Help Samsung Galaxy S II - Battery Issues

[Amer786]

I am sure many of you have had issues with Battery life on the SGII Skyrocket - I have too.

I currently have a SGII Skyrocket (I727R) locked to Rogers and is unrooted.

I got this phone over the weekend - upgraded from the SG. So the Skyrocket is giving me horrible battery life discharging at a rate of 6%/hour with me doing really nothing on the phone. I had JuiceDefender installed but it did not seem to help.

So here is what I have done:

1.Factory Restored the the phone

2. Turned off all wifi/data/synching/pgs/mobile data settings/gps/background data/auto synching - bascially I am just using this as a phone now

3. Displayed dimmed to lowest setting (I am indoors right now so not an issue)

4. Screen timehout to 15s (shortest time)

5. Used out of the box wallpaper

6. No apps installed except those out of the box.

I did this at 11am EST. At 12:12 EST (now) the battery level (About Phone--> Status --> Battery Level) is 99%.

I am going to slowly bring back services one at a time to see what is chewing up battery.

Any suggestions as what service to bring back next? I will post results here as I go.

 

[Mr. Ed]

I am sure many of you have had issues with Battery life on the SGII Skyrocket - I have too.

I currently have a SGII Skyrocket (I727R) locked to Rogers and is unrooted.

I got this phone over the weekend - upgraded from the SG. So the Skyrocket is giving me horrible battery life discharging at a rate of 6%/hour with me doing really nothing on the phone. I had JuiceDefender installed but it did not seem to help.

So here is what I have done:

1.Factory Restored the the phone

2. Turned off all wifi/data/synching/pgs/mobile data settings/gps/background data/auto synching - bascially I am just using this as a phone now

3. Displayed dimmed to lowest setting (I am indoors right now so not an issue)

4. Screen timehout to 15s (shortest time)

5. Used out of the box wallpaper

6. No apps installed except those out of the box.

I did this at 11am EST. At 12:12 EST (now) the battery level (About Phone--> Status --> Battery Level) is 99%.

I am going to slowly bring back services one at a time to see what is chewing up battery.

Any suggestions as what service to bring back next? I will post results here as I go.

You are doing things exactly how you should so far. (though I will say one can NEVER judge battery life based off of the first few days of use, it's typically going to see it's heaviest use during that time with set up, exploring)

Keep a close eye on each app you install, leaving several hours before installing another app.

Over the weekend did you happen to have facebook installed? (by default it syncs frequently)


We have an ongoing thread going for Battery life issues/suggestions, but for the time being I would like to leave your post here in hopes that you update us as you install apps and hunt for what does and does not kill the battery.

some other key things I have noticed..widgets eat battery. They display info that has to be synced pretty regularly to stay current. I deleted widgets that I do not need/find useful

 

[Amer786]

2:08pm EST 3 hours later and at 96% battery power 4% in 3 hours...not bad. I will be bringing wifi online now since I am at work.

 

[Amer786]

4:15 EST - 5H 15m since unplugged

2 Hours on wifi with everything else shut off.
Battery down to 91% from 96% = 5%

5.25hours for 9% battary decrease = .58% / hour

I have now shut off wifi and enabled packet data for 4G access.

 

[Amer786]

6pm EST Battery is 84% so 91-84 = 7% in 1.75 hours or 4%/hour. I recevied a 5 minute phone call during this period and sent 3 txts.

Now I just turned on Background Data and Auto Sync using 3G/3G
I have K9-mail running checking set to check email every 15 minutes
I have Gmail on Auto sync as well.

 

[Amer786]

7:15p EST Battery down to 77% or 84-77 = 7% in 1.25 hours or 5.6%/hour This is by far the highest rate of battery discharged. I was on the phone about 10 minutes during this period.

I am going to leave the sync and data setting the same and switch to wifi now (and turn 3G/4G (poff). Lets see what effect it has.

 

[Amer786]

It is 8:30pm EST now and the batter is down to 72%, so that is 77-72 = 5% in 1.25 hours or 4%/hour.

I am now turning on GPS in additon to the above setting over wifi.

 

[Amer786]

It is 9:30pm EST now and the battery is down to 69%, so that is 72-69 = 3% in 1 hour

I will be summarizing my findings shortly but it looks like having 3G/4G on and syncing at the same time really drains battery.

 

[Mr. Ed]

During that given time yes....once you are done with this test i say extend your time period by 1-2 hours and compare data, then again at 6 hours

 

[Amer786]

Using what settings

 

[Midiman]

some other key things I have noticed..widgets eat battery. They display info that has to be synced pretty regularly to stay current. I deleted widgets that I do not need/find useful

This one was big for me. I loved the concept and tossed lots of home screen icons into folders to leave more home screens open for widgets. Mistake. Now I have one that displays my agenda, the weather one that came with the phone but I disabled its auto sync and push the sync button in the low right corner before going out. That's about it. Lovely but costly.

 

[Midiman]

It is 8:30pm EST now and the batter is down to 72%, so that is 77-72 = 5% in 1.25 hours or 4%/hour.

I am now turning on GPS in additon to the above setting over wifi.

I rarely use either so I leave them off unless I need them. I use a settings widget on one screen which lets me enable either with a single touch... plus bluetooth, access to screen brightness, settings, etc. Very handy.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Using what settings

Sync on, GPS on

Wifi run on

Wifi run with it off

This is your test tho! You are doing great so far!!!

 

[wendellp601]

I rarely use either so I leave them off unless I need them. I use a settings widget on one screen which lets me enable either with a single touch... plus bluetooth, access to screen brightness, settings, etc. Very handy.

Like Midiman, I only turn on bluetooth and GPS when I need them.
I use a Tasker profile that turns on GPS when I launch an app that needs it.
It turns GPS off when I exit the app.

Same thing when I get in the car and launch "Car Mode".
Wifi turns off and bluetooth turns on.

 

[BillCosby]

Yea the battery sucks. I don't know if it's gotten worse recently since I let it go down below 20% (heard you shouldn't do that) or if it just seems that way. I have to charge it everyday. I charged it yesterday night and didn't use it at all until this morning just to check the time. I had Wi-fi turned off. Since this morning I've sent about 5 text messages and it's down to around 82%. It's barely been used. If I had actually used the browser and played a few games I'm sure it would be around 50% or less.

 

[Mr. Ed]

I have literally never found an android phone I did not have to charge every day. Granted I use my phone heavily....I just don't believe it exists.

I can turn off data when not in use and toggle it when needed and squeeze maybe 24-36 hours out of it bit I am a firm believer that phones that are used just are not going to give the battery life some are looking for.


My wife consistently gets 20hrs out of her skyrocket. I am on my second battery today since 10am. Its 3pm and I have 60% left

 

[eosman]

For me, its the background data, auto sync, wifi and gps that kills the phone. Also where my home office is I get one bar of signal which doesn't help things either. I'm going to have to order another battery.

 

[Midiman]

I dunno. I have background data, auto sync, and WiFi on. I have WiFi set to sleep when the screen is off and I only auto sync email. No GPS. Here I am at something like 34 hours. Completely stock phone. No fancy battery/power apps, Power saving mode turned off, and screen set to about 50% brightness.

Like I've said in other posts on the subject, I treat the phone like a phone. Albeit, one that can do some pretty fancy stuff that I wouldn't normally be able to do while walking down the street. If I need to consume mass media, I have a 64G iTouch in the OTHER pocket for that. It doesn't make phone calls, my phone doesn't stream music/video. I don't mix business with pleasure. Essentially, I'm carrying two batteries. You might have to do the same if you consume as much media as I do. I just carry two batteries in different devices. If I'm home, I have 2 laptops and 4 desktops, two of which use dual 24" monitors. I don't sit at home twiddling my phone all day when I can see what I need to see on multiple large screens and large audio systems.

 

[Kkumgul]

My phone with out 3g gps wifi display at 0% drained off completely after 6h 30 min
Most battery consumed by display around 33% eventhough screen is on only for 16 min out of 6.30 hrs. I feel there may be known display issueswith sky rocket... Anyway innext 2 days i am gointo att warranty store for exchange lets see what happens...

I dunno. I have background data, auto sync, and WiFi on. I have WiFi set to sleep when the screen is off and I only auto sync email. No GPS. Here I am at something like 34 hours. Completely stock phone. No fancy battery/power apps, Power saving mode turned off, and screen set to about 50% brightness.

Like I've said in other posts on the subject, I treat the phone like a phone. Albeit, one that can do some pretty fancy stuff that I wouldn't normally be able to do while walking down the street. If I need to consume mass media, I have a 64G iTouch in the OTHER pocket for that. It doesn't make phone calls, my phone doesn't stream music/video. I don't mix business with pleasure. Essentially, I'm carrying two batteries. You might have to do the same if you consume as much media as I do. I just carry two batteries in different devices. If I'm home, I have 2 laptops and 4 desktops, two of which use dual 24" monitors. I don't sit at home twiddling my phone all day when I can see what I need to see on multiple large screens and large audio systems.

 

[Midiman]

Well... here I am at well over 2 days. What are you doing or not doing?

 

[eosman]

Hi Midiman, thanks for sharing your experience. I installed Juicedefender to regulate when my phone syncs for email every 30 min. I also have it turn off wifi/ mobile data when the phone is not in use. Just by doing that I can easily get 2 days out of the phone. I also don't have LTE where I am yet but that doesn't matter to me.

I am actually seriously considering getting an iTouch for having in my car for music.


How much talking do you do on your phone Midiman?

Well... here I am at well over 2 days. What are you doing or not doing?