This battery is kind of iffy

[Immolate]

Frequent charge/drain cycles that only use part of the battery's charge are exactly what the battery is built for and won't have a detrimental effect on your battery's lifespan. Behaviorally, only frequent full-drains will substantially shorten the useful life. You should drain fully on occasion to keep your battery's internal meter calibrated, but other than that, use it the way that works best for you and unless you have a very eccentric lifestyle, you and your battery will get along just fine.

 

[aminaked]

Right, if you need it to last longer try to plug the thing in during the day whenever you get a chance. Try not to worry about the effect on the battery, because there isn't much of an effect.

Full discharge followed by full charge about once/month to "calibrate".

 

[2xhighpsi]

I got the droid on release day, and from day one, i have had battery issues. I followed the same procedure i did with my original droid (Fully charge, fully drain, repeat) although nothing helped.

i could have the phone idle and not be touched for a good 3 hours and the battery would drain to about 60-70%.

I dont run live wallpapers, only run BT, GPS, or WiFi unless i toggle them on, and only have a few widgets active (Beautiful Widgets) and Facebook for Android. After doing MUCH reading and lurking, i found that most just deal with the battery issue, and coming from an incredible i figured that was the only thing that could be done.

UNTIL YESTERDAY.

Yesterday, I went golfing for over 6 hours, and used FreeCaddie on and off all day, did some texting, made half a dozen phone calls, and even just played around on and off while waiting at the tee boxes. Normally I wouldnt dream of using FreeCaddie more than once b/c of the battery drain it causes, but i had my car charger with me so I figured, why not play with it for once?

At the end of the day, my battery was STILL at 70%. Now, let me remind you - my battery was draining even more than that just idling a few days ago.

I figured it was a fluke. I played with the phone on and off until i went to bed last night at 5AM, and the battery STILL had 30% charge. I was amazed, so today I did some purposely heavy use while at work from 11 - 6 and battery was at 50% when i left.

Anyway, i just figured i'd share my recent experience. Believe me, I am definately skeptic when I read some posts about how someone gets an "average of 25- 30hrs of battery life, blah, blah, blah. I dont believe that. Maybe it is a fluke after all.

All i know is that, i use ATK but found that if try to kill apps LESS often, it will help to clean up battery life. i also use automatic brightness, some animations, and battery-saver as my configuration.

All in all, i am glad the battery is slowly getting better. I love this phone, and not having a good battery blows.

 

[aminaked]

Don't kill tasks. Don't install a bunch of widgets, live wallpapers, antivirus, apps that run on startup.

Streaming via bluetooth takes a toll on battery just like any network activity does.

Use wifi whenever possible as it is more efficient than 3G. You can leave the wifi setting on all the time.

When done with maps, go back to home screen so it stops using GPS. Choose "Exit" from the menu when using Navigation. You can leave the phone's GPS setting on all the time.

 

[Immolate]

Something else to keep in mind... some after-market battery meters may try to extrapolate your remaining charge. If your battery meter uses increments like 62%, then this is likely the case. Nothing wrong with that, but guesses can be really wrong. I love Battery Left, but it's having FITS trying to figure out my battery life. If you're on .604, trust the notification bar battery meter. If it and your widget disagree, doubt the widget. Good luck to you.

 

[dainbramaged]

i've had my phone for a week and a half, and, on average via one charge of about five hours, my phone lasts for about 20hrs.

seriously have no idea what people are doing on their phone to have it die in under 12.

WELL.
Around 6:30 this evening I woke up from my post-work nap, heated up a nice dinner and sat down in front of the tv and started playing around with hawx and sandstorm. Around 10, I realized my battery was down to 50%. If you try, you can most definitely kill the battery as quickly as you please.

However, you can easily conserve battery if you need to. I find that inside, brightness (especially on such a big screen) isn't needed all that much, so I downloaded dimmer, a widget that dims your screen past the factory minimum. Keep wifi off unless you're connected, and even then it wastes more battery than the bandwidth is worth. One thing I don't really agree with is always having GPS off. The GPS is one of my favorite features of the droid and droid x (the only android phones I've owned), and it's only used when you are in an app that obviously needs to use it. One exception I've found is the Weather Channel widget, but you can set that to a static location instead of following you.

Also after reading something about an extended battery on here, I realized that the awkward shape of the back would make for a still streamlined shape with a bigger battery cover for an extended battery.

Sorry for rambling, I hope this has been somewhat helpful.

 

[aminaked]

I disagree on the wifi, but thanks for the dimmer tip.

 

[dainbramaged]

The only reason I say that about the wifi is that some kind of process is looking for networks all the time and sending me notifications. If you spend most of your time where you have access to wifi, that would probably be better than sending all network traffic to cell towers when you have a router within a few yards

 

[rcali001]

User guide for android newbs:
1) DON'T listen to the guy at VZ and your cousin about how you need to kill tasks
2) DON'T use the stock email client. Use the Gmail app, K9, or touchdown
3) Download other browsers, like Dolphin HD and xscope, and set user agent to Desktop/Computer
4) Watch out for the GPS icon in the notification bar at the top. It really uses battery power. When you are done with Navigation, choose Exit from the menu. When done with maps, press your phone's Home button to tell it to stop using GPS
5) When installing apps, watch what privileges you are granting! Why is your wallpaper asking to access your contacts? Also watch for stuff that runs on startup, including widgets, which can take a toll on battery charge.
6) Try to find your answer using a search engine

Thanks for the great tips!!

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Yourrid]

i've had my phone for a week and a half, and, on average via one charge of about five hours, my phone lasts for about 20hrs.

seriously have no idea what people are doing on their phone to have it die in under 12.

The first few days of having my phone, I had terrible battery times. But after adhering to a strict charging routine, my battery life is getting noticeably better dancedroid

Dont charge it unless its dead.

 

[aminaked]

Don't charge it unless it's dead??? Hmmm...that sounds wrong. Discharge and charge fully once/month to calibrate. The rest of the time, partial charges are better for the battery.

On the wifi issue, I say try it both ways and see what works best for you. Also, you can set wifi to not notify you of open networks. I uncheck that as it is annoying.

 

[Yourrid]

Don't charge it unless it's dead??? Hmmm...that sounds wrong. Discharge and charge fully once/month to calibrate. The rest of the time, partial charges are better for the battery.

On the wifi issue, I say try it both ways and see what works best for you. Also, you can set wifi to not notify you of open networks. I uncheck that as it is annoying.

It may not be, but this is what I have experienced. I have done this since I have had it, which is only a few days, and have longer and longer use times. I used to make my own batteries for R/C cars back in the day, and it was crucial to break in a battery properly by fully charging, and discharging it the first few go-arounds, and then only periodically.

 

[aminaked]

Oh, OK, I misunderstood. I think we're talking about the same thing.

Anyway, here's what I do:
1)unpack phone
2)plug in immediately and charge phone to max
3)discharge til phone shuts down
4)charge completely

That should calibrate it. I don't know if you need to do it more than once. Calibrate when you get a battery and then periodically (once a month maybe).

***

w/ regards to wifi, I know it depends on a lot of factors. Do you have a good 3g signal? A good wifi signal? How much data do you use on your phone? etc. So people should just try both, but don't be surprised if leaving wifi on improves your battery life.

 

[deranger]

It may not be, but this is what I have experienced. I have done this since I have had it, which is only a few days, and have longer and longer use times. I used to make my own batteries for R/C cars back in the day, and it was crucial to break in a battery properly by fully charging, and discharging it the first few go-arounds, and then only periodically.

The NiCD and NiMH batteries of your old RC days are different than the modern LiIon and LiPoly batteries. Lithium chemistry batteries do not gain anything from full discharge cycles, aside from calibrating the battery meter in your phone. Given the option, you should always charge whenever possible.