Is the HTC Desires battery really that bad?

zelda111222 · Aug 28, 2010

So is the battery really that bad? I have read answers that the battery wouldn't even hold out half a day without extensive use and answers that the battery would hold up 1.5 to 2 days with extensive use like internet, living wallpaper, wifi and bleutooth constantly on etcetra. So what is it?

Crafty · Aug 28, 2010

There are so many variables...

For example I read somewhere that if you are in an area where the signal varies between HSPDA and 3G the phone will keep flicking between the two and that takes extra memory..

The volume you listen to music at would have an effect, the apps you run also have an effect..

I clear two days out of mine consistently, unless you have loads of apps running that are killing the battery I think worse case scenario is it would need charging every day.

Note that all smartphones are pretty much the same, we can make then powerful and do lots of stuff but battery technology is still a bit lacking.

anoniemouse · Aug 28, 2010

with really heavy use & wifi, gps & mobile internet turned on i get 24 hours out of my phone, with normal useage i normally get between 2 & 4 days use.
On just pure standby i could get approx 10 days with wifi, gps & mobile internet turned on, but that makes having such an excellent phone pointless.

drdanc · Aug 28, 2010

I have had my HTC Desire for 3 days now and the battery is one of the minuses of this device. If you use it intensively (3G or WiFi, normal phone usage), you would have almost 0% battery at the end of the day.
First night I forgot the WiFi turned on and it drained 40-50% of the battery with the phone just standing by.
After these 3 days I started to search for a backup battery to have with me during intensive work days.

Desire D · Aug 28, 2010

I get about 48 hours out of a charge and that's with average use I'd say, calls, mobile internet on, notifications etc etc.

Would say 48 hours is an average, unless you're a real heavy user. As someone else said, same really applies to iPhone's and smart phones in general give or take the odd hour.

I charge it for an hour or so every morning, hardly a massive pain really in the scheme of things.

My phone is three months old and I swear the battery longevity is increasing the more I used it

D00ddk · Aug 28, 2010

it should get better in the first 1-2 weeks, at least it got for me. there is some threads around about battery conditioning, where alot of ppl state that some specific procedures help them increase battery life ...

billy1561 · Aug 28, 2010

Desire D said:
I get about 48 hours out of a charge and that's with average use I'd say, calls, mobile internet on, notifications etc etc.

Would say 48 hours is an average, unless you're a real heavy user. As someone else said, same really applies to iPhone's and smart phones in general give or take the odd hour.

I charge it for an hour or so every morning, hardly a massive pain really in the scheme of things.

My phone is three months old and I swear the battery longevity is increasing the more I used it

I'm confused. How does your battery last 48 hours on average when you charge it every morning for an hour?
I do agree the battery seems to improve with age. Unless you upgrade to 2.2

spenspuma · Aug 28, 2010

mikecoulter · Aug 28, 2010

My phones been unplugged 11 and a half hours and has 43% battery left. But that's surprisingly high to me...

willis · Aug 28, 2010

its not good man but its only slightly below par with other ts smartphones.
I wouldn't actually mind if I were constantly using the screen for media purposes but often I have to make a lot of calls and texts and its just not up to it.

Basically if you want your battery to last just turn off every single thing HTC marketed the phone on.

wuthton · Aug 29, 2010

Look on any smartphone forum, everybody complains about battery life.

sliq · Aug 29, 2010

my amoled usually lasted 2-3 days, with some use of 3G, moderate use of wi fi, and the occasional phone call or SMS.

i've sold the amoled in anticipation of the slcd - where its supposed to have "up to 5 times" more battery life. ordered it from clove.co.uk, fingers crossed the phone lasts 5 days.

LECTER · Aug 29, 2010

Day 4 with my Desire and battery keeps getting better, thank God!!

Wardogz · Aug 29, 2010

The battery is fine, i get 30 hrs easily, the users can be the problem though

zelda111222 · Aug 29, 2010

Thanks for the answers, but I have a few more.

Question 1: Does Froyo 2.2 really drain your battery faster than the 2.1?

Question 2: There are many methods to increase the battery of your HTC Desire turning GPS and Wifi off when you don't use it for example but does this increase your battery life significantly?

sookster54 · Aug 29, 2010

Haven't had any problems with battery so far, doing the regular plug in over night I always do with every phone and from morning to night around 6pm the phone is usually 50%. Today the phone shows android system using 93% on battery usage for some reason so let's see if that drains battery at all.

Karlohumpy · Aug 29, 2010

I was almost on the verge of selling my desire, having to charge more than once a day is just not good enough, but after 3 weeks it seems to have improved massively.

I turn everything off until i want to use it (3g, wifi, gps), control screen brightness to meet my needs, I use setcpu to underclock at certain times and i finally used that battery conditioning trick (charge overnight, turn off, charge again).

It lasts a ful day with heavy use and that's good enough for me.

SB13X · Aug 29, 2010

Read here:

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/160088-those-complaining-about-froyo-battery-life.html

My answer is no the battery isn't bad at all and no Task Killer etc is needed in the slightest unless your paranoid or have MS Windows OCD. And no matter how many people comment on variables the best way to ensure best battery life is to ensure the apps you download aren't loading the CPU with work when in the background. Be savvy in what you use and ensure you have ASTRO File Manager or Android System Info (or look through Settings>Apps>Running Services although this isn't as comprehensive as the apps mentioned) to check how the apps continue to work once returned to your homescreen upon pressing the back key. Any that continue to run are badly coded and should be uninstalled, a message sent to the dev and left alone until a fix is issued.

anoniemouse · Aug 29, 2010

sliq said:
my amoled usually lasted 2-3 days, with some use of 3G, moderate use of wi fi, and the occasional phone call or SMS.

i've sold the amoled in anticipation of the slcd - where its supposed to have "up to 5 times" more battery life. ordered it from clove.co.uk, fingers crossed the phone lasts 5 days.

I hate to rain on your parade, but inherently an amoled display will have a lower drain on battery than a lcd screen.
I can't see how a slcd screen will have a lower drain on the battery than amoled, after all by design any lcd has to have the whole screen iluminated to make a display & energy is wasted on blacks.
Amoled uses no power at all to display blacks.

Read the comment in the link.

http://wmpoweruser.com/htc-confirms-slcd-rumours-claims-its-better-than-amoled/

Deleted User · Aug 29, 2010

anoniemouse said:
I hate to rain on your parade, but inherently an amoled display will have a lower drain on battery than a lcd screen.
I can't see how a slcd screen will have a lower drain on the battery than amoled, after all by design any lcd has to have the whole screen iluminated to make a display & energy is wasted on blacks.
Amoled uses no power at all to display blacks.

While that's true, the majority of the time the amount of black on the display is minimal so overall the power usage can be similar.

As an example, I had light usage this weekend, and my phone is currently at 31% and currently just over 51 hours since the last charge. I've been getting 2 days with my normal use.

sliq · Aug 30, 2010

that's disappointing indeed.

i don't mind if the battery life isn't so much better, it'll just mean i can get my money back via Fair Trading for false advertising

bograma · Aug 30, 2010

For me, yes, is THAT bad. I use it almost all the time (calls, maybe 15 mins/hours, Wi-Fi and BT on almost all the time, almost no GPS) but I run a few apps in the background; but all sync at least every 3-4 hrs in order not to kill the battery. All these taken into account and I still run out of battery after 6-8 hrs. This is actually a good usage time taking into account that the screen hardly goes off. So there is nothing wrong with the battery itself (if you keep an eye on the apps and have no battery-leaking apps) - the battery technology is not up to par with today's demands.
Simple. I use a desktop charger and a spare battery and I'm all right.

tommiev · Aug 30, 2010

My phone is just 2 weeks old, Battery dies within 24 hours even if everything is turned off other than mobile internet(GPS, Bluetooth, Least screen brightness, and using Advanced Task Killer)

HTC Desire-Sickest Phone

rumbataz · Aug 30, 2010

Battery life is terrible on the HTC Desire. The phone is nearly always plugged into a charger. It's a great phone in all other respects though.

I want to run loads of apps and do all the things that the phone can do and is advertised as capable of doing. If that means that I have to charge it up twice a day then so be it.

stringent · Aug 30, 2010

I got less than 9 hours out of mine yesterday, but then it was running something for a couple of hours which made it quite hot (sms restore and checking for duplicates which takes ages - don't ask!) on average I have to charge it every day.

Is the HTC Desires battery really that bad?

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