Tired of battery life

[burningmay]

A few months ago I got myself a thunderbolt. It was big, heavy and battery life was pathetic. Then I got a Charge. Lighter, smaller, nicer, but again battery life was worse than the wife's iphone. Got myself a gorilla gadgets extended battery. Now the phone is bigger and heavier than the thubderbolt. The battery was good for a few weeks, now it wont even last me a full day if i dont turn off the mobile data, while my wifes iphone that is almost a year old now still runs strong. I like the concept behind the android phones but they leave a lot desired when it comes to battery life. I should have gotten an iphone........

[spillner]

Battery lasts all day on my Droid 3

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

[KeepItReal]

When you get a new phone or new battery, you should condition the battery. In the 1st month, you should do 5 complete discharge (run to complete dead battery) and recharge with the phone powered off. Even after you see 100% on the battery when recharged, take out the battery, re-insert and charge it for the little bit it needs to get back to 100%. Yep, 5 times. Works good to do this with your laptop battery to give it some extra juice to.

Sent from my Xoom using DroidForums

[chrstdvd]

I feel bad for you people who go to work everyday and have this battery will not get you through the day. I am retired and by a charger when I need it. I have tried all the techniques described to "condition" my battery and none have done a thing to help it last any longer. I live in a weak signal area so I go into Data Off at home and use wifi, but when I leave home, I turn off wifi and data back on. Helps a bit.

[KeepItReal]

I have the same issue at home too. Weak signal. My battery drains fast, even if I switch to wifi. The phone is still trying to reach the cell tower for calls. No 4g yet!

Sent from my SCH-I510 using DroidForums

[bendystrawboy]

youre comparing a lte device vs a 3g iphone?

if your concern is battery life then you shouldve gotten an inc 2 or turn lte off on your charge.

but the fact that you found this website and posted this statement would make me thini you shouldve known what to expect.

[BayouFlyFisher]

A few months ago I got myself a thunderbolt. It was big, heavy and battery life was pathetic. Then I got a Charge. Lighter, smaller, nicer, but again battery life was worse than the wife's iphone. Got myself a gorilla gadgets extended battery. Now the phone is bigger and heavier than the thubderbolt. The battery was good for a few weeks, now it wont even last me a full day if i dont turn off the mobile data, while my wifes iphone that is almost a year old now still runs strong. I like the concept behind the android phones but they leave a lot desired when it comes to battery life. I should have gotten an iphone........

The following is a list of options that can be used to improve battery life. Just go through the list and see which ones will not interfere with the way you want to use the phone. BTW, this list was written for the Bionic, but most should apply to your phone as well.

- Consider doing a factory reset. Do not sync apps, wifi connections, etc. with Google services as that may cause a problem. Install all apps and wifi connections from scratch. A bit of a pain, but not too bad.- install a home/launcher replacement. I use Go Launcher EX, which is free, and I love it. No reason not to try out an alternative launcher as you can always go back to how you had it.

- Don't use an automatic task killer--not even the one that comes with the phone. Reboot your phone and look at what's running. If anything that you've installed is running and there's no reason for it, then uninstall it and find an alternative that behaves. Ignore any stock apps that run on boot as I've found them to be more or less benign.

- Weather widgets, live wallpapers, news/social feeds, any app or service that you use that runs--do without it if you can. If you can’t do without it, lengthen it’s refresh time.

- Don't use antivirus

- Set your WIFI sleep policy to never. The default is "turn off when screen turns off". This will cause the wifi to reconnect every time you open the phone. From any Home Screen select Menu/Settings/Wireless & Networks/ and then use the Menu button to see some new options - select Advanced. Then select Wifi Sleep Policy and set it to Never. Home key to return to Home Screen.

- If you have access to wifi, leave it toggled on as it is more efficient than 3G. Wifi consumes less battery power than 3G.

- I leave GPS toggled on too by the way. Apps use it as needed. When I'm done with Maps or an app that uses it, I'm sure to return to the home screen so GPS can stop. Under wireless settings turn on "Google location services" so that an app is able to use network resources to get your location instead of GPS. I have "VZW location services" turned off--don't know why that option is even there. By the way, I increase the speed of voice output > text to speech > speech rate because I like the directions to get spit out faster. That saves a bit of battery. Turning off the display and just listening for directions help. Also, often I just get the directions and then exit back to the home screen: GPS uses so much battery I try to get it over with ASAP.

- When you get a 1) new battery, 2) do a factory reset, or 3) an OS upgrade - run your battery all the way down until the phone shuts off and then charge the battery all the way up. This will calibrate the phone's understanding of the battery's capacity. Do this once every month or two also, but don't do it too often if you can help it.

- I have my battery set to "Performance Mode" and data is on all the time because I am on call 24x7. If you don't mind, try out a more conservative battery profile to save more gobs of energy.

- Set screen brightness to "Automatic"

- Under Accounts, click on any account listed and turn off sync for any items that you're not interested in syncing. For example, Google Books if you don't use it. Don't use Backup Assistant--I prefer syncing my contacts with Google. You don't need both. Also go into your contacts > menu > display options > backup assistant > UNCHECK. Also do contacts > menu > more > settings > contact storage > and select your Google account and "remember this choice"

- Turn on Bluetooth only when you are going to use it.

- Consider turning off voice privacy. This may not be a big deal but it will save some processing (and therefore battery). It may also improve call quality.

-T off haptic feedback, animations, and any un-needed sounds in Android settings and in your apps

- Set your screen timeout to as low a time as you can stand (I use 1 minute) and manually turn the screen off when you’ve finished using the phone.

- Turn off in-pocket detection

- Keyboard: turn off vibrate on key press and sounds for any keyboards you use

- Use a red or black screen background. On the original Droid screen--not sure about this Bionic screen--red was the most efficient color that could be displayed.

- Camera app: I like keeping location on and flash on auto. Consider turning location off or at least returning to the home screen ASAP when using camera if location for camera is on.

- In stock browser the default home page is Google and it uses your location. This is a bad idea as it can waste your battery for no reason. Make something else your home page and make sure to close any web page that uses your location when you're done viewing it.

- Charge your phone via the wall charger instead of computer USB as it is faster. Also, don't use long USB cords--use regular power extension cords instead. I stick with the charger that came with the phone. Put the phone on charger when you go to bed every night.

- Consider install the Home Replacement app Zeam. It is basic app that uses very few resources and will help with battery power.

This is a link to some very good videos about saving battery power on the Bionic (there are 4 parts and the other parts will show up as available videos when part 1 finishes):

Battery Saving Video

Part 1:

[sleekgeek]

you would be surprised what junk downloaded from the market does in the background. most of it kills your battery. go through and uninstall stuff you don't use and stuff you don't need.

then download battery calibrater and follow the instructions to the T. next download juice defender and problems solved. the main problem is people not willing to root and rom. do it. most people keep a phone 2 years tops? then they fall apart from being used and sweated on daily. just do it, freedom is the American way.