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24 Hour Battery Life for Me! A few thoughts / tests for you

Lokire

Newbie
May 14, 2010
32
8
Take note that I'm not one of those guys who uses my phone 24/7. I'm not trying to replace my laptop here, just using my phone for a moderate amount of e-mail (hundreds of corporate/exchange push emails a day, plus a fair amount of gmail), light browsing, a bit of calls/texting, and a little camera and misc app use. That said, I left my phone unplugged overnight just as an extended battery life test. Passed the 24 hour mark. Battery life only went down about 10% over the 10-11 hour period I was sleeping. And I've kept GPS and WiFi on the whole time. Anyways, here's my screenshots from the Battery Status app:

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(I'm a little confused about the times listed in that last screenshot; why does mail only show 9m19s? Is that just the amount of time it used the processor to load new data or something? I know I used the mail app for well over an hour)


Now, what I'm really interested in seeing from other people is the 'Time On' number when you click through to the display stats. Mine is 3h44m for example. I think this is a good indicator of how much a person actually 'uses' the phone within the time it has been unplugged.
 
I don't know how to answer that really...if there are any specific settings or screens you'd like to see, let me know. I'll try to help as best as I can. When I first got the phone I was getting significantly less life (maybe 10-12 hours total before it would die). I messed with a bunch of account/sync settings. I set facebook to only sync once a day (removed the facebook and friendstream widgets since I don't care about them), turned off the 'news' and 'stock' syncs. Set 'weather' to only sync every 3 hours. Google and exchange activesync both have all options checked. I might have removed some other accounts that were there...I don't remember exactly.

I'm at 1d 2h 44m at the moment, with 10% battery left.
 
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You guys don't use your phone enough. That is why you get the long life. I can get 24 hours too with that kind of usage. All the same I can drain my battery dead in 3 to 4 hours just by using the internet heavily. Intermitten internet usage about 6 to 9 hours. Light internet usage and automatic push emails I can definitely get over 20 hours. But that would mean no video playback, which is a no go for me as this is the whole reason I bought this phone).
 
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Can you please tell us what app did you use to capture all the data that you have in the first screenshot?

The app is called "Shootme" you just open it, then shake the phone to snap whatever is on the screen. It saves into your gallery under "Shootme" which you can then transfer, host, then post.

I'm figuring he meant what app displayed the actual data, not the screen capture app.

I had the same question. I know how to check my battery status but what app gives the plot of the various system process?


***EDIT*** I think I found the app. It is SystemPanel App/Task Manager by NextApp Inc. Cost is $2.99, not sure if there is a free version.
 
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As of this posting, which i will be adding some pics to, but this morning at 710AM CST, i was at 78% which was 1 day 0 hr 25 min since unplugged. I'm at almost 10am now CST and only at 76%, and still running. I have configured like this :

Wireless CDMA PRL - ON and functioning
DATA - ON -Push Exchange settings set to as they arrive
Background Data - OFF
Facebook SYNC : Manual
Weather , News and Others : Manual

And it's doing awesome.
 
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@plopez12 nice post! After owning and using the EVO since launch day, my sense is that the battery life of this device fits right in the realm of acceptability based on usage. Expecting to get 24 hours of movie watching, music playing, phone calls, texting, web surfing, etc. is foolish. You don't expect your laptop to do that and it has a bigger battery! Heck, most folks will tell you that their laptop has a hard time making it through a full dvd movie much less doing all the other things that we expect our phones to do.

I'm happy with my EVO's battery life. I also make sure that I am able to charge it at my desk and in my car. I may consider a spare battery if I plan on going somewhere without power access.
 
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As of this posting, which i will be adding some pics to, but this morning at 710AM CST, i was at 78% which was 1 day 0 hr 25 min since unplugged. I'm at almost 10am now CST and only at 76%, and still running. I have configured like this :

Wireless CDMA PRL - ON and functioning
DATA - ON -Push Exchange settings set to as they arrive
Background Data - OFF
Facebook SYNC : Manual
Weather , News and Others : Manual

And it's doing awesome.

use the screen grabber app so we can see full screen shots please :)...also those settings are pretty much the same as mine how are you getting that great battery life?! has your life always been that good...what is your awake time for that last screen shot...also what kind of user would you say you are? moderate? heavy? what exactly do you do with the phone during a day to day basis...dont worry im not saying that your shot is not do-able...i just want to know so i can get the same battery life as well :)...still definitely contemplating the seidio 3500 when it comes out !!!
 
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I think it might be instructive for people to note their uptime:awake time ratios when discussing battery life. I run at about 2:1 and get up to 12 hours or so out of the phone, which is pretty good by my standards, and at 6:1 like the OP I would expect a similar battery life.

OP: Do you have any social media syncing to the phone? I think that's a big battery killer.
 
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use the screen grabber app so we can see full screen shots please :)...also those settings are pretty much the same as mine how are you getting that great battery life?! has your life always been that good...what is your awake time for that last screen shot...also what kind of user would you say you are? moderate? heavy? what exactly do you do with the phone during a day to day basis...dont worry im not saying that your shot is not do-able...i just want to know so i can get the same battery life as well :)...still definitely contemplating the seidio 3500 when it comes out !!!

I will install that app once i get done with this test. As i'm writing this right now, my system is still on the charge from that pic. I'm at 44% life as of right now 11:30 CST USA - Texas. I'm just getting great battery life after i made those changes above. I also did the battery power cycle in the thread someone posted on here. That really helped. My uptime : 53:12:34 | My awake time 1:54:53 and counting.

Not sure what the awake time was at that shot, Next time when i install the app i will post that instead. FYI - I'm a moderate user. I have exchange 2007 w/ Active Sync running As Items Arrive and I'm in and out of the phone alot for that. As I am the Director of Technology and Software Engineering with my firm, i have to be on contact all the time. ON average , my day to day use is more or less always in the Exchange Mail App, and probably anywheres from minimum of 8 calls to as many as 25 depending on the day.
I also am looking at the 3500 when it's avail. Believe me. At the rate that i'm going now, with 53hrs 29 min and 5 secs on the clock at 44 % , I would definetly say that I have mastered my battery life on this phone.

FYI - I do have facebook Sense setup, but i only connect to it manually and that is it. None of my other antennae's are on, only Cell 3g and Bluetooth on occasion. Other than that, I'm running lean , green and mean!

Hit me up if you wanna talk more. I have 4 developers on site, who work with the Android OS and we have tweaked this and other EVO's to do the same type of use. My colleague also has the same tweaks and he uses his PDF reader almost all day...and its getting about 35hrs on battery life total before charge.
Not too shabby.
 
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Update as of right now, 825 CST
Uptime : 61 hrs 44min 48 sec
Awake time : 2 hrs 23 min
Battery % : 15
ET left on battery at current draw and rates: 2 hrs tops.
Total time on test at this type of charge , like a post preceding this in the forums. I currently charge using the USB and not the wall. It has something to do w/ the current draw and how the Li-ION battery takes the slow charge. The battery releases better with the slow 500ma charge vs. 1A Charge from the wall. I have done this test now w 2 phones and got the same almost exact results. USB charge is better so far for the battery.

Just my .02
I am installing Shootme after this test is complete.
 
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You guys don't use your phone enough. That is why you get the long life. I can get 24 hours too with that kind of usage. All the same I can drain my battery dead in 3 to 4 hours just by using the internet heavily. Intermitten internet usage about 6 to 9 hours. Light internet usage and automatic push emails I can definitely get over 20 hours. But that would mean no video playback, which is a no go for me as this is the whole reason I bought this phone).

How the heck are u guys getting such little "Android System" percentage?? im stuck at around 60% (No live wallpaper, 2 widgets, gps off)

I have a feeling they hardly use their phone...

My phone, IS my computer away from home. "Android System" is always the highest on the list. It's not hard to get good battery life when you don't use your phone... :rolleyes:
 
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I have a feeling they hardly use their phone...

My phone, IS my computer away from home. "Android System" is always the highest on the list. It's not hard to get good battery life when you don't use your phone... :rolleyes:

So what is considered "good" battery life? It seems to me that the expectations for battery life in smartphones is a bit unrealistic. A phone like the EVO can do most of the functions of a notebook/netbook in addition to making and receiving phone calls. Now a notebook computer battery will generally last about 4-6 hours with normal use. Add in a cellular radio, bluetooth, Wi-Max/4G and you would see that time plummet.

Now the EVO battery has less than half the capacity in mAh of a laptop battery, but is expected to handle nearly the same tasks, as well as phone specific tasks, AND last more than 12 hours on a single charge. That just doesn't seem reasonable.

If you purchase an EVO or any other comparable smartphone and you are a heavy/power user, you should expect to be charging it at some point during your day or carrying a spare battery(s).

Some of these complaints strike me like complaining that I don't get the same gas mileage as my neighbor when I drive my car 80 mph, gun the engine constantly as well as run the a/c all the time, while my neighbor drives 50 mph everywhere he goes....
 
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So what is considered "good" battery life? It seems to me that the expectations for battery life in smartphones is a bit unrealistic. A phone like the EVO can do most of the functions of a notebook/netbook in addition to making and receiving phone calls. Now a notebook computer battery will generally last about 4-6 hours with normal use. Add in a cellular radio, bluetooth, Wi-Max/4G and you would see that time plummet.

Now the EVO battery has less than half the capacity in mAh of a laptop battery, but is expected to handle nearly the same tasks, as well as phone specific tasks, AND last more than 12 hours on a single charge. That just doesn't seem reasonable.

If you purchase an EVO or any other comparable smartphone and you are a heavy/power user, you should expect to be charging it at some point during your day or carrying a spare battery(s).

Some of these complaints strike me like complaining that I don't get the same gas mileage as my neighbor when I drive my car 80 mph, gun the engine constantly as well as run the a/c all the time, while my neighbor drives 50 mph everywhere he goes....

I'm not at all complaining about the battery life. I think the battery life on my Evo is just fine.

All I'm saying is that going 24 hours on a charge isn't very realistic for your average "power user", which is the majority of people that will own a phone like this.
 
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