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Galaxy Nexus Battery Life

I just got the nexus yesterday and haven't had time to really test out the battery life yet (plus I hear that you need to break in the battery), but I did have a question for you all. I recently tried to tether using PdaNet and was listening to IHeart Radio using 4G. When I did this, I couldn't believe that the battery was still slowly draining and not charging when connected to the computer. With my droid x it would charge and stay charged. Is this normal???:confused:
 
Ok, so every day this coming week I'm going to do some detailed tests (and then publishing them). My campus has 100% WiFi coverage. This is Day 1: Wifi on all day. Consisted of:

Drove to store (so there was 4G at random periods)
Downloaded 10 apps
Watched a couple YouTube videos
Made 3 phone calls
Checked in multiple times on Foursquare (with GPS)
Used Facebook
Took exactly 10 pictures throughout the day (half w/ flash, half without)
Uploaded 5 of these pictures to Facebook and 5 to Dropbox
Email & Google Voice at normal periods
Browsed the Internet for about 40 minutes

My Settings:

Screen Timeout: 15 seconds
GPS: Always on (Only used when apps are using it)
NFC: On
WiFi: Always on
Notifications: Sound/LED/Vibrate
Haptic Feedback: On
Lockscreen: None

At 4% battery life left (last warning):
Screenshot_2011-12-17-01-46-25.png


Coming up next week:
4G Only
3G Only
4G/WiFi On
3G/WiFi On
Tasker Day (e.g. when event in calendar, turn on WiFi)
My Day (Day where I throw out the experiment and tweak it from past days' experience and see what I can achieve)

Overall, Day 1 thoughts: WiFi seems to make battery life pretty great. If I would have left the phone screen off at 4% it probably would have went 30 more minutes on WiFi, the sleep polling with WiFi and sleep mode in general is excellent.
 
ryotto said:
I think battery life in a phone is like gas mileage in a car.<snip>
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A bit. Except that a fuel gauge in the car is a pretty good representation of how much fuel is actually left.

A lithium ion battery, on the other hand, takes a bit of calculated guess work until the voltage drop-off near the end of the discharge. So when is says 50% it could be anywhere but that, especially in those first days of ownership.

But none of this really takes away from the point you were making about leadfoot vs. hypermilers, just saying...
 
SkinnyD said:
Hey JDK - I have been checking other forums and there are 3-4 other people with our same complaint. that is more than just an outlier, that is an awful ****ing lot of lemons. I'm pretty pissed off about it, serious lack of quality on Samsung's part. Please update this thread and let us know if the replacement worked for you. I can't get a replacement until Monday at the earliest...
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3 to 4 other people with the same problem? Out of how many? I think if I was having serious battery concerns I'd be quick to jump online and post up, yet not so eager if things seemed good or even OK.

Just saying, it's hard to make serious claims of "an awful lot of lemons" or lack of quality control with just a few complaints on the first days of ownership, after tens of thousands have been sold.
 
I bought a bundle last night that includes a standard battery, charger, and Y cables. $30

It also serves as a horizontal stand (dock when you use the cable).

Just FYI if anyone is interested.
 
Ngo93 said:
How exactly do you condition the battery when you first get it?

- turn on
- use until shut off
- charge to 100% undisturbed

....and then the charges after that would I still need to drain it to 0%? Or just charge / discharge regulary?
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You don't

You allow android to collect battery stats to give you a more robust experience. This is in how it reports the battery level to you. If you don't have 3-4 full charges, you aren't seeing proper reporting.

Most people see this in a rapid drop of the indicator, when in fact, they just have to go through a few charge cycles to see very good perceived battery life.
 
I am holding out for 2012 and CES when they start to announce quad core phones that have better battery life due to things like 5th core power and CPU management to help with battery life. And by then, they all will have ICS.
 
Lock-N-Load said:
I am holding out for 2012 and CES when they start to announce quad core phones that have better battery life due to things like 5th core power and CPU management to help with battery life. And by then, they all will have ICS.
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Well good for you! Thanks for sharing that. I'm out of Jameson, so I'll probably be buying a replacement 1.75L bottle today.

However, I don't see how that plays into discussing the SGN battery life today. There is cpu management today, and it appears to be even more refined in this phone!
 
Considering my old iphone would be dead within 4 hours use, the Galaxy Nexus battery is a dream. Went 7:30 am -8:30 pm. Texted, downloaded, emails, Facebook, a little Angry Birds, normal everyday use.
 
I was seeing some poor battery life until I did 2 things. First went into developer options and set Max processes to 4. Then I discovered the battery settings to see that my screen was what was eating most of the juice. I was set to have the screen turn off after 10 minutes. Reduced that to 2 minutes. Also set brightness to 60%. Phone was fully charged at 4pm, went out for the evening and was at 84% at 11pm. Only used it for checking and posting to Facebook, but prior to the changes I would have been at around 30% by then. Note that I also turn off the GPS when I am not using it. I love the the program quick settings so I can quickly toggle stuff on or off.
 
My battery life has been exceptional... I utilize WiFi when I can and I'm not a heavy drainer in general.... but while my DINC lasted less than 9 hours after being fully charged the GN lasts more than a full day in the same exact conditions. I've also used it as a GPS on a 20 hour motorcycle trip plugged in to my bike's cigarette lighter and, unlike the DINC it charged fast enough to not die on the ride. It is weird to me to not have to consistantly worry about my battery.

AND the 20 hours of ride time only had LTE@7 hours ish (Under charge.) The DINC would not let me get 2.5 hours without being drained.

Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE my Incredible. It was/is an awesome phone and I'm not ditching it. It will just be my "Gone Fishing" phone in case it falls into the Gulf of Mexico.
 
speede541 said:
3 to 4 other people with the same problem? Out of how many? I think if I was having serious battery concerns I'd be quick to jump online and post up, yet not so eager if things seemed good or even OK.

Just saying, it's hard to make serious claims of "an awful lot of lemons" or lack of quality control with just a few complaints on the first days of ownership, after tens of thousands have been sold.
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Well it is anecdotal for sure, but I have googled for forums discussions on Galaxy Nexus battery life and found four other people claiming the same thing, one in this thread. The place I bought mine from got a shipment of 5 in today, so I am off to exchange it. I charged it fully, checked one facebook post and called them and it went from 99% down to 88% in less than ten minutes, so I think it must be this particular lemon phone.
 
markdmac said:
I was set to have the screen turn off after 10 minutes. Reduced that to 2 minutes.
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Whenever I'm done with whatever I'm doing, be it a text or email or whatever, I just turn the screen off myself with the power button. It's developed into a habit. Probably will help you even further.
 
im at 87% after 6 hours with light usage (some browsing, few texts back and forth) significantly better than day 1 and 2.

NFC off
deactivated lightflow in accessibility (it still works fine)
disabled lightflow in the app (it still works fine)(might not do anything but oh well)
Location and Google Search OFF
Google Location services ON
4 background processes max
animation/graphics x.5
screen 30% (bright enough for my eyes)
sync OFF (i uninstalled yahoo mail because i couldnt get it to stop pushing even with sync off)
4G LTE ON
wifi OFF

honestly push email can be annoying and cause you to look at your phone every 5 seconds. i check my emails when i want to, not when i receive one. once i stopped unlocking my phone every 2 minutes i saw the battery life. i use it when i need to, i dont when i dont.
 
Two questions for everyone...

1. The thing that is using the most power on my Nexus is the Android OS. I go to the apps and stop them from running but the OS is still running high. Any idea on how to fix this?

2. My standard battery died. I got lil over 5 hours out of it. When I plugged it in the charger it starts out by saying charging at 53%. Any idea why that would happen?

I would appreciate the help. Thanks!
 
Well I thought I would share my battery stats from halfway through today. Seems pretty good to me. This is on the standard battery, with 4G on and Wifi on (I believe it turns 4G off while I have a wifi connection, then turns 4G back on when I lose wifi).

Normal days usage.

Screenshot_2011-12-17-14-47-51.png


Screenshot_2011-12-17-14-55-13.png
 
Can some tell me if this is normal?

Charged the phone to 100%
On wifi
Screen brightness all the way down
Browising and checked emails for 10 minutes
Dropped 5% in battery

This is my first 4g phone but coming from a Droid x the Nexus seems to really eat up battery. But since i am not using 4g i am suprised just how much battery t10 min of use eats up.My Droid x would not drop that quickly. Is this on par with what others are experiancing or is this much drainage atypical for other nexus users?
 
I think I'm in the minority.. but I'm pretty happy with the battery life so far:eek: This is my first full charge cycle today... all 4g (other than ~1 minute to set up connection to my router). Can't wait to get my extended battery.. should be even better.

For me this was moderate/heavy usage.


Screenshot_2011-12-17-16-54-36.jpg

Screenshot_2011-12-17-16-54-29.jpg
 
I was really unhappy with my battery life the other day because the first night I had this phone, it lost 34% battery life while I was asleep for about 6 hours. Last night was a different story though. I haven't charged my phone for about 11 hours (counting time I was asleep) and I still have plenty of juice.
 
XFistsClenched said:
I was really unhappy with my battery life the other day because the first night I had this phone, it lost 34% battery life while I was asleep for about 6 hours. Last night was a different story though. I haven't charged my phone for about 11 hours (counting time I was asleep) and I still have plenty of juice.
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Three full charges then report.
 
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