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Easy way to increase battery life

:)

Yep. For some reason, they get something tangled up in the Dalvik cache area, I believe - and yep, it seems that way for about of the phones, I've yet to find why.

Glad that worked out for you!
 
hmmm, anyone else able to tell whether a factory reset benefits? I normally finish the day on about 40% at about 10pm
 
What does the "Mobile Data Always On" do, and what happens if I uncheck it? I have everything to sync when I'm on WiFi/3G and I open that program. (ie: Facebook or email updates only when I open them).
 
Mobile data always enforces that you have a data connection for 3G - whether you need it or not - as you get handed from tower to tower on the go. If you live in a fringe kind of reception area, where you may get toggled often between towers, it'll suck a battery quick.

I leave mine off. I use HTC's Mail app, set the several accounts there to poll as I prefer. When that polling happens, then the phone initiates the data connection as needed, then goes quiet after mail updates - much more efficient way of doing things.

If you have mobile data always on, it might save you a second or two when you open Mail and it goes into auto-checking for new mail, because the 3G connection's already there.

If you want to show how fast your phone updates data to impress the press and scare competitors, you ship with mobile data always on.

If you don't mind a second or two delay here or there extra for a battery savings, switch it off.

Also note - sms is actually a 2G service and isn't affected by this at all.

Hope the mail example helps shed some light on the idea - best way I could think to explain it.
 
Gardium said:
Also, have you conditioned your battery? Usually, when I get a new phone (although I know that with newer batteries its not NECESSARY, but it still has an effect on battery life I believe), I dont open it before the night before I go to bed, and I let the battery charge throughout the whole night (i.e. 8-9 hours) before I unplugg it, and then I let it drain as much battery as I can (basically the phone is dying, or has died and can't start up again) before I charge it again. And this I do again, I let it charge 8-9 hours, then drain it completely again.

If you have used your battery though, and not done this, there are other methods. I'm not too familiar with those, but something like "charge for 9 hours while on, then turn off, charge 1 hour more, then unplug, and drain for 2-3 hours, plug in again while on for 5-6 hours , then turn off and let it be for 1 hour charging more before unplugging and turning on" (but again, I'm not sure about this).
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I believe that these techniques really do NOTHING for battery life & run time. When you charge the phone the light will go green when the charge process is complete and the battery is at 100% charge - you cannot (and should not even if you could) put more charge into the battery than that. The charging circuitry & algorithms built into the phone are smart and from what I can tell DO charge the battery correctly using the best practise charging method (CC/CV charge to 4.2V). I have used MyPhoneExplorer to watch the battery information while the phone is charging and I am certain that it does use the CC/CV charge method.

What this means: Once the light goes green your battery is charged, leaving it for several more hours will do nothing to put more charge in and taking it off charge and then putting it back on charge for another hour will do absolutely NOTHING. Once that light is green the charging circuit has stopped putting power into the battery, it isn't gaining any more charge.

The full drain of the battery really wont do much either, cycling a LiPoly battery really wont gain you anything (as with all Li-ion chemistry cells).


One thing that DOES help is to use the wall charger that comes with the phone (as opposed to plugging the lead into a USB port on a computer) because that can deliver 1A which allows charging twice as fast.

If you can plug the phone into the charger for a short while then you will gain back a large percentage of the charge in a short time. If the phone takes 2 1/2 hours to fully charge from flat (I haven't actually timed it) then you will find that within 1 hour it is over 80% charged - the charging isn't linear (it will charge at 1A initially but when the voltage hits 4.2V the amperage gets reduced gradually while the voltage is kept constant). You will do no harm to the battery or run time if you quickly boost the battery to 80% charged when you are pressed for time. What I'm suggesting is that if you get home from work, shower, get changed and then go out for the night then you can put your phone on charge as soon as you get home and then grab off charge it when you head out - you will have a mostly charged phone.

There is no reason not to 'top up' the charge as often as you feel like, if you never let your battery drop below 60% charge it wont matter, the battery wont develop a memory and your run time wont be reduced. Many people think that they need to run the battery right down, but this just isn't true for Li-ion chemistry batteries - which all cell phones use these days. One option for the many people that work on a computer is to buy a spare USB lead and keep it at work, plugging your phone into your work computer and choosing the 'charge only' option - you can keep you phone fully charged all day long if you want to.

I have plenty of experience with Li-ion cells of various chemistries (LiCo, LiMn, LiFePO4) and various sizes (10440, 14500, 16340, 18650, 25500, 32650) with various capacities (180mAh to 5000mAh) and have done capacity testing with output graphs on various cells thanks to modern, hi-tech hobby chargers. Many things are believed by many people about battery use - but a lot of those things aren't true. Often people that have experience with NiCd cells think that what they know applies to all rechargeable batteries, but Li-ion cells are VERY different in their characteristics than NiCd or NiMH cells.
 
Guys, I am facing the same problem, I need to charge my phone two times a day, very bad experience for me till now, ( bought this one ten days back). My battery use only displays usage of power in display and voice calls. I have set brightness to 20% and voice calls aren normal, 1-1.5 hours a day. I use unlimited data plan as I have official mail configured on this one.

One of my friends today suggested that he faced the same issue until he downloaded Android 2.3.3 on his phone. he now says that his battery backup has imporved drastically, the way Gardium suggested. I just wanted to check if Gardium, you are using Android 2.3 on your phone?

Has anyone here tried this and found ti working? Battery backup of my phone at the moment is PATHETIC . . .
 
showstealer.pn said:
Guys, I am facing the same problem, I need to charge my phone two times a day, very bad experience for me till now, ( bought this one ten days back). My battery use only displays usage of power in display and voice calls. I have set brightness to 20% and voice calls aren normal, 1-1.5 hours a day. I use unlimited data plan as I have official mail configured on this one.

One of my friends today suggested that he faced the same issue until he downloaded Android 2.3.3 on his phone. he now says that his battery backup has imporved drastically, the way Gardium suggested. I just wanted to check if Gardium, you are using Android 2.3 on your phone?

Has anyone here tried this and found ti working? Battery backup of my phone at the moment is PATHETIC . . .
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If you go to settings > applications > development, is USB debugging enabled? If not, I would enable it; it fixes a major bug that some people experienced pre gingerbread that drained the battery.

It may not help at all, but it certainly won't hurt.
 
must say i have been following all posts in regards to battery saving or how to get the most out of your battery and the previouse posts sez it all..I turned off all my background settings as previouse mentioned and now get up to two days out of my battery with frequent talk time..
Turn of apps etc and that blows it all away:)...
Mind you main reason for my Phone is comunication(Talk)..
Take the occasional Piccie with the camera and have a squizz at previouse Pics taken..
Not into the games section at all, nor use the GPS function as i do have two GPS's which are more capable and easier user friendly than the Phone one..
Read the hints and you will save battery life for sure..
 
Gardium said:
1) What I found to cut down battery use a lot, is a option under the Mobile network. When at your home screen, tap the menu button -> Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks -> and now uncheck the bottom option that says "Enable always-on mobile data" (under it does say "uses more power on some mobile networks). This will disable the "constant" communication the phone might have on. However, it does not disable the active sync. So having active sync on for google, HTC sense and weather still work (these are the active syncs I have on).
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I use Juice Defender for this and it works perfect and has increased my battery life by almost 1.3 to 1.5 times more. JD automatically senses your incoming data traffic and does the switch over as required to avoid remaining connected for ever on data.
 
Might be nice if HTC devised a battery sufficiently powerful enough to service all the features of the phone they promote so heavily?

That been said my battery life has gone from 6-8 hours to 40 hours, I'd describe myself as moderate user.

I conditioned the battery - have no idea, but after doing so the life cycle was much longer
I installed juice defender - again, it seems to have added longevity
I have memory booster, but have not used it much
I have installed watchdog to monitor the CPU usage
I have the widgets on the home screen for GPS / Wifi / bluetooth and brightness. - This i think is the biggest benefit, it seems pointless to have them on when not required, or at any rate switch on when required. All in all, have been using the phone / data / gps today for almost 8 hours and am at 70% power.

It won't given recent performance need a charge until Thursday evening.

But returning to the first point - when will HTC make the battery sufficiently efficient or powerful to service the phone and save us all spending more time conserving power than enjoying the expensive device it is?

Or if there is a battery recommended could a kind soul provide a link ?

many thanks - this column though is a real help to novices like me.
 
JohnDF1 said:
But returning to the first point - when will HTC make the battery sufficiently efficient or powerful to service the phone and save us all spending more time conserving power than enjoying the expensive device it is?

Or if there is a battery recommended could a kind soul provide a link ?

many thanks - this column though is a real help to novices like me.
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At the time of release, the Desire HD was HTC's flagship device. I don't believe they would have put anything other than the best battery they could into the handset. The poor battery life is the price you pay for having such a feature ladden phone unfortunately.

You do get higher capacity batteries on eBay/Amazon etc, but I've yet to see them live up to the capacities they claim they do. I've bought a few and always been disappointed.
 
Did a factory settings reset - didn't bring back juice defender, got rid of memory boost to.

On battery yesterday from midday

Battery life much improved - moderate use, off overnight but on at 0615 today.


Still has 40% at almost 2000hr tonight.

used the widgets for WiFi / gps / 3g only when needed.

gets better and better, and haven't even received the 1800 batteries from OBO.com yet

brilliant phone, and battery life keeps improving.

3 signal to-date excellent, when they had mast maintenance in June they wiped
 
Glad you're noticing an improvement.

I hear differing opinions on Juice Defender, I know folk say it works wonders, but I found it drastically shortened the life of my battery.
 
I'd agree - the app I didn't re install was juice defender. The difference in the phone battery life was substantial. I only put it back on charge now when it went to under 10%. Not bad as its now lasting not far off two days, including been left on over last night.
 
JohnDF1 said:
I'd agree - the app I didn't re install was juice defender. The difference in the phone battery life was substantial. I only put it back on charge now when it went to under 10%. Not bad as its now lasting not far off two days, including been left on over last night.
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How long did you leave wifi/mobile data on during that time?
 
Wow this thread is funny :-) Why buy a phone if people are so worried about battery life. Just use it and live and let live! Get a external pack like I did if its critical and enjoy the phone!

*** Breaking news***
I found a way to keep my battery for nearly a few Months on one charge. This is how I do it. I charge the phone till its fully charged! And once its full charged I turn the phone off. Then as I disconnect the charger I remove the battery out of it :-D and wrap the battery in an insulating plastic and store it in a cool dry place. Then I look at my phone in admiration and after several months put the battery in and boot it up, its nearly 100% full, then I repeat the cycle :-D
 
hero_101 said:
*** Breaking news***
I found a way to keep my battery for nearly a few Months on one charge. This is how I do it. I charge the phone till its fully charged! And once its full charged I turn the phone off. Then as I disconnect the charger I remove the battery out of it :-D and wrap the battery in an insulating plastic and store it in a cool dry place. Then I look at my phone in admiration and after several months put the battery in and boot it up, its nearly 100% full, then I repeat the cycle :-D
Click to expand...

Pffft, I always charge to 40% before freezing to prolong the life of the battery. :p
 
I'm a bit of a fidget and constantly turning the wi-fi and 3g on and off - daft I know, but its pretty regular since I've had the phone so I'm comparing on a like basis, that I use the phone as I need to and want to.

sorry if helping on battery tips is seen as uncool - probably worse running round asking for a socket when you want to make a call - still as long as the thread keeps the uninterested or unhelpful geeks happy
 
JohnDF1 said:
I'm a bit of a fidget and constantly turning the wi-fi and 3g on and off - daft I know, but its pretty regular since I've had the phone so I'm comparing on a like basis, that I use the phone as I need to and want to.

sorry if helping on battery tips is seen as uncool - probably worse running round asking for a socket when you want to make a call - still as long as the thread keeps the uninterested or unhelpful geeks happy
Click to expand...

I'm the same with 3G certainly, as I don't want my monthly allowance draining in the background. I have used Juice Defender for ages, which is why I asked.
 
I have just learned the lesson of using a live wallpaper as last week I put on one of the aquarium wallpapers. Net result: 6 hours max usage (and thats with the display turned off and hardly using the phone at all). Have removed the wallpaper now back at well over 24 hours usage. The trace shown in the battery monitor widget was almost vertical!!!!
 
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