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Juice defender is awesome.

lightsout

Member
May 16, 2010
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I had used it with my droid x but got annoyed waiting for 3g to connect after every unlock.

Anyways my nexus has had pretty weak battery life, with 4g always off. By 4 (after work) I can have like 20% with moderate use. Its like a new phone with juice defender. I was at 80% when I got off work.

I'm loving it. It seems what is killing my battery so fast was the radio constantly trying to grab a signal. The area I work in can be hit and miss.

Anyways try it out if your having battery issues.
 
The problem for me is that I use Google Voice for my texting, which requires constant background data syncing since the texts come in through data. Doesn't JuiceDefender primarily work by only syncing every so often?

Yup and that is a weakness I found with it. I had it re-enable background data every 15 minutes but I'd have to disable it once I got into a conversation. The widget helps but is not a perfect solution.

I swore by it on my DX, it really helped. With the GNex as it is, I can miss an entire break waiting for the phone to reconnect when I power on the screen. I'm hoping once the long-awaited update is released, this will no longer be a problem.
 
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My biggest battery saver is Wifi. My battery will last 12-15 hours if I can stay connected to my wifi network at home. I had an issue with my router a week ago and for about 3 days my battery would only last for 5 hours. Just being connected to wifi is seriously giving me an extra 7 to 10 hours of life with normal use.

I've never tried juice defender though. If it kills background data it may not work for me either since I also use GV for text.
 
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Sorry for the noob question...
Will emails and such still come through on time? Or do I have to active the phone/screen again before that stuff will come through. I need my emails and texts in real time. Thanks all.

From what I'm reading they wouldn't come through instantly. The app turns off background data and only brings it back on during set intervals.
 
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I disliked Juice, not saying its bad though.

For me, it was as if it was just hiding the battery drain, not actually saving the battery. For example I do have spotty coverage at work. I would have the app running and after a full work day with light to moderate use, I would see that I lost only 5% battery or so.

But as soon as I would begin using it more frequently once I got out of work, the battery would drop rapidly about 15% - 20% more in a matter of minutes, as though the battery was already at that low percentage but juice was keeping the battery meter at the higher percentage.

This is only my experience, so do not take it as canon.
 
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My biggest battery saver is Wifi. My battery will last 12-15 hours if I can stay connected to my wifi network at home. I had an issue with my router a week ago and for about 3 days my battery would only last for 5 hours. Just being connected to wifi is seriously giving me an extra 7 to 10 hours of life with normal use.

I've never tried juice defender though. If it kills background data it may not work for me either since I also use GV for text.

This is similar to using juice defender. I get similar battery like on wifi.

OT, whts the point of using google voice for texting?
 
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I'm not sure what the polling rate is on the "balanced" mode, but I have never waited for a text or e-mail. If I'm texting or e-mailing someone and then put the phone in standby, you would think that I may not get a reply for awhile... but I get one almost immediately.

Juice Defender - with the extended battery - gave me about half again the battery life... the Plus version almost doubled it.
 
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Juice defender is basically saving battery by reducing the power to data radio (3G/4G) on standby. It works best if you are light to moderate user and don't use WiFi much. Otherwise it won't gain much extra juice. WiFi is big battery saver as well.

I only put free version on balanced mode set to refresh every 15 minutes. It's handy when I'm outside away from charger, Wifi for long time. I got about 40~50% extra time, more than enough to last a day. But I keep it disabled otherwise. When disabled, it's like it doesn't even exist on phone.
 
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Does the Plus version instantly improve battery life right out of the box? Or does it require some tinkering?

I didn't tinker with it at all (though you can)... I set it to default mode and away it went. Any time I take it out of standby, it instantly connects data so I can go right to work. I'm not sure how often it polls in standby, but it has to be quite often. I'm sure "aggressive" mode polls less, and "extreme" mode pretty much locks it down. I haven't tried those modes because (a) I don't need to and (b) I'M SCARED! :D
 
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I'm not sure what the polling rate is on the "balanced" mode, but I have never waited for a text or e-mail. If I'm texting or e-mailing someone and then put the phone in standby, you would think that I may not get a reply for awhile... but I get one almost immediately.

I just checked balanced mode is set to refresh every 15 minutes.

Maybe you were connected to Wifi? JD on balanced mode doesn't control Wifi on/off by default. so if you had WiFi connected, it will still receive emails as it comes. Calls, texts will always come through 1X regardless of JD.
 
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I just checked balanced mode is set to refresh every 15 minutes.

Maybe you were connected to Wifi? JD on balanced mode doesn't control Wifi on/off by default. so if you had WiFi connected, it will still receive emails as it comes. Calls, texts will always come through 1X regardless of JD.

No, Sandroidfan, I have Wifi but the Nexus is really finicky about connecting to it without my forcing it to. Has nothing to do with JD, that happened ever since I got the phone.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with JD+ as it is :)
 
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My biggest issue with JD is that it takes a long time for it to re-establish data connection when you wake it (or at least that was my experience).
When I used it on the MyTouch 4G, it took a long time to re-establish a data connection. I tried it again on the CDMA Galaxy Nexus, and it just didn't restore at all (minus a switch to airplane mode and back again).
 
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I tried it again on the CDMA Galaxy Nexus, and it just didn't restore at all (minus a switch to airplane mode and back again).

I had the same problem with the GNex. My DX restored connection so quickly it was almost unnoticeable.

It seems under the right circumstances JD can be awesome, but other times, not so much. I think it's like more of a phone/connection issue than a JD issue.
 
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I used it over the weekend and saw no difference. Then after reading these posts I realized that I'm on WiFi for my entire day other than my drive to and from work. Work has WiFi and home has WiFi, so that explains it.

On a negative note, I could not receive or send out MMS pics. Don't know why, but as soon as I deactivated JD my messages would send and come through. So, JD isn't for me.
 
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