Help Battery Life Improves with time?

[Magic Angle]

So I have had my X since 7/20. I have the OTA update. I was reading the X owner's manual and came across recommendations from Motorola to perform a soft reset (i.e. power off and restart) once a day to clear the cache or something like that. I think it was listed under tips to keep phone performance speedy.

I have been doing this when i remember, maybe 2 or 3 times a week. The last few days, I noticed my phone had considerably more battery life when I got home from work. I have "smart mode" battery profile. No task killer.

Right now I am at 90% battery level, 5 h 40 min since unplugged. I had bluetooth on about an hour, wifi off whole time, about 5 min phone calls and about 10 texts. I have checked e-mail a few times. Pretty light use but I have been busy at work this morning.

Anyone else notice improved battery life 2 weeks out?

 

[bosox2k1]

I used it all day for the past couple days and it lasts me a long time. I have never had a concern with the battery life, knock on wood. But supposedly training your battery has a positive effect--like the one you are seeing.

 

[jamo]

I think that battery life is a pretty easy thing to figure out, overall. 100% of the time, your display will kill the battery. Nothing else even comes close, well, maybe if you make a ton of calls, which seems to kill the battery too. Nothing kills your battery like having the display on. I'm currently at 20h with 60% left, but my display is 57% of my usage because I haven't used it a lot, and I had the screen off all night, of course. Display on=battery goes down.

 

[dream03]

So I have had my X since 7/20. I have the OTA update. I was reading the X owner's manual and came across recommendations from Motorola to perform a soft reset (i.e. power off and restart) once a day to clear the cache or something like that. I think it was listed under tips to keep phone performance speedy.

I have been doing this when i remember, maybe 2 or 3 times a week. The last few days, I noticed my phone had considerably more battery life when I got home from work. I have "smart mode" battery profile. No task killer.

Right now I am at 90% battery level, 5 h 40 min since unplugged. I had bluetooth on about an hour, wifi off whole time, about 5 min phone calls and about 10 texts. I have checked e-mail a few times. Pretty light use but I have been busy at work this morning.

Anyone else notice improved battery life 2 weeks out?

Where did you get your owner's manual? It didn't come in your box did it?

 

[Magic Angle]

Where did you get your owner's manual? It didn't come in your box did it?

No, not in the box. I think there was a link here somewhere. You can also downloaded it from verizon website. Click on support on home page, then enter motorola droid x in drop down box. Under "support for your phone" click on "manufacturer user guide"

 

[ekyle]

Mine can get through an entire day without any problems. I use it heavily throughout the day with Foursquare, Twitter, FB, SMS, taking pics, sometimes Maps, and a couple of phone calls. Hell, I even just browse the web sometimes on top of the normal calendar and emails that I do throughout the day. I usually end my day (5AM - 11PM) around 60% or so. Much better than my Eris was. Oh and no task killers or anything like that either.

 

[whitrome]

Mine can get through an entire day without any problems. I use it heavily throughout the day with Foursquare, Twitter, FB, SMS, taking pics, sometimes Maps, and a couple of phone calls. Hell, I even just browse the web sometimes on top of the normal calendar and emails that I do throughout the day. I usually end my day (5AM - 11PM) around 60% or so. Much better than my Eris was. Oh and no task killers or anything like that either.

That is super impressive, I'd love to know your secret! I have ATK, but now I'm starting to read it can be a problem? Any alternative suggestions?

 

[john0821]

My battery life blew when I first got the phone. I didn't even have any apps really. But I did let it die down the first time then did a full recharge.. then I only charge above 20% now, and the battery is much better. I wouldn't do full drain/discharges either since this battery won't see any benefit to that ... unless you have a battery widget that needs to be calibrated.

That is super impressive, I'd love to know your secret! I have ATK, but now I'm starting to read it can be a problem? Any alternative suggestions?

ATK isn't really meant to be set on auto-kill. I have my ATK Auto Kill Level set to disable where apps are only killed manually. As long as you just use it to kill buggy apps or if your phone is laggy and you force kill all apps, ATK is useful. Otherwise I doubt you'll even use ATK more than once per day. Just let the Andriod OS do all the work.

 

[ekyle]

That is super impressive, I'd love to know your secret! I have ATK, but now I'm starting to read it can be a problem? Any alternative suggestions?

I just let the phone do its thing. When I first got the X I let the battery die once and did a full charge. I plug it in every night. Right now it says 80%, its been a heavy email day haha. I charge it every night and don't use widgets that constantly poll for data. Every once in awhile I'll check Spare Parts to see if something is holding a Partial Wake lock for too long or even has an exceptionally high amount of network usage. I also set most apps to manual update, like Twitter and FB.

 

[whitrome]

OK, I went ahead and uninstalled ATK, at least until I can educate myself on how to use it sparingly. I think my next step will be figuring out how to lower the amount of battery suckage the Display uses and see what happens then. Thanks for all the tips.

 

[kwest12]

Mine can get through an entire day without any problems. I use it heavily throughout the day with Foursquare, Twitter, FB, SMS, taking pics, sometimes Maps, and a couple of phone calls. Hell, I even just browse the web sometimes on top of the normal calendar and emails that I do throughout the day. I usually end my day (5AM - 11PM) around 60% or so. Much better than my Eris was. Oh and no task killers or anything like that either.

I have had the DX for abotu 3 days: when I use it, I do so heavily. Here's the breakdown of my day.

• I take it off the charger at 8:50AM and go to work with 3G on.
• During the day I'll run Google Nav abt 15 minutes, then keep the GPS off (I do the airplane mode to ward off the GPS bug). GPS isn't allowed for anything else. I mainly use stuff like xScope browser or the stock browser and occasionally have an app running like AppBrain or Android Market.
• I have the screen on for maybe 2.5 hrs max between 9:00MA and 5:00PM using is as I stated above.
• I don't have any widgets installed and I don't have the facebook app.
• My signal strength is between 65 and 75 all day at work and ranges from 77 - 95 when I am at home afte 5:00.
• Once I get home I turn on WiFi b/c it supposedly eats less battery.
• The thing is, by the time I get home I typically have only about 20% or so left.
• In other words, with a max of 2.5 hrs of screen-on-usage at work, over a period of 8 hrs (solid signal), the battery drains from 100% to 20% and will be dead by 7:00PM.

If this doesn't improve I'm going to have to try getting a new battery or getting a new phone if that doesn't work. :/

Any insight you can offer would be amazing.

 

[ekyle]

The only thing that you did differently is the WiFi thing. I don't use Maps often, but when I do I turn on the GPS, use the maps, then turn the GPS off again. Battery is set to smart mode and I use the power widget that comes with 2.1. The brightness setting has 3 settings, I use the one in the middle.

 

[john0821]

\Battery is set to smart mode

The main difference might be here since on 'Performance' mode, the battery becomes a hog.

 

[kwest12]

The only thing that you did differently is the WiFi thing. I don't use Maps often, but when I do I turn on the GPS, use the maps, then turn the GPS off again. Battery is set to smart mode and I use the power widget that comes with 2.1. The brightness setting has 3 settings, I use the one in the middle.

I'm gonna turn my brightness as low as it goes and see how much longer that can make it last..... I hate to say this but if I can't get the battery to last at least 14 hours or so (eventually) I'm gonna have to explore other options... :/

The main difference might be here since on 'Performance' mode, the battery becomes a hog.

I've had mine in smart mode since day 1

 

[vetvipe]

I keep my screen on the lowest brightness when indoors. Its still really bright. But i have noticed over time the battery has been much better. Im now getting about 24 hours per charge. But i think it's more due to the fact that the first 2 weeks i was constantly messing around on the dx. Always trying to figure out what it can and can't do!

 

[ekyle]

I have had the DX for abotu 3 days: when I use it, I do so heavily. Here's the breakdown of my day.

• I take it off the charger at 8:50AM and go to work with 3G on.
• During the day I'll run Google Nav abt 15 minutes, then keep the GPS off (I do the airplane mode to ward off the GPS bug). GPS isn't allowed for anything else. I mainly use stuff like xScope browser or the stock browser and occasionally have an app running like AppBrain or Android Market.
• I have the screen on for maybe 2.5 hrs max between 9:00MA and 5:00PM using is as I stated above.
• I don't have any widgets installed and I don't have the facebook app.
• My signal strength is between 65 and 75 all day at work and ranges from 77 - 95 when I am at home afte 5:00.
• Once I get home I turn on WiFi b/c it supposedly eats less battery.
• The thing is, by the time I get home I typically have only about 20% or so left.
• In other words, with a max of 2.5 hrs of screen-on-usage at work, over a period of 8 hrs (solid signal), the battery drains from 100% to 20% and will be dead by 7:00PM.

If this doesn't improve I'm going to have to try getting a new battery or getting a new phone if that doesn't work. :/

Any insight you can offer would be amazing.

You have wifi and 3G on at the same time while you're at home by chance? That would eat up a good amount too. I found that using wifi vs. 3G when your in a good reception area it is better just to use 3G.

 

[kwest12]

You have wifi and 3G on at the same time while you're at home by chance? That would eat up a good amount too. I found that using wifi vs. 3G when your in a good reception area it is better just to use 3G.

Yes, I have both on, but I was under the impression that if they both were on at the same time the phone would just choose wifi. Also I thought to receive texts it was necessary to have 3G connection.

 

[ekyle]

Yes, I have both on, but I was under the impression that if they both were on at the same time the phone would just choose wifi. Also I thought to receive texts it was necessary to have 3G connection.

MMS yes, SMS no. Even if Wifi is on the data may default to the WiFi but the radio is still active. If you're in a good coverage area at home try just using 3G and no Wifi, Or turning off 3G when the WiFi is on

 

[kwest12]

MMS yes, SMS no. Even if Wifi is on the data may default to the WiFi but the radio is still active. If you're in a good coverage area at home try just using 3G and no Wifi, Or turning off 3G when the WiFi is on

Is there some sort of easy toggle or widget that will let me temporarily kill the 3g?

 

[anthonygobot]

My phones battery has been crap from launch before I went app happy. I gave up today and went in to the local VZW for a new battery. Since it is under warranty they are refunding the price soon as I get it. I shot about 3 mins of video (on and off) and the battery went red in less than an hour. The phone was charged all night so shooting that video drained the battery instantly.

 

[droidSPARX]

as long as its in Smart Mode. u get a long battery life

my use today. podcast, pandora, tv.com (video clips), youtube, browsing the net, and RSS news feed refresh

 

[ekyle]

Is there some sort of easy toggle or widget that will let me temporarily kill the 3g?

Yup, long press the home screen and go to android widgets. Add the "Power Control" Widget to your home screen. Data connection is the second one in from the right.

 

[Paycer]

Isn't the second one from the right that circle/spiral-shaped icon? I thought all that does was toggle automatic status notifications for things like Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail. I know that you can get a 3G specific toggle, though. It actually shows, "3G," on the icon. It's like an extended version of the regular Power/Utility dock for toggling multiple hardware features. I don't remember if it's through Launcher Pro or Beautiful Widgets or something though. I know there is one as I've seen it in the screenshot thread. I'm sure I've probably already downloaded it and simply don't remember.

 

[ekyle]

I think it is data sync. All Google services won't sync nor will your other background data accounts like Twitter. It has always been enough for me.

 

[SgtBaxter]

I'm gonna turn my brightness as low as it goes and see how much longer that can make it last..... I hate to say this but if I can't get the battery to last at least 14 hours or so (eventually) I'm gonna have to explore other options... :/

Went on vacation last week, and would regularly take the phone off the charger at 8:00 a.m. and use the phone for camera, video, geocaching with c:geo during the day. Came back to the hotel at night and turned on wifi and browsed the web, updated apps, played games, etc. By the time I'd put the phone on the charger at night around 11 I'd usually have 40% or more battery left. I'm not sure what people are doing or have installed to kill the battery on this thing.