• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

my own personal extended battery story...

crackers8199

Android Enthusiast
Apr 12, 2010
548
59
first, a disclaimer - 3g only market here. no 4g. i have radio set to cdma only.

so, i installed the extended battery tuesday. ran it almost out, and charged it up yesterday. charged it to full (or as close as i could figure) and booted into recovery, then did a wipe battery stats. then, ran the battery all the way out...til the phone shut off. let it sit for a while (bout a half hour til i got home) then plugged it in and turned it back on. i probably could have done better leaving it off while charging, but i use it as an alarm clock so that wasn't an option...

anyway, here i am now...17 hours later, 33% left on the battery. battery stats say 16 hours, 56 minutes. this is with i'd say moderate use...leaning slightly towards heavy.

i felt the need to start a new thread about this to point out that awesome battery life CAN be achieved with this phone. i'm debating whether or not to plug it in for the night or see how long it actually lasts tomorrow before i have to...
 
  • Like
Reactions: eagle17
Agreed, and thanks for posting! Glad I'm not alone.


I was getting great battery life before the extended battery, but now it's just freakish. Unplugged at midnight the other night....was on standby (as alarm) for 7 hours, then went about my day with standard usage. Normally my Droid X would have been down to about 5% by the time I got home after unplugging in the morning. GNex was still over 40% 16 hours after unplugging.

FWIW I always keep my brightness up @ 100%. I didn't buy this phone to turn auto-brightness on in order to save battery.....just like I don't try to drive my F150 real slow to try to save gas money. :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: syntrix
Upvote 0
so wait... you have to do all that crap to get the battery to properly hold a charge? people are just saying it makes no difference... what are you saying you have to do now when you get the new battery?
No, you don't have to do anything to properly hold a charge on the battery, and that's not what the OP did.

The amount of power remaining in a battery is not an exact science, per se. What the device does is learn the battery profile, so it can make a good guess. The more power cycles, the better the guessing. It starts off very conservative, which is why most people see terrible battery life out of the box, but it gets better after a few days. Again, this has nothing to do with the battery, but how the phone reads the battery and guesses how much reserved is left.

What the OP did was to shortcut the learning procedure, but resetting the battery stats and letting the phone completely drain, then recharge. This gives the phone the best baseline to work with.

Not necessary as the phone will eventually learn the battery voltage profile, but it does get you there quicker.
 
Upvote 0
Are the battery stats in the same place? will the battery stat apps that are in the market work? i have not done this only becuase i was not sure and figured it was not worth messing up the phone.. but since i flashed 4.0.3 i have noticed the impact and want to reset the stats..

thanks,
John.

is there clear battery stats in clockwork? I guess i have not looked at the options in there for a while.. just use 3 different features :)

thanks,
John
 
Upvote 0
first, a disclaimer - 3g only market here. no 4g. i have radio set to cdma only.

so, i installed the extended battery tuesday. ran it almost out, and charged it up yesterday. charged it to full (or as close as i could figure) and booted into recovery, then did a wipe battery stats. then, ran the battery all the way out...til the phone shut off. let it sit for a while (bout a half hour til i got home) then plugged it in and turned it back on. i probably could have done better leaving it off while charging, but i use it as an alarm clock so that wasn't an option...

anyway, here i am now...17 hours later, 33% left on the battery. battery stats say 16 hours, 56 minutes. this is with i'd say moderate use...leaning slightly towards heavy.

i felt the need to start a new thread about this to point out that awesome battery life CAN be achieved with this phone. i'm debating whether or not to plug it in for the night or see how long it actually lasts tomorrow before i have to...

I am so excited about the extended battery. I got mine, charged it all the way. I have brightness set to about 40, but go to 100 if I'm in sunlight. Everything I leave on at all times: bluetooth, wifi, 4g. You name it, its on.

1st day: I didn't touch my phone at work except at lunch and HEAVY use after work. It went 17+ before dying (I let it completely die for battery stats and just to see how long it would go).

2nd day: Moderate usage at work, HEAVY use after work. I was even watching movies on it after 16 hours just because I could. I couldn't stay awake anymore and fell asleep. Finally a smartphone that outlasts me!
 
Upvote 0
I am so excited about the extended battery. I got mine, charged it all the way. I have brightness set to about 40, but go to 100 if I'm in sunlight. Everything I leave on at all times: bluetooth, wifi, 4g. You name it, its on.

1st day: I didn't touch my phone at work except at lunch and HEAVY use after work. It went 17+ before dying (I let it completely die for battery stats and just to see how long it would go).

2nd day: Moderate usage at work, HEAVY use after work. I was even watching movies on it after 16 hours just because I could. I couldn't stay awake anymore and fell asleep. Finally a smartphone that outlasts me!

can you tell me about how much of your usage was on 3g/4g vs on wifi. I have noticed that it does pretty well on wifi, but i only have 3g at work so most of my usage is on 3g and it seems to run out fast. on the standard battery anyways. first day with the extended right now.
 
Upvote 0
can you tell me about how much of your usage was on 3g/4g vs on wifi. I have noticed that it does pretty well on wifi, but i only have 3g at work so most of my usage is on 3g and it seems to run out fast. on the standard battery anyways. first day with the extended right now.

If you are mostly 3G then make sure you turn off the 4G radio. Telling your phone to stop looking for 4G will save you quite a bit of battery.

Heck, I'm in a 4G area and I keep mine on 3G. I rarely do things on my phone that 3G doesn't do well. For those rare times - I can turn it on again.

I keep Wi-Fi on, 3G, everything syncing as default, I play with it constantly (years ago Mom said if I did that, hair would grow on my palms, lol) and mine literally gets longer everyday (insert joke here). Currently at the end of the day, I'm getting 16 hours with 15%+ left over.

Oh, extended battery too,
 
  • Like
Reactions: streetfish
Upvote 0
any othery battery saving measures? Gps, sync off?

What is your screen and android awake time?

Are you actually on/using 3g connection or wifi?

Just got my extended first time using it today hoping for similar results


I didn't check the awake time...my bad. I did have everything turned on though - GPS, Bluetooth, wifi, all on.
 
Upvote 0
can you tell me about how much of your usage was on 3g/4g vs on wifi. I have noticed that it does pretty well on wifi, but i only have 3g at work so most of my usage is on 3g and it seems to run out fast. on the standard battery anyways. first day with the extended right now.

At work, I am in a fringe 4g area. It comes and goes. But like I said, I don't use my phone at work at all.

At home, it is on wifi where I have been using it constantly. When I am out and about, it is on 4g. I live in a strong 4g area.
 
Upvote 0
first, a disclaimer - 3g only market here. no 4g. i have radio set to cdma only.

so, i installed the extended battery tuesday. ran it almost out, and charged it up yesterday. charged it to full (or as close as i could figure) and booted into recovery, then did a wipe battery stats. then, ran the battery all the way out...til the phone shut off. let it sit for a while (bout a half hour til i got home) then plugged it in and turned it back on. i probably could have done better leaving it off while charging, but i use it as an alarm clock so that wasn't an option...

anyway, here i am now...17 hours later, 33% left on the battery. battery stats say 16 hours, 56 minutes. this is with i'd say moderate use...leaning slightly towards heavy.

i felt the need to start a new thread about this to point out that awesome battery life CAN be achieved with this phone. i'm debating whether or not to plug it in for the night or see how long it actually lasts tomorrow before i have to...

How do you boot into recovery and wipe battery stats?
 
Upvote 0
I work in a place with terrible signal (-105 to -115 on average). I am, however, in a 4G area. I have been regularly getting so/so battery life. I can make it through my 10-12 hour shift, but I don't really do much on it and see that I've lost about 25-35% battery easily, just over the shift. By comparison my Thunderbolt was down 40-60% doing the same things over the same time period, BUT it was syncing more stuff (Facebook, Flickr, Last.FM) that my Galaxy Nexus doesn't even have installed yet.

I did manage 19 hours the other day before tossing it on the charger and going to bed, but I didn't do a whole lot on the phone. Watched a couple YouTube videos, set up my ringtones, setup Volume+, downloaded a few apps and sent a couple of texts. It spent most of it's time asleep and off.
 
Upvote 0
I'm also having a lot of luck with the extended battery! I did the same...fully charged it and then wiped battery stats on CWM. On LTE, here are my stats: Very excited about this battery life. Better than my HTC Thunderbolt...

P1S00.png
 
Upvote 0
I've been telling everyone from the get go to just relax. The phone learns your usage patterns and improves, dramatically, over time. When I updated my Nexus One to Froyo, I was lucky to get 7 hours out of it. That's not even a full work day. Within a week, I was getting something like 15-17 hours easily.

The same with my Galaxy Nexus. An hour or two after lunch and I had to plug in. Today I was at 12 hours with 33% left. It's crazy how good it gets.

For me, for my usage, battery life isn't going to be an issue. Now, if you are the kind of user that streams Pandora all day on your phone and watches Netflix on it then yeah, it might be a problem.

Edit: the value stated above was for a standard battery, not extended. And I am not doing anything with CWM or clearing battery stats or anything.
 
Upvote 0
Here are my results with the extended battery (note i have not reset the battery data from the lower capacity. The phone's probably super confused right now.):
Screenshot_2011-12-25-22-14-23.png


Screenshot_2011-12-25-22-14-18.png


it's still going as of 10:21PM (Phone time, PST).

Subjectively, i'm getting at least 2-3 more hours than the lower capacity with increased usage.
 
Upvote 0
Today I got 3 hrs of battery life. No joke THREE HOURS!! Now I was using it that whole time and it was on 4G but I mean 3 FREAKING HOURS? Most of the time it has moderate usage and lasts 8-9. Just upset me that it only got 3 with extremely heavy usage. Ordered an extended battery, hope its an improvement. Oh and it wasnt a app misbehaving, I checked battery us sage b4 it died and it was all the normal things, screen then android os then cell standby then browser then a bunch of google services stuff, messaging, and phandroid
 
Upvote 0
I stopped testing my battery life now I just charge it over night do my normal weekday routine which is wake up at 7am check my email, facebook etc (always on 4G or WiFi where available, I do not have a wifi at home right now). then go to the gym where I listen to pandora or spotify for about 45-60 minutes (connected to gyms wifi) get in the car for a 10minute drive to work (plugged in to car lighter) get to work connect to wifi use for phone calls , texts , email and some facebook / phandroid . I'm at work fro about 6hours then I drive home for 10minutes (plugged into lighter) use my phone for music for 30-45 minute (spotify or pandora) while I walk my dog . When I get back home and start using the phone as a hotspot I'm usually at 60% around 5pm so 11 hours of use . I just don't need to worry about my battery with the 2100 battery (i never used the 1850 as I upgraded right away)

I know those aren't very scientific tests or am I providing any numbers but when I stopped worrying about it I noticed that I never really need to worry about my battery dying . The only reason I know where my percentage is because I'm rooted with a 1% battery mod .
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones