My Battery Test

[GalaxyS609]

If you have not seen me post before, it seems as if I am one of the few who is not plagued by this poor battery life issue. My battery seems to last for quite some time even when being used constantly. Today, I decided to put it to the test and see how long it took to go from 100% to 0%, then fully recharge.

I started using the phone shortly before 9am, unplugged it since I charged it overnight, then checked my email and text messages. I went back and forth with text messages to a few friends over breakfast and searched for some new interesting apps. I also switched went back and forth between keyboards while I was texting just to play around. I eventually took a drive to meet up with a couple other friends, hit the beach for a bit then went for lunch, all the time using the phone for various things. By this time I was only down to 81%, so I hit the music player for a little bit until I became bored with that (I havent bothered to load a ton of songs yet), I also contined to text people during this time and ended up taking two phone calls as well.

I came back home to get some things done that I actually had to do today, so I wasn

 

[YellowGT0]

Cycle it a few times from 100 to 0 and back again. The phone will be more accurate.

 

[GalaxyS609]

well so far its been accurate, the only thing that seemed weird as far as battery life go was the display level when its off vs. the display level when its on, but its not like Im ever going to be comparing the two all the time and once the display level was above 50% when it was off, it was pretty accurate.

Either way in a couple days when I reach 0 again all do another full recharge and see if anything changes.

 

[GalaxyS609]

just figured I'd make another update, probably my list one on this topic.

The day after my post above, I tracked the battery use for the following day. It went a little something like this.

2am 100%
10am 86%
1pm 70%
5pm 40%
1:30am 15%
2am %5

Its a little choppy but I was out doing things all day and didnt bother writing down all the %'s. Point is, it still made it through a FULL day just fine with normal use and a little excessive use in the evening.

Fast forward to today. The reason I was inspired to make this update is because I am now on Day 2 of my last charge, actually since Monday my phone has been holding a much better charge than every before.

I charged it Saturday night, used it all day Sunday and noticed I wasnt even down to 50% yet, so I didnt bother charging it that night. Even after Tuesday's use I wasnt down to any critically low points but I made sure to take it down below 5% before recharging to keep my data accurate. Yesterday I used it rather casually, 3 calls, bunch of texts, 1 picture, ect ect. I think I was at 80%-82% when I went to bed last night. I have been using the alarm clock on the phone and when I turned it off this morning I was only down to 77%. I dont think 3%-5% overnight with the alarm is bad at all. I'm really curious to see what if will be down to by the end of today and if I can get 3 days out of 1 charge.

 

[harryzwd]

this is a great thread/post and i'd be interested to see how your battery life continues to improve (or worsen) as time goes on. thanks for taking the time to write this.

so you NEVER had battery issues? do you "short charge" at all or do you always let the battery run out - as in "cycle" the battery.

mine's always drained fast but i had always short charged the battery. i have only let mine run down to 0% one time and it seems that after fully charging with the phone off back to 100% that the battery is indeed lasting a little longer. i'm hoping with a couple of more 100-0-100 cycles that it improves even more.

 

[Taero]

I feel people may be expecting a lot out of their battery, I was looking at the Samsung site on their expected usage times depending on what you were doing and this is what they say:

So with just using sms pretty constantly (and with nothing else going on, no uploads, downloads, GPS (heh) background data, syncing etc.) you can expect 8hrs, use the camera/camcorder and you drop to 4/3 hours. Use the internet constantly? Apparently that's 3 hours and watching movies should get you 7 hours.

Again I assume that each of these stands alone and is based on only that aspect of the phone being used at the time, and then it being used continuously (only really applicable for camcorder, mp3 and movies). But when you enter into the equation all the other things you're probably likely to be doing, jumping between applications, switching out to send a text, check your emails, using the wifi, make a call, use the bluetooth, play a game, look on youtube, pandora, browse the app market, delete and download a few new ones I think people looking for days of use out of their phones between recharges may be being a bit optimistic.

Of course if your phone can't make it through the day on standby or some light usage (occasional text or email, some calls, maybe read some news etc.) especially after cycling (whether Li batteries can have memory or not or whether it's for calibration) then yeah I imagine there's something wrong with the battery. But my wifes 3G iphone only makes it through the day as well (As do her friends). Look at what you're using, it's fast, it runs multiple things at once and does a hell of a lot all the while normally having a bright and colourful screen. I'd say don't be so quick to jump on the "my battery/phone is broken" bandwagon and have a look at what you're using, if you can get through the day with some heavy usage then that's pretty good.

Remember it's no good if you can get through the day and part of the next one, as you'll be stuck having to charge on the go somewhere, it's either one whole day or two.

That said I'm interested in this battery test at the top of the screen, looks like you're getting what Samsung think you should get.

 

[Zinge764]

The battery bar the the top for me is horribly inaccurate, even after 5 cycles

 

[harryzwd]

yes, everyone on the forum has loaded up some kind of battery widget to keep an eye on the battery, i use battery left which seems to be very accurate.

 

[CrimsonPride]

The battery bar the the top for me is horribly inaccurate, even after 5 cycles

it will always be like that, itll show half until it gets to 25%, then it drops down. i recommend downloading a battery widget.

on a side note my battery has not been bad after the first several cycles, but today i got up and unplugged my phone, an hour later it had dropped 10% with no use. i think it was an espn widget i had installed last night. if i can find the battery usage screen again ill make sure thats what it was

 

[GalaxyS609]

Well, today is morning 3 of the same charge. Woke up with 30% left, Im currently at 24% now. I dont think it will get me through till tonight, but Im gonna leave it and see.

this is a great thread/post and i'd be interested to see how your battery life continues to improve (or worsen) as time goes on. thanks for taking the time to write this.

so you NEVER had battery issues? do you "short charge" at all or do you always let the battery run out - as in "cycle" the battery.

I've never had crazy battery issues like a lot of others seem to be having. I've only short charged it a handful times or if Im connected to my PC to transfer files its obviously charging then too. I like to do full charges but thats not always possible.

Remember it's no good if you can get through the day and part of the next one, as you'll be stuck having to charge on the go somewhere, it's either one whole day or two.

That said I'm interested in this battery test at the top of the screen, looks like you're getting what Samsung think you should get.

Yeah half day charges are certainly not ideal unless you have an office job, lol.

The only thing I have not done yet (which I really want to do) is test the battery out of the phone when 100% charged with a VOM, then pull the battery out again at 50% and see if the reading is correct in terms of what the battery pack should hold.

The battery bar the the top for me is horribly inaccurate, even after 5 cycles

yup, and probably always will be unless it gets recalibrated in some sort of update from Samsung.

I personally use BattStatt - Android app on AppBrain

 

[rurouni572]

The battery bar the the top for me is horribly inaccurate, even after 5 cycles

As everyone else has already said, a battery widget will help you get the real battery level. Numbers to me will ALWAYS be more helpful than a vague visual based battery level. I wish they'd do the same for signal strength too. In that one Anandtech article on the iphone4 review they replaced the signal bar with a numerical signal strength indicator. You can see it under the "about" setting, but not on the home screen.

But I digress. Get a battery widget. It's horribly repetitive and I wish Samsung would have given us a more "honest" battery indicator, but at least this is android. We do what we want!

 

[cbk.o4]

I have done one discharge so far and am fine with my battery life, I can stream pandora, txt, and play games all day while wandering around campus (in and out of 3g) and i was at 76% when i got home today at 5. I unplugged it at 8 this morning while my alarm was irritating my brain.

btw my battery is 2010.06.20 or 21 can remember exactly

 

[panpaliamahen]

“Battery Test” App into Android Market:

“Battery Test” is android app to test any android based samrtphone, tablet battery.

It will generated an ExcellSheet and a Doc showing whole LOG of battery and it’s uses.
It will have following BATTERY information.

Time, Level(%), status, health, voltage, temperature, technology etc.

It is highly customizable and next version has plan of getting a very good user interface,
where user can see live battery info on the screen then just on log.

For more details go to following URL:
Battery Test - Android