Avoid Sense?

mntbighker · May 25, 2010

Has anyone else come to the conclusion that the fewer Sense apps you use, the less trouble you will have with battery life? It's quite a shame that the time to market issues alluded to by Google folks at I/O have caused inadequately tested changes to Android to ruin customer satisfaction. Today I was having Exchange sync issues with my mail. I note 2 things. It seems it is not possible to edit the server settings once the account is set up. And regardless of sync frequency settings if the sync process is failing your battery will be dead in no time. I am now faced with looking for an alternate Exchange mail application if such a thing exists. I have already seen what Sense Flickr and Facebook can do to battery life. HTC stopped communicating with me about either battery life OR signal strength issues.

Ruggar · May 25, 2010

mntbighker said:
Has anyone else come to the conclusion that the fewer Sense apps you use, the less trouble you will have with battery life?

Nope. Not if they are not set up to always sync and be connected 24x7x365.

mntbighker said:
It seems it is not possible to edit the server settings once the account is set up.

Doesn't seem to be a problem with stock app or the original Android app (you'll find out more about that in my P.S.) on my phone at least.

mntbighker said:
And regardless of sync frequency settings if the sync process is failing your battery will be dead in no time.

Again. I don't have that issue and I work in a concrete bunker of sorts so the connection to exchange routinely fails as expected. My battery lasts all day.

mntbighker said:
I have already seen what Sense Flickr and Facebook can do to battery life.

If your phone is setup to be connected 24x7x365 and updating all the time what would you expect out of the battery?

mntbighker said:
HTC stopped communicating with me about either battery life OR signal strength issues.

Based on your post you either don't understand that your phone is setup in a way to be always on and syncing or you've got something wrong that I've seen people report a reset has resolved in many cases. I would check out the stickied battery thread.

P.S.
There is an "alternate" email app for exchange. Actually there are several on the market like K-9 and one that is the original 2.1 Android app non-htc version available here:
Original Android 2.1 Email Client - xda-developers

SystemsLock · May 25, 2010

Not that I've noticed. None the less, as soon as I get this thing rooted off comes all the default apps.

Rubik76 · May 25, 2010

This is my second HTC device with Sense. Sense has caused me zero problems. Facebook may not always sync when scheduled, the weather widget has a personality of its own, but neither of those negatively impacts anything else in any meaningful way.

The only Sense issue I know of (and I'm not sure if it's still happening) is that the HTC battery widget can cause battery drain.

buckweet · May 25, 2010

I personally don't like sense or the HTC built in sense apps either.. I'm trying out launcherpro beta, it has a look of froyo somewhat for the dockbar.. Very fast and smooth.. Much moreso than senseui..

It's in the market, give it a try.

yojoe600 · May 25, 2010

am i the only one that doesnt mind since...? i mean i didnt like it much on winmo but i have no problem on android

mntbighker · May 25, 2010

Ruggar said:
Nope. Not if they are not set up to always sync and be connected 24x7x365.

I have every possible sync and or connect interval set anywhere between 10 minutes and 60.

Ruggar said:
Again. I don't have that issue and I work in a concrete bunker of sorts so the connection to exchange routinely fails as expected. My battery lasts all day.

My office is plaster and screen in a concrete and rebar building.

Ruggar said:
If your phone is setup to be connected 24x7x365 and updating all the time what would you expect out of the battery?

It's not, and I expect minimum 1 to 2 days with conservative use. As in no voice use and minimal email, text and twitter checking.

Ruggar said:
Based on your post you either don't understand that your phone is setup in a way to be always on and syncing or you've got something wrong that I've seen people report a reset has resolved in many cases. I would check out the stickied battery thread.

Did a hard reset the first week and initially killing Flickr was key to battery life. I also found Sense Facebook to be a repeatable sleep killer regardless of refresh setting. And if I don't reboot the phone daily something often keeps it from sleeping. Based on my settings I have 1 hour awake out of 18 on a good day so thanks for the opinion but clearly there is a random variable at work here. My settings are not the issue or it would be consistently good or bad.

Ruggar said:
P.S.
There is an "alternate" email app for exchange. Actually there are several on the market like K-9 and one that is the original 2.1 Android app non-htc version available here:
Original Android 2.1 Email Client - xda-developers

Thanks

SeattleYanksFan · May 25, 2010

yojoe600 said:
am i the only one that doesnt mind since...? i mean i didnt like it much on winmo but i have no problem on android

I love it and my battery life is superb (as in 30+ hours on average).

mntbighker · May 25, 2010

buckweet said:
I personally don't like sense or the HTC built in sense apps either.. I'm trying out launcherpro beta, it has a look of froyo somewhat for the dockbar.. Very fast and smooth.. Much moreso than senseui..

It's in the market, give it a try.

I like LauncherPro myself but it Does crash.

jasonb1985 · May 25, 2010

SeattleYanksFan said:
I love it and my battery life is superb (as in 30+ hours on average).

i also like sense. i like sense a lot.

Skipdawg · May 26, 2010

Love sense, sense rocks! :cool:

Vihzel · May 26, 2010

I really like Sense. I like a lot of the HTC Widgets.

They look much nicer than their stock Android counterparts. I especially like the music player widget of Sense and Friendstream. If stock Android had all of the Sense widgets, then I would probably use it a lot more.

Mskgreenel · May 26, 2010

I like Sense UI! Vanilla android is sooo vanilla....

DenverRalphy · May 26, 2010

Based on the theory the OP is presenting, I think it would be more an issue of all the widgets you have running, regardless as to whether they were HTC Sense, Android, or 3rd Party brands...

sheepforwheat · May 26, 2010

I have never tried vanilla, this is my first android phone. But from what I can see, for every custom Sense-like addition you would want, there is a marketplace app that you can download to offer that functionality. I would rather have Vanilla. The only thing I'm not sure about that might be better on sense is the keyboard.

Ruggar · May 26, 2010

mntbighker said:
It's not, and I expect minimum 1 to 2 days with conservative use.

That is exactly what you should be getting. It is what I am getting and the others I know who have DIncs as well as the pluthera of people on here are reportedly getting.

mntbighker said:
And if I don't reboot the phone daily something often keeps it from sleeping. Based on my settings I have 1 hour awake out of 18 on a good day so thanks for the opinion but clearly there is a random variable at work here.

There are a number of threads devoted to phones not sleeping. They'll walk you though how to troubleshoot and find which apps are causing a problem. The short story is to kill apps one by one and let your phone sit each time for 5-10 minutes and make note of when the sleep and awake time are finally different after it goes in to sleep mode.

What you are experiencing is not normal and likely a buggy app with a sync problem. Take comfort in the fact it isn't normal but you should be able to fix it and get normal use. You've mentioned the issue with your exchange connection. But I don't know how your mail app that came with your phone is different than mine. To be safe I would try the app I linked too just to rule things out.

mntbighker said:
My settings are not the issue or it would be consistently good or bad.

I would have to respectuflly disagree as evidenced by the other people who replied also reporting no issues. If something stock were causing the problem it would be causing the problem for everyone.

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