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S2 idle battery drain. What's your?

S

speedycolzalez

Android Enthusiast
My previous phone, a HTC Desire running the Redux 1.2 rom, would sip battery at a paltry 1% every 2 or 3 hours when left idle overnight, on my desk or in the middle of a field playing golf (so, not necessarily on wifi).

My new S2 gulps it down at between 1% & 2%. Same configuration, same apps & widgets, even the same desk, bedside table or golf bag :). I've tried removing apps, different firmware and ICS ROMs but nothing gets me below the magic 1% per hour mark.

So, what do you get? Is 1%+ normal or is the phone defective?
 
I was just going to make a thread about this. I recently upgraded to a Galaxy S2 from a Nokia 5800. Since owning the S2 I have left the Nokia unused on my desk and it lasted initially 4 - 5 days idling before it needed charging. The S2 uses much more than this, overnight it lost around at least 10% of its battery life. Is this normal? I always thought smartphones where designed to be left on, maybe this is wrong. Would it be better to switch the S2 off overnight instead of leaving it on?
 
My S2 uses about 1% per hour on idle overnight so doesn't cause me any problems for the next day.
When I was running my old Desire rooted with Redux ROM, energy efficient kernel and CPU governor it would use about 1% all night.
So the S2 is slightly worse but that's to be expected and acceptable for me.
 
There is no point in comparing battery stats like this.
Your battery consumption pattern will be unique to your phone because of hundreds of factors involved such as apps installed or uninstalled, kernel, kernel setup, sync settings, app sync settings, etc etc.. I can keep on going.. Even with identical settings you will probably not experience the same discharge rate.

As a rule of thumb, I have seen people lose between 0.5% to 2.5% per hour in night time idle mode.

I recommend Better Battery Stats and CPU Spy to analyze how your battery is being consumed if you believe that you are experiencing extreme battery drain. Check your deep sleep and wakelocks.
 
I've done all that. 1% was with no apps installed other than CPUSpy, BBB and SystemPanel, no widgets on the home screen and wifi off. I've also looked at the Android OS suspend and event/0 process thread on XDA.

I guess I can live with 1% per hour. I'll just have to remember to charge it up every night.
 
I'd say my S2 is now at about 1% per couple of hours, but that's a luxury at the moment compared to it's extreme draining when I had the problem with the random 'MTP initializing' with no usb cable connected and many other random problems. When it suffered those, it wouldn't last 6 hours on a full charge before it beeped it's battery warning.
 
speedycolzalez said:
I've done all that. 1% was with no apps installed other than CPUSpy, BBB and SystemPanel, no widgets on the home screen and wifi off. I've also looked at the Android OS suspend and event/0 process thread on XDA.

I guess I can live with 1% per hour. I'll just have to remember to charge it up every night.
Click to expand...

If you freeze/uninstall the Bloatware apps as well as change the sync schedules of the default apps you will get a further boost. :p

Still a charge once daily shall be required. :p
 
just wondering. .is this really a normal condition on an S2 unit? using 4.0.3 ICS now and the battery life did not change that much
 
icedtea said:
just wondering. .is this really a normal condition on an S2 unit? using 4.0.3 ICS now and the battery life did not change that much
Click to expand...

Changed from??

If you are coming from 2.3.3 or below you will feel that the battery life has improved, but if you are coming from 2.3.5 or 2.3.6 the change won't seem significant.
I have heard that 4.0.4 brings further improvements to battery life. Looks like we got to wait it out.
 
my S2 drains about 5-6% overnight, thats in 8 hours idle plus the alarm ringing for about an hour in the morning. pretty content with it.
thing things you can do to improve battery life is keep background data off when you're not using google play. also i always keep power saving mode on. it also helps if you access task managed often and clear processes frequently.
 
Keeping 3G off will do wonders for battery life.

Not so sure about closing or clearing processes though. In my opinion, it might take more juice restarting / refreshing the launchers, widgets, apps etc... (that you use frequently)

If you have a troublesome app that won't stay closed, clearing the processes / RAM might help. The power saving mode don't do much for me either. Probably because I control my 3G connection on my own anyway.
 
well..My experience is almost 30% at night on airplane mod and with WiFi on..I am new user (4 ultmate years with iphone-very very power user ang heavy using of coursse) and i'm absolutely disappointed from the battery..2 charges a day..
 
Russell Ng said:
Keeping 3G off will do wonders for battery life.
Click to expand...
Very true.


vampirios said:
well..My experience is almost 30% at night on airplane mod and with WiFi on..I am new user (4 ultmate years with iphone-very very power user ang heavy using of coursse) and i'm absolutely disappointed from the battery..2 charges a day..
Click to expand...

Wifi is a major major battery hog. One night try airplane mode without wifi and post the results.

p.s. as a power user I am sure your expectations from the battery can't be that of an average user. One charge daily on power use is expected.
 
Forbidden 403 said:
Very true.




Wifi is a major major battery hog. One night try airplane mode without wifi and post the results.

p.s. as a power user I am sure your expectations from the battery can't be that of an average user. One charge daily on power use is expected.
Click to expand...
Yep that is what i'll do today..Of cource my expectations is one day ''charging freedom''.BTW i bought 2 anker batteries with external charger from ebay:P:P
 
1% per hour on a good day. 3-4% on a bad day. In around a year of owning the phone - and going through numerous firmware upgrades (including ICS a few weeks ago) - I've yet to find out what the phone is doing differently on those bad days :).
 
For those of you experiencing heavy battery drains, these threads will help you track down and curtail those drains.

This thread is written for both rooted, (which gives you far greater control of your handset), and un-rooted phones and contains lists of basic battery saving tips that can greatly increase your time between charges:-

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-.../491113-battery-saving-tips-rooted-sgsii.html

This next thread explains some of the known battery drainers:-

[REF] Known identified battery drainers - xda-developers

Last, but not least, is Task Killers and why you should not be using them. They may seem to be helping you but are in actual fact just masking a problem and draining your battery as well as impeding your phone's performance..

Why you don
 
Just to demonstrate the insanity / futility of it all...

I had the the battery out for about 10 minutes last night while fiddling with SD cards. Checked the stats this morning and while cpu - and esp. Android OS - utilisation has plummeted, overall battery drain is the same :confused:

Just goes to show, there's lies, damn lies and statistics :D
 
Forbidden 403 said:
Wifi is a major major battery hog.
Click to expand...

Only if not connected to an AP but just scanning. If the device is connected the power usage is actually less than 3G.

speedycolzalez said:
I had the the battery out for about 10 minutes last night while fiddling with SD cards. Checked the stats this morning and while cpu - and esp. Android OS - utilisation has plummeted, overall battery drain is the same :confused:
Click to expand...

Removing the battery for that length of time resets the internal 'fuel gauge', so your stats will be inaccurate until it recalibrates.
 
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