phone that I basically bought as an emergency replacement to my now dead OG Droid.

This battery is no joke. How do you guys do it? 4 hours with VERY minimal use, only 3g on, all possible background notifications turned off, screen at 10% brightness, no task killer. GPS, BT, auto brightness all off.

Battery is at 50%. My old phone would have been around 80% with heavier usage at this point in the day. Is there a break in period for this battery, or is it really just that awful?

Thats not typical.

I'm not in a 4G area (yet), used my phone very little yesterday. After 14 hours off charge, it was still at 85%.

 

[vzwuser76]

First day with this phone that I basically bought as an emergency replacement to my now dead OG Droid.

This battery is no joke. How do you guys do it? 4 hours with VERY minimal use, only 3g on, all possible background notifications turned off, screen at 10% brightness, no task killer. GPS, BT, auto brightness all off.

Battery is at 50%. My old phone would have been around 80% with heavier usage at this point in the day. Is there a break in period for this battery, or is it really just that awful?

Just a quick question since you said this was your first day with the phone. Are you running it straight out of the box or did you charge it fully first. A lot of people don't do that and the battery does not come fully charged.

Even with it fully charged HTC phones do not charge fully without "bump charging". It's supposed to extend the life cycle of the battery. Basically it charges to 90%, then runs off battery till it reaches 80%, then charges to 90%, etc., etc. To bump charge you put the phone on the charger with the phone on & charge it until the LED changes to green, then take it off of the charger. Then turn the phone off & put it back on the charger until it the LED turns green again. Repeat until it goes to green immediatley when you put it back on the charger. This will also calibrate the battery meter. (My way around this is to use the external charger I got from Seidio, which charges it to 100% then trickle charges until removed, but that can shorten the amount of charges cycles you get out of the battery.)

Also, there may be a couple of reasons for heavy drain like this. Go to menu>settings>about phone>battery>battery use. That should tell you what is using the battery. You may have an app that isn't coded correctly or running in the background constantly and draining your battery.

Another thing is how good is the 3G signal you have. If it's spotty the radio in the phone is constantly looking for signal which drains the battery.

I have 2 batteries, stock & Seidio 1600mAh, both getting about the same runtime. Today, using the Seidio battery and with good signal (Network Extender) I am at 27 hours of up time with 4 1/2 hours of awake time and the battery showing a 23% charge. That's with phone calls taking 67%, display taking 11%, standby & idle each taking 7%, wifi taking 4%, & android OS & system each taking 2%.

That's with display set to 20-25% brightness, GPS on constantly & either wifi or 3G on constantly. I have my phone set to 3G only (ie no LTE) as I am not in an LTE covered area. My only syncs are HTC weather widget (every hour) & Gmail (once a day). When I'm on 3G it drains a little more but I can easily get through a day with it.

As far as the battery, yes they do take several charges to get up to their full capacity. If after several charge cycles, and if you don't find anything else draining your battery, you may want to try talking to Verizon tech support & have them troubleshoot or even get a replacement.

Hope that helps.

 

[WormDoes]

Battery isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. This was taken yesterday running everything in my signature.

This screenshot was with no 4G use btw

 

[vzwuser76]

Battery isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. This was taken yesterday running everything in my signature.

This screenshot was with no 4G use btw

That's awesome man. Are you rooted by chance. Mine is bone stock, so if you're not rooted or on an extended battery that puts mine to shame!

 

[DroidSuks]

That's awesome man. Are you rooted by chance. Mine is bone stock, so if you're not rooted or on an extended battery that puts mine to shame!

Drocap.... he's rooted... and his sig says so.

 

[neoterixx64]

I think he is also running the 1700 Mah battery, at least thats what it say in the sig. So he is gonna get a little extra juice from it.

I just ordered those today. Hopefully they come soon.

 

[woodworthjohnca]

It might also take a couple of charging cycles before the battery meter gets calibrated. Some people recommend, when you first get the phone, to discharge the phone to near zero and then charge overnight. Maybe do this a couple of times. This is not a good thing to do routinely but a couple of times early on it's okay. I did this early on with my phone. Generally I find my battery on the Thunderbolt to last just slightly shorter between charges than my BB Storm 2. I charge it every night and it has never left me hanging even with some 24 hour days.

 

[schmaltzy]

I'm in the same boat. With MINIMAL usage I went from 100% to 85% in 2 hours. The my phone was acting up so I shut it off and turned it back on. I was at 83% at shut down, booted up, and now the battery shows 70%. Had the phone for one week today, came from an D1. Really like the phone but this battery is killing me. Gonna swap it out for another TB this afternoon in case mine is defective.

 

[LoyalServant]

Bump charge it a few times.
This seems to train it somewhat... did for me.

 

[schmaltzy]

I'm gonna try the bump charging. I'm gonna go over the process as I think I read it, can you verify???

Plug phone in and charge to full.
Take off charger.
Power down and plug in until the green LED comes on.

At that point do I take it off the charger to power on?

 

[Viper505]

3-4 hours sounds like the Blockbuster app update issue. Mine came out of the box doing this and when I power off or reset the phone it continues to start the blockbuster update app PVMtpServiceStart. It may also show in battery usage, it did with my phone early on before I updated the blockbuster app and then disabled any updates within the blockbuster app and then kill the blockbuster app from "running programs" list. It now only seems to happen after a power off or reset cycle. I take no credit for finding this information as it is all over the forums if searched however I can confirm every time this crazy app starts it eats the battery within 3-4 hours. Also note I am typically in only a 3G area so 4G mileage may vary.

 

[BDBMike]

My advice:

-Adjust brightness
-Adjust synching
-Use LTE on/off
-Root and flash an undervolted kernel(WormDoes' set it is excellent)
-Use setCPU
-Use JuiceDefender
-Bump charge

I easily get an entire day(12-15hrs) with moderate use and still have juice left over. I usually go heavier on the usage the last few hours because 6-8 hrs into the day I still have well over 50%. While I wish the bolt did have better battery life I find it fun testing new ROMs/kernels to see which ones effect battery/performance the most.

 

[smoothoper]

Bump charge it a few times.
This seems to train it somewhat... did for me.

Bump charge a few times and you'll be a lot happier. Doubled my battery life.

 

[slinky]

Certainly weird. I've been using 4G cranked, heavy usage and I'm still at 74% three days later.

I'm just kidding. The battery is terrible. If you use 4G regularly, your'e finished. Most of the posts here talk about having 4G enabled but not necessarily in use, e.g. actively streaming data.

I've found that if you want to go a full day with medium usage without worrying about running to the charger, you must buy HTC's extended battery. A friend has the HTC version and another the Sprint - HTC's phones have notoriously underpowered batteries that come with the phone. Rooting is the only way to possibly eke out enough power to make it through the day. I've accepted that. Some won't. It is what it is. The upcoming 4G phones seem to have much higher capacity batteries as stock.