Post ways to get awesome battery life.

alamoe · Mar 20, 2011

cortecds said:
Hey guys this is not a matter of where someone got something nor how relevant it is to you. It's a matter of someone giving good advice to people who might need it. Don't criticize someone who is just trying to help. If you don't need the advice then just move a long.
left coast - The U in USB stands for Universal.
Keyser - juicedefender will regulate when certain functions are on or off, such as GPS bluetooth, wifi, etc. True, it can make your phone worse if you set it up wrong. But I have gotten hours of extra battery life from using it. I have mine shut wifi off and other things off when the screen is off. You can pick and choose what to shut off.

Another helpful hint is to set when things update, set your weather to not update every hour only every 3 hours, or turn it off. Change the settings on how often facebook updates the contact info, etc.

The biggest help, get a widget that allows you to easily turn on and off wifi, ad especially GPS.
Turn GPS off when not in use. That is a big battery hog.

Good advice...except the part about having wifi turn off when the screen is off. If you're on a wifi network its better to set wifi to never turn off. If wifi has to turn on every time you turn the screen off it will suck more juice from your battery than if you just leave it on.

DrRed76 · Mar 20, 2011

I'm giving green power a shot but most of my battery use is supposed to be from the display so i'm not sure how much it will help.

dr00 · Mar 20, 2011

x2 most of my useage comes from my display, something like 65-70% lol.

Stevessvt · Mar 20, 2011

I bought and tried green power last night, but it shuts off data whenever the screen locks, so pandora won't download the next song with screen off.

angermeans · Mar 20, 2011

ChiTownJim said:
this is exactly why a program like Juice Defender is good. It will shut off you mobile data when the screen is off but if you are using Pandora for instance it will keep it on . It also will occasionally turn mobile network on while you're screen is off just to sync then it will turn off again

Some great devs (or dev?) have an application called superpower or something like that that is in beta and does this same thing. I downloaded it and my Incredible (already miss that phone. but not quite as much as my Nexus One) had drastically better battery life.

angermeans · Mar 20, 2011

HTCThunderbolt said:
Isnt this common sense?

Maybe to some of us that have used Android before, but this is actually a great post as a great bunch of people are switching to android and have no clue. Just because it isn't useful to you doesnt mean others wont get some great use out of this. If it doesnt apply then move on to the next post no need to post like you did. I commend the OP for spending the time to help others and we need to see it more often on our forums. People adding to the great android community should be given a lot more respect as they do in fact help others.

ckelly33 · Mar 20, 2011

Juice Defender came up BIG for me. It gets mixed reviews but for me, it took my phone from lasting 4-6 hours per charge to 14 hours with 50% remaining. I do live in a 3G only area though.

JD might just keep me from returning my phone.

DrRed76 · Mar 20, 2011

Stevessvt said:
I bought and tried green power last night, but it shuts off data whenever the screen locks, so pandora won't download the next song with screen off.

What did you set the data threshold as? Did it matter?

Stevessvt · Mar 21, 2011

I tried them all with no difference. Especially at 4g, it takes only a moment to download a song, then no data is required for the next 3-5 minutes until it needs the next song.

Fronc · Mar 21, 2011

PhunkTastic said:
Honestly after taking off the batter door on this TB a few times I'm not very confident in it's ability to withstand very many off-n-ons.

Really piss poor design. Nothing more than having to pop tabs to get it off those plastic tab nubs are going to start wearing down and breaking off in no time.

Suggestion: every few weeks, call verizon customer service and tell them your battery door won't stay on anymore. They'll probably ship you a new one, even if yours isn't broken (they're not going to ask you to ship the door back). Collect a couple and you'll have no fears of them breaking. You'll always have a backup.

I've gotten verizon to replace my droid's battery when I was within the first year warranty period. They sent me a new battery and didn't ask for the old one back.

Fronc · Mar 21, 2011

HTCThunderbolt said:
of course they are all the same..

This is patently false. Different chargers are rated at different mAh. The Thunderbolt's charging port receives 1000mAh from the included wall charger. You should look for a car charger that is rated the same. Otherwise, the phone could be using more power than it draws, especially in navigation mode.

noitsnneill · Mar 21, 2011

Today I charged my phone at 530PM and by 10PM the battery was under 10%. I wasnt even using the phone, it just seemed to die. I dont have apps running and use advanced task kill. Any other advice??

michaelman · Mar 21, 2011

cortecds said:
Agree, extended batteries have only given me 20-30% more time then stock. Even when I have gone from 1400 to 2600.
I would much rather have another 1400

After getting fed up with the OEM battery... I bought the Extended battery from Verizon for the TB and this battery lasts forever...

I used NAVIGATION with GPS ON, WIFI ON, ALL SYNCS ON from my house to work (15-20 minute drive) and the BAttery did not even flinch.

BMF136 · Mar 21, 2011

michaelman said:
After getting fed up with the OEM battery... I bought the Extended battery from Verizon for the TB and this battery lasts forever...

I used NAVIGATION with GPS ON, WIFI ON, ALL SYNCS ON from my house to work (15-20 minute drive) and the BAttery did not even flinch.

Does the extended battery you got require a new battery cover or is the battery the same size, just rated at a higher capacity?

rushmore · Mar 21, 2011

Some of the "I get great battery life with heavy use" is too funny.

1. Light, medium and heavy use are subjective
2. Unless there is a standard thet everyone uses, one user's light use can be another person's heavy use.
3. A 1400mah battery is NOT going to last very long in ANY device with:

4.3" lcd
4G radio
1ghz cpu

And the other stuff:

Audio
Flash
GPS & Wifi
Live Wallpapers
Background data
Social apps
Widgets

Of course the battery is going to suck, even if you only use some of the stuff above. 4G is the main bad guy, but the other stuff are eager accomplices.

VZW should have put a 4G toggle option and a widget. Big miss by VZW and customers should not have to be doing hacks they have to find in forums.

rushmore · Mar 21, 2011

michaelman said:
After getting fed up with the OEM battery... I bought the Extended battery from Verizon for the TB and this battery lasts forever...

I used NAVIGATION with GPS ON, WIFI ON, ALL SYNCS ON from my house to work (15-20 minute drive) and the BAttery did not even flinch.

At first, they usually do not. You should notice little change and then a sudden drop. My Seidio 3500 does that.

None the less, a bigger battery in any device with the features the TB has is practical for all but light users. Then again, why would a light user buy a TB?

jayishere · Mar 21, 2011

The Thunderbolt battery isn't as bad as a lot of you are making it out to be...yesterday with moderate usage I unplugged it at 8:15am and at 11:15pm had 40% of my battery left. It's all about managing the battery (screen brightness, JuiceDefender, turning off GPS if you don't need it, and turning off always on data)

Grouchy187 · Mar 21, 2011

BMF136 said:
Does the extended battery you got require a new battery cover or is the battery the same size, just rated at a higher capacity?

I don't have it, but the Verizon extended battery comes with a new cover as it is HUGE. The seidio battery is the same size but only 200 mAh more. Still waiting to see what ppl say about the seidio to see if there is a noticeable improvement.

Teegunn · Mar 21, 2011

Having both a Dinc, and my daily user (DroidX), I can tell you HTC isn't very good at building a rig that gets good battery life. Yes, the Tbolt will settle in a get better life as things progress. But not a lot more. The X is hands down a better rig for battery life. Yes, there are tweaks you can do to stretch more battery life. Most of the tweaks are basically shutting off many of the features that make these phones what they are in the first place. That's not an acceptable fix IMHO. I did this the first few months owning my Dinc. Then I said the hell with it, got a 2nd battery, and turned on my features in my powerful smartphone. With my X, I am OC'd and undervolted. I am pretty much a poweruser. I don't use autokiller as I find it is almost better without it. I belive undervolting is a great option for getting more battery life. I don't turn off my push/pull features - in fact I want my phone to push/pull/sync often - THAT's why I have it. It's usually pretty easy to get through an entire (16 to 18) hour day on one charge. Doesn't mean I don't charge it up if I am in a position to do so (better safe than sorry) as I use my phone for more business than personal use. Hopefully the Tbolt will settle into better battery life, some OC/undervolting will help and maybe some good roms will emerge. In any case, I expect battery life will be a frequent complaint of this phone unfortunately.

Grouchy187 · Mar 21, 2011

Tried the bump charge technique today. Curious to see if it helps at all.

For those that have done this, do you always need to bump charge to get the effectiveness? Or is it a long (days/weeks/etc) term fix?

rushmore · Mar 21, 2011

ChiTownJim said:
this is exactly why a program like Juice Defender is good. It will shut off you mobile data when the screen is off but if you are using Pandora for instance it will keep it on . It also will occasionally turn mobile network on while you're screen is off just to sync then it will turn off again

Always seems the constant polling from these types of apps can eat more battery than help, but turning data of when the display is off would have to be a net positive.

djscoe · Mar 21, 2011

I've bumped charged it twice so far and will a couple times more. Yesterday, I turned the phone on at 10 AM, used it quite a bit in the morning. The afternoon was a few phone calls and texts. Last night was the same. I left it on all night and woke up to 40% charged. I used it heavily this morning on the train and just now (10:30) AM it died completely and is now on the charger. This is awesome compared to my Incredible.

offanairplane · Mar 21, 2011

destardi said:
We're all friends here.

I have 2 Samsung Fascinates that last ALL DAY with HEAVY usage. Mom has an Epic; lasts all day with minimal usage. Pretty good, huh?

I've had Droid 1, Droid X; batteries lasted ALL DAY with HEAVY USAGE.

Had the HTC Incredible; battery last 5-6 hours. Not good, huh?

Now I have the HTC Thunderbolt (which I L O V E); battery lasts 5-6 hours. Not good, huh?

What power of mah came with the Thunderbolt? Droid X? Fascinate?

Clue: Moto/Samsung at minimum +100 mah over the ones HTC ships.

Yes, HTC.

If your phone lasts, let's say 6 hours as you said your Thunderbolt does. And you have a 1400mah battery, which the stock battery is.
You are getting roughly 26 minutes per 100mah. So if your battery was 2000mah, it would only give you 2.6 more hours, bringing you to a whopping total of 8.6 hours of battery life. And it would also make your already heavy-huge phone even bigger and heavier.

Maybe it's not the size of the battery that is the problem.

rushmore · Mar 21, 2011

offanairplane said:
If your phone lasts, let's say 6 hours as you said your Thunderbolt does. And you have a 1400mah battery, which the stock battery is.
You are getting roughly 26 minutes per 100mah. So if your battery was 2000mah, it would only give you 2.6 more hours, bringing you to a whopping total of 8.6 hours of battery life. And it would also make your already heavy-huge phone even bigger and heavier.

Maybe it's not the size of the battery that is the problem.

This same logic ties into the mythical "bump charge" method. Folks claim far greater battery life, when all a bump charge does (if anything at all for a particular device) is compensate for the normal charge process cutting of a complete capacity charge of the battery. Considering standard step thresholds for triggering a charge gate circuit can result in a battery being turned off of charging at 90%, there is about a 10% more mah to yield.

Without bump (assuming it works for your device) a 1400mah battery may be charged to 1300mah

After the bump process you would have 1400mah

How in the heck does an 8% charge improvement result in dramatic battery life improvements? A lot of folks seem to really like sugar pills

theacoustician · Mar 21, 2011

I know everyone is talking about LTE eating juice and whatnot, but I don't think that's the problem. Neither is syncing or whatever. Go to Settings->About Phone->Battery->Battery Use. What's eating up a majority of your battery? At least for me 65-70% of usage is the display. Based on that, it would seem the #1 thing you can do to save battery is turn down your screen brightness. I've got mine set at around 30% or so.

Post ways to get awesome battery life.

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