Battery life is now.. well, amazing.

[wil318466]

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I'm not sure about the specs behind it, or whatever.. but installing Adamz new 2.1 based ROM has made the battery life amazing. When I say "Amazing" i really mean it. A full 2 days before it died, and it held onto the last 5% for 2 hours.

Let me say that again. the last 5% usually dies within 10-30 minutes previously. I put the phone down, didn't use it.. and picked it up again about 2-3 hours later to charge it expecting it to be dead. It wasn't.

Maybe its the low voltage, in the rom or whatever, but the battery life is affected TREMENDOUSLY. I've been up since 4:30 am, its now 4pm, and my phone is as 60% with pretty moderate usage. Its usually at 30% by now, and I did NOT start the day at 100%, I started at 85% because I didn't charge it last night to see how much it would lose while I slept (it lost nothing last night.)


Amazing. Adamz has done it again. This low voltage crap really works. lol



-Wil

 

[dezymond]

Good to hear, but I seem kind of skeptical.

I don't run any roms or anything and from my use of the phone i usually get about 1.5 days out of it, til about 15%. I never let it go below 15%. I text ALOT and use the browser and other stuff fairly regularly.

The way you put it makes it seem like you just had let the phone sit there with moderate use for 2 days. Again, I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that a ROM would improve the battery life that much.

 

[pyro6128]

What were your usage percentages? You coud've just not used the phone as intensively as others do, i.e. your screen was off for a lot of that time. Just trying to get an idea of what the battery life is like

 

[wil318466]

What were your usage percentages? You coud've just not used the phone as intensively as others do, i.e. your screen was off for a lot of that time. Just trying to get an idea of what the battery life is like

Understand what you guys are saying. Its not that at all. I haven't been charging it overnight and its not moving. Previously, I'd goto bed with it being at 80% and wake up with it being 60%. I now wake up and its where it was when I went to bed, or 5% lower.

I'll give it some more testing. I won't charge it tonight and see what happens and report back tomorrow. BTW - other people are saying the same thing who installed the ROM.



-Wil

 

[jsh1120]

Frankly, I'm skeptical about ANY claims that involve testimonials about "moderate" usage and don't involve some fairly stringent controls on background processing. I find, for example, that I can suck a battery almost dry by downloading 30 applications to a phone in two hours. If someone has the time and patience to do something like the following, I'll pay attention.

() Turn off Wifi. Turn off updates. Turn off synching. Turn off GPS.

() Fully charge at least two batteries.

() Over a 24 hour period place and receive a specific number of calls.

() Turn on the screen for a designated period of time.

() Send/receive a specific number of messages.

Do it two days in a row. Then repeat for two days with a second battery.

Repeat entire experiment with a change in a single variable, e.g. rom, GPS, task killer, etc. etc.

P.S. The difference between 100% and 80% is not necessarily the same as the difference between 80% and 60%, much less 40% and 20%. The battery monitors are not that reliable.

 

[wil318466]

Frankly, I'm skeptical about ANY claims that involve testimonials about "moderate" usage and don't involve some fairly stringent controls on background processing. I find, for example, that I can suck a battery almost dry by downloading 30 applications to a phone in two hours. If someone has the time and patience to do something like the following, I'll pay attention.

() Turn off Wifi. Turn off updates. Turn off synching. Turn off GPS.

() Fully charge at least two batteries.

() Over a 24 hour period place and receive a specific number of calls.

() Turn on the screen for a designated period of time.

() Send/receive a specific number of messages.

Do it two days in a row. Then repeat for two days with a second battery.

Repeat entire experiment with a change in a single variable, e.g. rom, GPS, task killer, etc. etc.

P.S. The difference between 100% and 80% is not necessarily the same as the difference between 80% and 60%, much less 40% and 20%. The battery monitors are not that reliable.

Agreed with your analysis. A full test shoudl be done. Unfortunately.. I don't know if I actually want to go through all those steps, heh.

I guess I'm just saying I see a VERY noticeable difference in how fast the battery is draining. This is on top of me installign a live wallpaper and adding 5 widgets that all update once an hour.


-Wil

 

[pyro6128]

I would be satisfied if you could just use it normally for a while and get good battery life, then before you go to charge, just right down what the different usage percentages were

 

[wil318466]

I would be satisfied if you could just use it normally for a while and get good battery life, then before you go to charge, just right down what the different usage percentages were

Yeah.. thats what I'll do. I'm not a big "tester", even though that is the correct way to do it.

Ok, so now I'm nervous. I hope the phone holds up. I'm just using it normally and I know that previously I would struggle to get through 1 day. Now it seems like I have no problems at all getting through a day. I won't charge the phone til it dies, and I'll report back when it dies. I'm thinking it'll die tonight sometime, if I listen to pandora on the ride home without charging it (which I think will drain it very quickly)

-Wil

 

[jsh1120]

Agreed with your analysis. A full test shoudl be done. Unfortunately.. I don't know if I actually want to go through all those steps, heh.

I guess I'm just saying I see a VERY noticeable difference in how fast the battery is draining. This is on top of me installign a live wallpaper and adding 5 widgets that all update once an hour.


-Wil

Didn't mean to criticize you, Wil. Hapy that you're happy with your battery usage. It's just that I've seen claims of extraordinary results from doing just about any possible thing to a Droid. Bottom line is that I've yet to see anyone post what could even be considered a truly quantifiable test, much less a rigorous one.

It does appear, for example, that battery life increases as one owns a Droid, regardless of what else one does. Why? Well, it may have to do with a battery or calibration of the battery monitor. But it may also stem from the fact that three months of owning a Droid and you're less likely to spend sixteen hours a day admiring that bright screen.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about it much. I have an extra battery from Amazon that I picked up for $15. About 80% of the time my Droid sits in its dock on my desk plugged into a wall charger. And I no longer download a half dozen apps a day. I've gotten over the novelty of turning on navigation when I go to the market. Most of the time I manage my email from my computer, not my phone. When I surf the net I prefer the 23 inch monitor on my desk to the 3 inch screen on my droid. And when I listen to Pandora it's usually via my computer with nice big speakers, not on my phone.

Overall, I'm just skeptical about magic bullets for battery life. If you're using a Droid as a primary computing environment, you're going to burn through a 1350 mAh battery pretty quickly. If Google and Motorola could design software/hardware to give the average user several days of battery life, don't you think they'd do so? It's not like their revenue is heavily dependent on the sale of $15 batteries, especially when they lose sales of $500+ phones due to complaints about battery life.

 

[wil318466]

Agreed with your analysis. A full test shoudl be done. Unfortunately.. I don't know if I actually want to go through all those steps, heh.

I guess I'm just saying I see a VERY noticeable difference in how fast the battery is draining. This is on top of me installign a live wallpaper and adding 5 widgets that all update once an hour.


-Wil

Didn't mean to criticize you, Wil. Hapy that you're happy with your battery usage. It's just that I've seen claims of extraordinary results from doing just about any possible thing to a Droid. Bottom line is that I've yet to see anyone post what could even be considered a truly quantifiable test, much less a rigorous one.

It does appear, for example, that battery life increases as one owns a Droid, regardless of what else one does. Why? Well, it may have to do with a battery or calibration of the battery monitor. But it may also stem from the fact that three months of owning a Droid and you're less likely to spend sixteen hours a day admiring that bright screen.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about it much. I have an extra battery from Amazon that I picked up for $15. About 80% of the time my Droid sits in its dock on my desk plugged into a wall charger. And I no longer download a half dozen apps a day. I've gotten over the novelty of turning on navigation when I go to the market. Most of the time I manage my email from my computer, not my phone. When I surf the net I prefer the 23 inch monitor on my desk to the 3 inch screen on my droid. And when I listen to Pandora it's usually via my computer with nice big speakers, not on my phone.

Overall, I'm just skeptical about magic bullets for battery life. If you're using a Droid as a primary computing environment, you're going to burn through a 1350 mAh battery pretty quickly. If Google and Motorola could design software/hardware to give the average user several days of battery life, don't you think they'd do so? It's not like their revenue is heavily dependent on the sale of $15 batteries, especially when they lose sales of $500+ phones due to complaints about battery life.

Yep. I agree with your skepticism, I really do. I understand where you are coming from.

But, I'm telling you, there is a huge difference.

I started yesterday with 85% battery life, at 4am. At 4pm I was at 50% - 60%. I drove home (an hour commute) with droidlive streaming music, and was down to 30%. I was on the phone for about an hour and a half, which brought me down to 20%. I woke up this morning at 15%. I got in the car at 5, started streaming droidlive again (NPR in the mornings..), and the phone finally shut off at 5:20am.

That is over 22 hours of regular usage on 85% battery life. I could NEVER do that before. I did NOT charge the phone in the car as I usually do on the way home, which makes it even more impressive. My phone would be in the red by the time I started driving home. Yesterday, the phone didn't get in the red until after I was talking on it for an hour after a full day.

I'm charging now, will get to 100% and see what happens. I'm sure it'll last more than a day. Oh, and this is regular usage, nothign special. about 40-50 texts, browsing, email, an hour or two of phone calls, and streaming music.


-Wil

 

[Netou]

I started yesterday with 85% battery life, at 4am. At 4pm I was at 50% - 60%. I drove home (an hour commute) with droidlive streaming music, and was down to 30%. I was on the phone for about an hour and a half, which brought me down to 20%. I woke up this morning at 15%. I got in the car at 5, started streaming droidlive again (NPR in the mornings..), and the phone finally shut off at 5:20am.

That is over 22 hours of regular usage on 85% battery life. I could NEVER do that before. I did NOT charge the phone in the car as I usually do on the way home, which makes it even more impressive. My phone would be in the red by the time I started driving home. Yesterday, the phone didn't get in the red until after I was talking on it for an hour after a full day.

I'm charging now, will get to 100% and see what happens. I'm sure it'll last more than a day. Oh, and this is regular usage, nothign special. about 40-50 texts, browsing, email, an hour or two of phone calls, and streaming music.


-Wil

Wow...if that's what you think is 'regular usage'....I dont want to know what you call my type of usage if my battery goes out after 3 hours. LoL

Which kernel are you running?? Low voltage...high voltage...what Mhz speed...etc...etc...

 

[wil318466]

I started yesterday with 85% battery life, at 4am. At 4pm I was at 50% - 60%. I drove home (an hour commute) with droidlive streaming music, and was down to 30%. I was on the phone for about an hour and a half, which brought me down to 20%. I woke up this morning at 15%. I got in the car at 5, started streaming droidlive again (NPR in the mornings..), and the phone finally shut off at 5:20am.

That is over 22 hours of regular usage on 85% battery life. I could NEVER do that before. I did NOT charge the phone in the car as I usually do on the way home, which makes it even more impressive. My phone would be in the red by the time I started driving home. Yesterday, the phone didn't get in the red until after I was talking on it for an hour after a full day.

I'm charging now, will get to 100% and see what happens. I'm sure it'll last more than a day. Oh, and this is regular usage, nothign special. about 40-50 texts, browsing, email, an hour or two of phone calls, and streaming music.


-Wil

Wow...if that's what you think is 'regular usage'....I dont want to know what you call my type of usage if my battery goes out after 3 hours. LoL

Which kernel are you running?? Low voltage...high voltage...what Mhz speed...etc...etc...

I'm running smoked glass v 6.0.1 from the hacks section, under adamz section. I have it at 800 mhz with 250 mhz on the low side. In the description he writes "battery life is incredible" which I highly doubted.. but now I believe. I THINK its the low voltage install, but I'm not sure, in all honesty. I just downloaded the file, rebooted, and installed after choosing my options, and bingo. The phone runs like BUTTER.



Ok, so a quick update : Plugged my phone in at 6:15am to charge, it was at 100% at 9:15. It is now 3:25 pm, and I haven't really used my phone much, just sent about 15 texts and browsed a few web pages while walking around work. I'm at 90%. I'm going to once again stream music on my ride home WITHOUT charging, and use the phone tonight for my regular phone calls, and see what happens and report back. I'd like to bet I have PLENTY of battery left and it won't die until tomorrow afternoon, since I started at 100% today. So, today so far I'm at 6 hours and 15 minutes of light usage, and only used 10% of my battery.

I couldnt' be happier.

-Wil

 

[qoncept]

I've been using Adamz's low voltage kernel and haven't noticed any difference in battery life at all.

 

[wil318466]

Update : 12:41 am. 40% after droidlive streaming for an hour driving home, and on the phone for over an hour. See ya at 4:30 am.


-Wil

 

[wil318466]

update : woke up late (lol) at 5:30am with battery at 40%. Drove to work with droidlive streaming NPR again, wasn't charging. It is now 1pm, 27.5 hours after my last charge and I am at 20% with no worries of getting through the day til 6pm. We will see.

if I'd have to estimate what I'd have gotten before installing this ROM, I'd say 5-8 hours. I'm now getting well over 26 hours with light use, something i would never dream of a week ago.

one happy camper over here.

-Wil