[Q] Maximizing battery life as much as possible? - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

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

Related

[Q] Battery Life Sickness

Who thinks they have gotten the battery life sickness?
I think i am. Keep trying to get 3 days of battery life out of my Galaxy S...
Tried Superpower/APN Droid/ other apps. but still its hard.
I guess the only way is not to use it?
Should i just ignore the battery life?
My wife will just charge her phone every night, no matter its left with 20% or even 80%.
Charge every night. Ever since I started using smart phones, I have given up on battery life. 3 days battery life is a myth.
I can get two days tops with very little use, and that includes using juice defender turning on data/wifi every 15 minutes for only 1 minute to sync.
Yah i should do that. haha. Just charge the phone b4 i sleep
the best and most efficent method is to put it in airplane mode anytime you arent really using the phone and not expecting calls or messages... The phones says the display eats up the battery but, really its the radio that gobbles up battery life
d3a said:
the best and most efficent method is to put it in airplane mode anytime you arent really using the phone and not expecting calls or messages... The phones says the display eats up the battery but, really its the radio that gobbles up battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm sounds like getting a mp3 player or Ipod touch will be sufficient? haha
I don't get it. There are days that my battery gives more than 60 hours, and days that it dies in 20 hours without changing apps, brightness or anything, just a few more calls. I really don't get it.
tsinc said:
I don't get it. There are days that my battery gives more than 60 hours, and days that it dies in 20 hours without changing apps, brightness or anything, just a few more calls. I really don't get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh... u shld give advice how u manage 60 hours..
the only time i can manage that is when i am overseas. I switch to 2g permanently and without any data.
Rarely called. received less than 10 sms
Seifer1975 said:
Charge every night. Ever since I started using smart phones, I have given up on battery life. 3 days battery life is a myth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it's not, just stop using the phone
And don't use magical battery apps - they're apps, they need power to run... if you constantly have it "adjust" something, well, it'll consume as much power killing your other apps (which aren't even scheduled to run anyway), or doing other cheap tricks, that they make it worse than before...
I can tell you that my brother's phone lasts a week...
It's on all the time, but he just doesn't use it... (that means: no apps, no internet, ...)
The point is, you have a certain amount of power available, and whatever you do on the phone consumes a part of it. The more you fiddle and toy around with it, the shorter lasts your battery. An inactive app is fine - may take up RAM, but it's at least not actually running. Killing it, on the other hand, is an action - a task that is being executed, thus consumes power.
The worst thing I've seen are "app killers" which run in the background...
That is simple not a solution.
A solution is: getting those apps to not start.
However, you might notice that you see most of your apps in task manager - even if you don't use them. And in fact, they often aren't doing anything. Of course this does not apply to apps like skype, trillian, fring etc. since they, even when not in the foreground, DO stuff, like checking your contacts' online status, keeping the connection alive, checking for email if you have that configured...
If you phone does nothing - no email, no internet, no IMs, no text messages, no calling people all the time...
then your phone lasts days, up to a week...

Getting the most out of your battery

Ok going to try and start a conversation here to get feedback from everyone on what you guys do to get the most out of your battery. I see alot of people always asking what kernal is best for battery life and some people seem to have horrible battery life and some have exceptional battery life. I personally get decent battery life. Nothing super amazing but that comes down to the way I use my phone.
My current battery I'm using - Andida 2000mah battery
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/280843217453...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_4497wt_1396
I also have - GTMax 3500mah battery
http://www.amazon.ca/GTMax-Extended-Battery-3500mAh-Microfiber/dp/B006VAP102/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_t_4
The Andida gives me generally a extra 2-3 hours more over the stock. I had to cycle the battery 4 times before I started seeing any real improvements. If I take these off the charger at 6:30am I can ussually make it to around 10pm without needing to charge.
The GTMax get me through a day (630am - midnight) with around 50% left.
Now keep in mind this is based on my usage habits, and when I'm at work my signal is horrible so it drains a bit harder for the 8 hours I'm at work.
I don't have LTE where I live or work, I do get LTE in areas close by but on a regular day I don't see it. With the bad signal at work I've started to switch to gsm only mode (phone was constantly switching from Edge to 3g/4g and wouldn't provide a stable connection most of the time). This seems to have helped my battery at work.
When I flash a new rom I always give it at least 2 good full battery cycles before judging the battery life on it.
Ok onto some apps. My first foray into getting better battery life started with wanting to control my data. I used Juice Defender to that but I found that having to wait for the data to turn back on was at some times taking way to long and even sometimes I would have to reboot to get it back. Tried a few others and had similar experiences. When it works its nice and I did see some gain from it but at the same time it seemed bloated and slow and I decided I like having my data on and readily available quickly. After some searching I found an awesome app...
Better Battery Stats
Play Store link - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats&hl=en
XDA Forum link - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
I highly recommend reading up on this app and trying it out. If your seeing a big drain on you battery while the screen is off, it's probably because there is something that is keeping it from going into a deep sleep mode. This won't save you any battery just by installing it but with a little work it can make a pretty good difference.
Ok now this is where I'm looking for suggestions, are there apps that you find specifically run smoother or are lighter than their stock counterparts or rival apps that put less of a strain on the battery?
Instead of the stock messaging app I run Pansi SMS. It gives me a few extra options but I never really used the stock mms on ICS so I can only compare it to Handcent SMS and I think it is definitely lighter and a lil bit more battery friendly. It's not a huge difference but I try and squeeze everything I can w/o giving up functionality.
For a launcher I'm running apex right now, but for a lightweight launcher I'd recommend FTL. Runs really nice and smooth, nothing fancy about it, just fast and light.
Some apps sometimes can just be poorly coded and thus have a bad effect on battery life. Alot of people seem to feel the Facebook app is one such app that suffers from that. The app that gets the most recommendations as a replacement and being a bit easier on the battery is Friendcaster. I tend to agree with that, and would recommend trying it out.
I'd really like to hear about what everyone else does to try and squeeze out the most of their battery. Theres more stuff that I do, such as reducing the amount of things that are synced to only the stuff I actually want, default settings just sync everything and I don't feel I need to sync my contacts on a daily basis as I rarely change them around. So share your tips, experiences good and bad with apps in regards to your battery, and if theres enough feedback I'll try and re-organize this into a bit better structure.
I personally always leave data off. WiFi is on a lot. I wrote this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1631831
I am very please to get a day and a half with the extended battery. Generally I am always texting,also.
iStatiK said:
I personally always leave data off. WiFi is on a lot. I wrote this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1631831
I am very please to get a day and a half with the extended battery. Generally I am always texting,also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right here, this is the key. I have data off all the time. I only turn it on when I need to look something up or browse. IMO auto updates really kill the battery and aren't worth leaving your data on all the time. I'm on wifi a lot as well. Currently I'm on DarkRaider and I'm ending the day with around 30-40%, great improvement over stock.
It seems that with every new handset that comes out this is one of the hottest topics but the parameters all always the same with regard to battery life.
The 3 biggest things that drain our batteries are Display Usage, Data Connection & Radio Cell Connection. These are listed in order of current used. Of the 3 we can have some control over the 1st 2. Lower screen brightness and disconnect data when not needed and use wifi when possible. While wifi does use a good amount of current it's not as much as mobile data. The last one, Radio Cell Connection, we have very little control over. It's also the reason we see people having great differences in battery life. The further the phone is from the tower it's connected to the more juice it needs to make a good connection. So other than leaving the phone in airplane mode or planning your life around where towers are, neither of which are very practical, there is not much we can do there.
To get the best all around life from Li-ion batteries do not fully discharge them very often and also don't keep them plugged in after they're fully charged. It's best to recharge them when they get down to 20-30% and unplug them after they're charged. They also don't need to be fully charged every time, they have no memory. If your on the go and can only leave it plugged in for a short period of time that's fine. Also if you have more than one battery and your not going to use the 2nd one for a while don't store it at full charge. drop it down to 50-60% before pulling it out.
I'll update this post when I get home tonight with more info and links. Hope it helps.
slapshot30 said:
Right here, this is the key. I have data off all the time. I only turn it on when I need to look something up or browse. IMO auto updates really kill the battery and aren't worth leaving your data on all the time. I'm on wifi a lot as well. Currently I'm on DarkRaider and I'm ending the day with around 30-40%, great improvement over stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?
iStatiK said:
I personally always leave data off. WiFi is on a lot. I wrote this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1631831
I am very please to get a day and a half with the extended battery. Generally I am always texting,also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With my 3500mah battery I don't really worry about turning anything off. That thing is great. Made a bumper case for it but I miss having a real case on it so I picked up the 2000mah andida battery so I could get a few more hours on some days. If someone ever made a real case for those big batteries i'd use it all the time.
citsong said:
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try 2x Battery from the store. It will shut off data as soon as the the phone sleeps, it reconnects at screen on after unlock almost instantly. It also allows you to white list apps, like Pandora. The free version only allows 1 app though.
citsong said:
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The DarkRaider ROM I am using has a nice extended settings menu in the notification bar with a data toggle. I also have a nice widget from switchpro widgets where I can customize what kinds of things I want to be able to toggle from my homescreen. Currently I have data/wifi/vibrate-silent/gps. Doesn't take long at all when I toggle the data on/off, it's pretty much instant.
citsong said:
I always make sure my auto updates are off. WiFi isn't an option for me when I'm working. How do you manage your data connection? Do you manually turn it on and off or use an app? I never really tried manually turning the mobile data on/off, just found with apps like JD that it sometimes took way too long to establish a connection. I always shut off my wifi when I leave for work. I know with ICS the widget toggles for gps don't work, they take you to the settings to turn it off, is there one for mobile data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the 2X Battery app. When the phone goes to sleep, the app turns off the data radio. I can still get calls and text messages. I don't have a need for push notification of e-mail, etc., so this saves me some battery usage. Of course, if e-mail and other app notifications are important, this app will help only if you are willing to wait until you wake up the phone.
Here's what I do. I'm on the stock HTC battery.
I SetCPU screen off to 192/192 ondemand, in call to 810/192 ondemand, and regular use to 810/192 ondemand.
I listen to about 2 hours of music a day, have 3 GMail accounts on autosync, a Facebook account on hourly autosync and HTC Weather on hourly sync. Automatic brightness. Roughly 1.5 hours of cumulative web-browsing, no apps/games used.
I never use WiFi and I don't live in an LTE area.
I typically end the day (19-21 hours unplugged) with ~40% remaining.
Now I am not sure if living in area with LTE is a bless or curse....
I would unplug around 7am everyday, and by the time I get home (around 6pm) I would always in red mode (meaning, it is either 14% or under). Using the Holics-0.6 with the kernel that came with it, battery seems to die fast. Even when I am on the stock ICS before this, seems LTE would just bleed this baby to death....
Reading other comments, might as well start looking for a bigger battery....
It actually seems like I'm getting better battery since LTE came to my town. I'm on dark raider using kozmick's rc1 kernel and it's even better now. Try turning off vibration feedback...I think it's located in the sounds menu in settings. You can also try using automatic brightness or even just setting it to stay at 50% or lower. The screen is a battery hog. There's a stickied thread somewhere on here that has other things you can try too.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
Really is a shame that we have to disable or ease everything back so much to get through the day on a battery. Anyhow, I have a Velocity (which comes out of the box with the processor running at 1500) on Dark Raider. Therefore I use SetCPU to throttle the beast back, depending upon the circumstances. It only is allowed to run at 1500 when on charge and down to 400 when battery below 25 percent. I also use 2X Battery to take care of the netowrk and Wi-Fi and have purchased the andida battery for extended life. I also have JD installed, however it is rarely used - reason is that I am in agreeance with "citsong" that it takes too long to establish connections, even causing me general connection issues from time to time. So for around $25 AUD you can get through the day on a battery with moderate use and reasonable performance. I have not tried the extended battery pack, though I will probably get one of those as well...not sure which are the best???
I personally don't like the vibrate response thing, so I turn that off right out of the box, also, auto brightness is another that I set. When I go in the battery tab to see what is bleeding it to death, and most of it would be the display....
Though, vivid seem to have a smaller battery compared to other phones of similar functions and/or size, so that might be the reason I am not really seeing a very good battery life?
deathnai said:
I personally don't like the vibrate response thing, so I turn that off right out of the box, also, auto brightness is another that I set. When I go in the battery tab to see what is bleeding it to death, and most of it would be the display....
Though, vivid seem to have a smaller battery compared to other phones of similar functions and/or size, so that might be the reason I am not really seeing a very good battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually there are only a couple phones that have a larger battery...
The galaxy note and the atrix are the ones that come to mind...
And the note has a larger screen and Samsung's rediculious samoled screen which eats battery like potato chips...
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
rignfool said:
Actually there are only a couple phones that have a larger battery...
The galaxy note and the atrix are the ones that come to mind...
And the note has a larger screen and Samsung's rediculious samoled screen which eats battery like potato chips...
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My solution was to get a larger battery (2100mAh, the largest one with stock format) and using juice defender to control my Data Connection. I am getting about 60% more using time on a normal usage whan before!
I actually have both Motorola Atrix 2 and HTC Vivid. However, my Atrix 2 would last about two days between charges, which is kind of weird. I have my personal account and company account on that phone (personal is to activate the google stuff), so it eats up data twice as fast, yet it is almost twice as long battery life.
And to update a little bit from my post before, it seems I am getting better battery life now, after 4-5 days of flashing the new ROM, let's hope it is true....or I am just going to go hunt for a bigger battery
---------- Post added at 08:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:18 PM ----------
rignfool said:
Actually there are only a couple phones that have a larger battery...
The galaxy note and the atrix are the ones that come to mind...
And the note has a larger screen and Samsung's rediculious samoled screen which eats battery like potato chips...
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the Samsung Galaxy Note is way bigger than either Atrix or Vivid, so with a bigger body, I would assume that a bigger battery is possible. But if you look at current phones, I rarely see batteries that are above, say, 1800mAh, let alone 2000mAh and above, stock of course.
ideaLduK said:
My solution was to get a larger battery (2100mAh, the largest one with stock format) and using juice defender to control my Data Connection. I am getting about 60% more using time on a normal usage whan before!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you share the details on the battery?
Andida batteies are easily found on Ebay, but beware of Chinese fakes!! I got mine from a seller in Canada, all good.
I get good battery life by turning off data while I'm working . 70% with 8hrs unplugged
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using XDA

[Q] Maximizing battery life

Hello guys,
Can you, people who are getting around 6h of battery life, share your tips & tricks in order to do so ?
Sharing some of the settings you did or didn't enable would be great !
Thanks
I know that Google Now and Latitude drains a lot of battery. Turn that of if you want better battery.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
I would also suggest to turn of facebook notifications. U could decrease weather update interval from 1 hour to 2 hours and have your energy saver option always enabled. This cpu will get downclocked from 1,728 ghz to 1,134 ghz and u will notice no difference in games or anything..not even in very very demanding games, cause this cpu is extremely fast (even underclocked it is faster than one x+ cpu or galaxy s3 cpu)
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
I use power saver as I don't game, and I honestly can't notice any difference apart from improved battery life.
I also turn off mobile data when I'm out of the house and not using it. Constantly syncing data, especially when you have poor signal, kills the battery.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for your input guys.
I also read somewhere that it's better to select 2G/3G network over 2G/3G/4G so I will be monitoring that.
Regarding the meteo app, I'll set it to refresh once every day, which is plenty enough. What I will not do again though is install Avast!, looks to me like the damn things tries to connect to the internet every time you unlock the screen (in order to check for updates I guess).
Google Now & Latitudes will be disabled, as I don't use them.
Keep the tips coming
Personally I find the battery to be great i leave everything on do lots of web browse YouTube games and i use it as a phone as well lol and will last me all day and some
jaythenut said:
Personally I find the battery to be great i leave everything on do lots of web browse YouTube games and i use it as a phone as well lol and will last me all day and some
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're very lucky. Out of the box (by that I mean I didn't change any settings) I only got 3h30 screen time (albeit most of it was 3G browsing, but still, that's pretty low compared to what others are gettings, 5 to 6h easily)
fidelcstrl said:
You're very lucky. Out of the box I only got 3h30 screen time (albeit most of it was 3G browsing, but still, that's pretty low compared to what others are gettings, 5 to 6h easily)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be because I'm on a custom rom don't know but i do leave my phone on charge for 5 hours when i get home plus I read somewhere if you run the battery down 3 times it will last a lot longer so i did
I took my phone off an overnight charge at 7 am this morning. It's now 12.35pm, 5.5 odd hours on battery and I still have 94%.
I've sent several texts, checked Facebook a few times through the course of the day.... I do have power saver on.
I don't have updates coming to my phone 24/7.
The way I like to use my phone is, I only get updates when I want them. I.e, when i turn my data connection or WiFi on.
I couldn't think of anything worse than being pestered all day from Soundcloud/ Facebook / Twitter / Google.... etc etc. Updates/notifications.
actually if you constantly turn on the screen the battery drops really fast.
I think if you're on a stable network, you should just choose the network model you use (2G or 3G only)
also, turn off auto sync and kill background programs that you no longer use should save some energy.
6 hrs is average. I unplugged the phone at around 8:00am and by noon only about 55% left. Though the screen basically never off coz I kept surfing the net and texting.

Battery life significantly improved after installing Auto3G *honest*

Hooray yet another Battery thread!!
Feel free to shoot me down or close the thread and ban me if people find this not useful but I though I'd share..
I'm running AOKP PUB with Matrix 8.5 on my N4 and battery on WIFI was great but once I switched to H+/3G I would see an increase in wakelocks and hence battery drain. I'm sure more than a few people can relate to this problem..
after 9 hours from unplugging my phone, going to and from work and arriving back home I would have about 75-70% battery left with light use. Now after installing Auto3G from the play store I am going home with between 88-85% left which is making a massive difference to how long my device lasts,
Typically I'm getting 2 days standby and between 4-4.5 hours data/WIFI and at the weekends 5-5.5 hours on just WIFI.
The app simply turns data off when the screen is off then on again when you wake your phone up and it will turn data on every 30 minutes for 1 minute so your apps and accounts can sync. I have try apps like this before on other phones but this one has impressed me, plus its free! I haven't felt like I'm missing out on fresh content from my widgets or accounts because the syncing seems to actually work. You can set delays on when the data switches off too!
Anyways, here's the link..
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.slv3r.auto3g&hl=en
Best thing I have done to draw out my battery life is to disable location services and then reboot. This alone has given me an extra hour of screen on time. I used to struggle to get to 3 hours and now I am getting over 4.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Are you doing it just to get max longevity or are you guys really struggling to make it through a day? Mine has been excellent, best battery life of a smartphone I have had since my old Windows Mobile days.
best and most visible boost for battery life is turning off the localisation and dimming the screen
I wasn't losing any sleep over battery life, my N4 has always lasted at least a day but I was a little disappointed with how long a charge was lasting me on H+/3G compared to WIFI. Now I have no complaints on either..
"When the user unlocks the phone, data will be enabled.
When user locks the phone, data will be disabled."
Sounds a lot like Juicedefender that's been around for a long time. I'm sure its good for some people, but kind of defeats the point of having a smartphone. Especially for me when most of my messaging is through Whatsapp / Facebook.
I used to use juice defender and I found that it became too complicated for its own good. You can change the syncing interval but I agree if you do you messaging through FB or WA then its probably not for you. I dont really use either often so the 30 minute cycle works well for me and maybe others..
Its not really defeating having a smartphone since its saving you battery when your not using you phone, its stupid to have the thing draining away when it's just in your pocket..
i'm using this app on my N4 too and have to confirm that works like a clock, simple and light but powerfull as let you choose when turn data on and for how many minutes, how much to wait before turn data off after shut down the screen and when to turn it on after the screen goes on...
if you want to make the battery to last longer it's a very good app...btw i think N4 has a decent battery that can drive you till the end of the day without problems
I just have a Tasker profile to run my data sync once every 2 hours or if I open up Gmail or anything else that needs to sync. This cuts down on the constant notifications when my phone is idle. I haven't noticed a big difference with leaving my phone on auto brightness of if I just turn down brightness manually.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

HOW are you guys getting more then 10/12 hours on this watch?

Granted, I'm only on day 4.. but still..
I've tried disabling LTE, simple watch-face, etc.. but can't get it to live for more then 12 hours without needing a recharge..
Do those of you reaching more then 12 hours use an always on screen? Gestures?
I did do a test overnight and it only dropped 20% (7 hours) - but my typical drop rate is much higher then that with casual use..
-mark
ps - I'm on-track for 12 hours again today, and that's with only having received ~3-4 email notifications which I just quickly dismissed in the past two hours so far..
For those that might be interested in this subject, I also posted it on reddit which seems to be getting much more traffic..
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidWea...ort_watch_how_are_you_guys_getting_more_then/
-mark
I just put mine on charge after 48 hrs with 3% left that is with screen always on off and only turning WiFi on when needed.I'm using mine tethered to my g6 without lte.
Firstly in my case I don't use LTE.
I've found having WiFi and gps switch on has made very little difference to battery life, as it's tethered anyway for this information.
I think the battery life has got better after a couple of weeks usage, and typically a full day has plenty left, nearly 50% on occasions.
Yesterday was a long day, and it managed 20 hours straight through
I usually get around 24 hours. But barely 24 hours (if I do anything except let my watch run idle on my wrist whole day, I don't hit the mark).
Screen always ON
NO SIM (doesn't even work in europe)
Always tethered to the phone
Tilt OFF
Gestures OFF
Location MIXED (decided to experiment a bit, seen no discernible difference in battery drain whether it was ON or OFF)
Watchface: Portions with 4 complications
First couple of hours is sleep tracking with screen turned off (but constant HRM sensor activity), which consumes slightly less than regular operation.
Today I turned always screen off and holy **** what a difference. After 12 hours I'm still at 80%. So the clear culprit of this is the screen. I think I will try to get used to this, it was wasting energy 99% of the time before anyway (I'm not looking it at it all the time).
I end up getting through the day at about 30 to 50% with everything on except for LTE which I toggle on and off during the rare occasions I need it. I usually use brightness 6 during the evening and 8 during the day, I find the auto-brightness too dim on every occasion. On the other hand I've had a few random days where it rapidly used it's battery and I was down to power saving in the afternoon. Havne't figured out what is happening when it occurs but when it happens my phone also rapidly drains. Other than that I wish I could increase the screen on time, it sometimes dims before I've done what I want to do and I feel like I have enough spare bat to burn a little more keeping it on longer.
My Answer, you don't. I leave everything on and charge it, like 3 times a day. I'm lucky because I have two others to swap to during charge, but I even bought a second charger for work when I do not have those available.
I simply do not want to reduce any features of the watch, so I charge it often. That's just what it is if you ask me, you're not going to miraculously get this thing working for 2 days, simple as that. So use it big, and charge it often!
$13.99 the name is: LG Watch Sport Charger, Kissmart Replacement Charger Charging Cradle Dock Adapter for LG Watch Sport Smart Watch
krabman said:
I end up getting through the day at about 30 to 50% with everything on except for LTE which I toggle on and off during the rare occasions I need it. I usually use brightness 6 during the evening and 8 during the day, I find the auto-brightness too dim on every occasion. On the other hand I've had a few random days where it rapidly used it's battery and I was down to power saving in the afternoon. Havne't figured out what is happening when it occurs but when it happens my phone also rapidly drains. Other than that I wish I could increase the screen on time, it sometimes dims before I've done what I want to do and I feel like I have enough spare bat to burn a little more keeping it on longer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a faster way to toggle cellular on and off other than going into settings?
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
Not that I know of and for me it's a double downer, when I use the watch standalone I don't need bluetooth. I menu dive to switch both and then revert when I'm done. The radios should be available from the pull down quick settings IMO, it would be enough to have an icon there to open them all and you could toggle those you need from there. Considering the wasted space on that pull down it becomes a bit of a what were they thinking issue...
Hi guys i'm interested about lg watch sport here in europe and i'm willing to buy from ebay korean model. My cuestion is can i use it completly without pairing to phone with sim inside. Can i set it up without cell phone? How about using facebook, viber ( making VOIP calls) email etc... thanks
Logon941 said:
Hi guys i'm interested about lg watch sport here in europe and i'm willing to buy from ebay korean model. My cuestion is can i use it completly without pairing to phone with sim inside. Can i set it up without cell phone? How about using facebook, viber ( making VOIP calls) email etc... thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to pair with phone initially. It also makes it easier to copy your accounts over to the watch. After you set it up, you don't need your phone anymore BUT if you keep it on cellular the watch isn't going to last.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
krabman said:
Not that I know of and for me it's a double downer, when I use the watch standalone I don't need bluetooth. I menu dive to switch both and then revert when I'm done. The radios should be available from the pull down quick settings IMO, it would be enough to have an icon there to open them all and you could toggle those you need from there. Considering the wasted space on that pull down it becomes a bit of a what were they thinking issue...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my time with the watch it appears that having cellular on has little impact on battery life as long as you're within range of your phone. The part that does affect battery life with cellular on is IF you're in an area with just complete sucky cell signal to start off with. (IE my workplace) that will kill battery.
I had battery draining issues at work even with cellular off at work but I figured out that although on my phone when connected to work wifi I can get to the play store on my phone but on my watch it can't get to the playstore or communicate with google. My assumption is the watch is draining because the google play services can't connect/sync with google therefore causing it to stay awake and drain. Watch battery life has been much better when I disable wifi on my phone BUT now my phone drains a little faster because it's not on wifi.
Bluetooth Autoconnect app has been a lifesaver when having watch/phone/BT headset/BT car connected. You can set up profiles and priorities so that the car/headset/headphones take over the call duties so you can hear phone calls through those devices instead of the watch.
I'm still getting used to life having to sift through the menus to disable and enable radios but you're right. There needs to be an easier and faster way.

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