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Help Decreased battery life... time for a new battery or something else?

Tim K

Tim K

Android Expert
So, I've noticed recently that my battery life isn't what it used to be. No obvious causes. Nothing out of the ordinary in the battery stats. Nothing causing partial wakelocks. No rogue processes or unusually high battery usage. Just not getting the life I am used to. Yesterday was bad for me. 9 hours - 1 hr screen time, only 10% brightness, strong 4G signal, no wifi, no bluetooth, no streaming, 10 minutes talk time.

I've been on the 4.2.2 update now since March 5th....and I've only really noticed the drop off in the last few weeks. So, maybe its a coincidence.

I've had my GN since the 2nd day it was released which is now 15 months back. That's at least 450 charge cycles so I'm wondering, if this is just a battery past its prime or if there's something more.

A new battery is only $12-15 so I'll probably just pick up a replacement, but I was wondering if anyone else is seeing a decrease in battery life recently?
 
I have been on 4.2.2 for 2days and my batt life has actually improved, I'm am using an extended battery that I've had for about 1yr 6mths now so I'm not quite sure it's ur batt or phone, althought there was a thread on vz website were a lot of ppl were complaing about quick battery drain.
 
Yeah, in most of my old phones the battery seemed to hold its charge for at least 18 months before I replaced it. So, I'm not sure what's going on. Like I said, I can't identify anything that is causing the drain.

One odd thing I've noticed is that the phone is "reporting" more time without signal, but that is not affecting battery life....nor is the signal actually worse. It just appears to be reporting a poor signal as "no signal". But unlike a true "no signal" situation, the phone does not wake up the processor or boost power to search for a better signal. The battery graph doesn't dip during these periods and the phone doesn't show as awake like it does with a true "red" no signal.
 
I would suspect it is your battery. I'm another person that has seen my battery life improve quite a bit with 4.2.2.
 
chrisinsocalif said:
Where can I buy an oem battery or extended battery online? I have the international gsm version.
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Amazon has a few. You can also find some on eBay. I know people have reported having good luck with the Seido batteries, you can search for them online.

One thing to watch for is if they support NFC. The NFC antenna on the Galaxy Nexus is built into the battery so, if the battery does not have the antenna built in NFC will not work. The 2100 mAh batteries for the i9250 model (International GSM Galaxy Nexus, it comes stock with a 1750 mAh battery) should fit the case. Larger batteries should include a battery cover that will fit over the larger batteries.

I bought one of the Onite 3500 mAh batteries from Amazon, and have had good luck with it. It does seem to last about twice as long as the stock battery and it supports NFC (I have used NFC with this battery), but it also makes the phone seem "pregnant", with the way the battery increases the thickness. I also have not used the battery heavily, I primarily use it only when I know I need extended battery life.

And, for some reason, Samsung batteries seem to be hard to find in the US for the GSM Nexus, and the few to be found seem to be expensive. When I've searched on eBay previously, most sellers of the Samsung batteries are either in the UK or Asia.
 
Have you tried the spin test? (spinning your battery on a smooth, flat surface). If it spins with little resistance, it means your battery is inflated which would be the cause of your problem.
 
I just recently bought a new battery for mine because I wanted an extra one (and I found a Sammy extended relatively cheap on Amazon). My battery life has increased by about 10% over what I used to get. Not a lot, but enough to take notice. I've had my GNex since Day 1, and the extended battery for just as long. Would have to think the batteries deteriorate over time. My laptop battery did, so I can't imagine this would be much different.

MAKE SURE you get one with the NFC capability or Wallet, Android Beam and other programs of the like won't work. If you don't use these, you can pick up aftermarket batteries for a really good price. Some of them also include external chargers, too!

Hope this helps...
 
Yeah, after my 4.2.2 update my battery started draining like crazy as well.

I recalled a few months ago when trying differnt ROMs that the app "Google Currents" was a known contributor to poor battery life on the newer android versions. I uninstalled Google Currents (be sure to uncheck automatic updating in Google Play), and now my battery life is better than it ever was, even before 4.2.2.
 
Well, I ended up doing a factory wipe and clean re-install of 4.2.2 to see if that was an issue. It wasn't. I still seem to be getting poor battery life.
(and google maps constantly running and waking up the cpu isn't helping!)
Nothing else seems out of the ordinary on the battery stats or BBS, so I think I may spend the $12 and get a new battery.

I'll report back at some point.
 
My battery life on both of my units took a major dive immediately upon upgrading to 4.2.2
Google services is what is burning the battery. I went from about 10 hours on a charge to 4 or 5.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the batteries are the same fit for all devices but it's the door that is sort of different? Able to be "modified" to fit ... ? Sprint still has the offer for the extended battery on the accessories section of their site. You add to cart and see instant savings, just pay for shipping. They must have a ton of stock as their free battery promotion thing was a while ago.

You just add to cart, proceed, notice the savings and how you don't have to login to your account (hint hint, nudge nudge) and pay the one of three shipping options. If you are a Sprint customer I believe you can charge to bill, but not sure.

Food for thought.

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jbarhorst2 said:
My battery life on both of my units took a major dive immediately upon upgrading to 4.2.2
Google services is what is burning the battery. I went from about 10 hours on a charge to 4 or 5.
Click to expand...

Mine wasn't that drastic. I used to be at about 30% after a full day (14 hrs) but now I'm usually in the teens or lower. Nothing appearing out of the ordinary, aside from Google maps burning up twice its usual amount of battery (about 10% these days) - and that's on days where I never touch "maps".

That's why I'm hoping its just a battery weakening over the last 18 months.
 
Well, the new battery isn't making any difference. I think its just Google Maps burning up the battery with repeated wakelocks. Maps is reporting 10%+ of may battery usage. BBS has Maps as like 4 of the top 5 causes of partial wakelocks. GSAM reported over 11,500 times maps woke up my device in 10 hours yesterday.

Seems like this is a common problem on the Google support forums....
 
No, I rely on location services too much to turn them off. I did however make a couple of changes to the location settings on maps. I turned off "location reporting" and "report from this device". Maps battery drain seems like it might be better, but I've only had it this way for 2 days. I'll have to give it more time.
 
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