battery life tips

[DCUltrapro]

Hey guys,

Ok so I searched for battery life and Battery Life Tips but couldn't find anything that gave helpful info about things you can do to make sure you get the best performance out of your Desire HD.

I have a bog standard battery that came with the phone and I must not have trained it properly because I've had it a year and it now doesn't last through the night.

I could normally go to bed with it fully charged and it would still have 80% or more of the battery but last night I went to bed at about midnight, it had 85% battery and I woke up this morning at about 8.45am to fiind it was dead!!

Needless to say I've bought a new battery thats apparently a 1600mAh battery but I am not expecting miracles as it only cost me

 

[D-U-R-X]

Your best bet is turning off things like auto-syncing/background syncing - you can set up so that it only syncs when you tell it to.

I'd also turn off WIFI when you're not in within range of one of your WIFI connections (and 3G when you are within range of one of your WIFI connections).

I will try and link you to some more stuff when I get in... haven't got time right now... there's too much stuff on the go @ work.

 

[DCUltrapro]

thanks man, I do only ever use wifi when I'm needing to download something big or want to watch something on youtube for example.

I use Advanced Task Killer to make sure when I back out of a game its not running in the background

How do I set it up so that the syncing only happens when you want it to? I can turn background data off etc but I don't know how you would customise the settings. I've checked and seen the settings for sync-ing etc and there is one for turning off/on auto sync-ing and then theres an option to turn off/on background data, but nothing about scheduling it etc.

I've also checked in my mobile network settings and I have the option for the following:

Data Roaming on/off (I never use it)
Network Mode (GSM/WCDMA, doesn't mention 3g)
Enable always-on mobile data on/off (its currently on)

I don't see an option about 3g

any other ways people can think of to maximise battery life?

I'd also like to know the recommended way to train the battery when you first start to use it if anyone knows the best way? thanks

Also is there an app I can get that shows the performance of the battery? someone had a pretty nice looking graph that showed the battery usage and how long it had ran for?

 

[D-U-R-X]

As I see you've mentioned a Task Killer, I thought I'd link you to a thread that details useful apps for the DHD and has a whole thing at the start on not using Task Killers (click me).

I'll try and dig some more stuff out for you on this subject when I get in from work!!

 

[DCUltrapro]

thanks again mate, I might take that under advisement and stop using task killer, although sometimes the machine does seem to really slowdown which is a pig when I'm trying to scroll up or down something like gallery or txt conversations and it seems to freeze.

if anyones interested about why not to use the task killers heres the link

Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

I found it an interesting read... things seem to be getting more complicated than not!!

I had another question, if going forward I no longer use a task killer, how can you efficiently close battery hogs like games? not all of them have the option to EXIT such as Angry Birds, games like that you just "BACK OUT" of them with the back arrow and they remain open in the background... other than going into the android applications menu and manually closing each individual app is there any other way....?

 

[D-U-R-X]

Having had time to check for info for you, I found something over in the SGS II forums that I thought seemed like food for thought...

my 10p's worth...

1. don't use a rom below 2.3.4. (2.3.3 battery life was dire). most custom roms have all the sammy bloatware removed, so a custom rom is def the way to go. i've only ever tried villainrom and checkrom v4, and checkrom is def the way to go.

2. juice defender app. works for some, not others. works for me

3. keep screen brightness down as much as you can. i keep mine at around 20%, not *too* dark, but still nice.

4. don't use bright wallpaper, icons etc (ie, lots of white). dark is more sexy anyroads. live wallpaper can be a battery crusher too, although the less complex ones (numerous ICS clones) can be less draining than say santa riding his sleigh through a snowstorm on your homescreen etc..etc!

5. turn off data/wifi when not in use. either install jkay settings to set a data toggle on your notifications screen, or install an app like extended controls to set a data toggle widget. if you need to keep data on, and are in a 2G network area only, in mobile network settings>network mode, set it to GSM only.

6. install betterbatterystats to see what's going on in the background. it'll highlight what apps, services are consuming battery, wakelocks etc.

7. install titanium backup to freeze apps that suck resources. if you're on a stock rom, this is a must, not so much for a custom rom as a lot of the offending bloatware has been removed.

8. flash a decent kernel. siyah always works for me, and just keeps getting better and better with every new version.

9. install 3g watchdog pro. this will show you what apps are consuming the most data, and in turn, usually hinder battery life. i installed the sky news app and didn't realise it was set to check news in the background every hour, by default. it ate battery and data until watchdog pro detected it.

10. keep widgets to a minimum. only use ones you *really* need. if you have social network, news, or weather widgets, they normally consume a lot of battery due to being constantly updated. if you do *need* them, adjust the update interval to something less aggressive.

In addition to Simes great pointers above, I would like to add the following.

There are basically 2 areas to focus your attentions to on battery life.
1. For when your screen is on
2. When your screen is off.

Obvious eh? But just think about this for just a second...
* The screen is THE biggest battery drainer there is. Full stop. Its one of the pitfalls of having such a good one!
* The most used state of your phone is when its on idle.

Therefore, if you can make inroads into improving the efficiency of your phone in one or ideally both of these states, then you will be enjoying your phone for much longer periods between charges.

Screen-on battery saving tips:
1. Turn off live wallpaper.
2. Use the auto-brightness setting for your display. (menu>settings>display>brightness>automatic brightness)
3. turn off dynamic screen mode. Use movie or standard (menu>settings>display>screen mode)
4. set your screen timeout to as short as possible without it becoming annoying. I set mine to 30 seconds.
5. menu>settings>display>touch key light duration. Set to 1.5 seconds. Believe it or not, these LEDs use a LOT of power. Some people say they do not, but they really DO. If you have BLN, send yourself a message so the LEDs stay on, and look at the battery usage graph a few hours later and see how it plummets.

Screen off battery saving tips
1. Scrutinize the applications you have installed. Think about what they actually do. Do they need to grab information periodically? If so, do you need the app in the first place? If not remove it. If you do, find out if you can define the period/frequency at which it grabs its data, and set it to as long a period as possible without spoiling the usefulness of the app itself.
2. Dont clutter you homescreens with scores of widgets. Only keep what you actually need. If you have a widget on there that you dont really use, remove it.
3. Almost everyone seems to have a weather widget. I use Fancy Widgets for this. I set this to update once per hour, but this can be turned off completely overnight. Many other weather widgets do not have this switch-off feature. It DOES make a difference!
4. Check your battery useage with betterbatterystats. Look for any Partial Wakelocks. Are there any processes that are taking a lot of CPU that perhaps shouldnt be? If so, identify the app and if you dont really want it, remove it.
5. Check your CPU states using CPU Spy. Overnight you should get around 97% deep sleep barring too much internet-based apps requiring data.
6. I dont bother switching data/wifi/gps off overnight. As long as you dont have too many of these wakelocks overnight, there wont be much of a hit battery wise
7. Dont turn your router off overnight!!!! You will use far more battery when your handset cannot find your wifi as it attempts to reconnect. Also, data battery drain is more than wifi battery drain, so therefore any overnight data downloads due to no wifi connection would make a big impact on both your data usage allowance, AND battery. If your insist on turning off your router, then I would advise you switch off wifi AND data on your handset.
8. Make sure you are on the latest Google Maps. Some older versions have a NetworkLocatorPassiveCollector wakelock bug.
9. Check your running services for any you dont need. Settings>applications>running services. Apps like NoLED will drain your battery, not only when its displaying an "LED" on the screen, but just by running in the background. If your rooted, then BLN will use battery, but not as much as NoLED (just to run). Remember, anything running on your hanset needs power, whether it is something you see running on your screen, of if it's running hidden in the background. So for this reason, be aware of applications such as JuiceDefender and similar. If your phone is already in an optimal state, then such apps will have a negative impact on your battery.
10. Before you leave your handset overnight, go into Task Manager and exit all running apps. Reason being, for example, you may have an internet session open that automatically updates, and this will take a big hit on your overnight drain.

Tips for rooted users
1. Use Voltage Control to tweak your CPU+GPU voltages. These settings will be almost unique to your particular handset in a way, so it can be very much a trail and error thing. Tweak as much as you can out of it without the dreaded screen freeze.
2. If you use BLN and are on the paid app, disable BLN overnight (for reasons stated in point 5 in the first section above. If your on the free app, limit the LEDs to stay on for a max of 1 or 2 hours.
3. Try different kernels. Find out which one suits you best. Siyah and NEAK are the best for me by a country mile. Both are extremely smooth. However, for me (and I stress me!) I find NEAK to be almost twice as good as Siyah with regard to overnight battery drain. I strive to get approx 0.5% battery drain per hour overnight. This is my yardstick. Overnight drain is the only way I can accurately see how my battery is coping, as this overnight state is pretty much a constant, unlike the randomness of battery drain during actual use. I used to get 0.5% per hour with older version of Siyah, but the more recent ones, although super smooth compared to the older versions, I get more like 0.8% - 1%.

People tend to dismiss the GS2 too quickly with regards to battery, writing it off as a resource hog. Its just not true. As long as your sensible you can keep your battery going for far longer than the doom and gloom merchants claim.

 

[DCUltrapro]

thanks for all that info man, I downloaded Better battery stats but don't really understand some of the stats it can give like kernals and overlocks, none of that means much to me but it looks as though the "awake", "screen on" and Bluetooth are my biggest battery hogs.

in addition to finding out good ways to REDUCE battery usage I also wanted to know if anyone has tips for how to properly USE the battery itself, as in how you train it to get the longest charge possible out of it.

For instance do you drain it to zero the first few times you charge it? Should you leave it on charge over night or not? Obviously the phone only takes about 1 hour or so to charge but is then left plugged in for the rest of the night, maybe there is a way to setup an alarm to notify me when its charged so I can unplug it?

I've made the following changes/amendments to my phone and habbits etc

Turned off back ground data
only ever use wifi when I need to make large downloads
only go on the internet if I have wifi availalbe (unless there is an emergency)
removed Advanced Task killer
removed my youtube widget
screen timeout is now 30 seconds and I pushed the screen lock back to 3 mins
brightness is down to about 20%
removed some animations
stopped keys from vibrating
removed quite a few apps etc
I will now actively go into the android app management and stop any apps that continue to run after I exit them such as games etc


I dont appear to have an obvious option for 3g, how do I deactivate it etc?

also I use the app that allows me to use smaller icons on my screens, called Multicon, is that something I should consider not using or is it not a big deal? I have 2 large widgets from that and 1 small one.


Thanks again mate for all the info so far, any tips on how to successfully train the battery to get a long CHARGE would be very welcome!


oh and if theres an app or option that will make my phone alert me when its charged that would be great as I can't seem to find it so far

 

[DCUltrapro]

ok I found something regarding the conditioning of the battery for my phone, here is what I found:

Tip: Condition your new cell phone’s battery to make it last longer (but be sure to condition it properly) | dotTech

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Lithium-Ion - Li-ion batteries are the newer type of battery that are found it most newer cell phones (most definitely most, if not all, smartphones use Li-ion and many "dumbphones" use them too now). Li-ion can be thought of as "smarter" than NiCad batteries; Li-ion batteries don't suffer from the "memory effect" and thus don't need to be conditioned like NiCad batteries.
Rather, to condition a new Li-ion battery, fully charge it; it should be allowed to charge for 7-8 hours on the first, initial charge. In other words, when you get your new cell phone - and it has a Li-ion battery - allow it to charge for 7-8 hours even if the cell phone claims to be fully charged. (It is preferable to use outlet charger vs car charger or USB charging via computer because of the voltage difference.) After that, there is no reconditioning necessary for Li-ion batteries since they don't suffer from the "memory effect". However, be sure to avoid fully draining/discharging the Li-ion battery as much as possible; every time a Li-ion battery is fully discharged, it loses battery power and life. (That doesn't mean your battery will die if it is ever fully discharged; it means it is best to avoid fully discharging when possible.) Try to recharge Li-ion batteries when they are at 15-25%. Similarly, avoid heat as much as possible and when (if) storing Li-ion batteries, store them not at full charge.

Update: The only time you should ever intentionally fully discharge a Li-ion battery is if your phone is not properly reading the battery. In other words, if you go from 100% -> 90% in ten minutes but go from 90% -> 80% in one hour with the same amount of usage, that means your phone is not reading the battery output evenly. If this is the case, then fully discharging your battery once and then recharging it can fix the issue of your phone not reading the battery properly. Take note, however, this full discharge/recharge won't increase your battery life -- it will only ensure your phone reads the battery properly.

People often confuse Li-ion and NiCad batteries and try to condition Li-ion batteries by charging/discharging them 4-6 times. Trying to condition a Li-ion battery like it is a NiCad battery (i.e. charging/discharging the Li-ion battery 4-6 times) hurts the Li-ion battery more than helps it. So, be sure to condition your new cell phone's battery, but be sure to condition it properly. Otherwise, you may be doing more harm than good. If you are not sure what type of battery you have, read the labels on the battery - they will always say whether the battery is Lithium-ion or Nickel-cadmium. Good luck and may we all have long lasting batteries =D.

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ok so that looks good, so then my only question about the battery is this: can the HTC Desire HD Lithium-Ion battery be "Over-charged" and if so will it be damaged or is it a smart one that will just stop when its full? If it CAN be overcharged I will need some kind of app that gives me an alarm when its full as my phone doesn't seem to do it automatically, can anyone recommend such an app for me? thanks


thanks


EDIT!!

Another thing I noticed that I forgot to mention is that, recently, the battery meter from HTC would say its charging, and when it got to about 70% the number would not normally go up any higher and then it would just simply jump to 100%, does this perhaps mean that the phone thinks the battery is full and isn't charging it fully? I have bought a new one now and will follow the tips above but I would like to be able to unplug the phone when its full but I need an app to notify me, if anyone knows of one please let me know! thanks

 

[Xyro]

A pretty interesting article came out about battery life recently: Free apps eat up your phone battery just sending ads - tech - 18 March 2012 - New Scientist

STRUGGLING to make your smartphone battery last the whole day? Paying for your apps might help. Up to 75 per cent of the energy used by free versions of Android apps is spent serving up ads or tracking and uploading user data: running just one app could drain your battery in around 90 minutes.

Abhinav Pathak, a computer scientist at Purdue University, Indiana, and colleagues made the discovery after developing software to analyse apps' energy usage. When they looked at popular apps such as Angry Birds, Free Chess and NYTimes they found that only 10 to 30 per cent of the energy was spent powering the app's core function.

For example, in Angry Birds only 20 per cent is used to display and run the game, while 45 per cent is spent finding and uploading the user's location with GPS then downloading location-appropriate ads over a 3G connection. The 3G connection stays open for around 10 seconds, even if data transmission is complete, and this "tail energy" consumes another 28 per cent of the app's energy. Pathak blames the energy leakage on inefficiencies in the third-party code that developers use to generate profit on free apps. He will present the research at the EuroSys conference in Bern, Switzerland, next month.

ok so that looks good, so then my only question about the battery is this: can the HTC Desire HD Lithium-Ion battery be "Over-charged" and if so will it be damaged or is it a smart one that will just stop when its full? If it CAN be overcharged I will need some kind of app that gives me an alarm when its full as my phone doesn't seem to do it automatically, can anyone recommend such an app for me? thanks

The DHD will not charge your battery past 100%, it will stop charging once that happens even if left plugged in. It will actually then allow the phone to drop a few percentage in charge before kicking in again to get it back to 100%, as this is less harsh to the battery than trickle charging at 100% constantly. That's true for all android phones, apparently.

 

[DCUltrapro]

The DHD will not charge your battery past 100%, it will stop charging once that happens even if left plugged in. It will actually then allow the phone to drop a few percentage in charge before kicking in again to get it back to 100%, as this is less harsh to the battery than trickle charging at 100% constantly. That's true for all android phones, apparently.

ok cool so by that logic I can leave my phone to charge over night and it won't adversely effect the battery life/performance right?

I just want to get the best charge time out of the battery that I can. I rarely play games lately on my phone but I know what you mean, there are always ads in apps like Angry Birds and zombie dash but you can't pay for some of them, again such as Angry Birds etc... but I am taking steps to improve battery life going forward

 

[D-U-R-X]

ok cool so by that logic I can leave my phone to charge over night and it won't adversely effect the battery life/performance right?

I'm in and out of meetings at work today, but just saw this and wanted to comment... I leave mine on charge over night and have never had an issue with it.

 

[DCUltrapro]

I'm in and out of meetings at work today, but just saw this and wanted to comment... I leave mine on charge over night and have never had an issue with it.

no sweat mate, thanks, no rush on the replies its not life or death

I think I've got what I need now, I now know that the battery won't over-charge, that the app killers are worthless and that I have to perform the kind of functions I listed above/earlier to minimize battery consumption and that, in theory Li-ion batteries don't need much in the way of conditioning other than to fully charge for the first time and that you shouldn't let it run down to zero unless unavoidable. I'm looking forward to testing out my new 1600mAh battery.

Will let you all know how well it performs and if I get a good charge out of it.


Thanks again guys

 

[Xyro]

ok cool so by that logic I can leave my phone to charge over night and it won't adversely effect the battery life/performance right?

Yeah, I have left it on over night more than a few times and it has been fine.

 

[CDPlant]

I put mine on charge every night (even if its still on 90%) and I haven't noticed a change in my battery... it was rubbish to start with

 

[D-U-R-X]

Just found another article on what could affect battery consumption/battery life.

 

[Netherdragon]

in my opinion there is only so much you can do with the desire HD's battery life.

Im frankly shocked at the battery life I get from it after 2 years of use.

I have reacently had the need to use it as a 3g wifi hotspot quite a bit and I can take it from 100% to flat in about 2.5 hours in this mode...

I know its getting on a bit now and the hotspot feature isn't the most energy efficient way of doing things but come on...

eagerly awaiting something new to peak my interest. Something with a bigger battery is top of my list now. and maybe a tegra 3, love that processor in my prime.

 

[phandroid27]

You can also use something like Battery Save Junky....

 

[JohnDF1]

I use trend micro longevity beta app - has a handy setting of "just a phone mode" which effectively turns the lot off other than 2g for calls and text. Also has alerts for
- Apps that hog power
- fully charged alert
- fast drain alert
- low power alert

Its optimise function can be set to maximise battery life by turning off apps running that aren't being used and its "power hogs" screen shows clearer detail of each apps battery usage than the HTC supplied one. It has a clear battery status screen which can show either time left of battery or the % of power left. Also converts to how much time to fully charged when charging.

Using this app and the widgets for screen rightness, 3G , WiFi for toggling them on or off dependent on need means I get a good 24 -36hr of battery life per charge. I use the 1800 mAh Andida Li-ION battery which a few of us bought last year. I tend to leave the phone charging over night when needing a top-up