Help Who cares about battery life?

[Caloy]

For anybody commenting on battery life, would you please indicate if you have an EVO and speak from personal experience. Lots of comments come from people who are assuming things and have not run an EVO every day for a week or more.

I have an EVO. Here's my experience:

1) Phone came with the screen backlight at full blast. I changed it to "auto adjust" and it keeps the backlight dimmer, but plenty bright in all circumstances, so far.

2) I Turned off the Friend Stream application that also came set up and ready to go (with a simple configuration of one's twitter/facebook/etc accounts).

3) I ran the battery down to 5% each day and then charged it over night.

After four days (four recharge cycles) I am getting more than 12 hours of battery life under the following circumstances:

a) 4G is on all the time - with >3 Mb/s down and almost 1 Mb/s up speeds
b) Email used very, very often (I get a ton of email on four different email accounts and need to respond, quickly, to most of them). Both sending and receiving emails.
c) Some web browsing
d) At least one youtube video a day (not a usual use for me, but I wanted to benchmark battery use to some extent)
e) Lots of market downloading (I need to configure my device, of course)
f) I installed a couple of games and play them a total of 15-20 minutes a day (these are "action" type games with scrolling graphics, 3D, etc. I'm not a big game player but wanted to see what this device can do)
g) A fair amount of "configuration" as this is my first Android device. I've spent 20-30 minutes every day poking around, making folders, rearranging things, "tuning" options, etc. The point is that I'm "using" the EVO; backlight is on, I'm using the touchscreen, etc.
h) a couple minutes of Sprint TV as a benchmark, mostly.
i) a few (2-3) SMS messages per day
j) Oh yeah, some phone calls... 10 minutes per day... 5-6 calls.
k) Almost forgot... TURN OFF GPS! This was a killer (and one I'm used to in other phones). It easy to turn it on when you need it.

The bottom line is that I use the device for things that are part of my normal day (I'm using this phone as my primary phone during my free trial... I'll probably activate it on my account after that... I'm quite happy so far). YMMV of course. If you do a ton of video, hundreds of SMS messages, hours of phone calls, GPS mapping all day long, playing MP3s as you work, etc. then you may find the battery to not hold you for a day.

I'm used to high-end phones that require a charge every night if they are used during the day (Toshiba TG01 which uses the same chipset as the EVO) so I'm not put off by this. Just a habit, now.

Great tips! I'll be sure to tweak my settings once I get the Evo. Hopefully I will make it through the day (sometime through the night) with just one battery. If not, I'm still fine, i have an extra battery which for me, is no hassle carrying around. I do use my phone as an MP3 player the whole day long, my 5 year old Treo 650 can do it, and that's part of my regular day. I also purchased a 2nd stereo bluetooth headset which would certainly add to the load on the batteries. I will not recharge my phone at work for reasons previously stated. So for me, a second battery is the only option.

I think everyone will use the Phone in his own way, and from that, they will find a way to either extend the working capabilities of the phone either by Charging, carrying a spare battery, tweaking the phone or any combination to last the entire day. There is no single right way to do it, and definitely everyone will deal with it with their very own way. Complaining clearly will do nothing. Finding a solution to your unique situation will. Just my 2cents.

For people who thinks that there is just one way to skin a cat, you're clearly mistaken. (not naming any names here)

EDIT: Just an opinion. I clearly don't have the Evo yet. I should shut up too...

 

[Bat~man]

I agree, you just have top find a way to make it work.

I just hope that I get better battery life than my Hero.

 

[TeamPEZ]

@ Bat~man ... I had the same issue until I got the extended battery. What a difference that made! I went for nearly two days with maximum use (email, music, surfing, online games) and had 20% left. I'm hoping that I can use this battery for the EVO, once they make a new cover for it!

 

[Bat~man]

@ Bat~man ... I had the same issue until I got the extended battery. What a difference that made! I went for nearly two days with maximum use (email, music, surfing, online games) and had 20% left. I'm hoping that I can use this battery for the EVO, once they make a new cover for it!

I hear a lot of good things about that battery, but I carry mine in my pocket since I work construction and try to keep it away from all the dirt and hazards out there =p

No way I could carry that big ol' brick around lol. They usually make one that is the same physical size but has more juice, I may look at that one if they make it for the Evo.

 

[Caloy]

I hear a lot of good things about that battery, but I carry mine in my pocket since I work construction and try to keep it away from all the dirt and hazards out there =p

No way I could carry that big ol' brick around lol. They usually make one that is the same physical size but has more juice, I may look at that one if they make it for the Evo.

I've already have the 1750 mAh battery from Seidio. But some thread here said that it's less than the stock batteries, so I'm not sure. I'll compare both batteries once I get the phone.

There's also the 3500 mAh battery coming out soon, I don't know if you mind adding another 3-4 mm to the depth of the evo, but if you do, an extra battery would be your best bet.

I would also suggest making a small container from paper, cardboard or plastic to protect your batteries, especially if you have other metallic objects in your pockets. Just to make sure you won't short out the batteries.

 

[dzar]

I'm on my iPhone right now and I just hit 10% battery with 4 hours and 45 minutes of usage and 1 day and 22 hours of standby. That's why battery life matters and that's why I'm waiting to hear some more real life reviews before I make the plunge.

So if I read this right, you have used your phone for 10% of the up time (288/2760 minutes). Since my last charge, I was at 24% (251/1032 minutes) at which point I needed to recharge - about 8% battery left (that's 17.2 hours by the way). So it seems to me that if I adjust my usage to be 10%, I would expect about 1 day, 17 hours. So what's the big difference? (I had 4G and bluetooth on for that entire time, by the way).

I think the issue is how long a phone is in standby... that's the point of most of the battery threads; how to keep your phone in standby longer so the battery life is better. While the iPhone might come with better settings out of the box (I've never used one so I cannot comment on this), it is possible to get the EVO set up to perform as well, it seems.

 

[gnarlyDUCK]

I just bought a kit with a charger and 2 spare batteries on ebay for $12. I dont care if they are as good as OEM really. Ill keep them handy in an emergency and just buy a few more when they crap out.

This would be great.. I would just keep one in my work bag and the other on my desk at home.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=ht...ery&_osacat=0&bkBtn=&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313