Normal battery life for Verizon version?

[heycal]

I've had a new G2 for a couple of days now. I've taken many of the steps to reduce battery drain recommended for smartphones, but I'm still but dismayed at my battery's performance so far. (I'm at 50% brightness, 1 minute screen time out).

For example, right now I'm at 8% battery left, with a screen "time on" of 5h 9m after 15h battery usage. The screen accounts for 47% of power, with android OS next highest at 13%, and lesser one after that.

My phone was in standby with no activity at all for an hour, at two different times today. Both times the battery level drained 3% in the hour.

I've heard battery usage can be a bit worse on Verizon for the G2, but this is not acceptable. A big reason I bought this phone was because of its supposedly amazing battery.

Does this sound normal, or is there something wrong with either my phone or something I've doing?

Bonus question:

On my iphone 4, there was "usage" and "standby". I would routinely get 5 hours of "usage" and 16 hours of standby with a little bit of juice left over. Is iphone "usage" the same thing as LG's screen "time on"? If so, by G2 is performing at about the level of an iphone 4, which is not good news...

 

[iowabowtech]

It's impossible to answer battery questions definitively because everybody's situation is different. But to have a general go at it as a fellow owner of a vzw g2...I usually run about 60% brightness and end up around 30-50% at the end of a 14 hour day.

5+ hours is significant screen on time by my standards. I generally only have 2-3 max. I see very little drain with the screen off. Maybe 1-2% an hour and I've also had times where I forgot to plug my phone in and only lost a few % overnight total. Ever since I added MS Exchange I've lost more consistently. When I first got this phone I'd lose near zero with screen off for hours on end.

 

[heycal]

It's impossible to answer battery questions definitively because everybody's situation is different. But to have a general go at it as a fellow owner of a vzw g2...I usually run about 60% brightness and end up around 30-50% at the end of a 14 hour day.

5+ hours is significant screen on time by my standards. I generally only have 2-3 max. I see very little drain with the screen off. Maybe 1-2% an hour and I've also had times where I forgot to plug my phone in and only lost a few % overnight total. Ever since I added MS Exchange I've lost more consistently. When I first got this phone I'd lose near zero with screen off for hours on end.

So it sounds like I've having a bit more drain on standby, but 5 hours screen on time sounds about right to you based on your experiences?

Also, do you know if iphone's "usage" is directly equivalent to G2's screen 'time on'?

 

[iowabowtech]

So it sounds like I've having a bit more drain on standby, but 5 hours screen on time sounds about right to you based on your experiences?

Also, do you know if iphone's "usage" is directly equivalent to G2's screen 'time on'?

I'd say yeah 5-6 hrs screen on time would do mine in. Yet with lighter usage days I can last for 48 hours.

Your phone's been up 15 hrs. Your screen has been on for 1/3 of your day. Seems a pretty fair battery to me.

I've barely even held an iphone in my life so no idea on that.

 

[heycal]

I'd say yeah 5-6 hrs screen on time would do mine in. Yet with lighter usage days I can last for 48 hours.

Your phone's been up 15 hrs. Your screen has been on for 1/3 of your day. Seems a pretty fair battery to me.

I've barely even held an iphone in my life so no idea on that.

5 or 6 hours 'time on' doesn't seem an extraordinary amount to me, and I would think many routinely use that. But if it's normal for 6 hours to drain the battery, then I guess my phone is acting properly. 3% drain an hour seems a bit much though, no?

Anyone else with some battery numbers and insights to share?

 

[acejavelin]

I would concur with iowabowtech... this is decent battery life for the G2 and about "normal", perhaps better than normal depending on your connection, wifi or LTE, and signal strength. There are many factors of what is "normal" battery life, what is normal for some could be considered horrible or exceptional to others.

To give you some comparison, I use about 2 hours of screen time per day, on 50/50 WiFi and LTE with really good signal most of the time, all services enabled (location, Now, syncing, etc) and get 2 full days out of it before needing a charge at 15%-20%.

If you want/need more consider standard battery saving tips like disabling Google Now, Location Service, turn GPS off, Greenify device waking apps, use JuiceDefender to shutdown unused radios and delay syncing, etc. When in a real pinch, I can slow/shut things down and get 3 solid days out it if needed.

 

[heycal]

If you want/need more consider standard battery saving tips like disabling Google Now, Location Service, turn GPS off, Greenify device waking apps, use JuiceDefender to shutdown unused radios and delay syncing, etc. When in a real pinch, I can slow/shut things down and get 3 solid days out it if needed.

I've got GPS off, but not google now. Is that a big drain you think? Haven't used it much yet, and unsure if I would want to.

 

[heycal]

Here's another question for Verizon G2 folks, another mystery I can't solve.

When I go out and about, sometimes the notification bar says that wireless networks have been detected and I should set them up or whatever. I don't want to ever see this. On my iphone, the phone automatically connected to my known networks when I was around them but otherwise left me alone with no prompts or anything related to wifi.

Even under settings > wifi > advanced wifi I saw no obvious place to stop these from occuring. (A Sprint user with a G2 tried to help, but he said his settings seemed a little different).

Any clues, all-knowing G2 veterans?

Also, is there really no way to set different vibration patterns, or even different notification sounds, to different contacts? Or different sounds for different notifications, like text versus voicemail, etc?

Almost everything I do is via notification -- the ability to change ringtones for calls isn't nearly as important to me.

 

[dportal2006]

5 or 6 hours 'time on' doesn't seem an extraordinary amount to me, and I would think many routinely use that. But if it's normal for 6 hours to drain the battery, then I guess my phone is acting properly. 3% drain an hour seems a bit much though, no?

Anyone else with some battery numbers and insights to share?

I think you have very unrealistic expectations for smartphone batteries. 5-6 hours of on screen time is not enough for you? Dude get a job and get your face out of your phone.

 

[heycal]

I think you have very unrealistic expectations for smartphone batteries. 5-6 hours of on screen time is not enough for you? Dude get a job and get your face out of your phone.

Thank for your kind words. Maybe's it time you stop hanging around in smartphone forums for three years running, dude, and get yourself a girlfriend.

 

[heycal]

Here's another question for Verizon G2 folks, another mystery I can't solve.

When I go out and about, sometimes the notification bar says that wireless networks have been detected and I should set them up or whatever. I don't want to ever see this. On my iphone, the phone automatically connected to my known networks when I was around them but otherwise left me alone with no prompts or anything related to wifi.

Even under settings > wifi > advanced wifi I saw no obvious place to stop these from occuring. (A Sprint user with a G2 tried to help, but he said his settings seemed a little different).

I'd also love to eliminate the little thing that often shows up at the top of the screen when I unlock the phone, telling me what wifi network I'm on, with the same information appearing again on the notificaton bar pull down. I'd rather not have something distracting the eye or appearing on the screen all the time with information I can well surmise on my own.

Any clues on these two issues, all-knowing G2 veterans?