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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
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
I generally knows how to flash stuff, use xposed, and whatnot. But I've never really done anything unified to focus on extreme battery saving. I am hoping to be able to switch profiles or something like that so I can keep the phone running on the lowest power possible but still be available for me to wake up to higher power for camera, gps, and messaging uses. The reason for this use case is because I will be hiking half of the Appalachian Trail this summer from Harper Ferry, WVA to Springer Mountain, GA, a total of roughly 1023 miles. Being able to stretch my battery as much as possible without actually enabling airplane mode or turning it off would be extremely helpful. I'm deaf so I cannot just simply borrow anybody else phone to call family. So I must be able to use my current phone for many different functions, including communication.
I do want to be able to use my phone as a primarily social media and messaging device. I have a wordpress blog that I'm trying to get in the habit of updating more often. I also have Instagram, Facebook, and the like. I will be bringing a pocket camera with me but I still want to be able to use my phone to snap pics for easy sharing to Instagram (it will autopost to both Facebook and Wordpress). One of my concern about the camera app is because I know that some ROMs have had issues with the camera's performance after a little while. Being on the trail for about 2 and half month, I won't have any opportunity to fix up my phone. Hence why I want to start testing thing out right now and have about a month or two to go before the actual hike.
GPS is obviously going to be vital. I have a guidebook with me that should covers everything and I almost never ever lose my cardinal direction so I'm not too worried about getting lost. But some GPS access could help just in case I need to figure out exactly how far I've missed a turn or how much I have left to go for the day. Plus it would be nice to have in case of emergency.
I do need bluetooth though. I have a Pebble watch that would be useful for me on the trail, I think. And I will be using a folding bluetooth keyboard on the trail too.
I remember once having Cyanogenmod on an old phone of mine with the ability to extremely underclock. It was incredibly laggy but I was able to create a shortcut to the clocking page so I could switch to a higher speed as I needed it. I'm hoping to be able to do the same with my Verizon's Nexus 6.
Anyway, I'm hoping for any input on which ROM, kernel, etc... would be recommended for setting up the absolute best battery saving and be able to switch the functionality high or low as I needs it. Thanks for any input.
Deafcyclist said:
... to focus on extreme battery saving. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that this doesn't exactly answer the question you asked. And I've only owned my N6 since September, and despite flashing everything under the sun with my older devices, I have yet to leave stock on the 6.
That said, are you considering auxiliary batteries (some will give you about 3-4 full charges and are the size of a deck of cards) and possibly solar arrays to top them off? I would consider hanging one from the top of my pack during the day and taking my rests near clearings for direct sunlight. And if you're really looking to stretch your battery, but don't want to run in flight mode, I would consider leaving the BT devices home and maintaining a 2g connection while hiking, only switching to higher power radios when you need to upload images. Remember, in fringe areas, the higher power radios are going to use exponentially more power than when they have a solid signal. And the 2g radio has better reception in fringe areas, besides. Personally, I would use flight mode while sleeping.
One other thing about the radio: this may sound like snake oil, but it is my understanding that the radio's reception can be stronger when closer to the ground based on how the radio waves travel. (It may have been a placebo, but I'm certain I have seen benefit from this on occasion).
I would also make sure that things like NFC, ambient display, screen rotation, adaptive brightness, sync, notifications and vibration are turned off (Being deaf, I suppose that no vibration may not be possible). I would also uninstall (or disable) any and all apps that are not absolutely necessary for the trip. I would also uninstall the Facebook app, if you are using it. If you prefer an app experience for it, I would recommend the Metal app in it's place. No matter what rom you install, you should go for optimizing the power usage.
As for the camera, I would stay away from the AHDR modes and stick to single frame (huge battery saving there!)
I would set a completely black lock screen and home screen wallpaper, too.
I would also suggest an automation app for managing your power usage. Most allow you to have predefined groups of settings that you can assign home screen shortcuts or a quick settings tile. I recommend Automate by Llama Labs.
Good luck! And I hope you have a fantastic trip!
So far that I know of, is that the CPU and GPU speed and governors affect how much the battery is used (#2 heavy power consumer behind the active-matrix organic LED screen with light background) - the faster they run, the more power they require to do certain tasks. I have since set my Nexus 6 phone's processor at 200 - 300 MHz to 1 GHz across entire quad cores (with AutoSMP hotplug and ondemand governors) and GPU locked to 300 MHz maximum, and that configuration have been saving me a lot of power (and quite noticeable with the new battery I installed last week). The ROM I am using is crDroid (Android 7.1.1 Nougat), if you're wondering.
As for GPS, it depends. It may just sip or hog the power. Vibration? It depends on vibration strength (which can be adjusted with Kernel Adiutor Mod app), the stronger it is, the more current it require. Long story short, experimentation is necessary. I also recommend to use black theme under Substratum, it will also ease current consumption by the screen, which I have been doing also (Swift Black Substratum theme pack is what I'm using, perfect amount of blackness to save a good amount of power, and can be found in Google Play Store).
I second cameraddict's suggestion of a power pack. I have the 3000mah version of this, and it works very well.
https://www.amazon.com/PowerCore-Po...&qid=1490282378&sr=8-4&keywords=anker+battery
There are others with higher capacity, but this one would more than double your N6's capacity, and it's the size of a small cigar.
cameraddict said:
I know that this doesn't exactly answer the question you asked. And I've only owned my N6 since September, and despite flashing everything under the sun with my older devices, I have yet to leave stock on the 6.
That said, are you considering auxiliary batteries (some will give you about 3-4 full charges and are the size of a deck of cards) and possibly solar arrays to top them off? I would consider hanging one from the top of my pack during the day and taking my rests near clearings for direct sunlight. And if you're really looking to stretch your battery, but don't want to run in flight mode, I would consider leaving the BT devices home and maintaining a 2g connection while hiking, only switching to higher power radios when you need to upload images. Remember, in fringe areas, the higher power radios are going to use exponentially more power than when they have a solid signal. And the 2g radio has better reception in fringe areas, besides. Personally, I would use flight mode while sleeping.
One other thing about the radio: this may sound like snake oil, but it is my understanding that the radio's reception can be stronger when closer to the ground based on how the radio waves travel. (It may have been a placebo, but I'm certain I have seen benefit from this on occasion).
I would also make sure that things like NFC, ambient display, screen rotation, adaptive brightness, sync, notifications and vibration are turned off (Being deaf, I suppose that no vibration may not be possible). I would also uninstall (or disable) any and all apps that are not absolutely necessary for the trip. I would also uninstall the Facebook app, if you are using it. If you prefer an app experience for it, I would recommend the Metal app in it's place. No matter what rom you install, you should go for optimizing the power usage.
As for the camera, I would stay away from the AHDR modes and stick to single frame (huge battery saving there!)
I would set a completely black lock screen and home screen wallpaper, too.
I would also suggest an automation app for managing your power usage. Most allow you to have predefined groups of settings that you can assign home screen shortcuts or a quick settings tile. I recommend Automate by Llama Labs.
Good luck! And I hope you have a fantastic trip!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all of the ideas. I already have a 10,000mah external battery that I will be using..Unfortunately solar panel are not very feasible on the trail, there is a reason why it is sometimes called a green tunnel.
I'll be removing virtually everything unneccesary from the phone. I do use Facebook a lot but I'm planning on using titanium backup to freeze the app (plus other apps) when I'm not using it so it should not be a problem there.
Good idea about limiting to 3g when I'm on the trail. There, I only need minimal data for emergency messaging and basic GPS sharing.
I do have a pebble smartwatch and I'm thinking that maybe using it would offload the battery usage from the phone to my watch allowing me to still have some notification and other details on the watchface.
Dr. Mario said:
So far that I know of, is that the CPU and GPU speed and governors affect how much the battery is used (#2 heavy power consumer behind the active-matrix organic LED screen with light background) - the faster they run, the more power they require to do certain tasks. I have since set my Nexus 6 phone's processor at 200 - 300 MHz to 1 GHz across entire quad cores (with AutoSMP hotplug and ondemand governors) and GPU locked to 300 MHz maximum, and that configuration have been saving me a lot of power (and quite noticeable with the new battery I installed last week). The ROM I am using is crDroid (Android 7.1.1 Nougat), if you're wondering.
As for GPS, it depends. It may just sip or hog the power. Vibration? It depends on vibration strength (which can be adjusted with Kernel Adiutor Mod app), the stronger it is, the more current it require. Long story short, experimentation is necessary. I also recommend to use black theme under Substratum, it will also ease current consumption by the screen, which I have been doing also (Swift Black Substratum theme pack is what I'm using, perfect amount of blackness to save a good amount of power, and can be found in Google Play Store).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's why I'm asking about it at this point. I feels that 2 months are long enough for me to experiment with this. I'm hoping to do the trick with governers so I'll be reviewing your comment after work today.
dahawthorne said:
I second cameraddict's suggestion of a power pack. I have the 3000mah version of this, and it works very well.
https://www.amazon.com/PowerCore-Po...&qid=1490282378&sr=8-4&keywords=anker+battery
There are others with higher capacity, but this one would more than double your N6's capacity, and it's the size of a small cigar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have a 10,000 mAh battery, heh.
I'd go back to Marshamallow and not Nougat for battery savings. Also "Pixel Off" app to reduce brightness and turns off 1/2 pixels to save battery. You can also use Black and White mode in Developer Option to save battery. Kernel Audiutor can underclock to 1190 Mhz top and 300 Mhz bottom with "conservative" governor and "powersaving" mode.
HueyT said:
I'd go back to Marshamallow and not Nougat for battery savings.
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I disagree, because I haven't seen a difference between Marshmallow and Nougat regarding battery saving (even though stock Nougat ROM blows - all the reason to install custom LineageOS derivative ROM instead) - I know because I checked with new battery installed and I am still at 56% battery remaining ever since 5 days after charging to 100%, on the Nougat ROM with aggressive economy CPU settings I tailored on my phone, however, as for 1/2 "Pixel off" and black - white video option to save a bit juice, I agree even though it will make the UI quite ugly.
Dr. Mario said:
I disagree, because I haven't seen a difference between Marshmallow and Nougat regarding battery saving (even though stock Nougat ROM blows - all the reason to install custom LineageOS derivative ROM instead) - I know because I checked with new battery installed and I am still at 56% battery remaining ever since 5 days after charging to 100%, on the Nougat ROM with aggressive economy CPU settings I tailored on my phone, however, as for 1/2 "Pixel off" and black - white video option to save a bit juice, I agree even though it will make the UI quite ugly.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS7/comments/5ujoyj/nougat_battery_life_latest_btu_vs_marshmallow/
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Bad-...-Edge-after-Android-7.0-Nougat-update_id90859
I had another thought this morning. ( I realize that all my suggestions are minor, but lots of minor adds up.) I would also turn off all animations in Developer options.
I also wanted to agree about the monochrome color option in Developer options. And the dark theme, in general.
As for kernel settings, on other devices I've had, I had quite a bit of success with UV. If memory serves, once I had finished a weeks worth of experimenting, I gained about 10% from UV. And using the ondemand governor, with lots of tweaking, I was able to increase battery life without too big of a hit on usability. I found that powersave always created a very unpleasant experience.
edit:
One more thing, from my experimenting, you can also gain several % by changing how you interact with the device. Your governor will spike the CPU every time you touch the screen. One major difference you can make today is changing that behavior. When reading, scroll from the bottom all the way to the top of the screen and don't touch it again until you need to scroll all the way from the bottom. This isn't as hard or as silly as it sounds. Watch how you use your device, Many people touch the screen a lot
Despite every effort and tweak you can think of, you'll achieve only minimal battery life extension. Your best bet is to use the few tweaks that you feel are acceptable and rely on your 10000mah battery - nothing else will have anything like that effect.
dahawthorne said:
Despite every effort and tweak you can think of, you'll achieve only minimal battery life extension. Your best bet is to use the few tweaks that you feel are acceptable and rely on your 10000mah battery - nothing else will have anything like that effect.
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Respectfully, I disagree. Each .5%-2% gain adds up. 10 tweaks at an average of .75% gain is 7.5% Add one major tweak that gives an average of 8% and you now have a 15.5% gain. My battery, right now, on official 7.0 (with no tweaks) averages 40 hours on battery with 6-8 hours of SOT. I have many other metrics for this... So 40 hours x 15.5% = total battery life of 46+ hours. Those 6 hours are not minimal effect. Especially when there is no outlet nearby for days.
It is possible with the right mix of OS tweaks, app settings and kernel tweaks to see an average gain in the 30-50% neighborhood.
This, by the way, comes from years of tweaking and experimenting on many devices. Going back to 2003 or so. You can check out my old posts on optimizing my old Galaxy S2, I shared a lot about that device.
No need for "respectfully" I'm sure it's really just a preference. A lot of tweaks may well add up to a respectable extension, but they will never triple it as a 10000mah battery will. I'd rather carry the extra few ounces and be sure that I have a reserve. Not arguing, just stating my preference.
dahawthorne said:
No need for "respectfully" I'm sure it's really just a preference. A lot of tweaks may well add up to a respectable extension, but they will never triple it as a 10000mah battery will. I'd rather carry the extra few ounces and be sure that I have a reserve. Not arguing, just stating my preference.
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Gotchya. I just mention all the tweaks AND the battery for his use case. As an initial full charge plus three extra charges(with the 10,000mah) without tweaks (conservatively) would net him a total of about 8 days of use. But with 20% savings from tweaks, that goes up to nearly 10 days. Quite a useful increase.
ps... I wrote: "respectfully" 'cause you know how forums can be. Sometimes I think it's best to be proactive and let the person your responding to know that you're not arguing. Cheers!
Morning all.
Something that has been slightly bothering me since I got this phone....it has a massive battery, it can be heavily customised with roms, xposed modules, magisk modules and all manner of tweaks. Probably one of the most open and dev-friendly devices I've ever had.
Yet, no matter what I do the only way I have ever been able to get more than 2 days out of a battery is to literally not use the phone.
I have had devices in the past such as Xperia Z3 Compact, S7 Active and others with smaller battery that were easily able to push 3 days with regular use. Hell, the Z3C was able to get up to 5 days with a little bit of trickery turning off radios when not in use etc.
Is the extra diagonal inch of screen realestate really enough to destroy the battery longevity? Typically with normal usage I am seeing 2 days with about 4.5 hours of screen-on time.
I've experimented with just about everything to push this out including no official facebook apps, decreased resolution, medium power-saving mode, kernel tweaks (currently using TGP rom and kernel), auto-sync turned off. Going beyond this I feel like you may as well just use a push-button device.
Any devs care to comment? What is the main factor that eats the battery on the Note 9? Is the exynos processor just not that power-efficient? Am I missing some hidden gem?
I guess the next step would be to transition to an AOSP based rom where the customisation is not constrained by baked-in samsung features but again, this is giving up a lot including proper s-pen functionality.
I recently kitted out an LG V30+ for my wife and it is just insane to me that a phone which only has a 3300mah battery can get the same life as the Note9 or better.
Is there some strategy I have missed or is this really the best we can hope for? Seems like an extremely inefficient use of 4000mah to me.
bandario said:
Morning all.
Something that has been slightly bothering me since I got this phone....it has a massive battery, it can be heavily customised with roms, xposed modules, magisk modules and all manner of tweaks. Probably one of the most open and dev-friendly devices I've ever had.
Yet, no matter what I do the only way I have ever been able to get more than 2 days out of a battery is to literally not use the phone.
I have had devices in the past such as Xperia Z3 Compact, S7 Active and others with smaller battery that were easily able to push 3 days with regular use. Hell, the Z3C was able to get up to 5 days with a little bit of trickery turning off radios when not in use etc.
Is the extra diagonal inch of screen realestate really enough to destroy the battery longevity? Typically with normal usage I am seeing 2 days with about 4.5 hours of screen-on time.
I've experimented with just about everything to push this out including no official facebook apps, decreased resolution, medium power-saving mode, kernel tweaks (currently using TGP rom and kernel), auto-sync turned off. Going beyond this I feel like you may as well just use a push-button device.
Any devs care to comment? What is the main factor that eats the battery on the Note 9? Is the exynos processor just not that power-efficient? Am I missing some hidden gem?
I guess the next step would be to transition to an AOSP based rom where the customisation is not constrained by baked-in samsung features but again, this is giving up a lot including proper s-pen functionality.
I recently kitted out an LG V30+ for my wife and it is just insane to me that a phone which only has a 3300mah battery can get the same life as the Note9 or better.
Is there some strategy I have missed or is this really the best we can hope for? Seems like an extremely inefficient use of 4000mah to me.
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This is what you get when you use a high performance chip.
If it was like cars.. just because the gas tank is big (battery) doesn't mean that the engine won't consume the fuel faster than a more Efficient engine (cpu) with less power.
Other phones might be able to last 3 days, but they also dont have the performance capabilities. Turn on extreme power saving and see how long the phone lasts ...
I'm using stock unbranded ROM. I also adp uninstalled all the Facebook system apps (devil-ware). With Pie + OneUI + Night mode + Dark UI apps, it's the first time I love stock. I bet your non-stock ROM + TGP is the culprit.
I charge nightly on a wireless charge pad; easy on the battery. In Device Care, I run the default "Optimized" setting. I use it moderately for the first 12 hours of my working day (meetings phone calls), and I often have 85-90% charge left at that point. I then use the phone HEAVILY for the next 4 hours (watching video, reading, etc.), and at that point I am never below 50% (often 60-70) when I put it back on the charge pad, go to sleep, and start the whole thing over again. I have the US version (Snapdragon), darkmode and auto brightness is always on, and I use Automate to toggle my wifi off when not home and back on when home. Other than that, I have gps, bluetooth, and phone data always on. Bluetooth pairs with my watch and car, and gps auto-toggles by the kernel whenever I load maps or whenever my Life360 app updates my location (every few minutes).
That's all fairly normal use with a bit of power-savings thought into it. If you cannot get similar performance without your screen brightness jacked way up and wifi always on (that eats battery as you move around), then maybe you have a power-hungry app. Check your Device Care section of Settings, and start watching your "Usage by apps".
Also, it's better to slow-charge than fast-charge (wears it out more quickly). And you are better off charging nightly than waiting two days until it's very low.
gruuvin said:
I charge nightly on a wireless charge pad; easy on the battery. In Device Care, I run the default "Optimized" setting. I use it moderately for the first 12 hours of my working day (meetings phone calls), and I often have 85-90% charge left at that point. I then use the phone HEAVILY for the next 4 hours (watching video, reading, etc.), and at that point I am never below 50% (often 60-70) when I put it back on the charge pad, go to sleep, and start the whole thing over again. I have the US version (Snapdragon), darkmode and auto brightness is always on, and I use Automate to toggle my wifi off when not home and back on when home. Other than that, I have gps, bluetooth, and phone data always on. Bluetooth pairs with my watch and car, and gps auto-toggles by the kernel whenever I load maps or whenever my Life360 app updates my location (every few minutes).
That's all fairly normal use with a bit of power-savings thought into it. If you cannot get similar performance without your screen brightness jacked way up and wifi always on (that eats battery as you move around), then maybe you have a power-hungry app. Check your Device Care section of Settings, and start watching your "Usage by apps".
Also, it's better to slow-charge than fast-charge (wears it out more quickly). And you are better off charging nightly than waiting two days until it's very low.
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A lot of people don't realize the huge difference that your cellular connection strength makes a difference on your battery.
Try working in a all brick/stone bank building, where 250kb/s is a good 4g download speed... Then see what your battery looks like after a few hours.
Bober_is_a_troll said:
A lot of people don't realize the huge difference that your cellular connection strength makes a difference on your battery.
Try working in a all brick/stone bank building, where 250kb/s is a good 4g download speed... Then see what your battery looks like after a few hours.
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YEP!
And same goes for wifi.....
wifi and cell radios can really eat up battery if they are trying to maintain a connection in areas where wifi/phone signal is weak. And app like Tasker or Automate can toggle these on and off, depending on your location, and really save battery.
Well, that probably explains a few things. I moved in to a SOLID brick building recently with double glazing everywhere and multiple solid brick internal walls. First time I've ever battled for cell and wifi signal...that does explain a lot. I guess 2 days is still pretty good. Might end up with one of those 10,000mah Chinafones eventually ;p
So i got my S21 Ultra a couple of weeks ago and the battery life isn't as good as people tell it to be... I wonder if this is normal or i have a faulty unit
Important: i am running the latest update on my exynos device (february security patch as of the making of this thread)
What do you expect? You have used the phone almost 12 hours, used Samsung Music for nearly 8 hours and still have 78% battery left lol. This is great.
iamnotkurtcobain said:
What do you expect? You have used the phone almost 12 hours, used Samsung Music for nearly 8 hours and still have 78% battery left lol. This is great.
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The SoT is pretty crap i can only get 5 to 6 hours if i'm lucky, all i do is watch youtube and netflix and nothing else pretty much, and since SoT is pretty important to me idk if i should wait for an update or get another unit
If you are comparing to a Chinese phone, I would agree that the battery life is not great. Before buying S21 Ultra(exynos), I was using Mi 10T pro. It has better battery performance than S21 Ultra. The other thing that I dislike about would be the heat issue on S21 Ultra. Its horrible.
SOT is only one measure of battery life, the battery still depletes when the screen is off, especially if you're doing something like listening to music for 7 hours......
If you saw the YouTube 'battery drain' tests, the majority are in a room, mobile turned off and on WIFI. They are in constant use with minimal ramping/up down of the processor as they only switch apps every hour. These guys achieve up to 9 hours with constant use in optimal conditions.
If you extrapolate out your current usage you're on for 7 hours with 51 hours total, which is very very strong. People would kill for that endurance
At best you can expect 0.5% an hour drain if you aren't using the phone, but that's if you literally leave it overnight and don't touch it. More likely it'll be between 1-2% depending on usage, so if you calculate you've had roughly 10 hours of screen off, that's about 10% battery that isn't being used on screen on time, which equates to roughly an hour of SOT 'missed out on' if you were just to run the device with the screen on for the sake of it.
If you're truly only concerned about SOT, run a day without music in the background and see the improvement. It's a nonsensical thing to do as that's not how you use your phone, but will get you the numbers you want...
You're also using a high end processor and a large screen with a high refresh rate, it's going to use more juice than a mid range or low end phone. If you send that phone back, someone else is going to be very happy when they get it as their replacement
mtm1401 said:
SOT is only one measure of battery life, the battery still depletes when the screen is off, especially if you're doing something like listening to music for 7 hours......
If you saw the YouTube 'battery drain' tests, the majority are in a room, mobile turned off and on WIFI. They are in constant use with minimal ramping/up down of the processor as they only switch apps every hour. These guys achieve up to 9 hours with constant use in optimal conditions.
If you extrapolate out your current usage you're on for 7 hours with 51 hours total, which is very very strong. People would kill for that endurance
At best you can expect 0.5% an hour drain if you aren't using the phone, but that's if you literally leave it overnight and don't touch it. More likely it'll be between 1-2% depending on usage, so if you calculate you've had roughly 10 hours of screen off, that's about 10% battery that isn't being used on screen on time, which equates to roughly an hour of SOT 'missed out on' if you were just to run the device with the screen on for the sake of it.
If you're truly only concerned about SOT, run a day without music in the background and see the improvement. It's a nonsensical thing to do as that's not how you use your phone, but will get you the numbers you want...
You're also using a high end processor and a large screen with a high refresh rate, it's going to use more juice than a mid range or low end phone. If you send that phone back, someone else is going to be very happy when they get it as their replacement
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With my s21 ultta i can easily achieve 10-12hours of sot with browsjng and youtube on wlan with total runtime of 48hours.on mobile data its a good 35% less (also cause of brighter screen outdoors) but Overall its good battery life for me (note im debloated and using Samsung browser with darkmode!!)
I'm doing OK on the battery. Turned off goggle discover on side screen has helped aswell as 5g disabled as I don't have it where I live atm
Goku1992 said:
With my s21 ultta i can easily achieve 10-12hours of sot with browsjng and youtube on wlan with total runtime of 48hours.on mobile data its a good 35% less (also cause of brighter screen outdoors) but Overall its good battery life for me (note im debloated and using Samsung browser with darkmode!!)
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Ive attached a screenshot. Note this was 90% with wlan
Goku1992 said:
Ive attached a screenshot. Note this was 90% with wlan
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What have you done other than debloat and Samsung browser?
mtm1401 said:
What have you done other than debloat and Samsung browser?
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Nothing running 60hz and wqhd (on my phone fhd and wqhd doesnt made a different more that 2-4% so....)
Goku1992 said:
Nothing running 60hz and wqhd (on my phone fhd and wqhd doesnt made a different more that 2-4% so....)
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Yea it'll be the 60hz getting you through then, makes sense
mtm1401 said:
Yea it'll be the 60hz getting you through then, makes sense
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Yes if you want the same smoothness and a good 10% better battery you can use the 96hz mod
Put brightness on manual. The display eats a lot of the battery. Try to keep it at 50% or less.
Turn off all animations and use dark mode/dark wallpapers. Junk like tic-tok, fb don't help.
blackhawk said:
Put brightness on manual. The display eats a lot of the battery. Try to keep it at 50% or less.
Turn off all animations and use dark mode/dark wallpapers. Junk like tic-tok, fb don't help.
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Im using automatic brightness. Yes only using instagram, fb in the browser cause zhose notifications are annoing...
Goku1992 said:
Im using automatic brightness. Yes only using instagram, fb in the browser cause zhose notifications are annoing...
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Fb is malware, I don't care who or what's on it, it's off limits. Instagram... no way.
Tweeter just as bad as fb. Full boycott on all that junk until they f-f-fade away
Been using manual brightness control for over a year on my 10+. Occasionally I toggle it on but rarely. Going full brightness will greatly reduce OLEDs finite lifespan. Blue goes first... and the burnout isn't even. If I can get 5 years with just a battery change or two, I want it.
So far between Samsung's and Android's weak offerings I have zero incentive to upgrade hardware or firmware
blackhawk said:
Fb is malware, I don't care who or what's on it, it's off limits. Instagram... no way.
Tweeter just as bad as fb. Full boycott on all that junk until they f-f-fade away
Been using manual brightness control for over a year on my 10+. Occasionally I toggle it on but rarely. Going full brightness will greatly reduce OLEDs finite lifespan. Blue goes first... and the burnout isn't even. If I can get 5 years with just a battery change or two, I want it.
So far between Samsung's and Android's weak offerings I have zero incentive to upgrade hardware or firmware
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Yes but if you are using them in tge browser they cant suck your battery up and im only using them for roughly 10minutes a day so no problem. But youre right they are like malware... Traking your location every few minutes and that ****
Goku1992 said:
Yes but if you are using them in tge browser they cant suck your battery up and im only using them for roughly 10minutes a day so no problem. But youre right they are like malware... Traking your location every few minutes and that ****
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I do 20-30% charges throughout the day.
Crap like Twitter and fb can cost you your job as well as privacy leading you open to attacks of all kinds. Zero rewards and lots of risk. No.
Remember the night of the long knives?
Think how much easier it be to do now...
Has there been testing on the battery effect of different wireless network modes, including while being connected to Wi-Fi?
I understand that 5G uses more battery, but I'm curious how that is affected when you remain connected to Wi-Fi for all data transfers (using 5G just for calls and texts).
Same question for the other network modes, like LTE/3G/2G vs LTE/2G etc. Or also when you are not connected to Wi-Fi.
I can't help worry that some people are getting bad battery life because they have a poor network signal?
Only rough but very little difference between 4g and WiFi when still, and that's in a location with 2 bars signal. Seems like the phone sleeps better with mobile data on.
It's hard to make a direct comparison with WiFi Vs network, as a lot of the network drain is when moving and polling for new antenna. When looking at signal strength, 4g/5g have the same dBm and 3g/2g have the same dBm, but 4g needs less dBm for a higher transfer rate than 3g, so may use less power over time.
Also I don't think 5g is inherently more power hungry than 4g (I may be wrong), again it's just less available and shorter radio waves, and until now 5g has relied on external modems.
Exactly, I wonder if our S21 Ultra is much better with battery life on 5G, because our SoC includes the 5G modem and it's not external?
My desire is to just keep my phone on 5G while I'm at home idle and the phone is connected to home Wi-Fi. I wonder if there is a battery savings to be had if I switch to LTE while I'm at home on Wi-Fi and the phone is just idle.