so you suggest i get locale? it seems like a pretty good app but there are many different plug ins. what do you suggest?
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Battery Life??
- Thread starter Marquee B
- Start date
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- motorola droid
hudman
Newbie
InFiNiTy12402
Lurker
ya im thinking after that video, theres probably something wrong with your battery, cause that was pretty impressive.
thanks, i think i may have messed my battery up because mine wouldnt lat that long.
hudman
Newbie
When ever I get anything with a rechargeable battery I always give it a full charge and run it completely dead and go back to a full charge. I do this at least once. I know the newer batteries are not suppose to get "memory" but I do it just to do a full cycle of the battery. better safe than sorry. 
When ever I get anything with a rechargeable battery I always give it a full charge and run it completely dead and go back to a full charge. I do this at least once. I know the newer batteries are not suppose to get "memory" but I do it just to do a full cycle of the battery. better safe than sorry.
i know i usually do the same but this time i couldnt, i wasnt able to so i let it drian completely and then charged fully.
I didnt properly condition the battery and used it out of the box. Is it ok to just buy a new battery rather than returning it? Or do I need to return the device altogether. Excuse my ignorance because this is my first smartphone.
I'd rather swallow the loss of buying a new battery than returning it and setting up my phone again. I spent too much time doing that.
I'd rather swallow the loss of buying a new battery than returning it and setting up my phone again. I spent too much time doing that.
i unplugged the phone before i went to work this morning. the phone shows since being unplugged 3:40 hours ago, battery level 100%.
didn't really do much with it as i was pretty busy so far. just a little surfing while i was using the bathroom
*edit*
ok it just dropped to 90% after checking out the news.
didn't really do much with it as i was pretty busy so far. just a little surfing while i was using the bathroom
*edit*
ok it just dropped to 90% after checking out the news.
hudman
Newbie
I think you should be fine it doesn't have to be done right out of the box. But I'd do it sooner than later. This will also give you a better idea of how much time you have before it dies on you. You can't go by my status says I lost 10% battery in 10 minutes so my phone is going to die completely in a hour and a half. Unless you are one of those people that have to fill up their car with gas every time it gets to a half tank. If you race around town you get crappy MPG's if you mess around with you phone all day with the screen going at full tilt you get bad battery life. Sorry for the lame analogy
derrickonline
Newbie
1. Your brother is TOTALLY FULL OF SHIT! The iPhone is known for it's weak battery life and I as an ex-owner can also confirm it is weak.
2. I run Wifi, 3G, and Bluetooth, and went a full day yesterday, even streamed music through Google's listen while I threw some ribs on the grill (mmmm ribs). I also have automatic updates set on several programs.
The battery power is awesome for this thing, especially given all the screen real estate and other options I keep turned out.
I will say I haven't been on any 1 hr + phone calls either. Just short and sweet calls so far.
Having come directly from a Palm Pre which hands down must have THE WORST BATTERY LIFE of any phone ever manufactured in the history of the United States I guess anything would be a blessing to me.
The Palm Pre wouldn't even make a full day and that's with no wifi on, bluetooth on, no phone calls, and no real action taking place on the phone.
It sounds to me like you might have some apps draining your battery, go to settings, about phone, and find out which app(s) are hogging your battery the most. Also it is MANDATORY that you get something like ADVANCED TASK KILLER from the app store to kill off background apps you're no longer using.
For example, Google Listen, when you're finish, there's no EXIT so you need to KILL IT with task killer to stop it from running in the background.
I'll bet you had an app running in that background that never got killed that ate through your battery.
2. I run Wifi, 3G, and Bluetooth, and went a full day yesterday, even streamed music through Google's listen while I threw some ribs on the grill (mmmm ribs). I also have automatic updates set on several programs.
The battery power is awesome for this thing, especially given all the screen real estate and other options I keep turned out.
I will say I haven't been on any 1 hr + phone calls either. Just short and sweet calls so far.
Having come directly from a Palm Pre which hands down must have THE WORST BATTERY LIFE of any phone ever manufactured in the history of the United States I guess anything would be a blessing to me.
The Palm Pre wouldn't even make a full day and that's with no wifi on, bluetooth on, no phone calls, and no real action taking place on the phone.
It sounds to me like you might have some apps draining your battery, go to settings, about phone, and find out which app(s) are hogging your battery the most. Also it is MANDATORY that you get something like ADVANCED TASK KILLER from the app store to kill off background apps you're no longer using.
For example, Google Listen, when you're finish, there's no EXIT so you need to KILL IT with task killer to stop it from running in the background.
I'll bet you had an app running in that background that never got killed that ate through your battery.
I've only used my Droid for a few days (obviously), but the battery life is definitely better than my Motorola Q9c (Win Mobile). I had a BlackBerry Tour for a couple of weeks (took it back because I didn't like it) and it was a little better than the Q9c, and not any better than to the Droid.
I'm a heavy user of all of the phone's features: multiple email accounts, web browsing GPS for real-time traffic and, oh yeah, I use it as a phone a lot - often 1-2 hours a day. On my Q9c I would exhaust the battery most days. My best guess is that the Droid should make it through most days, but maybe not if I'm busy or get stuck on a long con-call in my car.
The cost of a spare battery is a small price to pay to make sure that I don't run out during the day if I wasn't somewhere that I could re-charge the phone.
I can't compare to an iPhone, but that's irrelevant. AT&T has virtually no coverage where I live.
I'm a heavy user of all of the phone's features: multiple email accounts, web browsing GPS for real-time traffic and, oh yeah, I use it as a phone a lot - often 1-2 hours a day. On my Q9c I would exhaust the battery most days. My best guess is that the Droid should make it through most days, but maybe not if I'm busy or get stuck on a long con-call in my car.
The cost of a spare battery is a small price to pay to make sure that I don't run out during the day if I wasn't somewhere that I could re-charge the phone.
I can't compare to an iPhone, but that's irrelevant. AT&T has virtually no coverage where I live.
jer.lawrence
Member
I just wanted to add, also, that since you have Advanced Task Manager, you can set it to run every xx minutes and close all applications. You can add certain apps to the "exclude" list so that it doesn't close those when it runs, but it closes everything else running in the background.
I personally don't let it do that, but I typically run the "end all" myself before I put the phone into standby just to make sure there isn't a lot running when the phone is in standby.
I personally don't let it do that, but I typically run the "end all" myself before I put the phone into standby just to make sure there isn't a lot running when the phone is in standby.
MarvinAndroid
Well-Known Member
The first day I got my phone I gave it a full charge then used it constantly for the whole day. I made a few calls, I was installing apps and playing with the Maps and navigation a little bit. I played some Mega Man on NESoid etc. I was very happy that the battery was still a bit over half full by the end of the day. My G1 was lucky to make it through the day with that kind of use.
One thing I can definitely recommend though. Use your phone until the battery dies (the phone literally shuts down because it has no juice) then charge it over night. You do that a couple times and the battery WILL last longer. When my phone is kind of close to dying (I did this with my G1 also) I will load a graphically instensive game in SNESoid.. and just let it run till the phone shuts down. Then I charge it over night. It 'trains' the battery for a longer full charge. It works.
EDIT: Oh.. and I turn GPS off whenever I'm not using it. That kills your battery. You'd be surprised how accurate your location is even without GPS on.
One thing I can definitely recommend though. Use your phone until the battery dies (the phone literally shuts down because it has no juice) then charge it over night. You do that a couple times and the battery WILL last longer. When my phone is kind of close to dying (I did this with my G1 also) I will load a graphically instensive game in SNESoid.. and just let it run till the phone shuts down. Then I charge it over night. It 'trains' the battery for a longer full charge. It works.
EDIT: Oh.. and I turn GPS off whenever I'm not using it. That kills your battery. You'd be surprised how accurate your location is even without GPS on.
jer.lawrence
Member
How many times would you suggest running it dead? I haven't let mine die yet. I guess I should.
Also, the accuracy of your location without the GPS seems to depend on how many cell towers your phone can communicate with. I do turn the GPS off when I'm not using it, but it's not that accurate around here. Usually it's within around a mile radius or so.
Also, the accuracy of your location without the GPS seems to depend on how many cell towers your phone can communicate with. I do turn the GPS off when I'm not using it, but it's not that accurate around here. Usually it's within around a mile radius or so.
Also depending on where you use your phone you may want to turn the screen brightness down all the way instead of the auto adjust. My office is bright enough that the screem looks just fine on low.
On the first full charge I had a little over 2 full hours of solid browsing/downloading apps while streaming Pandora. Then had a little over an hour talk time on a call, then another hour of browsing. I couldn't kill the battery before bed, so I just streamed Pandora until it died sometime in the night.
Seems pretty good to me.
On the first full charge I had a little over 2 full hours of solid browsing/downloading apps while streaming Pandora. Then had a little over an hour talk time on a call, then another hour of browsing. I couldn't kill the battery before bed, so I just streamed Pandora until it died sometime in the night.
Seems pretty good to me.
I think people are going a little overboard with how much memory is available and killing tasks. Linux uses up system memory differently than what most people are used to. "Linux Uses Too Much Memory!" A (very) Basic Linux Memory Guide
There may be some programs that keep running and use up some power but most are probably fine sitting in your memory. I've yet to kill any task and even after using Listen (downloading 3 NPR shows over wifi), Market, Astrid, Amazon, Google Maps, Google Talk, Speed Test, Scoreboard, Foursquare, Gmail, my battery is at 40% after the 8 hours it's been off the charger.
Lithium-ion batteries are not NiCd batteries. They don't suffer from memory effect from partial recharges. The only thing (if anything) accomplished by letting the battery die completely is calibrating the phone to understand the battery's life. It doesn't prolong battery life or make it last longer. This was true for NiCds but not lithium-ion. In fact, completely discharging a lithium-ion too often is bad for the battery and will cause it to take longer to fully recharge ("deep discharge"). link
There may be some programs that keep running and use up some power but most are probably fine sitting in your memory. I've yet to kill any task and even after using Listen (downloading 3 NPR shows over wifi), Market, Astrid, Amazon, Google Maps, Google Talk, Speed Test, Scoreboard, Foursquare, Gmail, my battery is at 40% after the 8 hours it's been off the charger.
Lithium-ion batteries are not NiCd batteries. They don't suffer from memory effect from partial recharges. The only thing (if anything) accomplished by letting the battery die completely is calibrating the phone to understand the battery's life. It doesn't prolong battery life or make it last longer. This was true for NiCds but not lithium-ion. In fact, completely discharging a lithium-ion too often is bad for the battery and will cause it to take longer to fully recharge ("deep discharge"). link
MarvinAndroid
Well-Known Member
^ Hmmm.. thanks. That's interesting. I didn't know that. But the fact of the matter is that it does make a difference for me. The times that I let the battery run out and then charge to full... my battery did last longer. I'm not sure why or how.. but it is a noticible difference. (With my G1 it was the difference between just making it through one day to making it through a full day and lasting until noon the following day).
digitard
Member
Here's an update based on yesterday.
I took my phone off the charger at 11:30am PST
Throughout the day/night I used about 80 text messages, downloaded a few apps with Marketplace, received/sent a few pictures, did about 15 Facebook checks/updates, used the Google Sky application a bit for fun, did about 20mins of navigation, and played on the net for about 45mins. Plus I made about 60mins of phone calls. Most of the time I was using 3G, but about 30mins I used WiFi before I left for work, and when I got back home.
I put the phone back on the charger at 7:04am PST (I work 6p-6a so I didn't get home til almost 7am).
Phone was at 50% charge still. I did not hook it up to the USB cable (for PC transfers, etc) at all during that time, as it would cause it to charge and I wanted to get an idea.
The settings I have:
- I disabled "Background Data" unless I specifically need an app to open that requires it. Once I'm complete I re-disable it.
- I disable WiFi/GPS/Phone Tower Location during that period as well unless, again, I know I'm going to use it.
- I turn off my screen/lock manually once I put the device down instead of letting the timeout occur.
d.
I took my phone off the charger at 11:30am PST
Throughout the day/night I used about 80 text messages, downloaded a few apps with Marketplace, received/sent a few pictures, did about 15 Facebook checks/updates, used the Google Sky application a bit for fun, did about 20mins of navigation, and played on the net for about 45mins. Plus I made about 60mins of phone calls. Most of the time I was using 3G, but about 30mins I used WiFi before I left for work, and when I got back home.
I put the phone back on the charger at 7:04am PST (I work 6p-6a so I didn't get home til almost 7am).
Phone was at 50% charge still. I did not hook it up to the USB cable (for PC transfers, etc) at all during that time, as it would cause it to charge and I wanted to get an idea.
The settings I have:
- I disabled "Background Data" unless I specifically need an app to open that requires it. Once I'm complete I re-disable it.
- I disable WiFi/GPS/Phone Tower Location during that period as well unless, again, I know I'm going to use it.
- I turn off my screen/lock manually once I put the device down instead of letting the timeout occur.
d.
koticphreak
Member
Your call, but its important to understand how all the little things use up battery.
Goto Settings > About Phone > Battery Use, and it'll tell you what your phone's battery use breakdown is. For me for example, its 50% display because I like mine at its brightest, but this should give you an idea and let you choose priorities over battery life.
Just keep in mind that this (just like the iphone or any other powerful phone) is doing a hell of a lot on a tiny tiny battery. ANY powerful phone like this will be close to dead after a full days use (active surfing, downloading apps, etc). I know my friends with iPhones who use them regularly - their phones are constantly dying, they've bought recharge packs for them and carry them around.
Really, it doesn't matter since most batteries now have chips on them that prevent deep discharge and L-ion batteries don't suffer from memory effect. Charge it when ever you want.