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Battery Life - what's yours like?

techno12

Newbie
Apr 21, 2010
17
1
Had my Legend for nearly 2 weeks now and I love it. It's my first touchscreen phone and I'm impressed by how slick and responsive the interface is, and web-browsing is an absolute joy compared to Opera in my previous crappy Samsung phone.

The only fly in the ointment is the battery life, as I tend to get just over 3 hours from a full charge to the 4% switch off. I'm using the "Time On" for the Display as an indicator as to how long I've been actively using the phone.

Bluetooth/wifi/gps is off and the display brightness is auto.

Just curious to see what others are getting. The Gizmodo review said it lasted a day with continuous use.
 
Had my Legend for nearly 2 weeks now and I love it. It's my first touchscreen phone and I'm impressed by how slick and responsive the interface is, and web-browsing is an absolute joy compared to Opera in my previous crappy Samsung phone.

The only fly in the ointment is the battery life, as I tend to get just over 3 hours from a full charge to the 4% switch off. I'm using the "Time On" for the Display as an indicator as to how long I've been actively using the phone.

Bluetooth/wifi/gps is off and the display brightness is auto.

Just curious to see what others are getting. The Gizmodo review said it lasted a day with continuous use.


mine goes a day of normal use and fiddling, rather than " continuous use

I installed an app called juice defender which helps no end in cutting the power used when the phone is " asleep" but still keeps mail and weather etc reasonably up to date
 
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I can get about a day and a half before I get down to about 15% and need a recharge.

That's with WiFi mostly off , bluetooth always off , emails checked every hour , facebook for android always logged in , weather updated hourly ,GPS off . A few calls , 10-20 texts , little bit of web browsing via 3g/HSDPA/Edge.

I'm not really a heavy user of the phone and now that I've had it a couple of weeks I'm messing around with it less.


I also found that using Advanced App Killer made no difference.
 
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I can get about a day and a half before I get down to about 15% and need a recharge.

That's with WiFi mostly off , bluetooth always off , emails checked every hour , facebook for android always logged in , weather updated hourly ,GPS off . A few calls , 10-20 texts , little bit of web browsing via 3g/HSDPA/Edge.

I'm not really a heavy user of the phone and now that I've had it a couple of weeks I'm messing around with it less.


I also found that using Advanced App Killer made no difference.

Mine does last for 2 or 3 days if I'm not using it much (so it's just on standby with the odd text and a bit of surfing).

If anyone can post how long their display was active when it required a charge that'd be useful, as I'm assuming my 3 and bit hours is normal. if other people are getting 5 or 6 hours of screen use then I'll be concerned (dodgy battery or handset).
 
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Mine usually goes for 2 days before its around ~10%. Thats with around 2hour music, 30mins or so of using WiFi, and a bit of gaming (racing games/puzzle games mostly).
Then normal phone functions, around 2 calls a day, some txts. I don't fb, twitter or any of that LOL

I thought the Legend has pretty good battery life.

basically doing a bit less than Cosmo Kramer and getting a bit more battery life?
 
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I have only just got my Legend but early indications are that the battery is on a par with what I was getting out its predecessor the Hero 12-18 hrs depending on usage! I would be requesting a new battery if I were only getting 3 hours and if the problem persists i'd be looking for the handset to be replaced!

Next time you charge when it's low (10% or thereabouts) can you see how long the display has been active for, as this gives a pretty decent quantitative assessment of how long the phone has been in active use.

I too can get it to last 1-2 days with moderate surfing/texting etc but when it does die the display on time is always 3 hours something - ie I've only been actively using the phone for that amount of time.
 
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I was getting less than 12 hours, fully charged at 17:00 phone turned off before the alarm went off the next morning, made me miss my train, so I thought if this is the price of using new technolgy its not worth it and went back to my nokia, but I installed Juice defender after a comment above and now get about 36 hours which is usable. Why cant the manufacturers treat power management as a priority.
 
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I've ordered a new battery from eBay (Hong Kong cheapo as part of a cradle charger set) so I'll see how long that lasts. It's meant to be 1500mah - ie a bit better than the official battery, but I'll be amazed if it actually is.

It's more of a 'keep in pocket as a spare for when the main battery runs out'..
 
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I get about 4 hours of continuous use, it's a nightmare. Thank god the charger is small because I have to take it everywhere with me.

I'm getting a replacement tonight though.

That's interesting. Let me know if the replacement is any better. If you come back saying "yay, it's lasting twice as long" I'll be straight on to Vodafone..

Maybe we all see 3-4 hours of CONTINUOUS use as no-one has actually replied with their battery usage figures (specifically the display on time), people are just reporting flannelly "I've used it for some surfing, texting, a few calls etc - mine lasted over a day!" ;-)
 
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Ditto - I hardly ever make calls.

My '3 hours' figure comes from the screen being on its default brightness (I think it auto-adjusts using a light sensor), so I'm experimenting with turning off auto and reducing the brightness, though at 25% it's impossible to read anything in bright outdoorsy daylight.
 
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When I first got my Legend about two weeks ago, I too was really concerned by what seemed to be poor battery power. After complaining to a few other folks, they told me that with touchscreen phones that handle as much graphics and apps as the Legend does, it's common to charge daily. So, yep, I charge daily. Most other HTC users I know have chargers in their car (so charge on the way to work), or have bought an extra USB cable and charge at work via PCs/laptops.

I guess this is the way of the touchscreen phones for now...?
 
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That's interesting. Let me know if the replacement is any better. If you come back saying "yay, it's lasting twice as long" I'll be straight on to Vodafone..

Maybe we all see 3-4 hours of CONTINUOUS use as no-one has actually replied with their battery usage figures (specifically the display on time), people are just reporting flannelly "I've used it for some surfing, texting, a few calls etc - mine lasted over a day!" ;-)

New one has similar battery figures. After asking around at Vodafone stores, apparently the battery life is weakened by the phone switching between 2G and 3G all the time, even when it's not being moved, which is a common Android bug (see here).

Try leaving it in 2G only when you don't need the internet, and switching to 3G only when you need to, should noticeably improve battery life. Sadly not an option for me as I'm always online! I'm just taking the charger with me everywhere.
 
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New one has similar battery figures. After asking around at Vodafone stores, apparently the battery life is weakened by the phone switching between 2G and 3G all the time, even when it's not being moved, which is a common Android bug (see here).

Try leaving it in 2G only when you don't need the internet, and switching to 3G only when you need to, should noticeably improve battery life. Sadly not an option for me as I'm always online! I'm just taking the charger with me everywhere.

I've been wondering about the 2g vs 3g settings, according to the official spec, legend can stay longer on 3g mode?


  • WCDMA: Up to 560 hours
  • GSM: Up to 440 hours
Can anyone clarify this? I always thought leave the phone will last longer in GSM only:thinking:
 
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