For those having a low battery issues....

[Jofaba]

I think that JuicePlotter is pretty much essential in weeding out battery killers. I played around with my phone one night, completely changing the layout, widgets, etc, and the next day my battery probably lasted 5 hours from 100-0%. JuicePlotter showed me that something was definitely wrong. I went from near-zero loss when the phone wasn't in use to a steady drain regardless. I was easily able to figure the problem out.

The way I see it, there's a maximum use that you will get out of your phone. You need to figure out a happy marriage between getting the most out of your phone and feeling comfortable with your battery life. You should be able to learn which things to shut down for those days where you want a longer battery life. With some trial and error you can get to know how your phone works and find that happy median.

 

[Virtual69]

The wife's battery was lasting about 4 hours, where my battery was lasting about 10!

I looked at About Phone and then Battery Use. She had the Weather Channel app set to Location via GPS which was consuming about 50% of her battery! (she was at work, in a concrete/steel building, so no GPS signal, so it burnt the battery trying to acquire one...).

Make sure you don't have stuff configured to use the GPS.

 

[SporkLover]

i thought li-ion batts had no memory and that the old full charge/full drain wouldn't affect battery performance.

anyone have a link to some insight? i'm not saying this isn't working for you....but should it?

While its true it doesn't have memory like a nickel battery, this helps calibrate the control circuitry, especially if factory calibration is bad.

 

[Mathieas]

The lattice(graphite years ago prolly different now) does benefit from low current pull cycles to condition the Lipo. You work the lattice so it releases the ions more efficiently... essentially lowering the batteries internal resistance. This break in peroid will result in and increase in battery performance for the first 5-10 cycles or so. That being said taking a lipo BELOW 3v will start to generate a irreversible product(increaseing at an expoential rate the lower you go... a lipo at 2v is all but unuseable though i have seen some saved... but they were short lived) in the battery chemistry that will unable to charge and thus become non reactive... the same is true for charge above 4.2v per cell.. you start to form irreversible products that are much to stable for bettery use. That being said the battery is always forming these product(though much slower- simple chemical reaction kenetics) and of course the lattice is always breaking down(per cycle)... that being said the battery is happiest at 50% charge and will last the most cycles and have the longest shelth life at this voltage(i believe it is in the high 3.9v-remember the lipo have a VERY shallow discharge curve compared to NiMH or NiCDs). All this being said... fully discharging on a phone is not recommended unless you feel you must calibrate the internal voltmeter.... other then that keep it above 30% and if you can below 85%-80%. I have been flying model airplanes for years and we use the same batteries(more robust lipos actually designed to discharge at 30-50C- for our batter that would be 1.5*30 which is 75A or 1.2min from full to empty... i guarantee our batteries are not of this quality and thus the above recommendations hold even more weight.) Also to confirm there is NO memory what so ever in a lipo as has been stated by prior posters. Also these battiers will not last 5 years(also stated prior)... we will be lucky to get 1-2 out of them... if you take care with keep below 85%-80% you will see good life at 2years... even then its hard to say... if you leave one of these at 100% on the shelf for a year it will lose 6-9% of it cap just from sitting... mix in cycles and use you are looking at much more...as a final note heat is a lipos worst enemy, heat means more internal reistance, more lattice wear and above all else it means less total power for you for the long(wear) and short(internal resistance: Voltage=I(current)R(resitance)) term.

 

[SuperAkuma]

I am draining my battery as I type. Full brightness, bluetooth, wifi and speaker phone playing music. I am at 24% now just a few more minute.

 

[MikeyMike01]

I tried this. I went from abysmal to pathetic. As in dead by 12:00 to dead by 4:00.... this phone is going back to the at&t store; if the next one has the same thing (and I REALLY hope it doesn't, because I love Android...) The hardware on this phone, while powerful, doesn't work, and I can't have that.

 

[Cagon]

I was having bad battery life, not abysmal but 4 -6 hrs a day was good for me. I came from a blackberry where I could use it heavily all day and then need to recharge at night. I did the drain and recharge to see if it would help and it has worked for me. Today with decent usage, not as much as when I travel, I still have 22% left. So I say test it out. MY procedure was to have the phone shut itself off from a low battery, then charge it completely while powered off. The last time I had to have to phone on since it was in the middle of the day but I left it on the charger till fully charged. I have talked to a few ATT reps and they were more than willing to give me a new battery.

I do use advanced task killer. It is amazing to see how some apps like to restart themselves even when not used.

I have also noticed what one poster above said, that from 100% to 85% or goes quicker. Then it slows down.

 

[Jetspeed]

Did the battery drain as the OP said, have great battery life now. Can go an entire day with moderate use with 50% left at the end of the day.

 

[SuperAkuma]

Thanks OP.
I drained it last night, and charged it over night. I wok up at around 8am today and at around 1pm, I had about 78% left. Normally, it would be around 50%. Now almost 10pm, the battery is at 15%. I would have never have gotten a full day worth without doing it. I am a believer now.

 

[CaCHooKa Man]

ive drained my battery 3 or 4 times and it didnt last too long today. i was down to 7% after 6 hours after charging it for around 9 hours last night. it was stuck on 7% for 2 hours though.

 

[Nodes of Ranvier]

my second phone after one day has dramatically improved battery life. I can get a full day/ day and half on a full charge my suggestion for those having unacceptable battery life is to exchange the phone.

 

[PeaceMaker]

my second phone after one day has dramatically improved battery life. I can get a full day/ day and half on a full charge my suggestion for those having unacceptable battery life is to exchange the phone.

This could have been solved w/ a factory reset... no?

 

[nephets0]

how do you guys drain your battery? it seriously takes me almost two days to kill my battery.
Iits been 1d 11 hr 25m on this charge and i'm at 29%.
i want to try to 'cycle' the battery, but it would be easier if i knew how

 

[Max Tempest]

I bought 2 Samsung Galaxy S OEM batteries + wall charger for $11 through Ebay and do not care about battery life anymore. I do still keep the battery in the phone until it shuts down, then I swap in a fully charged extra, and put the empty battery into the wall charger. It's nice to have an extra battery with me when I go out and not worry about my phone. My wife limits herself playing with her Iphone so it will last the day until she can charge it at home.

 

[DaMajorPayne]

Yeah this didnt do anything for me so i went ahead swapped for a new battery at best buy and on the first charge it has already lasted 2 days with 60% still left. I think the first batch of captivate maybe came with bad batteries cause i picked mine up the first day it came out and couldnt even hit two days with zero use.