My phone has been off the charger from 8 am to 6 pm (10 hours) today and is currently at 73%. It must be said that this is not something that I've consistently been able to achieve. It is, however, the first time that I've allowed the battery to fully discharge overnight since purchasing the phone on August 19th. Today I used the internet very lightly, and listened to Slacker Radio for about 3 hours, and sent a fair amount of texts. I did not make any calls.
I believe the phone can realistically survive off a full charge for perhaps a day and a half - with very intelligent battery usage. To me, this entails using the app Green Power Free (GPF) to turn the data connection on once every hour for 5 min to allow Gmail and other background services to sync. You can adjust the on time/ off time of the data connection according to your needs. GPF also has the ability to turn on 3G when you unlock the screen, however I have this disabled and then just use a widget on my homescreen to enable 3G whenever I need to use it.
Other practices I use:
- I do not delete battery statistics from CWM recovery as I read in another post that the phone uses this information to intelligently give you an accurate battery reading that is also influenced by how the phone is used.
- I do a full discharge no more than one a month. I do, however, perform this once a month to recalibrate the battery and therefore allow its percentage remaining readout on the status bar to be as accurate as possible.
- I use Spare Parts if I notice the battery seems to be discharging faster than normal to spot apps that are preventing the phone from sleeping when the screen is off. I can then either force close the app using SystemPanel (great app), uninstall it, or use Titanium Backup Pro (paid) to freeze the app.
- I turn auto brightness off, and then manually adjust the screen's brightness to as low as I can allow while still being able to use the phone. Unless I'm out in bright sunlight, I've found 25-30% brightness is a good setting to keep it on.
- I keep the set the Screen Timeout setting to 30 seconds. The screen is the #1 power drainer (perhaps tied by the Time Without Signal Bug) so if you keep this setting as low as possible without being annoying, it will help battery life immensely. I also have a widget on my homescreen to adjust the Screen Timeout setting. That way I can adjust it on the fly if I know I'll be using the screen more (eg. web browsing) and don't want it turning off every 30 seconds.
- Slacker Radio is my favorite streaming music app, but unfortunately for me it more often than not it will prevent my prevent the phone from sleeping (according to Spare Parts), even after I manually quit the app by selecting Quit option within the app. Force closing the app with SystemPanel works sometimes but not usually. I've found that the best option which works is to use Titanium Backup Pro to freeze the app whenever I'm not using it. This keeps the app from wake locking the phone, and also prevents Slacker from restarting itself. In normal circumstances, I would just uninstall an app that behaves this way, however I happen to love Slacker and so this is a workaround that I've found fits the bill.
- Probably most importantly of all, I turn on Airplane mode for about 20 seconds each time I disconnect the phone from a USB / charging cable to prevent the Time Without Signal (TWS) bug. This works for me, though other people with this phone have said this solution does not work for them.
- I go into every app's settings which I use and ensure its data syncing properties are kept to as minimal usage as possible whilst still allowing me to enjoy the app/phone. Next to TWS, the screen, and rogue app's causing a wake lock on your phone, 3G/data usage is probably the next thing that uses your battery the most. Keep data usage down and/or use Green Power Free to manage how often they connect to the internet, and your phone should last substantially longer.
These ideas are certainly not my own, but I've adopted them after using the phone and diligently browsing forums like AndroidForums, and they've worked for me. Hopefully Cyanogenmod 7 or another custom ROM will come out soon to improve the Triumph's performance and battery endurance even more, but until then, I hope these tips help out others!
I believe the phone can realistically survive off a full charge for perhaps a day and a half - with very intelligent battery usage. To me, this entails using the app Green Power Free (GPF) to turn the data connection on once every hour for 5 min to allow Gmail and other background services to sync. You can adjust the on time/ off time of the data connection according to your needs. GPF also has the ability to turn on 3G when you unlock the screen, however I have this disabled and then just use a widget on my homescreen to enable 3G whenever I need to use it.
Other practices I use:
- I do not delete battery statistics from CWM recovery as I read in another post that the phone uses this information to intelligently give you an accurate battery reading that is also influenced by how the phone is used.
- I do a full discharge no more than one a month. I do, however, perform this once a month to recalibrate the battery and therefore allow its percentage remaining readout on the status bar to be as accurate as possible.
- I use Spare Parts if I notice the battery seems to be discharging faster than normal to spot apps that are preventing the phone from sleeping when the screen is off. I can then either force close the app using SystemPanel (great app), uninstall it, or use Titanium Backup Pro (paid) to freeze the app.
- I turn auto brightness off, and then manually adjust the screen's brightness to as low as I can allow while still being able to use the phone. Unless I'm out in bright sunlight, I've found 25-30% brightness is a good setting to keep it on.
- I keep the set the Screen Timeout setting to 30 seconds. The screen is the #1 power drainer (perhaps tied by the Time Without Signal Bug) so if you keep this setting as low as possible without being annoying, it will help battery life immensely. I also have a widget on my homescreen to adjust the Screen Timeout setting. That way I can adjust it on the fly if I know I'll be using the screen more (eg. web browsing) and don't want it turning off every 30 seconds.
- Slacker Radio is my favorite streaming music app, but unfortunately for me it more often than not it will prevent my prevent the phone from sleeping (according to Spare Parts), even after I manually quit the app by selecting Quit option within the app. Force closing the app with SystemPanel works sometimes but not usually. I've found that the best option which works is to use Titanium Backup Pro to freeze the app whenever I'm not using it. This keeps the app from wake locking the phone, and also prevents Slacker from restarting itself. In normal circumstances, I would just uninstall an app that behaves this way, however I happen to love Slacker and so this is a workaround that I've found fits the bill.
- Probably most importantly of all, I turn on Airplane mode for about 20 seconds each time I disconnect the phone from a USB / charging cable to prevent the Time Without Signal (TWS) bug. This works for me, though other people with this phone have said this solution does not work for them.
- I go into every app's settings which I use and ensure its data syncing properties are kept to as minimal usage as possible whilst still allowing me to enjoy the app/phone. Next to TWS, the screen, and rogue app's causing a wake lock on your phone, 3G/data usage is probably the next thing that uses your battery the most. Keep data usage down and/or use Green Power Free to manage how often they connect to the internet, and your phone should last substantially longer.
These ideas are certainly not my own, but I've adopted them after using the phone and diligently browsing forums like AndroidForums, and they've worked for me. Hopefully Cyanogenmod 7 or another custom ROM will come out soon to improve the Triumph's performance and battery endurance even more, but until then, I hope these tips help out others!
