Battery life question

[Carcajou1]

Hello everyone, new member and new owner of a touchscreen phone here. Since I wasn't ready to jump into a contract yet I purchased a Boost Mobile ZTE Warp. So far the phone's been working pretty good. I've already heard plenty about poor battery life in the large touchscreen phones and mine of course is no different in that respect.

One issue I'm having is that it seems that sometimes in the first ten minutes after turning the phone on the battery status will go from Full charge to 93%. So my question to all here is if that's the norm as far as discharge rate is concerned. Also, most of the time when charging the phone, even if I've gotten the green light and Full charge indicator on my screen, as soon as I turn the phone on it's only reading 98% and sometimes 97% charge.

I'm just curious if this is the norm as far as these types of phones go. I've had the phone for about two weeks, and other than the expected short battery life, I've been pretty happy with the phone though I'm still trying to get used to typing on the screen.

Look forward to hearing everyone's comments on this issue.

 

[Moscow Desire]

It's normal. A couple of things you can do.

One of them, is called "bump charging". When it reaches "full", unplug it. switch off the screen. If it says 97/8% plug it in again till full. Repeat the process till it stays at 100% when you unplug, switch display off and on again.

Another, on some devices, is to wipe the battery stats, or recalibrate the battery. Not sure if you have this option or not. Usually, I see this on my rooted devices with a custom recovery.

Keep in mind, it takes up to 2 weeks for a battery to get broken in, so it might improve with time. Personally, I wouldn't worry about 2 or 3 percent.

Also, if you're not using wifi and gps, keep it turned off. Also, having a lot of Sync's running, and status updates, e-mail checks and sync's can take a certain amount of battery power. Might want to adjust the frequency on those to a more reasonable time, like 1 hr for example. All of these can be adjusted through the individual app settings.

 

[Devinator]

Another, on some devices, is to wipe the battery stats, or recalibrate the battery. Not sure if you have this option or not. Usually, I see this on my rooted devices with a custom recovery.

Even if you aren't rooted, you can do battery calibration. Should be able to find it for a specific phone in Google or even on AC. It was convoluted for my X2, but, I'm not rooted and found a method.

Keep in mind, it takes up to 2 weeks for a battery to get broken in, so it might improve with time. Personally, I wouldn't worry about 2 or 3 percent.

That and you need to break it in a certain way. If I recall it involves several complete discharge cycles, then never let it drop below like 20% again. But, yea, I wouldn't sweat a couple of percent.

Also, if you're not using wifi and gps, keep it turned off. Also, having a lot of Sync's running, and status updates, e-mail checks and sync's can take a certain amount of battery power. Might want to adjust the frequency on those to a more reasonable time, like 1 hr for example. All of these can be adjusted through the individual app settings.

Yea, definitely turn off wifi and GPS. And turn down the brightness, or, leave it on automatic if you have the option. I leave my snycs on max because I like to be up to date. Some of us actually get email MD.

In Soviet Russia, email checks you.

 

[Carcajou1]

Thanks, guys! I'm calibrating the battery right now, and will power up and drain it once more as suggested. I've noticed the last few days that the discharge is somewhat inconsistent. Once or twice right after charging the battery, it seemed to discharge quicker just from web surfing for a short time than playing a youtube video during the same amount of time, so I'm guessing that there could possibly be an inherent glitch in the Android system when it comes to measuring the battery status. I can live with that as long as the battery life following each charge stays consistent, however short a time that may be. I'm looking into ordering an extra battery as well. Basically my main concern was whether the discharge rate was similar to other Android phones.

Thanks again!

 

[EvilMonkey]

This is normal. Something about charging it to full capacity and keeping it there is horrible for the battery so it charges to 100% then switches to battery power even if it's plugged in (only switching back to wall power periodically). But they rig the phone to say 100% or people would think the phone or battery or charger was broken. Then within a few minutes of removing it from the charger, the battery indicator falls rapidly to report the real charge.

See #1 at this link (yes it's a Cracked article). http://www.cracked.com/article_19571_8-gadgets-that-lie-to-you-every-day_p2.html

Here's another article with charts and everything that goes into more depth, including bump charging (works but wears put the battery faster): http://phandroid.com/2010/12/25/you...is-lying-to-you-and-its-not-such-a-bad-thing/

 

[Carcajou1]

This is normal. Something about charging it to full capacity and keeping it there is horrible for the battery so it charges to 100% then switches to battery power even if it's plugged in (only switching back to wall power periodically). But they rig the phone to say 100% or people would think the phone or battery or charger was broken. Then within a few minutes of removing it from the charger, the battery indicator falls rapidly to report the real charge.

See #1 at this link (yes it's a Cracked article). 8 Gadgets That Lie to You Every Day | Cracked.com

Here's another article with charts and everything that goes into more depth, including bump charging (works but wears put the battery faster): Your Smartphone’s Battery Gauge is Lying to You (and it’s not such a bad thing)

Great to hear! Thanks for the articles, that helps out a lot!