New Bionic Owner Questions

[guitarskoota]

Hey guys, I got my Bionic on Monday. I am loving it. It has been being used nonstop since I got it. I have only had one data drop, on the first night, at about 12am, for about 5 minutes, but my battery was also at like 10% at the time so not sure if that had anything to do with it. Nonstop connection the rest of the time. I'm not *super* impressed with the battery duration, but I suppose as this is my first smart phone, that they are all like this. I do intend to buy an extended battery around Xmas time. Right now, with moderate usage, I get about 12 hours out of it.

I have a couple questions though. If I am in a 3g only area, would my phone constantly search for 4g service and drain the battery? And if so, is there something I should do to turn off the 4g or something?

Also, I have heard both ways, but are battery apps like Juice Defender, really that helpful? I have watched the video series on Bionic battery management, and done things such as set my programs to only sync like every 15-30 minutes, and got rid of most of my "streamed data" widgets. Will these battery apps really do much more than that? Last thing I want to do is bloat my phone up even more, with apps that do what I have already done to it.

 

[Shadez]

Welcome to the forums! You can set your phone to CDMA only under settings. I have heard people have had problems using juice defender, but check out this area: Droid Bionic Forum for more answers!

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

Hey guys, I got my Bionic on Monday. I am loving it. It has been being used nonstop since I got it. I have only had one data drop, on the first night, at about 12am, for about 5 minutes, but my battery was also at like 10% at the time so not sure if that had anything to do with it. Nonstop connection the rest of the time. I'm not *super* impressed with the battery duration, but I suppose as this is my first smart phone, that they are all like this. I do intend to buy an extended battery around Xmas time. Right now, with moderate usage, I get about 12 hours out of it.

I have a couple questions though. If I am in a 3g only area, would my phone constantly search for 4g service and drain the battery? And if so, is there something I should do to turn off the 4g or something?

Also, I have heard both ways, but are battery apps like Juice Defender, really that helpful? I have watched the video series on Bionic battery management, and done things such as set my programs to only sync like every 15-30 minutes, and got rid of most of my "streamed data" widgets. Will these battery apps really do much more than that? Last thing I want to do is bloat my phone up even more, with apps that do what I have already done to it.

To answer your first question: set the phone to CDMA only via settings/wireless&networks/mobile networks.

I have tried Juice Defender on several different phones have not found any benefit to it. There will be many replies following saying that it is the best thing ever. So YMMV!!

 

[SEColwell]

I found a great app in the market ...search 4 g toggle....its really just a short cut to your phone settings

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[aaf709]

Currently I'm using Juice Defender and it seems to be working. I'm still skeptical as I had this in my OG Droid and there didn't seem to be any difference. Still, I'm at 14+ hours and still around 50% so I'm happy. YMMV

You may want to invest in the extended battery; that'll keep you going for a while.

 

[bluezdawg]

Currently I'm using Juice Defender and it seems to be working. I'm still skeptical as I had this in my OG Droid and there didn't seem to be any difference. Still, I'm at 14+ hours and still around 50% so I'm happy. YMMV

You may want to invest in the extended battery; that'll keep you going for a while.

I am using Juice Defender with extended battery. I am pretty please with what I am seeing just using the balanced settings. May try "agressive" jusy to see what it does.
'dawg

 

[ichabod_cabal]

juice defender (the stable version, not the beta) works off a few different idea's, the biggest one being that it shuts down both wifi search, and cdma/lte radios when the screen is off (kicks in some time after the screen actually turns off and the phone is "inactive"). This actually does work to save a lot of people a lot of phone life since both these things can weigh heavy on battery's. Other than that it has a few features to shut down certain apps and or all apps/widgets/features excluding text and phone if the battery drops below a certain amount.
the only thing that I am not sure of is if JD actually worked to make the battery/cpu more efficient in it's usage. The only reason I bring this up is because it really seemed that when I used JD the battery seemed to run... cooler? As when I didn't have it my bionic was basically a space heater.
Anyway, I recently took JD off my bionic and with a little bit of power managment with screen brightness, and turning radio's/gps on and off at correct times, I really feel I get about the same amount of life out of my phone.

 

[guitarskoota]

Would running CMDA only mode, in a 3g only area, really help much with the battery? Or would it be a pretty negligible difference. I'm in a 3g only area about 95% of the time, but I'd rather leave it on, for when I travel, so I don't have to remember to switch it back. But if it is an actual big draw on the battery I will just put it on CMDA only.

 

[ichabod_cabal]

I have heard that switching to CMDA (my bad on the cDma typo :blink rather than just leaving it on CMDA/LTE will give you more battery life.
In my personal use I really find that leaving the LTE on really dosen't effect me too much, normally I just turn off my wifi and gps when I am out an about. That, coupled with setting my screen to a dimmer light when I'm not outside, not using live wallpapers, and not using streaming widgets has given me an "okay" battery life of around 8-10 hours of casual use. My flaw is that I have not been a casual user. Thusly I myself plan on buying the larger battery.
I fully encourage you to get juice defender, set it up, and use it for a little while and see how you fair with it. When I first installed it I truly did love it as before I was getting maybe 3-6 hours of play time with a full charge and somewhat heavy use. But that was also when the phone was brand spanking new and I haden't charged and drained that battery a few times. I have only recently taken JD off my phone to see how it goes and so far I haven't noticed a big drop in battery life.

 

[Stelv]

CDMA only mode helped give me better battery. I am in a 3g only area on the edge of 4g. Along with wifi off when I am out, 40% screen brightness, and with customer battery saver settings in the app than comes with the phone...I got 16hrs yesterday with moderate use. I was never a fan of Juice Defender on other phones and haven't tried it on the Bionic.

 

[TatDroid]

I have a pretty good 4G signal at work, a weaker 4G signal at home (about 35 miles away) and a no 4G area in between. Locking my phone on CDMA for the entire day adds a good 4 hours of battery life to my day (and has totally eliminated data drops over the last 3 weeks)

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