Before anyone accuse me of it, I did, in fact, look through the other battery threads on this forum (and other forums, for that matter), and I've already applied numerous tricks. I managed to get my phone to last roughly 9 hours from my typical usage, which now makes it comparable to other phones I've used in the past.
However, in about a day or two, I'm going to be getting a bluetooth headset...which basically means that I'm going to need to keep the Captivate's bluetooth on 24/7 (or, at least, most of the day). I really don't know how much battery this is going to cost me on the Captivate, so I'm trying my best to make things better now to make things smooth in the future. However, I appear to be at the end of my rope.
I have pretty much gimped the Captivate as much as one could reasonably take (more, I'd dare argue). I cut all of my volume down to half of what it was and I removed most of the quick icons. I also set a completely black wallpaper, I turned off all animation, and I turned the brightness down to its lowest setting.
I honestly don't know how to make it any worse. The SAMOLED screen is basically a meaningless PR term to me now and I'm actually missing phone calls from sheer lacking of hearing my phone ring...despite it being right in my pocket.
Going even further, I also attempted to switch to ADW.Launcher based upon recommendations by others that it increases battery life (I found that it had little to no effect). I also attempted to severely underclock my CPU (down to 200Mhz) based, again, upon other claims that it increases their battery life all the way to as high as 30+ hours on a single full charge.
Somehow, underclocking my CPU actually made the battery die out faster.
Furthermore, I attempted to use programs (SMODA, 2G/3G) which claim they allow me to switch to EDGE because, for some God-forsaken reason, Android doesn’t seem to have any toggle for doing it. Unfortunately, none of them seem to work; rather than switching to 2G, they all just completely disabled data, which, unfortunately, is completely unacceptable to me. So at this point, I only seem to have a few more extreme (from my perspective) options. Once I actually get the bluetooth, I plan to turn off most of the auto-updating apps (email, weather, twitter, etc), and just update them myself periodically. Furthermore, I plan to turn off the GPS location feature once I get my GPS unit.
Beyond the above, though, as I said, I'm at the end of my rope. Once I employ the other tricks, I figure I might be able to stretch battery life to 9.5-10 hours, but I would like to go even further. If anyone could offer me some help, I would highly appreciate it.
if your gonna have a bluetooth headset on disable your ringtone completly that would be meaning less. if your near wi-fi a lot have it connect only though that.
also you can clock the cpu down to 100Mhz along with the GPU.
AND to force 2G/edge read my howto in general
oh the ext2 lagfix can also save you some battery life
xatrekak said:
if your gonna have a bluetooth headset on disable your ringtone completly that would be meaning less. if your near wi-fi a lot have it connect only though that.
also you can clock the cpu down to 100Mhz along with the GPU.
AND to force 2G/edge read my howto in general
oh the ext2 lagfix can also save you some battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already doing the first sans disabling ringtone. I'm not so sure doing such a thing would be acceptable to me.
As for the underlocking suggestion, as I said, I underclocked the CPU all the way down to 200Mhz and the battery actually drained even faster. I doubt underclocking even further is going to help. Furthermore, I actually did try 100Mhz originally, but the performance was so horrendous that it was unbearable.
As for the lag fix, I already have it. Lastly, I knew about that 4636 technique to switch to 2G already, but, unfortunately, it doesn't appear to work for me. The setting doesn't save and 3G still remains.
EDIT: I actually found a way to make the above work. Simply dial *#*#197328640#*#*, then go Debug Screen > Phone Control > UE State Control > Change RAT to GSM. This will actually force your phone to use GSM only. This seems like the answer to all of my battery problems....except it doesn't work. Once you make the change, the INFO menu reports that it has been changed to 'GSM Only', but data appears to have been disabled. Restarting your phone makes data works again, but the INFO menu reported that data has been reset back to 'GSM/CDMA auto'. Yay.
If you haven't already, turn off GPS when you aren't using it. Use the Power Control widget to help. Make sure all of the things in the power control widget are off unless you are using it. And use advanced task killer if you haven't already.
i say screw underclocking let run at whatever i dont think it makes a difference.
forget advanced task killer, i like auto killer.
leave gps off unless needed, and backround data
switch to 2g when you can.
no live walls of course use dark or black, no updating widgets
i dumped stuff like juice defender, cause with backround data off i dont think it does anything.
flight mode it at night (when sleeping) if not charging
ive been running jh3 (now jh7) with sre. get to work (i run 2g at work)at 9am listen to pandora all day through bluetooth (which is on for 6-8hrs) and wifi (6-8hrs) good amount off browsing bout 30 min of voice calls, some texts email checking, more browsing, some games. on average lately after being unplugged for 13-17 hrs at the end of the day with 20-30% life left,using bout 3hrs of display, 30 min voice calls, bluetooth doesnt use crap bout 3%, media server usually 15%, cell satndby i wanna say 10%, im pretty happy i guess, even though im always lookin for better results, tryin the new sre with undervolting, heard some good things.
still when that seidio 3200 mah battery comes out im gettin it, dont care how fat it makes the phone, things to dang thin as it is, and without some sort of cover its like a wet bar of soap!!
What is your typical daily usage? I have fairly light usage (few games here and there a little music and a good amount of web surfing, app browsing and texting with a few phone calls using speaker phone) and I'm at 28 hours of use with 55% battery.
I have just the typical power saving tricks(gps off, bluetooth off, screen at minimum or 30% and my data doesn't sync automatically), no under clocking or anything. I should point out I'm running a euro galaxy rom and am not ever on a wifi connection.
NotAppropriate said:
What is your typical daily usage? I have fairly light usage (few games here and there a little music and a good amount of web surfing, app browsing and texting with a few phone calls using speaker phone) and I'm at 28 hours of use with 55% battery.
I have just the typical power saving tricks(gps off, bluetooth off, screen at minimum or 30% and my data doesn't sync automatically), no under clocking or anything. I should point out I'm running a euro galaxy rom and am not ever on a wifi connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow you are lucky. Yesterday I got 2 phone calls for a total of 3 minutes. I sent 7 text messages. I surfed the web maybe for 15 minutes. No games. Nothing else major. GPS off. Bluetooth off. Wifi on. Screen at 22%. Only background data I have is email which checks once every hour and a weather widget that refreshes every 6 hours. I got barely 12 hours in before my battery died.
fishgator said:
If you haven't already, turn off GPS when you aren't using it. Use the Power Control widget to help. Make sure all of the things in the power control widget are off unless you are using it. And use advanced task killer if you haven't already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I'm keeping GPS off, and I'm using ATK already.
NotAppropriate said:
What is your typical daily usage? I have fairly light usage (few games here and there a little music and a good amount of web surfing, app browsing and texting with a few phone calls using speaker phone) and I'm at 28 hours of use with 55% battery.
I have just the typical power saving tricks(gps off, bluetooth off, screen at minimum or 30% and my data doesn't sync automatically), no under clocking or anything. I should point out I'm running a euro galaxy rom and am not ever on a wifi connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Typical usage for me runs along this line: A lot of web browsing, perhaps 30-45 minutes of music, and plenty of IM. I also use Aldiko to read now and then. Calls do factor into this, but typically only two or three 10-15 minute phone calls.
Truthfully, I simply don't see how it is possible for you to use the phone for 28 hours straight and still have 55% battery. I could lose 30% battery just by leaving my Captivate on stand-by for 30 hours.
I certainly understand the interest in having the best battery life possible.
Are you in a work environment where you cannot plug it to a computer for part of the day?
Fortunately, I am. And I always have it plugged in in the car.
I don't want to have a powerful phone with all the features turned off in order to keep it going.
I dont see how you can get 28hrs @ 55% either, with the kind of usage he was claiming, i wouldnt exactly call that light usage
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
28hrs @ 55% What firmware you runnin
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
ewingr said:
I certainly understand the interest in having the best battery life possible.
Are you in a work environment where you cannot plug it to a computer for part of the day?
Fortunately, I am. And I always have it plugged in in the car.
I don't what to have a powerful phone with all the features turned off in order to keep it going.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I do have a work environment where I can keep my Captivate plugged in, but only half of the time. Other times, I need to move. Aside from that, it kind of annoys me to use a phone attached to a wall socket. I prefer to keep my smartphones plugged in only long enough for them to fully charge (or at least charge to 80+%), then unplug them for usage. This is kind of tough for the Captivate considering it takes 3-4 hours to fully charge.
I also fully agree with you on the last point, which is what makes all of this so frustrating.
*Sigh* It's really too bad the Captivate is my first Android phone; it's been kind of a negative experience for me so far. Ironically enough, the one issue that hasn't been a problem for me is the one issue most seem to be having -- GPS performance.
roadrash7 said:
I dont see how you can get 28hrs @ 55% either, with the kind of usage he was claiming, i wouldnt exactly call that light usage
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in class for most of the day so the phone is idle most of the time but i only play about 10 minutes of music with about an hour or 2 combined web surfing and games but my phone is still chugging at 39 percent battery life at 38 hours of usage. I guess that qualifies as light usage then.
edit: jm6 with unhelpful kernel and sre
also, you have let the battery die out completely and recharge completely with the phone powered off correct?
NotAppropriate said:
I am in class for most of the day so the phone is idle most of the time but i only play about 10 minutes of music with about an hour or 2 combined web surfing and games but my phone is still chugging at 39 percent battery life at 38 hours of usage. I guess that qualifies as light usage then.
edit: jm6 with unhelpful kernel and sre
also, you have let the battery die out completely and recharge completely with the phone powered off correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm honestly shocked at your usage. Am I reading right that in the 38 hours since you last charged it, you only used it for 10 minutes of music and a combined 1-2 hours of web surfing/games? I wouldn't call that light usage. I would call that hardly any usage.
Under such conditions, I can see why your battery life lasts so long.
I don't see why you can't get a days worth of usage out of your phone. Cell phone calls use the most battery - that is why the phone is rated at about 5 hours of talk time. This would be in the best signal area. If you are in a lower signal environment (especially in a heavy building all day) you will see faster battery drain.
I am not sure why you are bothering with BT if you are only talking on 2 or 3 calls - but if you take 3 15 minute calls that is at least 15% of your battery - the only way to change this is force the phone to Edge.
I would not lower ringtone volume - that is not a big battery saver in the grand scheme of things and you are missing calls - not a good trade off. If you are doing a lot of web surfing, go WiFi instead and you will see big battery imrovements. 3G voice and data suck battery - it doesn't matter if you have android or iPhone.
If you put your phone in Airplane mode you can go for 5 days between charges with minimum use.
The radio does kill the battery, I don't think the battery usage screen really depicts this. Since I've gotten my captivate my old BB Bold (at the time would only last 3 hours due to its degraded battery) lasts days on end with its radio disabled while sitting in my desk. I'd love to see native 3G toggle or at least a captivate catered app, I'd even pay for the latter
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
alphadog00 said:
I don't see why you can't get a days worth of usage out of your phone. Cell phone calls use the most battery - that is why the phone is rated at about 5 hours of talk time. This would be in the best signal area. If you are in a lower signal environment (especially in a heavy building all day) you will see faster battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that rating is probably the battery life if your decide to talk on your phone for five hours straight. I really, really doubt it takes into consideration the in-between times (games, apps, and, of course, web surfing). Phone calls undoubtedly takes the most amount of battery, but Internet usage is probably second place and, as said, I use that fairly often.
Lastly, I'm not planning to use my bluetooth exclusively for phone calls. I'm going to use it for calls, listen to music on the Captivate, chat on my PC, and so on. It's multi-usage.
Next, you're missing a lot of the things I said. As I said, I already tried numerous methods to force the phone into 2G; not one of them works (they either don't work at all or actually completely disable my data). I'm already using wifi as opposed to 3G as much as possible.
Lastly, I'm sorry, but using airplane mode to save battery is not acceptable. If I'm even willing to consider this, then I might as well just turn off the Captivate to save battery.
I just read something about an external sd card being another battery drain.
Took mine out and we will see. I was already getting through the day with about 20%left.
8525Smart said:
Well, that rating is probably the battery life if your decide to talk on your phone for five hours straight. I really, really doubt it takes into consideration the in-between times (games, apps, and, of course, web surfing). Phone calls undoubtedly takes the most amount of battery, but Internet usage is probably second place and, as said, I use that fairly often.
Lastly, I'm not planning to use my bluetooth exclusively for phone calls. I'm going to use it for calls, listen to music on the Captivate, chat on my PC, and so on. It's multi-usage.
Next, you're missing a lot of the things I said. As I said, I already tried numerous methods to force the phone into 2G; not one of them works (they either don't work at all or actually completely disable my data). I'm already using wifi as opposed to 3G as much as possible.
Lastly, I'm sorry, but using airplane mode to save battery is not acceptable. If I'm even willing to consider this, then I might as well just turn off the Captivate to save battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't meant to suggest that airplane mode was an alternative, just to point out that the cell radio for Voice and Data is your biggest drain.
If you are going to use the phone for almost an hour of talk time, heavy web surfing and BT connections for tethering then your battery life will be limited. If you are using BT to chat on your pc - then maybe tethering with USB would be better - you could charge at the same time.
Your other option is to get a spare battery.
And I did read what you had to say, I just didn't realize how much you were expecting your phone to do. The only numbers your provider were around talk time.
I use my phone a lot and I charge it every 24 hours - I am more then satisfied - but I know that if a spend an hour or more talking on it and bunch of web surfing that I will have to think about charging it as my usage increases.
There is a way to force the phone into 2G. It isn't very user friendly. I have tested this and it works great.
Enter the Phone app.
Dial *#*#197328640#*#*
Select [1] DEBUG SCREEN
Select [8] PHONE CONTROL
Select [4] UE STATE CONTROL
If you want 2G, select:
[3] CHANGE RAT TO GSM
If you want 3G, select:
[2] CHANGE RAT TO WCDMA
Hello, i use Dalingrin's kernel (6/30) and CM7 nightlies (121 currently).
Sometimes deep sleep is nice for my battery, sometimes it doesn't save energy.
It's life but i need a few days between battery charging.
so i decided to add a few workarounds, here they are:
1. Airplane mode everytime + wifi on/off when i need it. Only ten seconds to activate/deactivate with CM7 status bar.
2. Battery widget monitor: it enables history of battery consuming. Very good to act that deep sleep is effective or not.
3. uninstall applications which sychronize when nook should be sleeping: K9, DSPmanager, hotapps, appbrainz.
3. Advanced task killer pro: Crazy mode when screen is off. Very nice for last applications.
Of course, you are welcome to comment those tricks and to add some
I guess it depends on use, but I'm on day 3 on a charge, running at 47%. I just have the screen at 15% most of the time, and I don't disable sync. I mostly do reader, email, internet, so that might be part of my success.
sebanoel said:
Hello, i use Dalingrin's kernel (6/30) and CM7 nightlies (121 currently).
Sometimes deep sleep is nice for my battery, sometimes it doesn't save energy.
It's life but i need a few days between battery charging.
so i decided to add a few workarounds, here they are:
1. Airplane mode everytime + wifi on/off when i need it. Only ten seconds to activate/deactivate with CM7 status bar.
2. Battery widget monitor: it enables history of battery consuming. Very good to act that deep sleep is effective or not.
3. uninstall applications which sychronize when nook should be sleeping: K9, DSPmanager, hotapps, appbrainz.
3. Advanced task killer pro: Crazy mode when screen is off. Very nice for last applications.
Of course, you are welcome to comment those tricks and to add some
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 is probably not a good idea, since sometimes Airplane mode sticks.
2 has nothing to do with saving battery, but okay..
3a does nothing if there is no network connection (assuming sanely written programs)
3b is stupid and shouldn't ever be used.
You want to save battery? Turn off wifi when the screen goes off. You can do this automatically with Setting Profile Lite or Tasker, probably some others. I've found that the wifi sleep setting doesn't do anything for me, I can continue to ping the NC for 10+ minutes after the screen goes off so clearly the wifi is still up.
And watch Spare Parts partial wake locks and see if you have any misbehaving apps. I find that Maps with Latitude enabled misbehaves without a network connection and constantly is trying to update or something, so I cleared data on Maps to get out of Latitude on that device. CPUSpy will also show you how much deep sleep is ongoing.
The NC is going to use at least 10%/hr at low backlight doing simple tasks, I've seen it use up to 25% overclocked playing games.
While asleep it uses about 1% every 3-4 hours. Could probably do even better if you don't have a boatload of apps and widgets like I do.
Grab "Where's my Droid's Power" or whatever the application is called, and see where all the power is going.
khaytsus said:
1 is probably not a good idea, since sometimes Airplane mode sticks.
2 has nothing to do with saving battery, but okay..
3a does nothing if there is no network connection (assuming sanely written programs)
3b is stupid and shouldn't ever be used.
You want to save battery? Turn off wifi when the screen goes off. You can do this automatically with Setting Profile Lite or Tasker, probably some others. I've found that the wifi sleep setting doesn't do anything for me, I can continue to ping the NC for 10+ minutes after the screen goes off so clearly the wifi is still up.
And watch Spare Parts partial wake locks and see if you have any misbehaving apps. I find that Maps with Latitude enabled misbehaves without a network connection and constantly is trying to update or something, so I cleared data on Maps to get out of Latitude on that device. CPUSpy will also show you how much deep sleep is ongoing.
The NC is going to use at least 10%/hr at low backlight doing simple tasks, I've seen it use up to 25% overclocked playing games.
While asleep it uses about 1% every 3-4 hours. Could probably do even better if you don't have a boatload of apps and widgets like I do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He said the battery widget is to see if it is asleep, and see what the consumption is like.
Hello,
You are right about battery logging.
i have to test the two applications you mention both:
1. "And watch Spare Parts partial wake locks and see if you have any misbehaving app"
2. "Where's my droid power".
Sorry for the long list of screenshots above, and also for creating a new topic, but didn't want to spam the normal board for battery discussion.
Anyway, I have the N920I model of the Note 5, using it on Telkomsel in Indonesia, and getting average 3+ hours SOT on this device, which I think could stand to be much better, given I got around the same figure on the Moto X 2014, which has significantly worse battery life according to most counts.
Here's my settings:
Screen brightness 60%, auto
Sync on
NFC off
Location high accuracy
Bluetooth on from 8 to 3.30, then off for the rest of the day
Connected to an Asus ZenWatch 2
Wi-Fi on from 4 to night, from plug out in morning to 8
Here's the list of apps I disabled:
And here's how my usage goes:
* Plug in when I wake up, then out at 7-ish.
* Get to school and let My Places switch to "Work" mode, where it changes the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and power saving settings and turn off data before starting the first class.
* Turn it on between classes to check for new messages.
* Leave at 3-ish, and get home, letting My Places change the settings back to normal. At this point, the phone is usually at 70% with an hour of screen on time to report.
* Use it periodically throughout the rest of the day, switching between WhatsApp, Snapchat, Netflix, Chrome and YouTube.
* Plug in at 8 or 9, then plug out before I go to bed, topping up what's left in the morning.
It's a fairly light usage pattern, which reinforces the point that this phone should get more than just 3 hours. Any specific app you're seeing here that might be putting its toll on battery life, or a specific setting that you can advise enabling or disabling?
Bump
Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk
Just try counting how many threads there are about battery life in this section. A lot! I, being one of the victims of horrendous drains, have tried everything. If you keep the device relatively clean(software) and it still drains then there is only one thing you can do. Wait for the marshmallow. I'm sorry but that's what it means owning a samsung device.
try gsam battery monitor. It may give insight into what is going on....
bonerp said:
try gsam battery monitor. It may give insight into what is going on....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already did! But Android OS is always the top consumer.
thanks!
As Octa_core mentioned, there are quite a few threads about battery life already. They might be of benefit if you haven't already looked through them.
Here are a few things you might try, if you haven't already.
- Turn off location high accuracy, or only turn on location when you need it (if you can)
- Turn off location history
- Turn off Always Allow Scanning in Wifi advanced settings
- Turn off S-Pen settings (alerts, sound, vibration, detection)
- If using Google Fit, disable activity detection in settings (this definitely helped my idle drain)
- Turn off anything you don't need to sync on your Google Account
- Disable enhanced LTE services
- Turn off Motions and Gestures you don't use
- Set touch key light duration to Always Off (under Display)
- Turn off Smart Stay
- Set Screen Mode to Basic
- Use a darker theme
- Try disabling some apps, especially S-Finder (may require Package Disable Pro to disable some apps)
- What does your signal look like in GSam? Some drain may be due to poor signal.
If none of that helps, then uninstall or disable (probably will need Package Disable Pro to disable) all apps you installed, and I also recommend that you disable S-Finder. Turn off all radios (location, NFC, bluetooth, wifi, even data) other than cell. Reboot after those changes. Monitor and see how idle battery drain is. After I did this, my idle drain was around 0.4% per hour. Then you can gradually enable radios/apps, only 2-3 at a time, reboot, and see how it impacts idle drain. Continue until you find app/radio that increase idle drain.