Help Battery question

[theperson14]

So I've had my S3 for a few days and I've been trying to optimize my battery life. So far it's been decent (today I got 11 and a half hours with some heavy usage) but it's not as good as what some other people here are getting. Also, after seeing some other people's battery stat screenshots, it seems like either the screen or cell standby should be using up the most battery, but on my phone the android system is using 52% compared to the screen which is using only 14%. I've already gone through every app that requires some sort of sync and have either turned off sync completely or limited it so I'm not sure what's causing this. Does anyone have any solutions for this?

 

[SUroot]

Define "heavy"

 

[jamiethemac]

I installed Juice Defender Ultimate and it's made a real difference to my battery life.

 

[Funnyusername]

The bottom line is no one has a really understanding of what people mean when they say "heavy" or "medium" usage. You will read a post that says a user got 23 hours of heavy usage. Well, their definition of heavy is probably different then everyone else.

To me, that is a inaccurate way to judge the battery life of your phone. What you want to do is make the phone work for your needs. At the end of the day, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If your going to be using the phone for "heavy" usage, your time sounds about right. I get about double that on my phone, but I am not using it like you probably are.

If you want the phone to last you through the day, we can help you with as many tops and tricks as you want. But reality is that you probably are going to have to look into charging and carrying around a second battery. In theory, having two charged batteries every day should get you about 22 hours.

Every night when you go to sleep, plug in the extra battery and plug in your phone. Wake up, grab the battery and take the phone. Boom. You just doubled your battery life everyday.

 

[Hogan773]

The bottom line is no one has a really understanding of what people mean when they say "heavy" or "medium" usage. You will read a post that says a user got 23 hours of heavy usage. Well, their definition of heavy is probably different then everyone else.

To me, that is a inaccurate way to judge the battery life of your phone. What you want to do is make the phone work for your needs. At the end of the day, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If your going to be using the phone for "heavy" usage, your time sounds about right. I get about double that on my phone, but I am not using it like you probably are.

If you want the phone to last you through the day, we can help you with as many tops and tricks as you want. But reality is that you probably are going to have to look into charging and carrying around a second battery. In theory, having two charged batteries every day should get you about 22 hours.

Every night when you go to sleep, plug in the extra battery and plug in your phone. Wake up, grab the battery and take the phone. Boom. You just doubled your battery life everyday.

Yep I agree - first thing people should do is OPTIMIZE their settings so they are minimizing drain at IDLE for sure, and you can also turn down screen brightness to help when you actually use the phone since the screen is the biggest drainer. Beyond that, unfortunately when you USE the phone you are using (lots) of battery due to the screen, so if you are constantly using it you're going to get shorter life during any given day. For me, having a charger nearby solves most situations since I am not a heavy user and for those days that I am, I am usually near an electrical outlet at some point. The Sammy 1 amp charger should theoretically add about 25% battery every half hour, or almost 1% per MINUTE, so even little juice-up sessions can help.

 

[Jeepmaster]

I've used juice defender, better battery saver, and 2x battery. The one that seems to work for me without problems is 2x battery. Also I use Tasker to turn off wifi/Data when I'm playing games.

 

[theperson14]

The battery life itself isn't actually too much of a problem for me. With the time I'm getting I usually don't have to worry about it until my day is pretty much over. I was more curious about whether or not is was strange that "android system" used such a large percentage of my battery whereas for most people it seems to be a pretty small factor compared to "screen" or "cell standby." I went through one of the battery life threads from a few pages back and I couldn't find anyone with similar battery usage percentages.

 

[Rolo42]

It sounds like someone needs to write a battery guide.

Post screenshots of your usage; we need a complete picture of tangible measurables to help. "52%" is relative to the other 48% and may be normal depending on what you are doing (but I would look into that one further).

 

[theperson14]

I'll post some screenshots later today after a full day's use.

 

[theperson14]

Here are my screenshots:

As someone said before, the screen should be the biggest drainer of battery, but in my case the battery drained by the screen doesn't even come close to the battery drained by "android system." These screen shots are from today with much lighter use than from my original post. Yesterday I had over 4 hours of screen time with a few downloads from the play store, some music streaming, and games. Today I had significantly less screen time with only some texting, light web browsing, and a few minutes of gaming, yet the battery doesn't seem to be lasting any longer and my battery usage percentages look almost identical. Is this a problem?

 

[vandadroid]

It sounds like someone needs to write a battery guide.

Post screenshots of your usage; we need a complete picture of tangible measurables to help. "52%" is relative to the other 48% and may be normal depending on what you are doing (but I would look into that one further).

I think this is good Battery Life 101 Handling batteries / #batteries #howtouse #101

Also, I think the only good way to really help your battery life is to keep your screen brightness level on lowest all the time. Widgets allow that, I think. All the other apps that drain battery can be controlled by task killers

 

[Rolo42]

All the other apps that drain battery can be controlled by task killers

Fighting the OS isn't a good idea and mostly causes increased battery drain. If you have a renegade app, that's another story.

re: screenshot.
- What's up with the mobile signal? (What does red mean and will it throw an app into a tizzy?)
- What does clicking on Android System reveal? (list of apps, CPU time)
- Better Battery Stats will give you a more detailed breakdown (get it from from xda thread)

 

[jerofld]

Red signal is bad, especially if you're on a CDMA carrier (Verizon, Sprint, etc). CDMA technology will apply more power to the transceiver to try to improve signal strength if it is weak. It's an significant amount of battery usage, too.

 

[Hogan773]

Fighting the OS isn't a good idea and mostly causes increased battery drain. If you have a renegade app, that's another story.

re: screenshot.
- What's up with the mobile signal? (What does red mean and will it throw an app into a tizzy?)
- What does clicking on Android System reveal? (list of apps, CPU time)
- Better Battery Stats will give you a more detailed breakdown (get it from from xda thread)

YES - STOP USING TASK KILLERS!

If you want a free version of BBS, get GSAM Battery, it's similar. Yes I am cheap

 

[Serdroid12]

Red signal is bad, especially if you're on a CDMA carrier (Verizon, Sprint, etc). CDMA technology will apply more power to the transceiver to try to improve signal strength if it is weak. It's an significant amount of battery usage, too.

Yea... agree. I'm on sprint and my signal inside buildings is horrendous. I'm at work right now and have a tiny dot as my signal. A dot. Not a bar.

It sucks

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