Battery Life

[MrB206]

Yeah I found that out for myself earlier. I guess I'll leave it on 4G when streaming music and 3G for other tasks. Would that use up less battery?

Yea, you'll see some improvement. Maybe not 1-2 hours, but it'll be a bit better.

 

[finndo77]

finndo's results don't count. He turns his screen on for about 1 minute an hour and has data turned off.

Look at the breakdown. Anytime cell standby is using more battery than the display, you know the phone is hardly ever being used.

If you want long battery life on your phone then turn off data, only use wifi for internet, keep your screen brightness all the way down, and make sure you don't use your phone for more than 2 minutes an hour. Then you'll get battery life like finndo :]

*this is not meant to be mean or hostile towards finndo's excellent battery results, I'm just making an observation based off the evidence presented*

I said how much I use my phone in both posts, and data is always on, except 2am-7am when phone weaver turns off all radios. The biggest battery savings was removing Facebook from the phone. I do have Twitter and two Gmail accounts on the phone, and use Google voice for texting.

I work from home and my wife has been unemployed since October and is finishing her master's degree this year, so I rarely have need to use my phone. I don't have a home phone and do have a work cell that I use most of the day. I have said a few times that this summer I moved almost all of my non phone specific tasks to my nook tablet as I prefer the larger screen.

I have been considering a slightly smaller display when I replace the spectrum this November and moving back to a 10" tablet (which I had before the nook).

Back on the battery... I lost about 8 hours of use moving back to the stock battery from the cheap eBay extended battery. The difference is, if I charge it at night, then the next evening I need to charge again if I am going out and may need to use my phone a bit. As it is, I only have 45-30% remaining after work. Which is enough to last until noon the next day, give or take, but if I go out that night, it will be stuck on the car charger the entire time and I won't be able to take it in anywhere. On the extended battery I was good to go out and then charge when I get home.

 

[MrB206]

Yea, Facebook constantly checks for updates and runs, using data in the the background. It's a terrible app.

 

[IMUcarmen]

I remember telling people about 8 months ago on here that facebook is a battery killer. Yahoo mail is the same. I don't use either of those but had them on my old smartphone I gave to my mother because uses both, and her battery was dying in no time. I had used that phone myself with much better results and narrowed the problem down to those two apps.

 

[MrB206]

Yea same here. People post their stats and seeing fb take up more battery than screen wasn't a warning flag for them.

 

[IMUcarmen]

Yea same here. People post their stats and seeing fb take up more battery than screen wasn't a warning flag for them.

weird thing for me is the battery stats never would show those were using the battery that much. But after removing them the battery was fine so it's no doubt they were the cause.

 

[MrB206]

I've seen it a few times, but you're right, the data connection from the app was generally the culprit, not the app itself.

 

[xIdkwtS]

I purchased a replacement spectrum and I'm actually surprised at the battery life. I guess I was just used to the abysmal battery life that my damaged battery + phone were giving me. Now, any tips to make it last any longer ?

 

[lucky013]

You use Wastebook way too much. Lol. J/K.

 

[xIdkwtS]

You use Wastebook way too much. Lol. J/K.

Lol, it relieves boredom most of the time.

 

[MrB206]

Lol, it relieves boredom most of the time.

So does jerkin it. Just saying. Lol

 

[Yoinx]

I purchased a replacement spectrum and I'm actually surprised at the battery life. I guess I was just used to the abysmal battery life that my damaged battery + phone were giving me. Now, any tips to make it last any longer ?

Right off the bat...

If you're using the facebook app. Go into your account settings (in the app) then choose app settings and disable everything there. (time refreshes, chat, push notifications, etc) they're pretty much all on by default and suck the crap out of your battery through data use.


Also, since your screen is the number 1 drain... Try turning your brightness as low as you can while keeping fair screen visibility. The screen should always be your worst drain if you actually do anything with your phone where you use the screen.

 

[xIdkwtS]

Right off the bat...

If you're using the facebook app. Go into your account settings (in the app) then choose app settings and disable everything there. (time refreshes, chat, push notifications, etc) they're pretty much all on by default and suck the crap out of your battery through data use.


Also, since your screen is the number 1 drain... Try turning your brightness as low as you can while keeping fair screen visibility. The screen should always be your worst drain if you actually do anything with your phone where you use the screen.

I did that just now and my brightness is always at the lowest it can go

 

[MrB206]

I'll be the one naysayer to the brightness. If you're a heavy user, then definitely use a lower or auto brightness. If you're a moderate to light user, stick to mid brightness and you'll be fine. That's what I do and I'm a heavy use... But I micromanage my device, so the screen isn't the top user.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

My battery was at 85% last night when I went to sleep, and at 7% this AM when I woke. Major malfunction! I grabbed a different battery and installed it. It was at 16% so I began charging. I let it charge to 100% this morning. Within 30 minutes of unplugging it, it's down to 81%! Again, something major wrong. I looked at battery usage, and Gallery is the 2nd largest user...and I'm unable to Force Stop gallery. Not sure what to do here.

 

[ortrigger]

My battery was at 85% last night when I went to sleep, and at 7% this AM when I woke. Major malfunction! I grabbed a different battery and installed it. It was at 16% so I began charging. I let it charge to 100% this morning. Within 30 minutes of unplugging it, it's down to 81%! Again, something major wrong. I looked at battery usage, and Gallery is the 2nd largest user...and I'm unable to Force Stop gallery. Not sure what to do here.

I would suggest a clean flash of your rom and gapps if you're using cm/aokp. Go ahead and reinstall your apps but if you keep getting battery drain like this, do another clean flash and reinstall one app at a time over the course of a few hours and see if one in particular causes major battery drain.

 

[Nokoko]

Thought this might help some of you.
http://www.howtogeek.com/139592/how-to-find-the-root-cause-of-your-android-battery-problems/
The XDA forum (link in article) has quite a few other suggestions scattered throughout (like turning off autostarts), if you're willing to wade through the almost 1400 pages

 

[TheBigKahuna]

My Spectrum is stock, unmodded. Battery did fine during the day yesterday,a nd again got clobbered overnight. I've got to figure out why it's draining overnight.

 

[Yoinx]

Get cpuspy or better battery stats and see if it's going into deepsleep. It could be that an app sees your wifi is connected and holds a wakelock.

 

[darkmage1991]

I've been using the Spec2 battery. About a three hour gain after replacing the original that's about 9 months old. I'd say average of two. Also, still on stock ICS debloated running FB. Lasts the day with moderate use, not too bad.

I was thinking of using a Spec2 battery for my phone but I read somewhere in this forum that it was bad for the phone for some reason I don't remember so I held off on doing this.

so let me just make sure. the spectrum "2" battery (BL-53QH) works in the spectrum "1" vs920?

im experiencing horrible life also. but im sure its just a bad battery and would rather bump mah if i could using the spec 2 battery. but wanna make sure it works in the first spectrum.

thanks for any help

 

[steamer86]

Still going strong in mine. No ill effects I've noticed. Get JuiceDefender, Ultimate if you can. Has saved me tons of battery life and even a bit of data. Mainly while the phone isn't in use. I customized the hell out of it though(JD). With the Spec 2 battery and me setting up JD to my liking, I've gained about 4-6 hours. Days if it's not being used at all.

 

[darkmage1991]

thank you for the response. i just ordered my spec 2 batt

 

[darkmage1991]

i just wanted to update.

i did receive my Spectrum 2 battery model number: BL-53QH

it DOES fit in the first spectrum (vs920) i just recieved it so i cant update on if battery life is better or not.

i just wanted to post and say it does fit for anyone out there that may search and try to find out. as i searched for 3 days and never got a solid answer. (except for Steamer86 responding to me)

 

[IMUcarmen]

i just wanted to update.

i did receive my Spectrum 2 battery model number: BL-53QH

it DOES fit in the first spectrum (vs920) i just recieved it so i cant update on if battery life is better or not.

i just wanted to post and say it does fit for anyone out there that may search and try to find out. as i searched for 3 days and never got a solid answer. (except for Steamer86 responding to me)

obviously you never saw the post but there is a guy here on the forums named philip that has been running the spec 2 battery in his spec 1 for months and he said it definitely runs longer with it.

 

[Doghnna]

Never noticed this since my phone is never off.