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Optimize your Droid Eris battery life (READ THIS)

My question seems to be getting lost. I would really like to know whether or not anyone else thinks the stock browser causes battery drain. It sure seems that way to me. I made a day trip to shop for a formal for my daughter yesterday, used my phone alot, calling, texting, browsing, and google maps. Took it off charger at about 7 am, was at 4% when I plugged it in to charge at 1 am this morning. I was amazed. Haven't used it much today, unplugged at 9 am this morning, it is at 76% now(4:40 pm). So the only thing that I can figure is different is having dolphin as my default browser.
PLMK your thoughts on stock/dolphin browser.
 
I just uninstalled Dolphin a few days ago and solely use the stock browser. I've noticed absolutely no difference in batter life in doing so. Maybe with your stock browser something got "stuck on" in the background and was trying to communicate??? edit: I do end my browser with ATM in the evening b4 going to bed.
Dolphin 2.0 is pretty nice......but until they do something about the bookmark management, I'll leave it in the market. It does seem a hair faster than the stock browser, but not enough to matter to me.
 
eurotrash323 said:
I just uninstalled Dolphin a few days ago and solely use the stock browser. I've noticed absolutely no difference in batter life in doing so. Maybe with your stock browser something got "stuck on" in the background and was trying to communicate??? edit: I do end my browser with ATM in the evening b4 going to bed.
Dolphin 2.0 is pretty nice......but until they do something about the bookmark management, I'll leave it in the market. It does seem a hair faster than the stock browser, but not enough to matter to me.
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Thanks! This is so puzzling to me. I guess each of us just have to tweak it to what works best for us. I don't really care for dolphin, but I don't mind it if it helps my battery.
Any others have any ideas?
 
donnakd said:
Thanks! This is so puzzling to me. I guess each of us just have to tweak it to what works best for us. I don't really care for dolphin, but I don't mind it if it helps my battery.
Any others have any ideas?
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Tweaking and doing what works best isn't always the answer. The problem usually lies in the strength of signal you're receiving. That seems to be the most common correlation when it comes to battery drain.
 
Bswartz95 said:
Tweaking and doing what works best isn't always the answer. The problem usually lies in the strength of signal you're receiving. That seems to be the most common correlation when it comes to battery drain.
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Absolutely. I've read that in forums for many different types of devices, starting with my old Blackberry Pearl a couple of years ago on Alltel.

Next biggest drain might be the GPS, perhaps screen brightness?
 
Frisco said:
Absolutely. I've read that in forums for many different types of devices, starting with my old Blackberry Pearl a couple of years ago on Alltel.

Next biggest drain might be the GPS, perhaps screen brightness?
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Honestly, I haven't even noticed much on the screen brightness. I turned it up and down, without much difference. GPS will drain, especially if it tries to connect inside a building.

I've never seen a phone drain as quickly as the Eris when the signal is bad. The only time I toggle off 3g is when I know I'm in a bad signal area, which isn't often. I've been getting 2+ days on my battery.
 
Bswartz95 said:
I've never seen a phone drain as quickly as the Eris when the signal is bad. The only time I toggle off 3g is when I know I'm in a bad signal area, which isn't often. I've been getting 2+ days on my battery.
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I used to have an awful time with that Pearl; here where I was using it the Alltel towers were few and far between.. the battery had to be charged several times per day.

Solved it by getting with Sprint and one of their Pearls; battery life was then normal for that device, about one charge every two days.

It was a blatant lesson in signal strength = battery life, for me.
 
Frisco said:
I used to have an awful time with that Pearl; here where I was using it the Alltel towers were few and far between.. the battery had to be charged several times per day.

Solved it by getting with Sprint and one of their Pearls; battery life was then normal for that device, about one charge every two days.

It was a blatant lesson in signal strength = battery life, for me.
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I just wish I knew what the problem with the Eris is. At home I have 3 to 4 bars. However, there will be places where I'll be lucky to get 1 bar, and my friends with other Verizon phones have 3 bars. I just shake my head at that. I don't have a problem making calls, but it just shows a low signal, and I know my battery is hemorrhaging.

Software? Radio? Antenna?
 
I thought bad signal had alot to do with it too. But today I have been home most of the day, and the signal is horrible. Like most days when I am home, I have not used my phone alot, maybe 10 texts and 5 minutes talking. Checked email for about 5 minutes, and used the gps for a 30 minute walk using cardiotrainer. Been off charger for 11 hours. Battery is 49%(I just turned it off instead of charging, will see how long it lasts tomorrow). What gives?
Think I am going to take my hubby's advice and quit trying to figure it out and enjoy my phone. If it keeps going back and forth between lasting and not, I will order the 1750 battery--if it stays like it has been the last 2 days, I won't need to.
As I close, let me just suggest to those who are having battery problems to give dolphin a try, just to see if it helps you. You can always uninstall and go back to the stock one.
 
Just got my Eris & my battery wouldn't last more than a day. I had to correct just about everything suggested in this thread. We'll see how it works out.

thanks.
 
bigdroid said:
I have a network extender so I at least get full bars now, but I do not get the 3G service all the time, which is draining my battery. 1x data service will suck your battery like a Vampire. :)
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...what is a network extender? I got VZW specifically because of the fantastic nation-wide 3G coverage. I live in the DC/Baltimore metro region and have crap service in my house. I don't know if it's because I live in a townhome with all that concrete to separate the units in case of fire...or if I just happen to live in a dead zone. Regardless, being on 1x all the time is killing my battery. I use wifi when I'm at home and it seems like it's doing ok.. Sorry for the ramble:)
 
if you want to fool all your friends:

chart

[Fake Firefox v3.6]
I've gotten at least 3 people with thinking I'm special and know one of the developers.

They said that "Pocket Fox" for android is still months away, but oh well.

It's the stock browser, just replaces the icon. More apps like this please :D
 
livefreebee said:
...what is a network extender? I got VZW specifically because of the fantastic nation-wide 3G coverage. I live in the DC/Baltimore metro region and have crap service in my house. I don't know if it's because I live in a townhome with all that concrete to separate the units in case of fire...or if I just happen to live in a dead zone. Regardless, being on 1x all the time is killing my battery. I use wifi when I'm at home and it seems like it's doing ok.. Sorry for the ramble:)
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Texting puts you on 1X, even for a split second, right? Do they add up and kill battery too? Because I text a lot but thought web browsing killed it the most, especially mobile.
 
I've wondered that. I can't recall any of my other phones doing that. Unless they were switching for a second to send the message and weren't telling me.
 
I have had my Eris for about two weeks, have run the battery down to 0 3-4 times and charged overnight. Today I took it off the charger around 7 a.m, Added up all my talk times and it equaled 120 mins, rec'd probably 40 emails, sent 0, 0 texts. At 5:30 p.m., battery is at 22%. Wifi, BT on.

thanks,
Roger
 
Had my Eris for 1 week so far...I've let it die before recharging a few times, but I still can't go 8 hours without it being in the orange/yellow and needing a charge.

I browse maybe 10 minutes total. Facebook a few times, made 4 phone calls and texted twice. I really hope the battery life gets better! I would hate to have to carry spare batteries with me everyday :mad:
 
A User Name said:
Had my Eris for 1 week so far...I've let it die before recharging a few times, but I still can't go 8 hours without it being in the orange/yellow and needing a charge.

I browse maybe 10 minutes total. Facebook a few times, made 4 phone calls and texted twice. I really hope the battery life gets better! I would hate to have to carry spare batteries with me everyday :mad:
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I have to add my opinion about letting a Lithium Ion battery die: don't.

Nickel Cadium ("ni-cad") batteries require drainage to zero on a regular basis in order to cause the charger to see 100% of the capacity of the unit. Lithium Ion thrives on "topping," not to avoid "memory" of partial capacity, but to condition the unit as time goes by.

The more you "top" the Eris battery, the more its capacity will approach 100%, probably after about the 5th time of "topping."
 
Frisco said:
I have to add my opinion about letting a Lithium Ion battery die: don't.

Nickel Cadium ("ni-cad") batteries require drainage to zero on a regular basis in order to cause the charger to see 100% of the capacity of the unit. Lithium Ion thrives on "topping," not to avoid "memory" of partial capacity, but to condition the unit as time goes by.

The more you "top" the Eris battery, the more its capacity will approach 100%, probably after about the 5th time of "topping."
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Oh, I know that, and by "letting it die" i meant around 15% life remaining. But I usually charge my phone if its around 1/2 if I am leaving the house and don't have car charger available.

Thanks for the tip though, I almost forgot about this :D
 
I have read through all 429 posts up to this point but have a few questions remaining (forgive me if these too have been answered)

1. People always say that they have 56% or 94% battery or whatever, but i can't find where in the phone to check the exact % of battery life left. Just the green bar in Phone Status and the stupid little icon in the task bar. Where can i find this or do i need a battery widget? (Which i hear drains the battery...)

2. I reset my phone before bed and then made it go to sleep while charging. I woke up to check the awake time and it was at 100%. Is this normal? If so, is it not good? If this is also so, how and where do you change this setting? Sleep while on Charger?


My Personal experience with battery life is this.

- First day i got it i took out of box and played with it till it started whining,
- Then i plugged it in and continued to play on charger.
- That night i plugged it in overnight and allowed to charge for 8 hours
- The next day i took it off the charger at 9am and it was completely dead at 3:00pm the next day. Admittedly, i was on the phone LITERALLY almost the entire time (approx 4 hours of talk time) the rest i was either playing a game or not doing anything. I was really bummed out as i could do this with my BB Curve NOOOO problems and knew i had to do something as i'm an IT Consultant and NEED to be able to talk on my phone all day (waiting on hold/working with vendor support or helping customers over the phone or talking while driving in between appts.

So i found this post. After reading this post i made the following changes:

- Set screen brightness down from 50% (Default) to about 25%. Doesnt look that much less bright but i hope it helps.

- Set GPS, WIFI, Bluetooth off at all times (it was on Day 1 as well but just made sure i had the toggles to verify)

- Installed App Killer (Despite the conflicting reports about Linux Memory management, etc..i'm concerned about Battery life and CPU Usage, not memory...and i have noticed it speeds up the device when i close 10 apps running in the background... call it placebo or whatever you want, but i went 1 1/2 day w/o an app killer and i had to go back)

- Set Data Sync off from GMail (dont use it)

- Installed Handscent and disabled internal messaging

- Leave Mobile Network On - I need to get emails instantly so turning this off is not an option for me.

- Left Vibrate on for touch (need that feedback) but turned off audible tone for all touch (especially phone..ugh!)

- Disable Auto Backlight

- Disabled Screen Animations (dont notice a difference in the way the phone animates between screens tho?)

- Turned Screen Timeout to 30 seconds (and always hit the end key when not using the phone)

- Disabled Location Sources (Both "Use Wireless Networks - See location in applications - such as Maps - using wireless networks" AND "Location Setting - Allow network to detect your position") - What's the difference!?

That's all i can think of for right now. So, here we go.

Off Charger at 8:30am - rebooted phone to get accurate "Awake Time" out of it. Spare Parts installed to monitor CPU Usage and all that Jazz today. And we'll see how it goes.

I'll update tonight/tomorrow


To Caddy - It would be helpful to me and MANY others to include in that original post on WHAT those settings mean when you enable/disable them. Like "Disable Mobile Network" - Many people will just do it without asking what it is to save battery life..and then have to figure it out the hard way. that's my only suggestion. It'll probably save you time in having to answer every question 10 times..heh. Otherwise, fantastic job monitoring this thread. Thank You!
 
I looked at this thread to but I do not understand how to reboot with out a battery pull can someone explain in reboot for dummy terms.
 
bcltoys said:
I looked at this thread to but I do not understand how to reboot with out a battery pull can someone explain in reboot for dummy terms.
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Just hold the power button and shut down the phone then wait a minute and hit the power again to turn it on.
 
Ty07allstar said:
Just hold the power button and shut down the phone then wait a minute and hit the power again to turn it on.
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Yeah, "reboot" with these phones is a bit of a misnomer, there is no "restart" or "reboot" option in the menu; it's done manually following a shutdown.

It'd be cool to have "restart" in the menu, just like with most operating systems on computers.
 
Ok, so it's 7:15p (Took off Charger at around 8:15a) and my battery is now at 15% and annoying me to put it in the charger. Total Time since last boot and off charger is 10 Hours.

I was VERY cautios today to make sure to Kill apps after using the phone and putting the phone to sleep when not in use. I would say today was a very average use.

Total Awake Time: 2.5 Hours (25%)

- Call time was abouuuut, oh 1-1.5 hours
- Sent about 15 texts
- Received about 20 or so emails and sent about 10
- Browsed internet several times for a few minutes at a time to look up addresses, info
- Browsed Market for 10-15 minutes to find battery app (never downloaded)
- Played no games
- had phone on and checking stuff while on the forums this AM and writing my previous post in this thread and this afternoon while writing another post about the phone app in another thread - About 20 minutes total

And that's about it.. I'd say that's an average useage day, not "heavy" by my standards by any means.


And i didnt throw it on a charger (car or wall) at anytime. I shouldnt have to, as i beleive ANY phone, smart or dumb, should be able to last the day with heavy useage.

I cannot compromise anything else. Mobile Network MUST stay on and checking email every 15 minutes is actually less frequent than i want in a smart phone (My BBerry would get emails sooner (set to check every 5)than my laptop which checks every 3).


This is what i would classify as unacceptable. At this point, i'm starting to get frustrated and am considering returning to BBerry due to the following:

- Better Battery life
- Better email, phone, contacts, messaging
- Hardware Keyboard

I need my phone to be a phone first, and a toy second. While the Droid Eris is very fun and "cool", i might need to put my business priorities first. I REALLY want to make this work, and will continue to try for at least another week, but the outlook at this point is not so good.

Thanks all for any and all insight into how you're able to maximize your battery life.

I'm considering the Seido 1750mAh battery but at $50, i'm a little hesitant...as I've already dropped a couple hundred into this thing already.

Thanks everyone!
 
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