Extending Battery Life - Success...

IPvFletch · Jun 6, 2010

I wanted to do a battery idle test so I charged my EVO up last night to 100%, and unplugged it at midnight - it actually blinked at like 11:50 and the charge light disappeared, so I *think* it stopped charging itself (nice!!).

I went to bed and woke up and checked on the phone now 8.5 hours later only to find it was still at 90%.

Here's what I've done to it (I expect this to be my normal config):
- Enabled live wallpaper (yes, I loved it on my Nexus One and missed it!)
- Disabled WiFi
- 4G was disabled by Best Buy, I've left it off cuz I'm 10 mins from a 4G area
- Bluetooth is enabled, not paired yet
- GPS is enabled
- All of the Sprint bloatware apps were left alone (I tried TV once already)
- I removed the FriendStream widget from the 3rd home screen
- I left the huge clock and all other widgets as-is
- I turned off Haptic feedback (I don't need this and vibrating uses juice)
- Brightness is set at automatic, as I prefer that mode
- Volume levels are at 100% but I doubt it made noise last night unless it snuggled up with my iPhone and Nexus One

- Installed Astro which I then ran and exited but it seems to still be running (doh)

That's about it. I haven't done much else yet because I'm thinking I will unrevoke root it (and don't yet know what settings I'll lose, if any).

So far, I'm very

My iPhone 3G sux, is terribly slow, and I hate the OS.
My Nexus One (2G) was too slow (bandwidth) but the OS rocked (I manually installed the 2.2 Froyo update).
My other 7 phones are still here, happily enjoying WiFi tethering when I need it. :eek:

IPvFletch · Jun 6, 2010

ps. I haven't yet installed the OTA (version .6). I'm debating doing it as I have no SD card issues, although I guess my only hesitation is unrevoked rooting, and that supposedly supports the new OTA update still, so maybe I will..

pps. If you want to move this to the Tips/Tricks > Battery thread, that's fine by me!

GeneralPatton · Jun 6, 2010

Interesting.

My dad told me yesterday he unplugged his EVO during the night as it was at a 100% charge, and when he woke up about 5 hours later, it was at 65%. He too didn't have FriendStream on, no Facebook linked .. turned off Bluetooth, turned off 4G but kept Wifi and GPS "on". Brightness was set to Auto, and using a live wallpaper.

I told him to change a few things, guess I'll find out later today how it is holding up for him today.

Me on the other hand, my EVO lost only 30-40% throughout a 10 hour day yesterday, and that was me playing some games during my breaks as well. Seems pretty solid.

phantomevo77 · Jun 6, 2010

Interesting.

My dad told me yesterday he unplugged his EVO during the night as it was at a 100% charge, and when he woke up about 5 hours later, it was at 65%. He too didn't have FriendStream on, no Facebook linked .. turned off Bluetooth, turned off 4G but kept Wifi and GPS "on". Brightness was set to Auto, and using a live wallpaper.

I told him to change a few things, guess I'll find out later today how it is holding up for him today.

Me on the other hand, my EVO lost only 30-40% throughout a 10 hour day yesterday, and that was me playing some games during my breaks as well. Seems pretty solid.

Your dad seems to be having the same thing as my phone. I charged it up while phone was off left the green light on for an hour or two. Left it off until the morning, turned it on and my battery was at 95% after it was fully charged and off. That makes no sense and makes me worried.

Rob_A · Jun 6, 2010

I thought GPS ate up alot of battery so I leave it off until I need it.

last nigh, charged to 100%

GPS off
Wifi off
no facebook
no friend stream
gmail on
live wallpaper on

woke up 8hrs later and still at 95%

Turned wifi on, browsed web pages, read email, sent 2 texts, played one game all within an hour.

Battery: 65%

So idle time = good
Doing stuff = not so good so far. But bearable since I'm ususally able to charge it

IPvFletch · Jun 6, 2010

WiFi for sure drains battery, so you need to leave that off. I learned this from my Nexus One.

teky · Jun 6, 2010

Rob_A said:
I thought GPS ate up alot of battery so I leave it off until I need it.

...

Doing stuff = not so good so far. But bearable since I'm ususally able to charge it

GPS is a monster...eats my battery alive.

You guys think that FriendStream eats a lot of battery too? I have it, but it's never signed on to anything. Maybe I should trash it.

Zardos · Jun 6, 2010

i wish i knew what was wrong with mine. I've dropped to 70% in 3 hours with little use besides shooting a few texts. Sense UI is stopped and I'm using the launcher. Screen is at about 40% brightness. Gps, wifi, Bluetooth, 4g and autosync are disabled. No live wallpaper. What is killing mah battery!

Typed this with the phone to.

Zardos · Jun 6, 2010

Double post derp.

kaisies · Jun 6, 2010

keep in mind there is a display issue atm where if you charge with the phone on it will say its 100% when its really not, to get a full charge you must leave it plugged in longer or turn the phone off.

rdegk15 · Jun 6, 2010

Okay. So if GPS if a battery eater.. obviously the advantages of having it off is better battery life. What are the advantages of having it on?

saigon · Jun 6, 2010

rdegk15 said:
Okay. So if GPS if a battery eater.. obviously the advantages of having it off is better battery life. What are the advantages of having it on?

You won't have to turn it on every time you need to use it (hassle). And any location based app's will work with it (more accurate) than using the Tower's to determine your location

RedWingsFan · Jun 6, 2010

I know in the past when I got a new phone, the battery life always seemed to increase after owning it a week or so. So for those that just got it Friday, give it some time before thinking its bad battery performance.

vladgur · Jun 6, 2010

Guys, learn how to look up your phones "awake time". It will tell you percentage of time your phone spends outside of it's idle state.
On HTC hero for instance, the normal awake time for average use was below 16%. anything drastically above that indicated some software kept your phone out of idle state unnecessarily.
Furthermore you can download Spare Parts app from the market to further investigate battery time culprits

excav8ter · Jun 6, 2010

RedWingsFan said:
I know in the past when I got a new phone, the battery life always seemed to increase after owning it a week or so. So for those that just got it Friday, give it some time before thinking its bad battery performance.

I agree with RedWingsFan.... when i first got my hero the battery sucked.... but after a week or two it got MUCH better, dunno why. Used to get maybe 8-9 hours of "use" and just before i gave it to my son i could get 12-14 hours of use.

DeusInnomen · Jun 7, 2010

IPvFletch said:
WiFi for sure drains battery, so you need to leave that off. I learned this from my Nexus One.

Actually, that's incorrect. The Wifi chip uses way less power than the CDMA modem does. This is especially true for anybody on the edge of network access, like I am, because bouncing between EVDO and 1xRTT will murder your battery in cold blood. You're actually going to get way better battery life if you use Wifi whenever it's available.

I had almost 75% battery left yesterday after 14 hours because I was home for most of the day and on our network, plus making a few calls and poking Facebook and photos, etc. This is in addition to polling Gmail, my work Exchange account and my personal domain account every 5 minutes, having GPS enabled and all sorts of crap running in the background.

kathrynhr · Jun 7, 2010

Zardos said:
i wish i knew what was wrong with mine. I've dropped to 70% in 3 hours with little use besides shooting a few texts. Sense UI is stopped and I'm using the launcher. Screen is at about 40% brightness. Gps, wifi, Bluetooth, 4g and autosync are disabled. No live wallpaper. What is killing mah battery!

I hate to tell you this, but it could be your location.

With both my previous phone and my current phone, I get about twice the battery life at my office as I do at my home (performing the same basic tasks). At work I'm downtown in a major city and get a steady, strong signal at all times. At home I'm between two cell towers and depending on where in my house I am standing, I either have 2 or 4 bars. So my phone is always switching back and forth, connecting and reconnecting.

If that's the problem, I'm afraid you don't have many options. As far as I know, there's nothing available for CDMA phones that will force it to use (or favor) a specific tower to connect to 3G.

Someone please prove me wrong... I will love you forever...

Zardos · Jun 7, 2010

kathrynhr said:
I hate to tell you this, but it could be your location.

With both my previous phone and my current phone, I get about twice the battery life at my office as I do at my home (performing the same basic tasks). At work I'm downtown in a major city and get a steady, strong signal at all times. At home I'm between two cell towers and depending on where in my house I am standing, I either have 2 or 4 bars. So my phone is always switching back and forth, connecting and reconnecting.

If that's the problem, I'm afraid you don't have many options. As far as I know, there's nothing available for CDMA phones that will force it to use (or favor) a specific tower to connect to 3G.

Someone please prove me wrong... I will love you forever...

I always forget about that, ugh. I work at Wal-Mart, and in the area I work, the reception is the worst in the store. Which is comical to me, because I sell cell phones there. My old dumb phone didn't seem to drain any faster at work vs at home. My Moment was just terrible all around.

I get like 1 to 2 bars, I have no problems getting out on the net or calling though.

IPvFletch · Jun 7, 2010

Update: I enabled ActiveSync and installed about 30 apps last night. My ActiveSync has a TON of data I know, including over 500 contacts, tons of emails, and a full calendar. I left the phone unplugged all night at 60%. This morning it is somewhere between 50% and 60% still, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt it's down to like 51%. Anyways, I'm still quite pleased thus far.

I also have to wonder about signal re-connectivity causing battery issues. That has some merit to it although I live in the hill country and see my 3G going on and off constantly, so I would think I too am in that boat, no?

Oh, btw, live wallpaper, GPS, and BlueTooth all still ON.

IPvFletch · Jun 7, 2010

One more update: Someone made a comment on another battery thread that WiFi didn't seem to affect their battery life. Well, I haven't fully tested this (to my satisfaction) but I fear at least with my EVO it does indeed affect battery life. I enabled it for some time today and it made an obvious dent in battery life over the course of 2 hours (checking periodically). As soon as I disabled WiFi, it began to sustain again and hold it's charge (same %) for a good 30-45 mins before droppign down 1% notch.

On a semi-related note, using Android-wifi-tether (root privs) and accessing some heavy web pages, in just a few minutes it made a big dent in battery too. That is I guess to be expected (it did on Froyo 2.2 as well) though.

offtheRIM · Jun 7, 2010

RedWingsFan said:
I know in the past when I got a new phone, the battery life always seemed to increase after owning it a week or so. So for those that just got it Friday, give it some time before thinking its bad battery performance.

I feel you're right on this. It seems like much more life since Friday. Just hope it stays that way.

zpilot · Jun 7, 2010

Let's just face it, the Evo really sucks in the battery life department.

IPvFletch · Jun 7, 2010

There's no doubt it sucks (compared to say the 10 days of standby the iPhone 4 claims to offer), but still there's ways to improve it and I think it will only get better in time. Maybe Froyo 2.2 will help with this too?

mrkauffman · Jun 8, 2010

guys keep in mind that manufacturers standby time is not what we consider standby time. to them its gps off, 3g off, 4g off, wifi off, cellular radio off. basically airplane mode just sitting there without touching it.

TECHMAN · Jun 8, 2010

The only way I've found that works was to Search and turn off background data.

Extending Battery Life - Success...

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