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Let's Be Honest About The Battery Life
- Thread starter widehead
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- htc desire
SUroot
Extreme Android User
No, its still a task killer.
yenrod
Well-Known Member
D
Deleted User
Guest
The display draws a lot of battery, so 3 hours of it being on is about right. When listening to tunes and the screen off, it'll run all day.
The battery killer for me was using my Desire for geocaching and running the C:GEO app with GPS to locate with the screen on, I'd get 3-4 hours out of a charge. Which is why I decided to buy a handheld GPS instead - it lasts 25 hours with NiMH "Duraloops". The GPS unit is designed to run like this so it should last a lot longer. And now that I use the phone mainly for phone, text, Maps, browsing, whatever, I get 2 days of average use out of it. That's with 3G, GPS, background sync, all turned on. WiFi and Bluetooth are generally off, but everything else is on - turning them off is a waste since it becomes a dumbphone.
That's all I have to say about that.
SUroot
Extreme Android User
Its nothing to do with moving.
CPU Spinning occurs when a certain thread gets into either an infinite loop or is running a computation intensive operation that takes a long time. In both cases, the thread is
widehead
Android Enthusiast
How many hours (display on) are you guys getting?
You see, this is what I'm finding. And yet there seem to be one or two users claiming that they have hours and hours of usage (web, calls, watching movies, listening to music) and they are getting 3 days out of a charge. Is it just nonsense? Should I be worried about the 3 hours of actual usage or not?
I would absolutely love it for all of us that are interested (and not too busy) to simply post our time since last unplugged along with the time the display has been on after a days use.
I just don't want to be carting around a Desire with a duff battery.
Clocking a processor chip at 1GHz involves raising and lowering the potential difference of the clock line 1 x 10^9 times every second. You're right, nothing moves but it's still work (and requires power). Sorry for confusing you, I've worked with electronics for over twenty years now (yes, I'm old) and no-one's ever had a problem with me describing electronic work in physical terms before...
I baught a second hand desire on saturday, took it home, now debranded. Yesterday i done the battery calibration, but did not wipe battery stats because i didn't know.
i done the calibration at 6am yesterday and then left the phone on with these EXACT settings -
3G On constantly
News sync
Email sync
friends list/twitter sync
weather sync
I was on the phone for roughly 20 minutes, 15 of those minutes was on speakerphone!
I listened to 30 - 45 minutes of music.
Had wifi on for approx a total of an hour while browsing the web.
When i looked at the phone at 1:15am it was down to 87% one bar had gone.
I am not a htc fanboy, i don't know anything about the company, i just know after the calibration the battery has got like freaking supermanphone
On saturday before the calbiration i used 30 minutes of wifi, listened to some music, adjusted settings, phone a bit and the battery was half way... half way through the day.
i done the calibration at 6am yesterday and then left the phone on with these EXACT settings -
3G On constantly
News sync
Email sync
friends list/twitter sync
weather sync
I was on the phone for roughly 20 minutes, 15 of those minutes was on speakerphone!
I listened to 30 - 45 minutes of music.
Had wifi on for approx a total of an hour while browsing the web.
When i looked at the phone at 1:15am it was down to 87% one bar had gone.
I am not a htc fanboy, i don't know anything about the company, i just know after the calibration the battery has got like freaking supermanphone
On saturday before the calbiration i used 30 minutes of wifi, listened to some music, adjusted settings, phone a bit and the battery was half way... half way through the day.
partridge
Android Enthusiast
It all depends on how you term "useage".
As far as I'm concerned my battery lasts me all day, but that doesn't mean I'm using it constantly all day. My work laptop is plugged in all day, otherwise I'd struggle to get 2 hours out of it with continual use. If my Desire were plugged in all day I'd get continual use out that too.
On battery I only need it to last one day, it gets charged (topped up) most evenings, but not every day as I rarely kill the battery through typical use.
Right now (3G off and wifi now off)
cell standby 35%
phone idle 30%
wifi 21%
android 9%
display 3%
voice calls 2%
I would judge the battery to be at 60% (but it's not been charged since yesterday)
As others have pointed out, when it's so easy to top up the battery why are so many users so paranoid about the battery life? I have a half hour journey to work/home and often top it up in the car and gives it quite a boost. The single BIGGEST drain on the battery is Mobile Data, so if you don't need it turn it off until you do. I can leave my phone completely alone for a few hours, but if 3G is on the battery will drain away, if I turn it off the battery hardly drops at all.
As far as I'm concerned my battery lasts me all day, but that doesn't mean I'm using it constantly all day. My work laptop is plugged in all day, otherwise I'd struggle to get 2 hours out of it with continual use. If my Desire were plugged in all day I'd get continual use out that too.
On battery I only need it to last one day, it gets charged (topped up) most evenings, but not every day as I rarely kill the battery through typical use.
Right now (3G off and wifi now off)
cell standby 35%
phone idle 30%
wifi 21%
android 9%
display 3%
voice calls 2%
I would judge the battery to be at 60% (but it's not been charged since yesterday)
As others have pointed out, when it's so easy to top up the battery why are so many users so paranoid about the battery life? I have a half hour journey to work/home and often top it up in the car and gives it quite a boost. The single BIGGEST drain on the battery is Mobile Data, so if you don't need it turn it off until you do. I can leave my phone completely alone for a few hours, but if 3G is on the battery will drain away, if I turn it off the battery hardly drops at all.
SUroot
Extreme Android User
Ive got no idea. Mine claims a vast % of my usage. I browse web for about 45 minutes before and after work, do a bit of email, sms etc through out the day. Sometimes I turn the screen on simply to admire my icons
Its hard to put a time on it.
jaybea830802
Member
My phone has been unplugged for 8 hours and is at 80%. This is with WiFi on, 3G when no wireless. I was listening to music over Bluetooth for about 30 minutes.
Had I been traveling to the London office today, it would be down to around 30% by now, because there is no wireless connection for most of the day and the mobile/3G signal in the office is poor.
The main variable in my battery life is the quality of the mobile signal and whether I am on WiFi. Poor reception and no wifi means poor battery life and nothing drains it faster then 0/1 bars reception. A good wifi signal improves battery life but for the best battery, good reception and wifi signal are essential. Playing games, listening to music or reading books has an impact, but not as much as signal strength.
Had I been traveling to the London office today, it would be down to around 30% by now, because there is no wireless connection for most of the day and the mobile/3G signal in the office is poor.
The main variable in my battery life is the quality of the mobile signal and whether I am on WiFi. Poor reception and no wifi means poor battery life and nothing drains it faster then 0/1 bars reception. A good wifi signal improves battery life but for the best battery, good reception and wifi signal are essential. Playing games, listening to music or reading books has an impact, but not as much as signal strength.
Rastaman-FB
Extreme Android User
actually setcpu tells a different story, idle the cpu is 245 mhz
this happens to be the lowest value with default timings that the cpu will operate at idle. its the same with a live wallpaper.
so if the cpu isnt being used then what would be increasing battery use?
sookster54
Android Expert
It doesn't have to be the CPU that consumes battery, call standby can drain batteries if it's too high and it's fairly common on many devices lately, the LG Ally has it the worst. I live in a shady signal area so my phone sometimes continuously searches for a signal and call standby shoots up between 35-60% and makes my phone's day shorter. Also stuff like syncing and monitoring refreshes can drain too.
And I think the Desire has decent battery life, the Motorola Charm is terrible and can't even last a whole day, I wish Telus had provided the extended battery like T-Mobile has.
And I think the Desire has decent battery life, the Motorola Charm is terrible and can't even last a whole day, I wish Telus had provided the extended battery like T-Mobile has.
That's surprising. If it's processing a live animation and the Desire has no GPU, how can it be displayed without using any extra CPU cycles? That makes no sense.
All Desire's are created equal. There might be small differences in the quality of the battery, and even variations in the voltages required for the internal components, but I doubt it's enough to make one phone last for days while another lasts a few hours.
It depends entirely on how you use it. For example, on Friday morning, I unplugged the phone from the charger, fully charged. I had the day off, and stayed at home over the weekend. So, I only used the phone for a few texts and really quick calls. By Sunday evening, I had to plug it in again.
Today, I once again unplugged it, fully charged. I went on the bus to the train station, then started my 1-hour commute by train, constantly browsing the web and listening to music. Once at school, the phone spent most of the time in standby, I only quickly checked my email a few times during breaks. I then repeated the commute in reverse in the afternoon. By the time I had 10 minutes to my home, the red LED started blinking, after barely 10 hours spent unplugged.
So one charge lasted over 50 hours, the other barely 10. Same phone, same settings and applications installed.
It depends entirely on how you use it. For example, on Friday morning, I unplugged the phone from the charger, fully charged. I had the day off, and stayed at home over the weekend. So, I only used the phone for a few texts and really quick calls. By Sunday evening, I had to plug it in again.
Today, I once again unplugged it, fully charged. I went on the bus to the train station, then started my 1-hour commute by train, constantly browsing the web and listening to music. Once at school, the phone spent most of the time in standby, I only quickly checked my email a few times during breaks. I then repeated the commute in reverse in the afternoon. By the time I had 10 minutes to my home, the red LED started blinking, after barely 10 hours spent unplugged.
So one charge lasted over 50 hours, the other barely 10. Same phone, same settings and applications installed.
Rastaman-FB
Extreme Android User
when that happens notice that the desire is hot, if you were to monitor it at that time you would notice that the screen is consuming power and you have heat from the CPU meaning the CPU is not idle
not really, for the sake of a video that can be put in memory and is reletively small then 245mhz is easily enough to render it considering that a hero only ran at a maximum of 528mhz !!!
its not having to use any extra cpu power at this point so i dont see how its going to drain battery any more than the system would do due to the screen being on and it registering your touches
SpicyTacoto
Member
ITA with jimmi. On days I spend a lot of time surfing or otherwise "playing" with the phone my battery life is brutal but if I use it for afew calls, texts, check the news once or twice...battery lasts much longer.
sookster54
Android Expert
Um what? Only time my Desire got hot is when playing Angry Birds or watching flash videos. Otherwise systempanel always shows 27-34C, when charging it's 36-38C and that's when it gets warm.
Rastaman-FB
Extreme Android User
you have some wierd phone then
if im on a call my battery gets hot
in order for the battery to drain it has to be in use, if the phone is not sleeping then its using cpu cycles and so it drains the battery.
usually when i get a fast drain due to standby call then its because something is wrong and the cpu gets hot because its running at full pelt
this however is detracting away from my point
CPU is not going over the idle threshold when the screen is on when a live wall paper is being used. when the phone is in sleep the wallpaper sleeps too and you can see that when it lags at wake.
live wallpaper wouldnt use any more battery than having the screen on as its not using a the radio, gps or anything else that would claim battery life
R
rumbataz
Guest
I turned off the Bluetooth and I get nearly two days out of my Desire battery now. A strong signal also helps.
I dont understand why people turn wifi off.
If you enable a sleep policy, wifi will turn off with the screen locked.
Widehead, 3 hours is very low an indicative of either apps running too much downloading stuff/syncing or apps not allowing the phone to sleep.
The %'s on the battery screen mean sweet FA. The % is simply how much of the battery use is down to each listed entry, not that an item has used the listed % of the battery. So if cell standby is 25%, and your battery is at 50%, then cell standby has actually used 12.5% of your battery since unplugging (assuming it was at 100%).
You need to look in the test menu to see the true partial & other awake and battery usages stats as well as which apps are killing the battery.
If you're in a good 3G area, and use mobile data, then 3G/H will actually use less power than 2G.
If you enable a sleep policy, wifi will turn off with the screen locked.
Widehead, 3 hours is very low an indicative of either apps running too much downloading stuff/syncing or apps not allowing the phone to sleep.
The %'s on the battery screen mean sweet FA. The % is simply how much of the battery use is down to each listed entry, not that an item has used the listed % of the battery. So if cell standby is 25%, and your battery is at 50%, then cell standby has actually used 12.5% of your battery since unplugging (assuming it was at 100%).
You need to look in the test menu to see the true partial & other awake and battery usages stats as well as which apps are killing the battery.
If you're in a good 3G area, and use mobile data, then 3G/H will actually use less power than 2G.