Android Phones = Horrible Battery?

[MyNamesTooLong]

Then turn off all features of the device which makes it more than a phone.

Don't surf the web, turn off gps, don't get your email, don't use any social networking, don't use live wallpapers, use titanium backup to freeze all of your apps, and then your battery should last much longer.

Stop it...you dont have to completely cripple the phone to make it through a day. My g2 lasts a day and I use a live walpaper, make calls, use email, text quite a bit, use the web etc. The key to battery life is to adjust what is killing your battery and turn off what you dont use

 

[shawn1224]

Stop it...you dont have to completely cripple the phone to make it through a day. My g2 lasts a day and I use a live walpaper, make calls, use email, text quite a bit, use the web etc. The key to battery life is to adjust what is killing your battery and turn off what you dont use

I think he was being facetious

 

[roadkizzle]

What device cannot?

The problem is that people play Angry Birds (display and processor) for hours or browse the web (display and 3G/4G -- processor as well especially if you're using Flash) extensively and then wonder why their battery is dead. That's not "a couple of pictures, checking email a few times, making a few phones calls, and maybe some light web usage".

Yes, I'll admit, I was exaggerating a bit. Although, to answer your question my iPhone 3G for about the year before I got my Bravo couldn't make it more than about 6 hours with doing nothing but receiving emails and answering a few of them while performing observations at airports around the country for work.
Granted, that was also due to being a 2 year old phone, and being crippled by the iOS 4 update.

When I used that phone, my wife and I went out of town to go to a football game. I was driving and socializing with my family the entire day so I hadn't even turned my phones screen on since when I left the apartment that morning. She probably had her screen off a total of about 30 min-1hr by the time I checked both of our batteries.
Mine had drained just as much as hers in about 9 hours of usage (About 20-30% left), while if I had been using mine as she did, it would have died in probably 1-2 hours.

 

[Mad_Sunday]

Biggest drain is usually the screen brightness, turn it as low as you can for normal operation. Only turn up the brightness when you have to.

Pete

 

[jroc]

^Yea....I dont use auto brightness anymore. I just adjust for outside when needed.

 

[Mortus]

There are actually a few laptops that claim a 12 Hour battery life, but more often then not these claims fall short because they don't tell you that is with minimal use.

Likewise the same is true of any smart phone. For what the OP is looking for, those expectations are unrealistic for any phone, just as asking a laptop to maintain a 12 hour battery time while you play WoW on Ultra (Assuming the laptop could even handle Ultra). Yes you can get 12+ hours out of the phone IF you use it as a phone, maybe take some pictures and don't leave the screen on all day, but squeezing 20 minutes of video into that time frame is likely not possible.

The Screen is the real killer on portable devices, the less you leave the screen on, and the less you use the backlight the more time you will from the battery.

 

[awdcivic]

i get 26 hours from my thunderbolt (extended battery) if the screen is on lowest dim.. not that hard to change a few settings.. but most droids have way better battery than thunderbolt

 

[Deleted User]

^Yea....I dont use auto brightness anymore. I just adjust for outside when needed.

I have gone back to using auto brightness which not only seems to work well but also seems to make little difference to the battery life

 

[mikedt]

Samsung Galaxy S. If I just use it as a phone, that is making phone calls and sending SMS, battery life is 5-6 days. Using it as a PDA/Computer GPS, WiFi, 3G, Skype, browsing, playing games, etc. No live wallpapers or widgets though, as I can't see the point in these. Battery may last 1 day. That is exactly what I would expect.

 

[arnold22]

Samsung Galaxy S. If I just use it as a phone, that is making phone calls and sending SMS, battery life is 5-6 days. Using it as a PDA/Computer GPS, WiFi, 3G, Skype, browsing, playing games, etc. No live wallpapers or widgets though, as I can't see the point in these. Battery may last 1 day. That is exactly what I would expect.

Same as above. My phone will last a day without any battery issue and if I don't play a lot of games for a couple of days, I can get two days.

Battery life will vary A LOT depending on the type of user you are and what you use your phone for. The type of phone will also make a difference; larger screen, faster processor, 4G... will use more battery when compared to "enter level" Android phone.

 

[Stuntman]

I have gone back to using auto brightness which not only seems to work well but also seems to make little difference to the battery life

The problem with auto brightness is that you cannot calibrate the brightness with respect to the different light levels. I think auto brightness turns the screen to 100% brightness in sunlight, about 70% indoors and 40% in darkness. I'm just estimating this. What I want is 100% in sunlight, 30% indoors and 9% in darkness. I use my phone indoors most of the time, so with auto brightness on, the screen is way too bright for my liking.

 

[jroc]

^There is a Brightness toggle with Beautiful Widgets where you can set it to 2 different %'s: 100% and whatever you set the Brightness to in the phone settings. I just set mine to 17%.

Maybe a Brightness app/widget where you can set different %'s would be ideal.

 

[Couter]

Buy a spare battery; problem solved.

 

[fltblkvic]

Probably going to be the only one to tout the LG Ally as a good battery life phone but I go days between recharges and I've had it for over a year and I run it at OC speeds (stock 600Mhz, OC'ed to 768 Mhz thanks to Velocity 1.1 custom Rom) Also if your device is rooted with a custom recovery such as Amon Ra or Clockwork, there is a calibration tool in the recovery menu that will wipe your stock battery stats and use a more phone specific setting. Charge to 100%, while it's still full and on charger, go into recovery and find the wipe battery stats option. Wipe the stats, reboot and unplug your phone. Use your phone and don't charge it until the battery goes dead to the point of shutting down the phone, it remembers and uses those stats for system battery usage details. I've definitely noticed increased batter life after calibrating mine. Anyway, everything everyone else said is true as well but maybe this will help you.

 

[Stuntman]

^There is a Brightness toggle with Beautiful Widgets where you can set it to 2 different %'s: 100% and whatever you set the Brightness to in the phone settings. I just set mine to 17%.

Maybe a Brightness app/widget where you can set different %'s would be ideal.

I'm not talking about a widget that allows me to manually change the brightness quickly. I'm already using Brightness Widgets that let me cycle through 3 different brightnesses. What I'm talking about is a way to calibrate auto brightness so that if I'm inside and I walk outside into the sun, the screen will automatically go from 30% to 100% without my pressing anything. Right now, if I have an app open and I walk outside, I have to go to my home screen, press the brightness widget and then go back to my app. I want an app that can automatically change the brightness of the screen based on the light sensor, but allows me to determine the auto brightness levels.

 

[Usta]

Battery usage differences are due to user habits, phones, apps, ROMs...
Since most of the users don't want to change their usage habits and their phones, the choices are limited to apps and ROMs. Power hungry apps can mostly be replaced. Rooted users can also user efficient ROMs/kernels.
I don't want to carry an extra battery, as some suggest...