Help Terrible battery life, firmware issue?

[ZeeToo]

The app I promised

Ok, I'm not going to have managed to get any further before my holiday..

I doubt this is any good for anyone, but I said I'd post it today and I might as well get some feedback now

The best I've gotten it to do is shut off WIFI when the phone's screen turns off, and turn WIFI on again when it comes back. I've accessed a lot of triggers and it can in theory do a lot more, but unfortunately I've run out of time...

I've been looking at tweaking the APNs so that it switches from full data to MMS only but whilst the app has permissions it's not updating the APNs atm and I don't have time to fix it yet.

Once I get back I'll finish it.

Sorry that the user interface is appalling and probably not what most people want but anyhow..

Well, that's annoying - you can't upload a .apk file as an attachment, sigh.

http://www.udecide.co.uk/tmp/DroidControl.apk

A few things you must know:

Firstly, it won't cleanly shut down, so taskiller (or something like that) will be needed to shut it down if/when you decide it's no good.

Secondly it's set to only change the WIFI state on DISABLED or ENABLED, if you lock and unlock the screen too quickly it'll miss it because it'll still be in the DISABLING or ENABLING state.

There is a little be of screen update debug if you have it displayed when the screen locks / unlocks.

Any comments / feedback will be appreciated, but I won't be able to reply for weeks, sorry.

If anyone tries it, let me know what you think of the notification status tray, I can make it configurable but I like knowing it's still running and it stops android killing it as easily.

ZeeToo.

 

[z0mbi3]

ZeeToo Would there be any benefit to having your app also toggle background data?

 

[ZeeToo]

See below.

 

[ZeeToo]

Some of the settings in Android 1.5 are not application alterable, all you can do is switch the settings screen to it

I'm not sure if background data is on that list or not (I keep finding deprecated statics where they've moved from a changeable property to a readonly one)..

Once I get back from hols I'll finish up the app to allow you to specify actions and triggers etc. So you can (if possible) update things like background data according to rules.

I've found the necessary features to do things like wake the phone up on a schedule, force the phone to sleep for X length of time, keep the phone awake if necessary.

I also found a pay for app called WiSyncPlus @ $3.65 which does a lot of what I hope to do eventually (there's a free WiSync version that just does sync on wifi on / off) but I plan to release mine for free when it's done (if people can wait )

ZeeToo.

P.S. Anyone had major issues accessing androidforums.com recently? Kept timing out trying to post this...

 

[AceStar]

The problem with testing battery life based on the battery life indicator on the device, as in many posts in this thread, is that it is not testing battery life at all, just the ability for the battery to report accurate percentage remaining. However, we know that due to the physics of these types of batteries, it isn't possible to get a reading of how much juice is left electronically. You can't shove a probe into the battery and test its chemical composition. It can only be estimated, and estimates can be wildly incorrect – which is why most devices only show a few bars as a battery indicator, not a percentage.



The thing is, estimating remaining battery based on voltage is susceptible to voltage droop caused by the way you are using the battery at the time. So if you discharge quickly, say, by taking 20 flash photos in a short time, the battery indicator may show much less battery life remaining than it really should given the amount of energy used, and if you continue using the device you may find that you get lots of use – nearly a full charge's worth, until it actually dies.


Long story short is that testing based on any battery usage indicator on the device is as accurate as testing whether your car needs refuelling by weighing the whole car. In the absense of a better way, what should be tested is the time from fully charging the battery until the battery shuts off because it is too low.


Also note that lithium ion batteries will perform best after a few recharge cycles, because they need to 'calibrate' themselves. In particular, the very first charge may yield only a very small battery life indeed - this is largely a safety mechanism; the battery needs to calibrate itself.


Now, with all that in mind, we need to get some sort of standardised testing method happening. All this is very anecdotal, until we know exactly which apps were running and what was enabled, and we know the full battery life between charging and running it down.

P.S. Anyone had major issues accessing androidforums.com recently? Kept timing out trying to post this...

Yes I was getting that earlier. Seems OK now to me.
.

 

[KlaymenDK]

AceStar, you seem to know what you're talking about. What we really need is not to know the amount of energy left, but rather the "current current drain" (that is, the amperage used at the moment) -- many old pda's could tell you this, but I wonder if Android has a system call for it...

 

[bitxboi]

AceStar, you seem to know what you're talking about. What we really need is not to know the amount of energy left, but rather the "current current drain" (that is, the amperage used at the moment) -- many old pda's could tell you this, but I wonder if Android has a system call for it...

I don't know but I would say it's more related to the battery technology (Li-Ion) than OS related. I believe you can only monitor voltage with Li-Ion batteries

 

[AceStar]

AceStar, you seem to know what you're talking about. What we really need is not to know the amount of energy left, but rather the "current current drain" (that is, the amperage used at the moment) -- many old pda's could tell you this, but I wonder if Android has a system call for it...

In other words, measure the current being drawn, in milliamps, over time? That would be cool, I don't know any devices that can do that. I doubt that Android or the phone could do that, but you never know...

 

[AceStar]

Just noticed this feature is coming soon in Android 1.6 (Donut):

Battery usage indicator
A new battery usage screen lets users see which apps and services are consuming battery power. If you notice that a particular app is using too much power, you can take action to save the battery by adjusting settings or by stopping or uninstalling the application.

source

Looks like it will be handy - here's hoping 1.6 comes to Samsung quickly, or someone backports that battery app to run on earlier Androids.

 

[bitxboi]

This is bad, I fully charged the battery last night, Only 2G, GPRS Disabled, No Sync, No Background Data and Killed All Apps with Taskiller before putting the phone on Flight Mode. The battery has drained from 100% to 67% overnight with no usage! How is the phone supposed to last for 350 hours?

P.S: I hope the battery usage indicator is not the only improvement battery-wise

 

[photon00]

I'm seriously dissapointed with the battery life. I'm currently running H7. I fully charged my phone and set Airplane mode ON. So that is no 3G, GPRS, WiFi not even mobile phone connection and the phone didn't last 2 days before depleting to zero. Makes me think I've got a faulty battery but with all the complaints I'm not so sure. I'm going to upgrade to H8 but have little faith that things will be much better. Would really like the phone but the battery life issue is a real show stopper!

 

[AceStar]

I've just been peeping into the HTC Hero forum and noticed that there were not nearly as many complaints about battery life there, and one person was reporting 50% remaining after 3 days.

Looks like the battery life on the Galaxy is severely impaired compared to the HTC phones for some reason or other, regardless of Galaxy firmware version.

I am now thinking that I won't get a Galaxy. Seems not worth it.
.

 

[Bozzy]

Actually Hero's battery life is shitty too, i was also researching this issue before i got my galaxy. Dig a little deeper and you will see.

 

[akanbi]

I've just been peeping into the HTC Hero forum and noticed that there were not nearly as many complaints about battery life there, and one person was reporting 50% remaining after 3 days.

Looks like the battery life on the Galaxy is severely impaired compared to the HTC phones for some reason or other, regardless of Galaxy firmware version.

I am now thinking that I won't get a Galaxy. Seems not worth it.
.

I think there needs to be some perspective on this.

- There are over 100,000 Galaxies sold in Europe and let's assume that as many as 1000 people have complained about terrible battery life, that would amount to around 1% of Galaxy owners.

- I had issues until I upgrade to the latest firmware and now I can get 2 days usage without turning off features (3G and auto sync).

- If you use any connected smart-phone today then the expectation on battery life is different. I have seen solutions to turn off 3G and auto sync just to get better battery life. Why not just get a regular 2G mobile phone.

- The software is the problem here and not the hardware, as all Android phones seem to have poor battery life. The software will be fixed (1.6 already has software to see which apps are sucking your battery life) and then you can enjoy your hardware.

- At the end of the day I believe how you use the phone and which apps you install determine how long you battery lasts on any phone.

I chose the Galaxy (came from iPhone 3G) because of: compact size, light weight, 5MP camera with flash, 1500mAh battery, and the potential of Android.

In a years time Android will have significantly improved and I'll still have a good spec phone. What's more concerning for me as a Galaxy owner is the lack of support from Samsung Mobile.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

^ this wins the thread tbh. historically all smartphones ive used when they first come out including the 1st XDA's had absolutely terrible battery lives and takes some getting used to at end user level to work out how to prolong the battery and use the phone efficiently. this is not a normal mobile phone and will not behave like one
on top of that you have the best phone screen on the market which is so bright im sure that has something to do with battery life also.

the only phones i know last a week without charging are blackberries. i dont know how they do it but they last for ages. so long i forget to charge for a week and its still going (but its turned the radio stack off).

even the 3 g blackberries have significantly shorter battery life to their 2g counterparts generally lasting only 3-4 days with extremely light use

 

[bisanu]

This is bad, I fully charged the battery last night, Only 2G, GPRS Disabled, No Sync, No Background Data and Killed All Apps with Taskiller before putting the phone on Flight Mode. The battery has drained from 100% to 67% overnight with no usage! How is the phone supposed to last for 350 hours?

P.S: I hope the battery usage indicator is not the only improvement battery-wise

Read what I wrote in the thread what is new ih 8, last post, it should help you

 

[bitxboi]

Read what I wrote in the thread what is new ih 8, last post, it should help you

I just read your post there, but I don't think the case is the problem. I only put it on the case when I need to carry my phone somewhere, but when I'm at home or at work, it's just as you say, without case and on a smooth surface...and the battery issue persists

 

[gie62001]

hey guys
huh im really struggling with the phone... the battery is just killing me. all i get from full charge is barelly 12hours and thats almost without any usage.
ok im working on 12hour shift and ive got 3breaks thats the time im using my galaxy so more less about an hour in 12 hours and the rest of time it stays in the locker.so when i put it in the locker i switch everythning off with task killer and switch off 3g with APNdroid. so basically it shouldn't be using almost any battery at all. but on my last break battery is almost less than half, say 43% or so. and until i finish my work its only about 20% left so by the time i get home its on red already.
i love the phone but the battery is just ridiculous. im on H8 firmware and did factory reset and stuff and the battery improved as i wasnt able to get 12hours of standby with FF firmware
so all i want is 3days out of it with the the same/similar usage as im getting tired to charge it every day when i get back from work.
dont know what to do eithet to give up galaxy, just dont want to as i love the phone but if its not dealt with soon i have to say i'll have no choice.
thanx guys for all the support

 

[bisanu]

I just read your post there, but I don't think the case is the problem. I only put it on the case when I need to carry my phone somewhere, but when I'm at home or at work, it's just as you say, without case and on a smooth surface...and the battery issue persists

I read that on,German forum and it helped me. Lost only 4% in 10h

 

[qqtba]

I've just found out that my battery life is not so bad after all. Or at least it doesn't drain by itself anymore. I (for the first time) left it without charger from 19.30/7.30pm to morning 9.00/9am. Between: minor/average internet/market usage with 2G and 3G, no autosync (dont need syncing). Then I listened mp3:s little less than hour before going to sleep and when I woke up, there was 75% left.
The biggest drop was with 3G (I have a unlimited 512/386 connection), which really does suck the battery. This is not androids or samsungs fault though

 

[ShreddinPB]

hey guys.. I was having the same issue.. my phone was lasting 4 hours with a full charge and no real apps running.. I updated the firmware to the new H8, and my battery life is AWESOME now.. I had it full charged at like 5 pm yesterday, and its 5PM today and its at 62% right now.. with 3G turned on the whole time.

now if I could get it working with tmobile usa MMS messaging I would be super happy with it lol

 

[bitxboi]

well, I'm having my first 'decent' experience with the battery today. Almost 24 hours after a full charge, No Sync, No Background Data, No APN, about 1 hour of browsing with WiFi and very little messaging, and the battery is at 90%.
I'd like to last 3 days or so with APN On and Syncing but hey...at the moment that's just the way it is.
For the first time I tried something different to previous experiments. Till now, I'd switch on the phone, and after letting the startup do the job, I'd kill all apps with Taskiller. Yesterday I only killed 'User Apps', letting system processes run on their own. I don't know if this has something to do with some battery management process that previously was killed or not, but it works for now

 

[z0mbi3]

snip

ZeeToo I think you've stumbled onto something useful inadvertently. I find I have to deliberatley toggle my wifi on and to get it to pick up my access points, sometimes. Seems that having your app running and allowing it sufficient time to toggle correctly guarantees a much more succesful chance of getting on the access point without having to intervene.

 

[hagi]

Ok, I can accept that browsing over 3G etc burns through the battery life pretty quickly, but from my last charge I only managed 24 hours battery life.

Yesterday, after my last browsing session I was showing 24% battery life (in spare parts as the battery icon is never anything near accurate), but within half an hour (phone sleeping, sync off, everything switched off, set to 2G and all apps killed on task killer) it dropped to 5%!!

Charged the phone last night before bed, then this morning its down to 80%, looking at battery history it shows screen on 1.6% (11 minutes), time without sleeping 24.5% (3 hours) . Again, everything switched off.

Question is: What is my phone doing for those 3 hours when not sleeping? Instead of burning 20% of the battery while sleeping, I could be using it to surf the net while on the train

PS firmware has been updated to H8.

 

[ressu]

Charged the phone last night before bed, then this morning its down to 80%, looking at battery history it shows screen on 1.6% (11 minutes), time without sleeping 24.5% (3 hours) . Again, everything switched off.

Question is: What is my phone doing for those 3 hours when not sleeping? Instead of burning 20% of the battery while sleeping, I could be using it to surf the net while on the train

Have you checked the partial wake usage? If you sum the numbers for wake lock, you should get pretty close to the "not sleeping" time. For me, android system takes quite a bit of time and keeps the system awake. But lately things like swift have started to eat a lot of awake time.