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I came to the conclusion...

dhinez

Well-Known Member
Oct 21, 2009
204
12
Sumter
That the EVO's battery is crap.

I've done all the tips and tricks from the trickle test to sd card format. I even removed the Facebook for Sense account. Battery still drops dramatically. I left from my house to visit my mom last night at 8:30pm with 100% and around 12:30am it was down to 7% when I got home. Today I charged up to 100% and removed my Facebook account and it dropped to 97% in one minute! Only thing I haven't done yet was do a hard reset because I have text messages I want to save when I go to court this month. I'm very disappointed. With about 50% or more of EVO owners complaining about battery life, I would think HTC would have put out a patch to optimize the phone just like they did for the Hero. Even before the phone was released, critics and reviewers said the phone had poor battery life. I didn't pay attention to the review as I was too excited about the phone and would have hoped that they would have fixed this problem before release. I'm not getting rid of my EVO as it is a great device and does everything I need for it to do besides last the entire day with moderate use. My wife's Hero can go the entire day on one charge and still have over 60% battery life left before we go to bed (12+ hours). I really hope that it's just my battery. I will be going to the Sprint store to see if they could swap out my battery for a newer style or even one for the Hero. I want to do a hard reset but need suggestions on what app saves my text messages. I've been an Android fanboy since it was released. I even gave up my Palm Pre for the Hero. HTC, you really need to step up your game and listen to your customer complaints before you go down the same road as Palm. Sorry for the rant. I just had to blow off some steam before I go back trying to figure out my battery issue. I have no other issues besides the occasionally screen grounding issue but that isn't such a big deal.
 
Get "my backup pro". It costs $5.00 but backs up EVERYTHING! There is a choice to backup your data to sd card or online. I backup to both just in case. You will get a pin number that you can have emailed to your account, and then restore is so easy. It is well worth the 5 bucks. You can get it from android market.
 
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I tried 99.9% of everything listed. I tried the tickle trick that was a no go. I tried formatting my SD card that didn't work. I tried setting up my accounts (gmail, email, facebook, etc) to sync every 4 hours and that had a minor effect. I also turned data syncing off. I tried calibrating the battery with the on and off method and had little to no effect on the battery. The LED would turn green then turned phone off and replugged the cable and it would change from the amber LED to green in under a minute until it turned green almost immediately. I even have my bluetooth and gps off. I run WIFI at home. I tried everything except for a hard reset. I've seen a lot of people have success from this method. I just found a free sms backup app. I will be trying this in a few. I forgot to mention that my battery got super hot last night that I had to power down the phone. It wasn't even plugged in. I was at my mom's house visiting my sister. This makes me think my battery could be faulty too.

I also called Sprint technical support and the lady told me that the battery issue was widely known. She also said HTC is trying to come up with a fix to resolve the issue. She sent me a email that provides more tips on conserving battery life. What has got me a little ticked now is this issue was know before launch per email. Here is a copy of it:

Issue Title: HTC EVO 4G - Battery Life Tips Posted Date: 6/3/2010 Issue Type: Educational
Description:
If customers call in complaining about battery life, there are many ways that they can improve overall battery performance.


Action: Educate
Is this your first 'Smart phone'? There are several differences between a feature phone and your new HTC EVO 4G phone that can impact your battery life.

  • " HTC EVO 4G has more radios to power (3G, 4G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS)
  • " HTC EVO 4G has a larger screen than most typical feature phones
  • " HTC EVO 4G has more capabilities than most typical feature phones
    • Management of multiple email accounts and syncing
    • WiFi access point
    • WiFi Router capability
    • 4G data
    • GPS
    • Access to several 3rd party applications through the Market
    • Applications and Processes running in the background
  • " These new capabilities all require more power than your previous feature phone.
  • " Because of all these new wonderful capabilities and features it is up to you to manage your battery life experience. Here's how!
The multiple radios on this device will use battery life even when you are not using them.

  • " To improve battery life, turn off your Bluetooth, GPS, 4G, WiFi, and WiFi Sprint Mobile Hotspot if you are not using them.
4G

  • " The 4G radio should only be turned ON when the improved network speed is required for an application, such as YouTube, Web Browsing, or Sprint Mobile Hotspot. When not in use, its important to use the built-in 4G widget (preloaded on Home tile left of center) to turn the 4G radio OFF.
  • " If you have your 4G radio ON, but are no longer in 4G coverage then your device will be scanning in an attempt to re-acquire the 4G network.
  • " Your battery can be significantly drained by the scanning processes, so if you know you will be out of 4G coverage for an extended period of time or if you are not acquiring a 4G signal as indicated in the task bar, it would be important to turn your 4G radio OFF.
  • " As with other radios there are widgets you can place on your Home screen which allow you to turn your 4G radio ON and OFF.
  • " Even when in 4G markets, particularly when mobile, you may be going in and out of 4G coverage. If you notice that you do not have a 4G signal at any point in time, then turning off the 4G radio will save you significant battery life. Simply turn it back on to check for 4G coverage when you believe to be back in 4G coverage.
  • " To check for the latest 4G coverage in your area, visit: http://shop.sprint.com/en/stores/popups/4G_coverage_popup.shtml
Preloaded widgets are available to conveniently monitor use of radios

  • " Power Control Widget - allows you to see radios that are ON and OFF
    • Widget -> Power Control
  • Individual Widgets
    • Widget -> Settings -> (Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, GPS, Mobile Network, Wi-Fi, 4G, Hotspot)
Live Wallpaper and backlight settings

  • Live Wallpaper uses significantly more battery than standard wallpapers when your screen is ON
  • " Ambient Light Sensor - controls backlight brightness based on your ambient lighting condition.
    • Settings -> Sound and Display -> Brightness
  • Manual Control
    • You can use your Power Control Widget to easily adjust your backlight intensity with a simple touch.
Tools to view battery usage

  • " Before you are ready to charge your phone you can view what has been using your battery during this charge cycle.
    • Settings -> About Phone -> Battery -> Battery use
Email Applications Settings

  • " Email settings allow you to setup peak and off-peak hours for email sync on each email account
    • Pop Account
      • Mail -> Menu -> More -> Settings -> Send & Receive -> Set Download Frequency
    • Exchange Account
      • Mail -> Menu -> More -> Settings -> Send & Receive -> Schedule
  • Generally, less frequent syncing = Better battery life
  • Manual Sync allows you to receive emails only when you choose to
    • This can be optimal for battery life if you don't necessarily need emails as quickly as they arrive.
    • While in the email client, sync by selecting Menu -> Refresh.
  • Shorter polling frequencies (5 minute, 10 minute, 15 minute) can actually be worse for your battery life than As Items Arrive, especially if you do not have high volumes of email.
  • Bottom line, email synchronization settings can have significant impact to battery life and the ideal settings are going to vary by person. Try different configurations that achieve the best compromise between convenience and battery life.
Preloaded Applications

  • There are several preloaded applications which update based on frequency settings. Here are a few of those applications:
    • Stocks
    • Weather
    • News
    • Peep
    • Flickr
    • Facebook
  • These applications have a settings menu that typically can be accessed by using the Menu button while you are in the application. In the settings menu there is an item called Update Schedule
    • Menu -> Settings -> Update Schedule (this may slightly vary from App to App)
  • In General the less frequently you allow these applications to update the better battery life you can attain.
  • If you find that there are applications you don't use at all then for the best battery life experience configure the application to either not sync at all or to sync at the lowest frequency. You can also end the application or service by going to the Running Services Widget mentioned above.
Google Talk

  • As soon as you sign up for the Google Market or Gmail with your Gmail account information you are also signed in to the Google Talk instant messaging application.
  • The Talk application tracks the presence of your Google Talk contacts in order to let you know who is available to instant message. Each presence change uses a small amount of power even if you do not have the Talk application open.
  • If you have numerous contacts who are changing presence throughout the day all of these small impacts to your battery can add up to significantly shorten your battery life.
  • If you do not use Talk on your device or do not mind that it is only operational when you actually have the application open, then you can eliminate this extra battery consumption by:
    • Go to All Apps -> Talk -> Menu -> More -> Settings. Uncheck the "automatically sign in" box.
    • Make sure you exit the application by going to Menu -> More -> and selecting "Sign Out".
    • In order to again receive Instant Messages through the Talk application all you'll need to do is open the Talk application again and it will automatically sign you in.
    • Make sure you always exit the application by selecting "Sign Out" (above) to reduce battery consumption. Exiting the application by use of the back or home keys will not sign you out and battery life will not be improved.
3rd Party Applications

  • Be especially cautious with all 3rd party applications that you download from the market place. Often times these applications have not been designed with battery life in mind. Many of these applications significantly impact your battery life and quite often they remain running even when you exit the application. It's important for you to understand the behavior of all the applications you download.
    • Know how to close the application so that it does not continue running (often times via the Menu key while in the application)
    • Learn how to use the running services application (Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Running Services Widget) to end user installed applications that are still running but no longer needed
    • If the applications synchronize data, make sure you optimize the synchronization settings for improved battery life.


Last Updated: 6/4/2010

Q & A /Feedback:
CE Forums
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Now if HTC and Sprint knew of this issue before launch date or even sooner, why hasn't this been resolved already? I know they should have know that this was possible from the launch of the Sprint HTC Hero. When launched it had terrible battery life due to the stock sms app. Of course there was a workaround but there is nothing better than having the official patch from HTC that ultimately tripled the battery life on the Hero with the stock 1.5/2.1 rom.
 
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I haven't tried rooting yet. From what I was reading about it, it really simple compared to rooting the Hero. I plan on doing it somewhere down the line. Just like some others would say, why do I have to modify my phone to get it to do what it should out the box? I'm quite happy running the stock rom. Compared to my old Hero it's like slicing a hot knife through butter. I'm just hoping that when the next update comes out that it fixes this issue along with the wifi and unresponsive touchscreen. I'm about to try a hard reset. I'll report back if it has had a significant change in my battery life.
 
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I think it has something to do with charging to 100% and then taking off the charger. If I do that, my battery drops about 10% within first hour. Today I did what someone did in the other thread and unplugged it at 99%... now six hours later, battery is at 89%.

Either the charging mechanism is broken or it just reports wrong.
 
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I have the same problem that everyone else has. When i take my phone off the charger in the morning, the battery drops to about 95% instantly but then evens out. I took my phone off the charger at 7:30Am today and now it is at 75% after moderate usage (internet browsing, texting, and about 45min of playing games). It will normally last me all day and be at about 55% when I go to bed.

It took me a while to get the battery life down, but once I bought systempanel, I figured out which apps were sucking the battery and that fixed my problem. You might want to try it out.
 
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I just got system panel light. So do you go under runnign programs and end the ones you don't want running? Is that the same as going to menu settings and running services and force closing stuff you don't want to run? Cause System shows me active apps and I end the ones I don't think should be running. And I closed out Fring and a couple others and I went back to system and it looked like some of the same ones were open again. I know some things are ok to be in the background and Android knows when to use certain things and I have read you don't need a task killer but I know some like them. I didn't want one but then System is letting me end apps and I wasn't sure if that was considered a task killer or not?

I'm just trying tips to save my battery too. I now take my phone off charger when I get up and after 20 minutes plug it back in to go back to green. Just started that yesterday. But I did the thing here I had a full charge green light and then I unplugged and turned off phone and replugged and after 7 or 8 times when my phone was off the charge was still orange but it turned green in like 30 seconds. And then when on it was green always right away. But my friend and me were out last night and my battery status showed 7 out of 10 green bars and so did his but my battery icon showed lke 1/2 gone and his didn't. It was weird! He told me to let my battery drain completely then charge it and maybe that would calibrate it better. I don't think I've fully let it drain and charged it so I am gong to do that now. I have everything on so the battery will drain quick and once it completely dies I will fully charge it then take it off for a but then charge it again.

I have the same problem that everyone else has. When i take my phone off the charger in the morning, the battery drops to about 95% instantly but then evens out. I took my phone off the charger at 7:30Am today and now it is at 75% after moderate usage (internet browsing, texting, and about 45min of playing games). It will normally last me all day and be at about 55% when I go to bed.

It took me a while to get the battery life down, but once I bought systempanel, I figured out which apps were sucking the battery and that fixed my problem. You might want to try it out.
 
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I'm having VERY mixed results with my battery. The only thing I have on is 3g, which is only used to sync Gmail, and Facebook for Sense (once a day update only). On Friday, took the phone off the charger at 8am. By 10 am, I was down to 80%. After that, all I used the phone for was to check emails throughout the day (that day i only got about 5), send a couple texts, checked the weather twice, and made a 10 minute phone call. So basically I used the phone for MAYBE 25 minutes. It was dead by 5pm. I had full bars the whole day as well.

Yesterday, I took the phone off the charger about 11am, used it a bit throughout the day. I went to work at 5pm, drove an hour using navigation (which normally eats the battery like crazy). When I got to my jobsite for the night, i found out this particular area had no signal on Sprint, and 1 bar of roaming. So the phone was constantly searching all night. I left at 11pm, drove an hour home with Navigation. When I got home at midnight, the battery still had 60% left.

Today, I took the phone off the charger at 8am, used the phone a little, jsut a few emails and texts. its now 9pm, and i still have 80% left.

So what gives? Friday, when I didnt use the phone at all, and had full bars, it died in 9 hours. Yesterday, when i used navigation for 2 hours, and was searching for a signal for 6 hours, and I still had tons of battery left...
 
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Ok I have some results. After doing a factory reset I set up my homescreens to my liking. I'll post screen shots later. When finished, I let the phone charge up to 100% and unplugged at 8:24pm. About 4.75 hours later my phone is sitting around 78% battery life. I'm stunned on the difference a factory reset has done. Prior to the factory reset, my phone would be around 30-40% battery life in the same time frame. I sent some text, answered a phone call, chirped the with wife using TIKL PTT, and played some games. I have my facebook for sense setup. I have everything set to sync every 4 hours. I also disabled the Stock and News apps from syncing. I signed out of GTalk as I don't use it. Instead of a live wallpaper, I went with a picture I've taken. I'm astonished on the life the battery has left. I will report back in the morning about the remaining life.

BTW, I have very bad phone signal in my house. I have 0-1 bar of signal in my house. On a good day I sometime get 2 bars. For this I leave my wifi on. I know that can account for my battery life depleting quite fast, but I'm please on the results that I have so far. I'll report back in the morning on more findings. I will leave the phone unplugged overnight and check on the results.
 
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BTW, I have very bad phone signal in my house. I have 0-1 bar of signal in my house. On a good day I sometime get 2 bars. For this I leave my wifi on. I know that can account for my battery life depleting quite fast, but I'm please on the results that I have so far. I'll report back in the morning on more findings. I will leave the phone unplugged overnight and check on the results.
Having bad signal is the number 1 reason for quick battery drain.
I had a Nokia flip phone that usually last 4-5 days. Went to fishing on a boat with low signal 0-1 bar. Battery completely dead after 6 hours. I learned to turn off my cell phone from there on while on the boat (use it only in emergency). If your work has good signal, you can do a comparison of battery drain while at work to while at home.
I don't understand why you would choose to go with Sprint knowing that their service would not work well within your home.
 
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I sort of had this idea for awhile now and believe some of us received phones with sub-par batteries, me included. I've never had a phone with a battery that fails to stabilize like this one. I've done EVERYTHING everyone else does and my battery still acts jacked up. System will idle over night showing 1% CPU usage and I still drain more than any phone/battery I've ever had. I'm going to order a new battery (or 2) online and see if it makes a difference.
 
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BTW, I have very bad phone signal in my house. I have 0-1 bar of signal in my house. On a good day I sometime get 2 bars. For this I leave my wifi on. I know that can account for my battery life depleting quite fast, but I'm please on the results that I have so far. I'll report back in the morning on more findings. I will leave the phone unplugged overnight and check on the results.

Try an Airraid
 
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Today I charged up to 100% and removed my Facebook account and it dropped to 97% in one minute!

I think it has something to do with charging to 100% and then taking off the charger. If I do that, my battery drops about 10% within first hour. Today I did what someone did in the other thread and unplugged it at 99%... now six hours later, battery is at 89%.

I have the same problem that everyone else has. When i take my phone off the charger in the morning, the battery drops to about 95% instantly but then evens out.

The phone is designed to charge up to 100% and then stop charging (as a battery maintenance/protection feature), so even though it is plugged in, the battery will drop depending on the drain while plugged in.

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/102869-why-your-battery-drops-10-15-first-20-minutes.html
 
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I think it has something to do with charging to 100% and then taking off the charger. If I do that, my battery drops about 10% within first hour. Today I did what someone did in the other thread and unplugged it at 99%... now six hours later, battery is at 89%.

Either the charging mechanism is broken or it just reports wrong.

Just did the same thing - charge to 99% and unplug - getting the same results where it is no longer draining the first 10-15% rapidly and is actually still at 99% an hour later. I wish I had another battery right now to compare.
 
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The phone is designed to charge up to 100% and then stop charging (as a battery maintenance/protection feature), so even though it is plugged in, the battery will drop depending on the drain while plugged in.

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/102869-why-your-battery-drops-10-15-first-20-minutes.html

I understand what you're saying and what the thread is trying to say, however, in my case I find that doesn't matter. If I pull it off the charger right after it hits 100% and start using it, I'll still get the rapid 10-15% drain.
 
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Having bad signal is the number 1 reason for quick battery drain.
I had a Nokia flip phone that usually last 4-5 days. Went to fishing on a boat with low signal 0-1 bar. Battery completely dead after 6 hours. I learned to turn off my cell phone from there on while on the boat (use it only in emergency). If your work has good signal, you can do a comparison of battery drain while at work to while at home.
I don't understand why you would choose to go with Sprint knowing that their service would not work well within your home.

I had Sprint before the EVO was released. I had Sprint before I moved to where I am. Prior to moving here, I always had full signal. I know if the phone searches for a signal constantly it kill the battery. My Hero has never had the problem after the 1.56 and 2.1 update. In the same time frame, the Hero's battery lasted twice as long on a signal charge in the same house with both phones getting 0-1 bar of signal. That is why I keep wifi on so the phone doesn't constantly search for a 3G signal to download syncing data.


Anyways, I have new result. I woke up at 7:15am this morning and had 27% battery life left after a 10 hour period. I believe that is freakin' awesome compared to what I was getting before where the EVO would be already dead. I'll post screen shots in a few.
 
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