Help HTC ONE battery discussion (usage, charging, etc.)

And you are partially correct.

I have posted this in many locations to inform people of what can happen to your battery due to the signal.

It is not just a cut and dry low signal more power thus higher battery drain. nope..

The other two factors are radio switching. Yes this is a bad thing and it happens a lot in the US due to LTE signals being weaker as they are higher in the spectrum. So what happens that can cause a battery drain in a fluctuating signal location.... lots.
First when ever the LTE signal drops to a lower signal the phone will wake up completely(not the screen) to do a dynamic check of the 3G signal then compare and switch. This process can take 5-20 seconds and usually both radios will turn on and go full on transmit power to poll all towers in the area. Now imagine if this happens a lot because you are in a crappy "fringe" signal area of 4G. You guessed it tons of high powered battery draining CPU full on system wake lock till it can decide what to do.
In the US this happens a lot, well, because we have LTE but the coverage is not that great. Plus the 4G radio will wake and poll every minute to see if there is a signal, but usually this wake will be a listen only mode with no transmitting.

The second thing that will kill your battery is the bandwidth. If an app has to wake due to a push notification then has to hit the server to retrieve the info that takes time. That time spent retrieving whatever it was that it received a request about can be big or small. regardless of that it still needs to pull data down. This can be bad if the tower your getting your data from is crowded or old/out dated and slow. The longer the app has to run the longer it drains the battery and if the bandwidth sucks even though the signal is great then your going to have battery drain.

Now why is the second one important. Well you have a smartphone. It polls and runs apps and retrieves data in the background all the time. If it has a hard time doing this then it has to stay awake longer to get the job done and thus battery drain.

What can you do about this... well nothing short of finding a carrier that has better signal/bandwidth/coverage in your area. Keep WiFi on all the time so it can latch onto any open WiFi it can find. Or turn off your data, which of coarse kills the point of having a nice smartphone that is always keeping you up to date.

Remember that 3G is still on even when LTE/WiFi is on, but if 3G in your area sucks for speed(bandwidth) then you'll likely have greater battery drain do to wake locks and therefore leaving LTE/WiFi on would be the lesser of two evils.

toolwarrior said:

Ok, so am I putting two and two together and sensing a pattern to this thread? Our brothers overseas seem to be getting days and days out of one charge, but here in the USA, folks are getting hours, not days. Is this an LTE thing? If I were to get the battery life of Scoot or Crafty, I would be lovin life!

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We don't have LTE yet in Winnipeg, Canada where I live and so far I've been getting 12-13 hours with extremely heavy use (Streaming video, calls, endless Whatsapp chat sessions, internet browsing, picture/video taking).

In fact, my first go around for battery-testing, I'd pull it out and play with it whenever I thought about it to simulate "heavy use" when in reality it was far more than I'd ever use a phone on a normal day-to-day basis.

I'm at 50% from when I pulled it off the charger at 6:30 this morning, so it's about 10 hours of use. I'd say 90% of that time has been on Wifi, so not even 4G...nevermind LTE.

I'll post a screenshot of my battery use at the end of the day, depending on if I've made enough posts here that I'm allowed to post a picture

toolwarrior said:

So we are three for three with you UK brothers and awesome 1+ days of battery life, yet the US based users who have been reporting in are not even getting a day. I was hoping one of our radio experts would chime in on this, but it seems to me that this must be radio related.

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Even while driving, with GPS (with screen constant) on, my One still lasted WAY past what my 3VO did. That being said, I have noticed, that the power saving feature does a GREAT job of doing just that, but the screen can be hard to see in the outdoors. After a full day at home working (I'm home-based), my One is at 65% around 4 this afternoon when I decided to top it. It hasn't sit on the desk much between me playing with it, texts, a call or two and trying to find the "perfect" weather app that doesn't exist... So, I'm VERY happy with my results thus far. But my expectations have never been that high since I started in smartphones with a Pre!!!

I am surprised at my battery life, all day, playing movies, browsing, email and texting. Have you used the power saver feature on the One? Try that. Also, operating systems play a big role in efficiency. The One is getting OTA to 4.2.2 very soon and it brings on more power efficiency . The largest thing about battery life is the user, of course the screen is the biggest hog, so don't put it on auto, use the lowest setting you can for the conditions.

i'm surprised by peoples battery life. i have the htc one and the battery has been great. the moment i bought my phone and took it home, i downloaded hulu and netflix. ran them for 5hrs straight till the battery died. it takes about 2-3hrs to charge my phone from dead to full.

from yesterday, i moderately used my phone, surfing the net, surfing the play store, and a few youtube videos plus the phone being idle overnight without being charged. and today, i watched a tv show via hulu in the morning and more light surfing then it sat idle-uncharged while i was at work. my phone is just now reaching 15%.

i live the US

battery life for me has been great, which for me means it can last from the time I wake to the time I go to bed, regardless of what I'm doing...I've had it off charger since 11 am and currently I have 58 percent left....I keep off NFC, use wifi at home, don't do social networking...brightness at 40%....includes about 2 hrs in the gym on mobile data and listening to music....no concerns here whatsoever...

Samcanadian said:

We don't have LTE yet in Winnipeg, Canada where I live and so far I've been getting 12-13 hours with extremely heavy use (Streaming video, calls, endless Whatsapp chat sessions, internet browsing, picture/video taking).

In fact, my first go around for battery-testing, I'd pull it out and play with it whenever I thought about it to simulate "heavy use" when in reality it was far more than I'd ever use a phone on a normal day-to-day basis.

I'm at 50% from when I pulled it off the charger at 6:30 this morning, so it's about 10 hours of use. I'd say 90% of that time has been on Wifi, so not even 4G...nevermind LTE.

I'll post a screenshot of my battery use at the end of the day, depending on if I've made enough posts here that I'm allowed to post a picture

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Died at about 15 hours. The last 3 hours of use were non-stop whatsapp and message board posting, all on mobile data.

foosh said:

i'm surprised by peoples battery life. i have the htc one and the battery has been great. the moment i bought my phone and took it home, i downloaded hulu and netflix. ran them for 5hrs straight till the battery died. it takes about 2-3hrs to charge my phone from dead to full.

from yesterday, i moderately used my phone, surfing the net, surfing the play store, and a few youtube videos plus the phone being idle overnight without being charged. and today, i watched a tv show via hulu in the morning and more light surfing then it sat idle-uncharged while i was at work. my phone is just now reaching 15%.

i live the US

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God damn you're getting good life. Mind posting your settings and downloading GSam battery monitor and then posting screenshots of the app usage percentages and the graphs? I know this seems like much but if you can do this I'd really appreciate it (and others might too).

This was yesterday

Right now I'm on 20hrs with 27% everyday it seems to be getting better

Now let's remember a lot of us, me included, have been using the Power Saver mode. Granted, I tweak it to allow for "vibrate buttons" and for data to be on even in sleep mode, so I guess the only power save feature I'm using is the auto-screen dimmer as well as the lower CPU use.

I'm trying to go a full day now with Power Saver mode OFF and see what happens. The screen brightness already seems a bit excessive/unnecessary, but I'll leave it where it's supposed to be just in order to finish this test.

Samcanadian said:

Now let's remember a lot of us, me included, have been using the Power Saver mode. Granted, I tweak it to allow for "vibrate buttons" and for data to be on even in sleep mode, so I guess the only power save feature I'm using is the auto-screen dimmer as well as the lower CPU use.

I'm trying to go a full day now with Power Saver mode OFF and see what happens. The screen brightness already seems a bit excessive/unnecessary, but I'll leave it where it's supposed to be just in order to finish this test.

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I've been using it with it off I'm trying it today with it on see how it goes

I never monitored my battery so much but a lot a people have been obsessing over it and I find myself paying more attention to it...:listen:

Checking in from Iowa with my AT&T One. I picked it up on Saturday and have charged it twice since then. I am averaging about 2.5 days per charge, granted I work in an area that I can't have my phone on me but I keep it on and in a pocket with medium to low service. This allows the radios to be switching all the time as the data attempts to connect and receive. *Results vary and may not be typical in all areas

I'll keep checking into it but as soon as I am off work, I have been using the phone intensively: cutomizing, setting up and testing new features. I would say in 5 days, I have done pretty well.

Ok using my power saver all day today I didn't see a drastic change at all strangely enough I got roughly the same results. Ah we'll I'm done monitoring my battery it's lasting me throughtout the day that's good for me. I'll put it to the test when I use it for geocaching though

Abird! said:

I've been using it with it off I'm trying it today with it on see how it goes

I never monitored my battery so much but a lot a people have been obsessing over it and I find myself paying more attention to it...:listen:

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So guess what..I turned off power saver mode, and after 18 hours of use I still had 12% left! Probably just less use, now that I've done the bulk of my configuring, but still...from some of the negative battery reviews I've read before buying, I'm extremely satisfied with how my phone uses power.

Well here are my results after a week.


Photo Album - Imgur and here are other screenshots from GSam. I have absolutely no idea if this is good battery life or bad or mediocre. I see people saying they get 4 hours of screen time with extensive use playing pandora, streaming, games etc. But seeing as I lasted ~40 hours and not 14 idk.

Though this past week had been anything but typical, I figured I'd post my results. Not as good as some, but still really pleased. Today was actually a "normal" day, and I'm still at 50 % 13 hours plus!

So just another update:

As some of you know the first HTC One I received on 15th March had excellent battery life but the mic's didn't work and external speakers made 'popping' sounds while playing video. I exchanged it for a black One 1st week of April but noticed that the battery was struggling and would only last around 8-12 hours with normal use despite having battery saver on.

I exchanged it for another black One 4 days ago and am glad to say that this phone has the awesome battery performance of the first One I had.
Currently I'm sitting 33 hours with 7.5 hours screen on and battery level is at 34%, auto brightness and power saver off. I did try with auto saver on but to be honest I haven't noticed any significant improvement and I don't really see how I could expect to squeeze more out of it aside from just not using it.

I've noticed quite a few people wanting the black One but upon playing with the store dummy models and noticing the finger prints all over it, have decided against the black. Just remember the dummy model and actual retail unit are different. Cheap material and painted dummy phones do show finger prints especially when people just came from shoving their faces at Mcdonalds or KFC and don't wash their hands.

The retail black unit is anodised and does not show finger prints as easily as expected and can definitely confirm that it doesn't scratch easily as I stupidly put my phone in my pocket with some coins, when I arrived home and removed the phone from my pocket I was horrified at what looked like scuffs and scratches but actually wiped off straight away.

Howlingdakota said:

So just another update:

As some of you know the first HTC One I received on 15th March had excellent battery life but the mic's didn't work and external speakers made 'popping' sounds while playing video. I exchanged it for a black One 1st week of April but noticed that the battery was struggling and would only last around 8-12 hours with normal use despite having battery saver on.

I exchanged it for another black One 4 days ago and am glad to say that this phone has the awesome battery performance of the first One I had.
Currently I'm sitting 33 hours with 7.5 hours screen on and battery level is at 34%, auto brightness and power saver off. I did try with auto saver on but to be honest I haven't noticed any significant improvement and I don't really see how I could expect to squeeze more out of it aside from just not using it.

I've noticed quite a few people wanting the black One but upon playing with the store dummy models and noticing the finger prints all over it, have decided against the black. Just remember the dummy model and actual retail unit are different. Cheap material and painted dummy phones do show finger prints especially when people just came from shoving their faces at Mcdonalds or KFC and don't wash their hands.

The retail black unit is anodised and does not show finger prints as easily as expected and can definitely confirm that it doesn't scratch easily as I stupidly put my phone in my pocket with some coins, when I arrived home and removed the phone from my pocket I was horrified at what looked like scuffs and scratches but actually wiped off straight away.

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You've got to show a screenshot or something of the 7.5 hour screen time with app usage. I'm sure we are all curious as to what is going on with your amazing battery. I can do 40 hours with 3 hours of screen time and power saver on with all the haptic and GPS stuff turned off.

Fwiw, I've found that turning off GPS hasn't made a big difference on my last few HTCs.

But on my last one, I've turned off NFC except when needed and that helps.

Howlingdakota said:

So just another update:

As some of you know the first HTC One I received on 15th March had excellent battery life but the mic's didn't work and external speakers made 'popping' sounds while playing video. I exchanged it for a black One 1st week of April but noticed that the battery was struggling and would only last around 8-12 hours with normal use despite having battery saver on.

I exchanged it for another black One 4 days ago and am glad to say that this phone has the awesome battery performance of the first One I had.
Currently I'm sitting 33 hours with 7.5 hours screen on and battery level is at 34%, auto brightness and power saver off. I did try with auto saver on but to be honest I haven't noticed any significant improvement and I don't really see how I could expect to squeeze more out of it aside from just not using it.

I've noticed quite a few people wanting the black One but upon playing with the store dummy models and noticing the finger prints all over it, have decided against the black. Just remember the dummy model and actual retail unit are different. Cheap material and painted dummy phones do show finger prints especially when people just came from shoving their faces at Mcdonalds or KFC and don't wash their hands.

The retail black unit is anodised and does not show finger prints as easily as expected and can definitely confirm that it doesn't scratch easily as I stupidly put my phone in my pocket with some coins, when I arrived home and removed the phone from my pocket I was horrified at what looked like scuffs and scratches but actually wiped off straight away.

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Hi, how did you manage to convince phones4u your battery was faulty? I bought a black one last Friday and am averaging 15hrs, not sure if this is normal but certainly not getting close to your times. Wondering if I should try exchanging. Is it easy to restore your settings?

My use over the last few days has been somewhat erratic but I thought you might want to see what I finally managed to achieve earlier today. I've tried to do this before but had to turn the phone off on a number of occasions due to work restrictions. This time, I managed to keep it on. Power save went on at 15% automatically but I turned it straight off. The battery was at 12% when I went to bed last night and I turned power save back on and it's been on ever since. I've going to wring every last drop out of this battery but I might not get the chance to post again today, hence this post.

I've said it before and i'll say it again, this battery and phone absolutely BLOWS my iPhone 5 out of the water, and that was an awesome phone! Now i've had it for about six weeks, it does everything my iPhone did, just faster, crisper and better. The battery is maybe three time better than the iPhone, the screen is clearer and bigger, it's faster and pretty much in every way better.

Apple will really have to pull something out of the bag to make me want to go back to an iPhone. I honestly never thought i'd say that after owning the catastrophe that was my Galaxy S3; I couldn't wait to get rid of it and get an iPhone again.

The HTC One allays all my fears over Android as this phone has only missed a beat once in the last six weeks and that was in the first week when the Productive lockscreen froze the phone, necessitating a reboot. That was probably down to me dicking about with the phone though, rather than the software.

I'm sorry that you poor chaps with AT&T bloatware are getting bad battery life but i'd like to think you can be reasonably certain that it is the bloat causing bad battery rather than the phone itself.

Anyway, enjoy!

Hope I've not caught you too late, and I don't mean to sound alarmist, but please don't force your battery down to zero. Cheers!

EarlyMon said:

Hope I've not caught you too late, and I don't mean to sound alarmist, but please don't force your battery down to zero. Cheers!

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Nope, i'll have to put it on charge in the next hour or so as i'm off out later

So, I was going to mention this earlier, but when I got my phone, the battery was at 75 percent, in a matter of a few hours it was down to 20 percent, I figured it was just because I was updating, downloading, installing, and setting up my phone. I then threw it on the charger and went to bed, the next morning, I went to work. While in my pocket the phone became almost unbearably hot, and within three hours the charge was down to 40 percent, as far as Icould tell there were no apps running. I put it on a charger and let it charge while streaming from the Iheartradio app, after a few hours I took it off the charger and put it in my pocket. Since then I have not had any issues with it getting unbearably hot, and the battery life has been on par with what many of you are getting. What in the world was the 3 hours discharge and extreme heat thing all about?