Battery Life

I have found that when the phone first reaches 100% it may in fact not be totally at full capacity ... suggest giving it another hour charge after you see it has reached 100%..

 

If the battery is a LI-Ion is doesn't not have memory ... It should not be taken to zero(flat) very often best to charge it in the 30-35% range ...

 

I charge my G1 when it's just before going to the red cross....

If it ever gets on the red cross...I turn it off and wait until I can charge it to turn it back on....

 

Did you turn the brightness of the screen all the way down?
I would also turn off all auto-syncing.

 

I've learned to put up with it...we are in the world of more then PDA and the battery is not going to do all you think it should. Apps like useful switchers and stuff can potentially help and I believe 1.5 is going to improve battery life, at least for G1 users.

 

Well I agree with you that the battery life isn't going to be the same as using a simple cell phone.

But Android programs have issues with background processes that drain the battery unnecessarily, which is why there is such a demand for a background process killer or some such app. You may open some app that accesses the internet and when you close it you think that internet connection is closed, but it could be silently running in the background draining battery life when the phone is just in your pocket.

 

Try an app called Task Manager ..

 

Do your search just on the word "task"

The ones that you probably want to checkout are :
"Advanced Task Manager" and ...
"Task Switcher"

 

You also can disable 3G networks, this works on mine very well, of course if you are heavy user of youtube and so on it is not a good idea, but for battery life it obviously works great. A usefull switch could help enable and disable when deeded.

 

Advanced Task Manager Lite is free on Market and does just what it says. You'll soon see how many apps remain running in the background even though you think they've gone.

Also consider ToggleWiFi and Battery Widget. These all help you to keep battery consumption down.

 

Does anyone know of an app that can temporarily disable 3G data? I am working on reducing the power consumption of my HTC Dream (I have Android 1.5) but the only way that I know of to disable 3G data is to enable Wi-Fi...obviously not an efficient method =)

Essentially I want to put my Dream in a "Normal Phone Mode" where it is no longer receiving any data over the 3G network, or over Wi-Fi. Essentially making the phone act like a non-data enabled phone. If this is not possible, is there a way to stop ALL of my apps from trying to access the internet in the background?

Thanks,
Mark

 

I took my phone off charge yesterday morning at 8am. By lunchtime it was 54%, thats with wifi on, gps on and some Market browsing and around 10 texts. By 10pm the battery was on 38%, again with gps, wifi on, some market browsing, around 10 texts and prob about 15 mins calls. Left on over night (not charging), at 8am next day, battery was 34%. I've had it on all day, more market browsing, playing around 20-30 mins games, few texts and around 15 mins calls and at 15:20, the battery was at 5% and I put it on charge.

The battery life seems to drop rapidly then settle

My phone is only 2 days old and I have my screen brightness set to 50%.

 

I'd say if you're managing to get a whole day out of it not to be too worried. Its not that hard to just plug it into the charger when you go to sleep. Thats basically all I want from a phone I get.

 

There's a setting hidden in the mobile network tab of the device settings that lets you lock the device to 2G networks, the program useful switchers gives quick access to this and other power saving options.

 

I agree with the settling. I've had my phone go into the red at 7pm and stay there until I go to bed at 10. Granted, I'm not using it much. I imagine if I made a call it would die, but still, at less than ten percent it still can be semi-idle for at least 3 more hours? I've even intentionally drained the battery by turning on wifi, and putting on the full-brightness flashlight that doesn't time out. Still manages to stay on for another 15-30 minutes after reaching 5%. Weird.