Battery drain: Is this drain rate normal or is the phone getting old and tired?

[ajava]

I have a Maxx that I purchased in June 2012. At first, the battery performance was outstanding. Now, as the phone gets older (or is it because I have more apps installed?), the battery performance is getting worse and worse. As of 6:00 a.m. today, it came off the charger and was at 100%. It is now 1:00 p.m. and the battery is at 71%. However, I've only checked emails a total of maybe 4-5 times - that's it - nothing else. No texts, no calls, no video, no games.

Is that kind of battery drain normal?

GSam Battery monitor says:
Screen: 32.9%
App usage: 55.4%
Phone radio: 10.2%

Those are the largest percentages. I don't have wifi turned on, ever.

Anything I can do to restore the magnificent battery life of the early days with this phone?

 

[dezymond]

How often do you have your apps refreshing in the background? How is your signal in wherever you are? You install any new apps recently, it could be causing a problem. What about a task killer?

I ask that many questions because most of the time it could be something working against your battery rather than your battery just getting old. Overtime your battery loses it's capacity to hold a charge so you won't ever get it back to what it used to be, but over a years time it shouldn't be that significant of a drop either, unless your usage has changed.

 

[ajava]

Hmmm, wouldn't GSam show me any apps that were running wild? Or does it not work that way? I install apps from time to time - hard to say which one may be causing an issue. For task killing, I use Clean Master - it basically gives me a notification when it's time to kill a few things because lots of memory is being hogged up.

How would I know how often apps refresh in the background? How can I analyze that?

 

[dezymond]

Gsam would show it, you have to check which app is taking up the most battery though. I use both Clean Master and Gsam, no significant battery drain with any.

To check how often apps use your data to refresh you have to check their individual settings; email, facebook, etc. All these types of apps are capable of running in the background and using data.

How is your signal though? Searching for a signal on a phone can definitely lead to a quick battery drain, especially if its switching off between 3g and 4g trying to maintain a solid signal.

 

[ajava]

Gsam would show it, you have to check which app is taking up the most battery though. I use both Clean Master and Gsam, no significant battery drain with any.

To check how often apps use your data to refresh you have to check their individual settings; email, facebook, etc. All these types of apps are capable of running in the background and using data.

How is your signal though? Searching for a signal on a phone can definitely lead to a quick battery drain, especially if its switching off between 3g and 4g trying to maintain a solid signal.

Hmmm, I guess I'm not entirely sure about the signal. I work in an office building and I always seem to have good coverage...though I've noticed that it does switch back and forth between 4G and 3G quite a bit. Does that mean that it's constantly looking and struggling? Some parts of the building I'm in have horrible coverage - I know that. Is there way to control the 3G/4G switching? I can turn off 4G, right? Sorry, I know enough to be dangerous but not nearly enough to be called "experienced".

 

[dezymond]

If it's switching back between 3g and 4g often, then yes it's having trouble holding onto a signal. That kind of activity could definitely cause a battery drain and fairly quickly at that.

You should be able to switch to just 3g through the settings under network type. I believe there are a few 4g toggles available in the market as well. I think the best solution to your problem at work would be to connect to your work's wifi, if available, or to turn off data altogether.