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Desire battery consumption

something i've noticed/imagined with my desire's battery.

atm my boss is getting shirty over mobiles going off when we're working in the shop floor, to combat this i've set mine on vibrate, so i can still tell if i get a notification etc, out of laziness i've left like this for a week or so now and the battery seems to be lasting longer, about 10% more charge than when it was noise making, when i get into bed at the end of the day.

might be me imagining it though.
 
I've been looking at my battery life recently and discovered that it's not a complete disaster. I suppose it's easy to feel like its all doom and gloom sometimes! Here's how things stand at the moment:

Last full charge yesterday with battery showing Fully Charged.

Phone left on overnight.

Tweetdeck checking for updates every 30 mins.

7 POP email accounts checking every 60 mins.

Exchange email received about 12 emails this morning (PUSH)

2 WeatherBug widgets updating every hour

Beautiful Widgets weather updating every hour.

A few system stats widgets (BattStatt, 3G Watchdog, etc) updating every hour.

Phone not used (i.e. screen off) for about 7 hours while sleeping.

It's now 16 hours since I unplugged my phone and battery is showing 80%, which is quite good!

I'm not going to charge again today at work; probably leave it until 30% and see how long that takes during normal daytime use.
 
ErisEd, You should be looking at something around the 36-48 hour mark, with all that going on, when it hits 30% (the proviso being that it doesnt get hammered in between ;) ).....Whats with the weather apps though? You're not the weather dude for Northwest Tonight/Granada Reports are you? :eek:

lol

I am finding that I can switch a lot of things on without dire consequences to the batt life. Like 3G, auto sync (as long as it is controlled) email updates, twitter etc.....

It is really trial and error but I am more than happy with what I can do with this phone and how long I can go between charges :D

A phrase I read many years ago sums up the negative battery life posts for me pretty succinctly.

- "One really is limited by one's own expectations!" -
 
@riki1kenobi - My name is Ed, and I'm addicted to Weather apps..... ;)

Actually, there's a reason for it. I run a construction project about 70 miles from home so I have the 3 day weather widget for my current location, and the same widget set to work, so I can plan for outdoor operations. The Beautiful Widgets weather is a custom colour with icons and clock skins that match my theme, and I have that on my Lockscreen :)

As for the battery, it's now 24hrs since I unplugged with the phone showing Fully Charged, and it's telling me I have 39% left. That's 61% used in 24hrs, and I haven't held back. It's been used mainly for Twitter and work email, text messages, with some occasional web browsing too. Screen is set at 90% brightness, mobile internet is always on, wi-fi used at home for the last 2 hours, and I've made about 30 minutes of calls. A fairly average day, to be honest, so I'm happy!

I guess I'm so used to charging at work and then at home when the phone is just sitting there. In my mind it always needs charging, but the reality is it can last a long time without being plugged in. Not so paranoid now...
 
riki1kenobi said:
ErisEd, You should be looking at something around the 36-48 hour mark, with all that going on, when it hits 30% (the proviso being that it doesnt get hammered in between ;) )
Click to expand...

Just for people coming across this post and who are not getting 36-48hrs out of their phone and wondering why...all I can say is that I'd get less than 24hrs with all that going on. I personally know 2 other desire owners who'd get less than 24hrs with all that going on. I think *most* owners on this forum are happy with a daily charge. I certainly wouldn't consider 36-48hrs to be the norm.

I'm fed up of commenting on this thread but just need to give new users an alternative opinion to those few who are experiencing uber battery performance.
 
36 hours since fully charged, and I plugged in with 18% battery left.

Of course, that's with my own personal usage, other people will use their phone more or less which will obviously effect battery life. I know for a fact that I would have lost around 15-20% if I played Angry Birds for an hour.

I guess the lesson is simple: 36h+ is possible with light/medium use and careful setup of widgets/updates etc. Use the phone a lot and you need to charge more often.

@furious duck - I understand what your saying. I think the problem with all the battery life discussions is that everyone - both light and heavy users - tend to expect the same battery life no matter what they do with their phone. That's simply not going to happen. Play games and watch YouTube videos all day and you'll be charging every few hours, whereas fairly light users like myself can expect at least 24h+. I think that's the point we need to get across when people ask.
 
Eris Ed said:
@furious duck - I understand what your saying. I think the problem with all the battery life discussions is that everyone - both light and heavy users - tend to expect the same battery life no matter what they do with their phone. That's simply not going to happen. Play games and watch YouTube videos all day and you'll be charging every few hours, whereas fairly light users like myself can expect at least 24h+. I think that's the point we need to get across when people ask.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
furious duck said:
Just for people coming across this post and who are not getting 36-48hrs out of their phone and wondering why...all I can say is that I'd get less than 24hrs with all that going on. I personally know 2 other desire owners who'd get less than 24hrs with all that going on. I think *most* owners on this forum are happy with a daily charge. I certainly wouldn't consider 36-48hrs to be the norm.
Click to expand...

I dunno, I personally think posts like the above are simply NOT helpful bud. Every time someone posts their battery usage you seem to feel the need to point out that it is NOT the "NORM".....Based on what exactly? Your anecdotal evidence, or a few peoples posts that when they hammer their phones they only get a few hours out of it? I know a lot of people who have these phones and I would only consider a few of them heavy users (i.e. Having to charge every day). The rest are light-medium users and all get over 30 hours battery life (the light users get well over 48 hours). So my anecdotal evidence flies in the face of yours.....Funny that :rolleyes:

I'm fed up of commenting on this thread but just need to give new users an alternative opinion to those few who are experiencing uber battery performance.
Click to expand...
Then DONT comment - Simples ;) Or alternatively post up helpful advice like, IF you follow some of the useful tips some users have gone out of their way to write up for you (maybe even post up a link or two) then maybe YOU CAN GET these battery life figures as well :D

It is being proven more and more that you can get a decent return from the battery with a lot of stuff turned on. It simply requires a little bit of tinkering and personalizing and a lot of finding out what apps eat battery life and either limiting the use/uninstalling/making sure you have a charger nearby IF you are going to use them!

The main problem with these types of threads is that most users have NO prior knowledge of how smartphones work and install apps willy nilly without really knowing what they are doing! They then forget about the apps and leave them installed and in most cases still running in the background :eek:

Whether HTC should have gone down the route of having the phone setup to get a better battery life PRIOR to shipping, maybe by removing the bloatware that some people seem to think makes these phones "SMART", is another argument for a different thread and is simply NOT on topic! :)
 
riki1kenobi said:
I dunno, I personally think posts like the above are simply NOT helpful bud. Every time someone posts their battery usage you seem to feel the need to point out that it is NOT the "NORM".....Based on what exactly? Your anecdotal evidence, or a few peoples posts that when they hammer their phones they only get a few hours out of it?
Click to expand...

Nice.

It's based on my usage, 2 members of my family's usage and in addition various posters on this forum. If you can get that much battery life then good for you others may not be so lucky. That's all I'm saying. But whatever.
 
I think a lot of the variation between people's findings is due to the strength of the cellular network in your area; a lot of hunting seems to hit the battery life severely.

I was in Tokyo a few weeks back and didn't want top hit any excessive charges, so turned all radio functions off and was amazed to see I could get almost 3 days out of it without charge, and that included some music playing and a bit of GPS locating with MapDroyd (and instamapper running in the background when doing this).
 
about 16hours on average for me.
Juice defender on setting internet on when i turn the screen on, about 30ish texts a day, general facebooking few calls, usually lasting about 20min each.... im.... kinda happy with it.
 
hi all
id hope to get at least 24hrs out of mine as im a light user - but struggling to get near that - ive only had phone for a week and have done a few full charges etc

i turn everything apart from phone off at night

cheers
dan
 
dan55 said:
hi all
id hope to get at least 24hrs out of mine as im a light user - but struggling to get near that - ive only had phone for a week and have done a few full charges etc

i turn everything apart from phone off at night

cheers
dan
Click to expand...

Risking being shot down by the uber battery fraternity...I think most people are happy charging nightly. I've charged my phones nightly for the past 3 or 4 years so it's fine by me.

You could try some of the tricks and tips in this thread but if you've said you've turned everything off then maybe they won't help you. They didn't help me either. Strength and consistency of radio signal plays an important factor - at least that's what I'm putting my battery usage down to. But hey maybe have a look at the tips and tricks and see if there's anything you've missed...everybody's mileage seems to vary.
 
dan55 said:
....ive only had phone for a week and have done a few full charges etc
Click to expand...

Give it another couple of weeks and see how it goes. I noticed that the reported battety strength tended to become more accurate during the first few weeks using my phone - maybe it needs to do some kind of 'calibration' after being used for the first time? You'll also get to know what apps and widgets you want/need and how to set them up correctly to get max performance with minimum battrery usage.
 
pk1209 said:
What effect (other than saving battery) will this have on the phone?

I love the phone so far, but battery disappointing me - took it to work this morning on full charge, and had to plug it it at 7:15 with only moderate use in the day!!!
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Mine is the same. I agree tonight will be charge 3 but kinda worried.
I have put tasker on it so that when I'm in my basement office (I know the glamour) and I flip the phone over it goes into Airplane mode. With all that I have had about 4 hours general use.
 
got up today - phone had been charging for say 5 hrs - so at 100%
spent about 30 mins on web and email and 2 very short calls - battery down to 65% remaining!
 
dan55 said:
got up today - phone had been charging for say 5 hrs - so at 100%
spent about 30 mins on web and email and 2 very short calls - battery down to 65% remaining!
Click to expand...
Are you using a task killer? Though 30 minutes browsing and some calls to get it to 65% sounds about right. Also, are you using an app that shows you the percentage of the battery? Because if not, the phone may have been at 91% after charging (the default indicator changes at each 10%)

My battery seems fine. I got about 52+ hours out of it the other day (when I finally charged it, it was down to about 15%), however, one of my apps told me that I hadn't been using it that much (the average voltage output of my battery was 1.8 or something, whereas on other days it had been as high as 8).
 
hi - no task killer - just been manually closing a few apps myself - thought android didnt need it? but have noticed that there are a lot of apps that seem to auto start that im not using :/

cheers
dan
 
dan55 said:
hi - no task killer - just been manually closing a few apps myself - thought android didnt need it? but have noticed that there are a lot of apps that seem to auto start that im not using :/

cheers
dan
Click to expand...

Closing apps that are in memory is BAD! for the same reasons why Task Killers should be avoided. Apps in memory don't use battery - they are idle. When you use them, they activate in memory rather than having to load them into memory. This results is less battery use. Closing an app that's in memory usually causes more battery use because most apps will restart and load into memory in idle mode waiting for you to use them.

There's a big diffference between apps in memory and apps in memory that are running. Android is very good at memory management, and a full memory (not phone storage) is the best condition for the phone to be in.
 
Hi thanks for info.
So I shouldn't be closing all the apps that I don't use that are
Sitting in mem then. Seems to keep starting stuff I've not run myself :/
Cheers
Dan
 
It's a common issue. As I said, there's a difference between an app being in memory and an app being used (and using processor time, battery, data, etc).

Android actually does a good job of managing memory, it's nothing like memory on a desktop PC for example. In simple terms, Android will load essential and commonly used apps into the memory during start up and leave them there, just waiting for you to start using them. If you open an app that isn't already in the memory, then Android will remove something and load the app you want.

That's why you will find apps in your memory that you're not using. It's faster and uses less battery to open an app from memory than it is to open it completely from the phone storage or SD card. Closing apps simply because they are in the memory (this is what Task Killers do) just creates more space for Android to fill with frequestly used apps, and that usually means that the apps you just closed will open again (using battery).

So, there's no reason to close things yourself. Android works far better and uses less resources when the memory is full :)
 
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