Battery on milestone

[sloopjohnb]

Hi people,

I've been wondering if there is something wrong with my stone's battery. I will give u an example: this afternoon I left home around 2pm and my battery was 100%. I talked on it for around 5min, played around with android for about 10min, tweeted once,received 1 email, opened 2 webpages. My battery at 7:45 was 60%. Is this normal? I had bluetooth off, wifi off, brightness on medium and sync on. I have a widget for twitter and one for facebook. My 3 homescreens r filled with icons. I wonder if there is something wrong with it. I have taskiller and I close tasks often. This is something kinda weird. Android keeps opening tasks all the time by itself. Many tasks. Wasn't it suppose to prevent battery drainage?

 

[RinTinTigger]

Heya,

two things to think about:

1
With what did you meassure your % ?
If you use the standard built-in applikation to monitor the
battery life, you cant really rely on that. this thing shows the
most wired things.

2
if you meassured with one of the better apps from the market, then i think
your battery is just not working correctly. return it to your salesman!

Tigger

 

[big_adventure]

Also, if your Twitter and Facebook apps are configured to update every 15 minutes or something, that's a lot of 3G data.

On my phone, if I set Twidroid and Facebook to "never" autoupdate, leave all Google service syncing on, Google Talk on, and generally use the thing a LOT (some webbrowsing, an app download or 5, 50-100 GTalk chat, 10-15 SMS, 40-50 email, TuneWiki (which eats batteries) running music for an hour or two), I get a day out of the battery.

If I do the same thing, but set Twidroid and Facebook for 15 minute (I think) autoupdates, I will be "asked" to charge the phone before he working day is done, to say nothing of the evening.

Cloud-syncing background apps eat battery.

 

[sloopjohnb]

I've been using the battery tool inside settings. Which battery app shiould I use?
I'll try changing the configs on my widgets and Ill let u know if it made a difeerence

 

[sloopjohnb]

Another example: today I left home at 10:00am (100% battery). I've browsed the web for about 10min, took a couple of picts with the camera and played a gba emu for about 10-15min. My battery on 2:00pm was at 60%.I turned sync off this morning,just like bluetooth, wifi and gps. My mail app was checking my hotmail every 30min and my gmail app I don't know cause i couldn't find the check schedule on its settings (maybe it's push and I didn't know?). I've received only 3 mails on gmail all this time, early in the morning. Sometimes I feel that every hour the battery drops 10%.
I checked my facebook app and it's configured to check things every hour. I also had a twitter widget which didn't allowed me to configure that (I guess) so I deleted it. I guess I'll install twidroid pro (because it has a widget). I've also installed a battery widget (Battery Widget) so I don't have to rely on the settings app.
I'm also thinking about charging the battery till is 100%, turn off all background cloud checkings and then see how long the battery lasts. What do you think?

 

[sloopjohnb]

Just continuing with the history...
I went back to the store and got another milestone yesterday. Things don't seem to have changed very much... I took the new one out of the box last night, reset it to factory settings, turned it off and plugged it in the wall. This morning the battery was 100% and I only unplugged it when I left home (around 11:40am). I left sync on, bluet off, wifi off and gps off. Gmail and hotmail checking: on (30min). I've done about 15-20min of web browsing today, about 25 min of voice call, 2 sms, received about 3 emails, checked twitter twice and installed 2 light apps from the market all day. My battery hit 20% at about 9:30pm and died on 11:30pm. This milestone is behaving very much like the old one. It lasts about 12h of light use. I realize that Li-batteries require a few charges before they reach their maximum performance, but the battery life on the milestone is begining to seem like a total turn off to me. I've recharged my old milestone for about a week and the performance was the same as this new one (about 12h of light use). I just can't accept this performance so I'm thinking about giving up on the milestone. I've read a couple of posts on the motorola forum and many people complain about their battery lifes and a bunch of them say their battery lasts about 6h of medium/high usage which is pretty much what I'd get with mine. What's the point of leaving a bunch of apps open most of the time and allowing widgets and background data if to use this features you have to plug your phone in the wall every 4-5h?
Many people say is impossible to own an android phone without a task manager and this just says to me how bad the android management really is. Having to 'babysit' your phone all the time, killing processes and tasks and checking battery/performace every hour is not how I wanna spend my day. I also own an iphone 3G and its battery lasts at least 3x the milestone's. It doesn't have the same level of background data, but the UI is way more responsive and accurate, it behaves much better overall and the apps are much better. I was really really excited with the milestone before I got it but now I'm really regreting the fact I didn't get an iphone 3gs. My iphone 3G is better than the milestone and it was released in the middle of 2008!

Sorry for the long post... I just had to express my disappointment

 

[big_adventure]

Sorry you are not enjoying your expensive new toy.

I was pretty worried about the battery during the first week, until it had done several charge cycles and until I had figured out how to set everything.

Now, I almost never resort to TaskKiller - I have it, but use it maybe once every couple of days, typically start the phone, as there are about 20 services that start automatically, such as games, etc.

I charge the phone before going to bed, and set it by my bed around midnight to act as my alarm.

I use it as a music or podcast player for 1.5 to 2.5 hours, during the ride to work and a little at work.

I use my RSS reader at least twice - it syncs around 100 articles each time, syncing RSS and moibile web pages from Google Reader, and I spend about an hour reading that information.

I use the Le Monde (French paper) app to download their content and read the breaking news.

I manage the 40 or so personal emails I receive each day.

I use GTalk a few times.

I send and receive a few SMS.

I browse the web a bit (especially finishing content that I pulled from RSS).

I manage my calendar.

I probably show off the phone (think Layar, Google Navigation, Google Googles, the 2.1 Gallery, etc.) to iPhone users a couple of times.

With that usage, I typically have 10-20% or so battery when I get home at 19h30 at night.

That isn't fantastic, but I don't believe that my iPhone 3G ever could have managed that. I never used my iPhone that heavily. I played a few more games on it, but playing 45 minutes of games on either phone will eat half of the battery.

I hope yours gets better with charge-cycling.

 

[sloopjohnb]

Thx for your post big_adventure... it's nice to see otber people's experience with the milestone. I believe the battery can get befter with time but evn on your scenario it seems you get like 12h of average use. I still don't know if Im gonna keep the milestone. I have until next week to decide.

 

[AlanN]

Hmmm.
During the first two weeks I had mine I was seriously considering eBaying it for the same reason.

However I have stuck with it (over a month now) and done a lot of reading on how to set it up.

Set it to use 2g networks only, only turn on 3g if you really need it.
Use WIFI before 3g it uses less power.
Have WIFI and BT off, switch on only when you need them...there are one-click apps out there for all three of the above.
A biggie: turn OFF location services, again, only have this on when you actually need it.
Of course, GPS only when needed, again a one-click app for toggling.
Turn off aur-brightness and turn the screen right down, I find it perfectly useable at the lowest setting.
Use Advanced Taskiller and set it to auto-kill every 30mins.
Set your email to check every hour, don't use push, you can always manually sync if you want to.

Setup as above after quite a few charge cycles now, I get on average the following daily useage:
Take off charge 0700
Approx 2 hrs per day BT use in car
Approx 60-70mins phone calls
Manage at least 100 emails
Lots of texts probably 20-30/day at least
At least an hour after work surfing the web via WIFI in the pub
General showing off to my iPhone sheep mates
Playing around with Market and web at home after dinner

Nowadays I am easily getting a full day (as in there's still at least 20% left when I go to bed at around midnight) and have a couple of times got two full days use out of a single charge.

Should only improve when we finally get sw updates too :icon_ devil:

 

[sloopjohnb]

I know about the 'methods' to improve battery life... I just find that using most of them totally crushes the pleasure of using the phone. The main assets of android are multitasking and background data. To have your battery last a day you have to kill all tasks every 1/2h (what if you were actualy using something and it gets killed?), you can't use 3G (what's the purpose of a full browser nowadays if you are stuck with 2g?), you have to dim your display (milestone's display is gourgeous, that's such a shame), you can't use sync or push (one of the most importat features in android ;//) and you have to turn off your anthenas (that's doable but still annoying).

 

[AlanN]

I know about the 'methods' to improve battery life... I just find that using most of them totally crushes the pleasure of using the phone. The main assets of android are multitasking and background data. To have your battery last a day you have to kill all tasks every 1/2h (what if you were actualy using something and it gets killed?), you can't use 3G (what's the purpose of a full browser nowadays if you are stuck with 2g?), you have to dim your display (milestone's display is gourgeous, that's such a shame), you can't use sync or push (one of the most importat features in android ;//) and you have to turn off your anthenas (that's doable but still annoying).

Sorry for trying to help.
You obviously crave a Nokia 6310.
Good luck...or get yourself a Blackberry (but not a Storm2 because it's the same story plus it drops calls after 30secs). :rofl3:
Stick with your gayiPhone if it does all you want.

 

[sloopjohnb]

I appreciated your help alan, you don't have to be so touchy, ok? And no phone in the world will make you more or less of a man. I was justexpressing my disappointment. You may like the phone but the battery life is kinda of a problem, that's just a fact, I'm not saying its not o good device, it is good.
I wouldn't buy a nokia now and I don't like blackberries. The iphone 3gs is the best smartphone right now (every tech site/blog will tell you that) but I got a milestone cause I wanted something differemt and it's a very cool gadget, I'm just having trouble with the battery

 

[big_adventure]

The iphone 3gs is the best smartphone right now (every tech site/blog will tell you that) but I got a milestone cause I wanted something differemt and it's a very cool gadget, I'm just having trouble with the battery

There are thousands of "tech sites/blogs" that do not agree with you. If you want the battery to last as long as an iPhone, use the phone like an iPhone! Don't multitask, make sure everything in the background is dead, reduce screen brightness, text and email less and cut all of your calls short (which the iphone does for you in th US!).

The iPhone is a great product. But the joy of gadgets is that there is no "best". I used an iPhone (a 1st gen, then a 3g) for 2 years. I really enjoyed it, and it changed the way I used my phone. But then my poor 3g fell into a hole (not a joke), and I decided to switch to a BlackBerry Bold. The iPhone was better for games, music, web browsing and video (and it isn't close), but the BlackBerry was better, MUCH better, for for mail, chat, phone calls, speed of operation, multitasking, notifications, RSS reader (Viigo is better than anything on iPhone) and, oh yes, bettery life.

Is there a "best" between those two? Not really. "Best" is totally subjective. CrackBerry is Best for some things, iPhone is Best for some things.

How about my Milestone? Well, it multitasks as well as or better than a BlackBerry. It does Gmail (I have 4 accounts configured) better than a BlackBerry and one million times better than an iPhone. It doesn't text or chat as well as a Bold, but, thanks to the options of Swype and the hard keyboard, it does them at least as well as or better than the iPhone. Web browsing is mixed - I love the hires screen, but the iPhone browser is definitely easier to use, as the tap-to-zoom works and I find it always misses on my 'stone. It does Google sync and Google everything (I use calendar, finance, docs, talk, Wave, etc.) as well as or better than anything else. It does Voice Search (once I installed the APK) very well. Twidroid is better than any BlackBerry Twitter app. Android's Facebook app (even the Droid, contact syncing edition) is lame, and nowhere nearly as good as BlackBerry or iPhone. Navigation and Maps are MUCH better on the Milestone, once you install the US edition of Maps to get turn-by-turn. The interface is nice, but less smooth than the iPhone 3GS by far (all that multitasking and those pretty backgrounds have a price).

Oh, and the battery? Given how much I use a phone, I charge every night in any case. And that applies to every phone except the BlackBerry, which would always make it two days.

Which one is "best"?

 

[greg_p]

The reality is that all the task you are demanding to your (iphone or milestone) ask for computing and emitting, and all these are power-greedy. This is a reality. And I don[t think it will drastically change in the 2/3 year... And i'm working in energy management at TI soc..
A cortex a8 standalone consume 300ma at 600mhz, minimum for memory is 150ma, + all the radio interface (not far from 100ma, more in 3g)... you are at 500+. your battery is 1.4 ah, means that your phone will suck the battery in 3 hours.
We are doing optimizations you can't imagine, but think that you can't do all of that facebook/gtalk/3g games with a 10 years old nokia 6110 ... This has a power cost.

 

[AlanN]

The iphone 3gs is the best smartphone right now (every tech site/blog will tell you that) but I got a milestone cause I wanted something differemt and it's a very cool gadget, I'm just having trouble with the battery

There are thousands of "tech sites/blogs" that do not agree with you. If you want the battery to last as long as an iPhone, use the phone like an iPhone! Don't multitask, make sure everything in the background is dead, reduce screen brightness, text and email less and cut all of your calls short (which the iphone does for you in th US!).

The iPhone is a great product. But the joy of gadgets is that there is no "best". I used an iPhone (a 1st gen, then a 3g) for 2 years. I really enjoyed it, and it changed the way I used my phone. But then my poor 3g fell into a hole (not a joke), and I decided to switch to a BlackBerry Bold. The iPhone was better for games, music, web browsing and video (and it isn't close), but the BlackBerry was better, MUCH better, for for mail, chat, phone calls, speed of operation, multitasking, notifications, RSS reader (Viigo is better than anything on iPhone) and, oh yes, bettery life.

Is there a "best" between those two? Not really. "Best" is totally subjective. CrackBerry is Best for some things, iPhone is Best for some things.

How about my Milestone? Well, it multitasks as well as or better than a BlackBerry. It does Gmail (I have 4 accounts configured) better than a BlackBerry and one million times better than an iPhone. It doesn't text or chat as well as a Bold, but, thanks to the options of Swype and the hard keyboard, it does them at least as well as or better than the iPhone. Web browsing is mixed - I love the hires screen, but the iPhone browser is definitely easier to use, as the tap-to-zoom works and I find it always misses on my 'stone. It does Google sync and Google everything (I use calendar, finance, docs, talk, Wave, etc.) as well as or better than anything else. It does Voice Search (once I installed the APK) very well. Twidroid is better than any BlackBerry Twitter app. Android's Facebook app (even the Droid, contact syncing edition) is lame, and nowhere nearly as good as BlackBerry or iPhone. Navigation and Maps are MUCH better on the Milestone, once you install the US edition of Maps to get turn-by-turn. The interface is nice, but less smooth than the iPhone 3GS by far (all that multitasking and those pretty backgrounds have a price).

Oh, and the battery? Given how much I use a phone, I charge every night in any case. And that applies to every phone except the BlackBerry, which would always make it two days.

Which one is "best"?

Absolutely spot on with all points.