battery life

[kstr0h]

i just got a droid and i find that it dies pretty fast. how can i conserve the battery life?

i turned off wifi and blue tooth. i turned down the brightness. i made sure apps i wasnt using werent running.

what else can i do?

[Laurence5905]

First of all, please define "pretty fast." I mean, is it using 80% of its battery life in 2 hours? Or 50% in 5 hours? Or what?

I've found that playing games and using an app that utilizes the GPS are the two best ways to kill the battery VERY quickly. I can go from 100% to 15% in 4 hours playing games or using Google Nav.

If I don't play games, and don't use Google Nav, it seems to die at a rate of about 7% to 10% per hour (with average use). One day, I used the phone for about 30 minutes of calls and a couple of texts, and it was idle for the rest of the day -- it went 17 hours while using only 30% of the battery in that time. So it's VERY dependent on how you use the phone...

If you can give us some more specifics as to exactly what you're doing with it, then maybe we can give you some tips on how to improve your experience.

[kstr0h]

ok well, its lasting id say under 6 hours. im fully charging it or at least i think iam. (charge complete).
i havent played any games and i have the gps turned off. iv been using the internet but i still feel that the battery is dying way to fast. i do talk on the phone but not for long periods of time.

[hookbill]

There are already two huge threads on this. Did you search before you started this one?

[Laurence5905]

In my experience, talking on the phone is actually a much lower drain on the battery than browsing the web... If I do no web-stuff, and just do the phone-call and text-message thing, I get the best battery life...

Due to the way CDMA works (CDMA is the "protocol" that Verizon uses to communicate between cell-tower and phone) the distance you are from the nearest tower, combined with the number of people who are using said tower, can *greatly* affect your battery life -- the phone must use more power the farther way you are from the nearest tower. Same thing if the tower is "overcrowded" with users -- the phone must use more power to keep its signal with the tower. So that's something you can't control -- if you happen to spend most of your days in a place where the reception is "on the edge" you're going to suffer from poor battery life. It's just the way the Verizon network functions...

If you do happen to be in a place where the nearest tower is "too far" away, or is "too crowded", you may actually get better battery life by turning on WiFi and browsing the web with the local WiFi connection (assuming one's available...)

How much time would you say you're spending using the Internet? And what are you doing? Lots of YouTube videos and other multimedia stuff? Or just a little bit of occasional web-browsing of basic web-sites? Like I said, the browser uses more battery than phone-calls do (in my experience). If you're spending all day on the web-browser, you need to look at the Droid as if it were a Laptop computer -- your Laptop would never work for 6 hours on its battery without a charge (just for the sake of comparison, I'm saying.)

Worst-case-scenario, you wind up having to buy an extra charger to use while you're at work, and/or one for the car. It's just the nature of the beast -- these phones are much closer to laptop computers than they are to basic cell-phones. The more "laptop stuff" you do on your phone, the more the battery will behave like a laptop battery...

[Chargerwr]

It has pretty good battery life I can usually use it all day and then charge it when I sleep. Watching videos on Youtube uses a lot of battery though

[Trever1t]

turn GPS off.

[mjs31]

Go to settings then to about phone (at the bottom) and then select battery use. What is it showing as the number one user and what percentage. The big bright screen will kill your battery if set to 100% and left on for any length of time.